In the meantime however, I spotted something too tempting to resist on the 'bay. a badly described (listing was 2 words, "great runner"...) '98 registered 406 LX saloon sporting an XUD11, manual box, towbar with full electrics and long MoT with 2 advisorys... Oh, and 275k on the clock... for £160 I couldn't resist!!!
It was blatantly an impulse buy, as many of my purchases are, but I do like to think I'm blessed with a kind of instinct for these things & in the cold light of day it seems my cocksureness as some might call it was correctly placed. It wears it's mileage well and the green bodywork still shines with only one or two minor dents and a swirly scratch on the bootlid, interiorwise everything works bar a wobbly driver's seat and some whirring/clicking coming from inside the dash on the passenger side (suspect it's heater/aircon related although it all seems to function as intended) and I think there's water getting in somewhere too as it steams up easily.
For a car that's been 11 times round the globe though it could be described as good as they get, the engine and box are quiet and smooth, there's bags of torque and it drives like a much less well-travelled car.
No doubt I'll find a few niggles to iron out over the coming weeks but the gut feeling on this one is it's a keeper, I may even be persuaded to part with our Escort cabriolet to make room for it I like the car that much. Anyway I'll finish rambling for now as the missus wants help with the decorating, hopefully nobody fell asleep reading this! Will post back with any findings/questions that come up as we get to know the old girl
Not unlike my 1.9TD Xantia Gabriel.. She's got just a mere 206K on the clock...
I'm good at economy driving!
