So with the difficult selling of the Saab and the even more difficult selling of my trusty Mk4 SRI being two fairly big sticks, now the carrot of the new shiny. Enter stage left:
A 2005 model with 81k miles and service history in possibly the best colour - Ultra Blue. A red one would have also been nice (although we already have two red cars), but this was the highlight of the resale grey era so a vast majority are black, grey, dark grey, light grey or black. This was fairly close, too. My main requirements were the 200BHP engine and the XP or exterior pack bodykit, and the 18" wheels. Crazy.
Got a lift to go and view it, with the insurance due to start in a couple of hours I was hoping it was the one for me. The dealer in Hook, Maxprime Autocentre, fronted by a nice lady called Lenka simply handed me the keys and told me to help myself. Good start.
Had a poke round, all seemed good. Started it up, set the climate to 'Lo' and behold - no compressor activity at all. This could have been a deal breaker, but was prepared to do a deal. "No problem" said Lenka and one of the lads took the car away and plugged it into the AC servicing machine. It was then I noticed this was a nice swept up place, not yer usual dingy car sales pit. I asked if the re-gas didn't work could I take the car for a discount but she was preferring to sell it fault-free. Time was getting on if I was going to cancel the insurance in time not to incur costs. Sure enough, the car reappeared and I could hear the rad fans working straight away. Ice cold! All that was left was a decent test drive. Again I was handed a trade plate and told not to go on the motorway. Er, OK! There was a few national limits about so I duly gave it some stick. No issues with power delivery, gear change, steering vibration or anything.
Got back and shook hands on £100 under asking price (and the air con service is generally worth £50 round these parts). 3 months warranty and both keys, one flip style. No car pass though. I've covered about 100 miles so far and it's showing 34MPG so that's not at all bad.
Pretty straight:
Engine clean but not too clean:
As perfect as I'm going to get interior I reckon:
A few I saw had leather but I prefer cloth. Rear seat has minimal pulling on the joins which the Mk5s really seem to suffer from:
Only one of the 5 I looked at that had all the roof rail covers present:
Hardly any stone chips at all:
Wheels not amazing but not too scuffed. 2 Kumhos and 2 BF Goodrichs. Will have my man see to these soonish:
Surprisingly important badge:
Boot hasn't seen a decent tip run I think. Quarter turn flap clips missing though:
Nice touch:
Steering wheel in excellent nick. Normally the right hand roller for the volume is worn smooth:
Has the CD30 MP3 which should be fine for me. Also fairly rare full climate control!
Also flappy fold in mirrors!
And cruise, which I love:
Xenons which I'm not too fussed with, but you know, spec:
Headlight showing a very small amount of crazing. Hopefully a bit of wet and dry will nip that in the bud.
Auto lights. Dunno if it has auto wipers too though. Not even seen if they work yet!
Auto dimming mirror:
Shade storage:
Nice pedals:
Whilst fiddling with the settings I notice:
I know some CD30s had an aux in by the handbrake. Word is some can have it enabled via OP-COM and then get a wiring kit on eBay. Maybe this has it enabled, although I was told it was the 9 buttons variants.
A few jobs to do; looks like this has broken and been stuck up or bits have been wedged in to stop rattles:
It also had no books other than the service book so a scrap yard run to secure those and the other odd bits is need soon. I'm lucky in that I rarely drive to work and it's only 6 miles away so the miles should stay fairly low.
No real mods planned. If I get sick of the CD30 and lack of hands free I have my eye on a Kenwood 6 or 7" sat nav double din head unit with Garmin sat nav. Fairly pricey but look good.
A 2005 model with 81k miles and service history in possibly the best colour - Ultra Blue. A red one would have also been nice (although we already have two red cars), but this was the highlight of the resale grey era so a vast majority are black, grey, dark grey, light grey or black. This was fairly close, too. My main requirements were the 200BHP engine and the XP or exterior pack bodykit, and the 18" wheels. Crazy.
Got a lift to go and view it, with the insurance due to start in a couple of hours I was hoping it was the one for me. The dealer in Hook, Maxprime Autocentre, fronted by a nice lady called Lenka simply handed me the keys and told me to help myself. Good start.
Had a poke round, all seemed good. Started it up, set the climate to 'Lo' and behold - no compressor activity at all. This could have been a deal breaker, but was prepared to do a deal. "No problem" said Lenka and one of the lads took the car away and plugged it into the AC servicing machine. It was then I noticed this was a nice swept up place, not yer usual dingy car sales pit. I asked if the re-gas didn't work could I take the car for a discount but she was preferring to sell it fault-free. Time was getting on if I was going to cancel the insurance in time not to incur costs. Sure enough, the car reappeared and I could hear the rad fans working straight away. Ice cold! All that was left was a decent test drive. Again I was handed a trade plate and told not to go on the motorway. Er, OK! There was a few national limits about so I duly gave it some stick. No issues with power delivery, gear change, steering vibration or anything.
Got back and shook hands on £100 under asking price (and the air con service is generally worth £50 round these parts). 3 months warranty and both keys, one flip style. No car pass though. I've covered about 100 miles so far and it's showing 34MPG so that's not at all bad.
Pretty straight:
Engine clean but not too clean:
As perfect as I'm going to get interior I reckon:
A few I saw had leather but I prefer cloth. Rear seat has minimal pulling on the joins which the Mk5s really seem to suffer from:
Only one of the 5 I looked at that had all the roof rail covers present:
Hardly any stone chips at all:
Wheels not amazing but not too scuffed. 2 Kumhos and 2 BF Goodrichs. Will have my man see to these soonish:
Surprisingly important badge:
Boot hasn't seen a decent tip run I think. Quarter turn flap clips missing though:
Nice touch:
Steering wheel in excellent nick. Normally the right hand roller for the volume is worn smooth:
Has the CD30 MP3 which should be fine for me. Also fairly rare full climate control!
Also flappy fold in mirrors!
And cruise, which I love:
Xenons which I'm not too fussed with, but you know, spec:
Headlight showing a very small amount of crazing. Hopefully a bit of wet and dry will nip that in the bud.
Auto lights. Dunno if it has auto wipers too though. Not even seen if they work yet!
Auto dimming mirror:
Shade storage:
Nice pedals:
Whilst fiddling with the settings I notice:
I know some CD30s had an aux in by the handbrake. Word is some can have it enabled via OP-COM and then get a wiring kit on eBay. Maybe this has it enabled, although I was told it was the 9 buttons variants.
A few jobs to do; looks like this has broken and been stuck up or bits have been wedged in to stop rattles:
It also had no books other than the service book so a scrap yard run to secure those and the other odd bits is need soon. I'm lucky in that I rarely drive to work and it's only 6 miles away so the miles should stay fairly low.
No real mods planned. If I get sick of the CD30 and lack of hands free I have my eye on a Kenwood 6 or 7" sat nav double din head unit with Garmin sat nav. Fairly pricey but look good.