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Since May last year, the daily driver fleet has consisted of the Volvo estate and the Audi A4. The latter of which racked up a mere 4,000 miles since it's MoT last February and also needed a fair amount spending to get it through it next one... tyres, front discs and pads, cambelt kit, heater repaired and so on. It wasn't worth doing plus we didn't really need two cars sat on the drive. I stuck it up for sale, made a bit more than initially hoped and that was that. Job done.
The issue was, for the past few weeks/months I've been looking at Volvo V70R estates (again!) and had earmarked two. A silver one and a gold one. The sensible head kicked in and they were deemed too dear, too expensive to run and also too far away plus the good lady about flipped out at the thought of two elderly Volvo estate on the drive. So, I gave up on that idea... for now. At that point, I was offered a Vectra GSi estate for a decent price and having had a wee think, it pretty much ticked alot of boxes and having spoken to the owner, it seemed like it's had money spent where it matters but an illness meant he could no longer drive it.
So, cue a 3am start on Saturday morning and an early morning run to Edinburgh airport. First flight of the day down to Gatwick followed by a short train journey into Croydon then a taxi to the chaps house. Quick look round, drove it round the block and decided it'd do so handed over some cash, went and taxed it then hit the M25 followed by the M40 and A5 bound for Stella's pub for an overnight stop and about 300 gallons of beer. Sunday morning, left and headed to Irvine and via Benny's thne back over to Edinburgh to collect the Volvo and 2 days and about 1,200 miles after setting off, got home late last night with this...
On the whole, pretty chuffed with it so far. It's a 2000 GSi with the 2.5 V6 which was the ideal combination as I prefer the phase 2 styling and didn't want the 2.6 either. Cosmetically it's standard but mechanically it's had a Courtenay lightened flywheel and an uprated clutch fitted (which is a bit of a git!) along with 308mm brakes, drilled and grooved discs and Redstuff pads all round and uprated suspension. It's also recently been serviced, had the belt kit replaced, the oil cooler, coil pack and leads renewed and had the wheels refurbished and a set of Eagle F1's fitted. All good in that department.
On the downside, there are a few wee niggles to address but nothing life threatening or too difficult to sort...
1. Refit the front bumper as it's got a gap on the passengers side
2. Remove the flying chips badges and the Ring sticker
3. Sort the play in the steering column universal joint
4. Replace the carbon fibre esque door piller stickers
5. Give it a damn good clean inside and replace the boot carpets
6. Sort the drivers door regulator and replace the speaker as it's rattling
7. Try and get another tailgate as there's a rust bubble under the wiper arm
8. Strip, clean and paint the brakes along with the struts
9. Replace all the fluids, filters and the thermostat as the gauge is a bit erratic.
A side for that, it's all good so far. It chewed up the 620 mile drive home without any issues and returned about 33/34mpg in the process. It'll probably do more after a bit TLC, bearing in mind it's been sat for the past year and only moved to be MoT'd in October so it was a bit ropey to start with but perked up after a few miles on the motorway.
She's happy too... so that's all that matters!
Cheers
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hope you enjoy, getting pretty rare nowadays!
Originally Posted by Benn 
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, a supercharged one more so but it'd be wrong wheel drive 
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