Buying Advice Please

[malbon]

Hi,

2 weeks after viewing a mint Williams and poor George who was selling it crashing it on our test drive I am still none the closer to finding a little cracker.

I've got my eyes on a few cars - one in Edinburgh and one in London.

They are both Williams 3, one has 80 and the other 85k, both have had complete resprays and are in mint condition (apparently) and have lots of nice little extras, Coilovers, Brakes, Sounds, Hillpower gubbins etc...

My problem is that they are both between 4k and 5k. This is not so much the problem of affording it but justifying to myself that ill be paying such top money for relatively high mileage cars. I.e Ill put 10k miles on it and it will be on 100k miles - which puts a lot of buyers off anyway and reduces the value all of a sudden to 3k and under im guessing. I really dont want to lose 40% depreciation in a year on such an old car.

I wont settle for less than a minter Williams. What am I to do? I would happily pay the money for a 50k car as i know depreciation wont be that great. Its something i need to think of as i chop and change cars quite quick.

Your opinions appreciated.

Cheers

Jon

[Gav]

get ur dash out, get a drill out and wind ur clock back :D

nah imo most ppl know that mileage isnt everything, its how the car is looked after

mine says 140k on the clock but engine has only done 64k and everything underneith is brand new

[malbon]

...it doesn't bother me. Its just re-sale that bothers me

[Jan]

IMO you're probably guesing correctly on the depreciation mate and all the extras you mention never really increase the value of a car...

You'll stuggle to get much over 3k when they're showing 100k+ on the clocks... so try and haggle the price down

[Mattie]

high milage might put sum people off but its the condition of the car and as long as its been lukd after u shudnt have a problem sellin it m8, especially if u sell it on a site like this

if ur lukin 2 buy a mint williams, around 4 - 5k is about rite, think theres a few people on here who have paid around that price for theres

[Swervin_Mervin]

if ur lukin 2 buy a mint williams, around 4 - 5k is about rite, think theres a few people on here who have paid around that price for theres

I'd only pay that for a mint 1, never for a 2 or 3.

[malbon]

if ur lukin 2 buy a mint williams, around 4 - 5k is about rite, think theres a few people on here who have paid around that price for theres

I'd only pay that for a mint 1, never for a 2 or 3.

Interesting. I'm told the '2' is the one to go for. Improved on the '1' and without the uneeded sunroof and abs of the '3' ?

What are these cars worth paying considering they are mint ?

[fab]

I wont settle for less than a minter Williams. What am I to do?

Mint can be difficult to define.a car may be mint for one person however not so mint for another.

However,if you find an original unmolested full service history low mileage(below 50K) rust free and speedlines that do not require a refurb then expect to pay more than 5K.These are more likely to be found garaged and unused daily.
remember you are looking at a car thats been on the market over 13 years now.

Seems like anything else for you will be a compromise.

[Swervin_Mervin]

if ur lukin 2 buy a mint williams, around 4 - 5k is about rite, think theres a few people on here who have paid around that price for theres

I'd only pay that for a mint 1, never for a 2 or 3.

Interesting. I'm told the '2' is the one to go for. Improved on the '1' and without the uneeded sunroof and abs of the '3' ?

What are these cars worth paying considering they are mint ?

Not AFAIK. 2 is softer than 1 and 3 is a lot softer than 2.

[malbon]

Swervin - Interesting - must read up more about this. I thought it was just cosmetics and was led to believe that the '2' was the best having been improved on the '1' and with better rigitity (no s'roof) and lighter (no abs) than the '3'. But essentially they are all the same and it appears I cannot afford to be picky anyway about the model so **** it !

Fab - Mint defined as in well looked after. Preferably had a full respray with a receipt, clean engine bay, clean interior, wheels with the lip, receipts for cambelt, clutch and g'box maybe. Pref. only a couple of owners, Mileage im not overly fussed with tho must have FSH and ideally all MOT slips and not over 4 grand if mileage is approaching 100k ! The owner being an enthusiast and hopefully not wearing a white baseball hat with his phone hanging around his neck saying init after every sentence.


Not too much to ask for eh ?