test drive today

[Wobble]

just got back from test driving a manual legnum in cambridge (see previos thread manual legnum ?) was in quite good condition but a few things that bugged me.

he was reluctent to let me test drive it

when i finally did it drove ok apart from when the boost came in then at around 3500rpm to 4000rpm you got a pause in power then a second later it came in again . would this be a fuel cut ?

seemed to be boosting to 0.8 bar acording to boost gauge (could this be why the possible fuel cut)

it had snow tyres on (can you use these on uk roads and with what affect)

brakes didnt seem to sharp
,
auction grade 4 but all wheels were heavily marked 15+ stone chips marks ,on side of doors where they knocked the door when opening ,paint was damaged on wing mirrors(both need respraying)

am i being to picky
car is a 98 manual 75k up for 3250 :dizzy2:

[bradc]

Something doesn't sound right with the power delivery. The engine should start to build up torque quite quickly from 2500rpm to 3000rpm and take off like mad from 3000rpm up to 6000rpm or so.

[aboo]

As brad said it does'nt sound right. If he did'nt want you to drive it then there's something wrong that he's trying to hide something. If it was me I'd walk away.

[Wobble]

As brad said it does'nt sound right. If he did'nt want you to drive it then there's something wrong that he's trying to hide something. If it was me I'd walk away.


i did walk away. shame cause i liked the idea of a manual.

[White Lightning]

Yep, walking away sounded like the right thing to do there.

[pezza]

i did walk away. shame cause i liked the idea of a manual.

It's good that you insisted driving it yourself then, I would be suspicious too if the seller was that reluctant. He must be another planet expecting someone to buy without test driving it!

At least you now have a benchmark to compare against for the next one (worth trying a tiptronic just so you know what they're like too, if fairly local)..

.... am sure another for sale will surface soon, so dont be too disheartened with this one.

[PaddyB]

It also doesn't sound like it's grade 4 with all that damage - unless it happened after the assessment.

On mine (stock) power comes on fairly early on & stays pretty much all the way thru to ~6k rpm when the little tubs begin to struggle.

Fuel cut can happen at any increased boost level I suppose but I can't remember hearing about a VR4 suffering from it when running with less than 1bar boost. You'll know it when you encounter it.

Brakes aren't that good on these really.

Snow tyres will need replacing.

You were right to walk away. Another one will come along soon enough.

[White Lightning]

It's good that you insisted driving it yourself then, I would be suspicious too if the seller was that reluctant. He must be another planet expecting someone to buy without test driving it!

To be fair, I have actually bought a car without test driving it too. (Well, two actually but I guess the brand new Octavia vRS that I bought back in Jan '05does not really count).

I had a couple of Rover 620ti's years ago and the first one when I bought it the trader that I bought it from was not keen for me to test drive it. I couldn't blame him to be fair, it was a lovely car, with 200bhp (well, 197bhp actually) and priced at £4500 and I was only 24 at the time and driving a Sierra that was worth about £1000. So, what I did at the time was get an AA inspection done to make sure the car was sound. Imagine the grin on my face when I put my foot down for the first time when I collected it ... 200bhp through the front wheels only :d

Having said that, on this occassion it sounds like the reason the seller was not keen for you to test drive was because the car had a known issue.

[pezza]

As a first car, turning up on foot and not having any insurance or experience on a licence to show, I can see the difficulties/issues with a seller. I remember this from buying my first car which was a boy racer cav SRi 130 back in the day :-)

But now with a few years driving under your belt? I dont think I could consider it now even if the inspection engineer passed it. The thought of discovering the issues found that wobble described as soon as driving home for the first time and not much comeback, esp if it was a private sale. Then to top it off, having to deal with the whole "didn't you try it before buying it.." scenario with everyone ..I don't think its worth the risk.

[Wobble]

i am not a mechanic but i like to think i know a bit about cars . have owned supras and evos over the past 6 years so know a little about turbos . what really put me off was the fact this guy looked me in the eyes twice in 30 mins .within 2 mins of being there i realised this wasnt the car for me but took it for a comparison drive anyway. will be trying the triptronics next .seen 2 i like on here so hopefully will look at this weekend even though it will be a 500 mile round trip :o

[elnevio]

The power loss could have been something really simple - dodgy coil pack, spark blow-out, clogged fuel filter, air leak, etc., etc. Or something worse, of course! Given your description (i.e. a pause in the power delivery), I would be surprised if the problem was fuel cut, as that is more of a voilent cut in the power delivery nearly resulting in a case of face-meets-windscreen! EDIT: Might even have been as simple as low fuel (especially if you'd cornered a little hard a few hundred yards up the road previously!) - was the fuel light on at all?

Not always the easiest decision to walk away, but it seemed it was the right one.

And a 500-mile round trip seems to be about my average distance when buying a car! /pan