Auto Couture - Leicester. Anyone Used Them?

[Sulli]

They have a Legnum for sale there, which i drove today. It is a fair bit over priced, but may offer a fair bit lower.
Has anyone used them or heard of them?

[Spirit]

If it's the blue one then I agree it's overpriced. Good mileage and FSH is good though. Is the DVD/Sat Nav just the Mitsy MMCS system or an aftermarket product ?

Overall I would say £7 - £7.5k tops !

[Sulli]

FSH - no it didn't have that, though he had a few receipts for track rod ends, new discs, cambelt and a couple of other things. Nothing from Japan. Imported by him in Feb this year and used as his personal car. Reckoned he spent £2k on it since import, though the receipts certainly didn't bear that out.
It had a DVD and Sat Nav - though the Sat Nav wasn't working and I didn't see that DVD work - he did say they were standard.
It ran well - funnily enough a Scooby just like mine had a bit of a go when I was test driving it - I pulled away a little though unsure if he was trying or even if he was just a retard who couldn't drive. It seemed as quick as mine though, but more refined and less lag.
I liked the car but no way would I pay nearly £9k for an 8-9 yr old Legnum.
There is a MY99 Legnum in London for sale at less that £8k - may have a look soon.

[Nick Mann]

The standard sat nav is part of the MMCS system. Search the site for MMCS and you'll see why it wasn't working!

I think the comments on the price have already been made!

[bernmc]

I've had a look at this car too- certainly one of the nicer examples I've seen out of all the tat sitting on UK dealer forecourts. I'm always wary when importers can't/won't produce the original auction sheets though. Ridiculous price as has already been mentioned, and I couldn't get to the bottom of why after spending all that money, it was up for sale. It may just be that the guy is a super-honest dealer, and wanted the car perfect before resale... *ahem*.

[Vector]

hi guys
i rang em up about it and he mentioned that he was running it as his own car ..so maybe thats why

[Sulli]

I've had a look at this car too- certainly one of the nicer examples I've seen out of all the tat sitting on UK dealer forecourts. I'm always wary when importers can't/won't produce the original auction sheets though. Ridiculous price as has already been mentioned, and I couldn't get to the bottom of why after spending all that money, it was up for sale. It may just be that the guy is a super-honest dealer, and wanted the car perfect before resale... *ahem*.

yep, I asked for the auction sheet too - he claimed that his mate got it for him and forgot to bring it over!

He is using it as his personal car though, and he seemed enthusiastic about the car and gave me some good info.

I thought it was in pretty good nick, as it was the first I saw. Compared to what I eventually bought, it was tatty!

[bernmc]

So what did you buy in the end, and how much did you pay, if you don't mind me asking?

[Sulli]

I bought http://www.clubvr4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6627

[bernmc]

AH too pretty. Bit more than £9k I suspect though. *sigh* I can only dream!

I went to have a look at the autocouture legnum just to see if it was anything special-it was so much more expensive than any other 96 cars at the time. The autotrader stuff seems to start at 4995 for a 96 with around 100k miles, with 5995 for 50-60k miles but tatty. I also looked at a manual with 67k miles for 6995 but it was VERY scrappy, and bits looked suspiciously more worn than the mileage. Gave up shortly after - I think that the personal import route is going to be the only way to get something decent in my price range (sub £6k)

[Sulli]

I think you'd get that one from Anthony at Auto Couture for £7.5k to be honest - there are a few things wrong - elec mirrors dont work, sat nav doesn't either, tyres are poo :rolleyes5 , he only runs it on normal unleaded - and i'm sure if you have a real good look you'll find more. plus the lack of history and auction sheet aint good.

[WildCards]

Does anyone know what happened to this car.

I had a look at it too and wasn't satisfied with what i saw. I watched it drop to 6k before he sold it/got rid of it. Anthony seemed an alright guy, but something was not right there.

Also, i got slightly different stories to those written above.

[ariddell]

Def something not right, i arranged to buy it from him over the phone subject to final inspection and agreed to go and get it one Sat. Drove up from London to finish the deal and collect it with an envelope full of dosh in my glovebox having checked that the deal was still on and would be able to be done that day.

5 Mins before i arrived he called and said there was a problem and couldn't sell it that day after all. He claimed he had a family emergency and was having to close up and shoot off immediately. I was obviously none too happy having just driven for the better part of 3 hours having got stuck in M1 traffic but thought fair enough if something that bad had happened. I had a quick look over the car and it all looked reasonable enough but said i wanted to get it fully checked out. Fair enough he said, the deal was still on and would bring the car down to London during the week to save me the trouble of coming up again.

Strange thing was when i passed by before i headed back to London about 30mins later he was still there and the car hadn't moved. Obviously not that much of an emergency, oh and i never got the call back he promised me to arrange the inspection and finish the sale.

Very odd, very odd indeed.

[WildCards]

When i went, he revealed he had had the car personally imported 2 years ago and had used it since, No proper S/H but a mate had looked after it since he had it. He was also very quick to offer discount on the price without mentioning any figures and offered me top wack for my part ex .

The main thing that stopped me buying was the AYC light being permantly on. Chaps on this sight reasured me that it shouldn't be and after a bit of arguing he said he would get it fixed. He rang about a week later saying it was only a sensor malfunction and it had been replaced, but i wasn't sure whether i trusted him, due to the potentially massive bill that could be incurred.

I did go back to have another look, and whilst having a poke around the cockpit he physically stopped me from looking inside one of the compartments saying there was something in there he didn't want me to see . Gun, not probable, something kinky, quite possible, drugs of some kind, we have a winner in my opinion.

So that really was the nail in the coffin, i kept my eye on it as said above and it eventually disappeared from his stock list. But he doesn't have much stock these days, only about 6 vehicles all mainly Diesel MPV's and the like.

Appears we both had a lucky escape Arridell IMO

[Physician]

There is a lot more to this story ..........

And I KNOW this because I know who the 'friend' is that looked after the car. The 'friend' asked ME what could be wrong with the AYC if light was on as they were having a problem identifying the fault!

You both WERE lucky methinks.

As for the owner ............. nice, pleasant guy. But he is a typical car salesman who promises the earth and provides zilch. After meeting him on three occasions I came to the conclusion that I would never buy anything off him as I couldn't trust him.

[Quail]

I want to know what he was hiding in the car!!

[WildCards]

Trust was the big thing there, seemed like a nice chap to talk to, as most salesmen do, but as said before given the potential damage to the wallet if he was telling porkies about the AYC I/we would have been shafted.

Quail, I reckon it was probably a bag of weed, harmless enough. But his reaction tits'd me off. Besides, if you're selling a car and you've got someone interested, wouldn't you make sure it was pristine and empty it of all your personal stuff?

Nice to know you have some background on it too Richard, and reassuring that you came to the same conclusion as me.

[gaz70]

I also went and had a look but i just had a feeling that something wasnt right, and my head ruled over my heart, but i thought the price was way to high and i thought it wasnt in that good nick when you had a close look. Anyway i took the great advise thats always on here and bought my vr4 legnum from a member.
I now have the rather annoying problem of trying to drive SLOW!!!!!!!!!!!!