Whats she worth??

James.UK · Post by **James.UK** » 30 Jan 2004, 20:59

Ooops I forgot to value your Volcane.. Truth is the car under a BMW badge would be worth about £2,750 ish, but under its Cit label you will be lucky to get half that..

cars are only worth what you can get for them.. My guess would be you will prob struggle to get much more than £1,000 for it..

Shame, coz it sounds like a really nice car.. If it was auto I would be tempted myself. [:I] [:D]
If the BMW is a pvte sale, make a really low offer, Finding people with £5,800 pounds in their pocket is NOT going to be easy.. So have the full half hour argument! [:o)] I used to offer sellers about half the asking price, wave the cash under their nose, and say I would buy it now for X amount or leave and not be back. NEVER leave a bid on it! Seller can shop around and try to find a better bid.. So make an offer and be prepared to walk away, the world is full of cars for sale.. I bought far more cars than I 'lost'.. [;)] and I got them at the 'right' price. [:D]

ddahaa · Post by **ddahaa** » 30 Jan 2004, 21:22

Thanks for all the replies so far. I'm starting a new job in a weeks time and feel like tresting myself, though I know I would be better off keeping what I've got. I'm moving house at the same time so it might end up clashing with that. I might just wait for another one to come up closer to home and for less money, but it does look nice. The fact that it's 350 miles away is a bit of a problem and would probably mean that I wouldn't go back a second time unless the seller delivered it. It is apparently a one owner car and has 67k miles on the clock, though I would be wary of any signs of clocking. Sometimes you are better off with a high miles as it's more likely to be the true mileage!! I once owned a Volvo T5 with 209k miles on the clock.

James.UK · Post by **James.UK** » 30 Jan 2004, 21:24

Taipan. I bought executive and sports cars for a living for many years, leaving a bid just meant all the seller had to do was find a buyer willing to pay £5 more and i lost the car. The seller already had my Phone number from when I made the appointment to view.. But I found my policy of "its now or never" worked well for me, and saved me from lots of time-wasters, who could not make a decision to save their lives!!.. lol.. It also saved me making a return trip and finding the seller STILL wanted to argue the price!! Been there.. done all that.. lol..

David W · Post by **David W** » 31 Jan 2004, 15:18

James is absolutely correct about never leaving a bid.
If you see a car, and it is both a good one and right for you, then you want to try and buy it...yes? Always tell the person you have the cash to pay and will take it "now" if a price can be agreed, and that you will not come back if they can't agree.
As James says leaving a bid gives the seller a chance to use it as a bottom line and another £20 on top from someone else will see it gone.
And do you know the only time you will ever hear back from someone if you leave a bid? If you were the only one to bid or if you bid far too much!
After all if they don't sell it will be back in the Autotrader at a lower price next week so you would get a second chance anyway, probably starting lower than your bid.
Finally if you are happy to leave a bid because you don't really care if you get the car or not...well then that isn't the car for you anyway.
David

KevMayer · Post by **KevMayer** » 02 Feb 2004, 22:00

Forget the BMWubbleYou.
Get yourself a nice Xantia HDi 110 hatch with leather seats.
Keep the faith.

first-things-first · Post by **first-things-first** » 02 Feb 2004, 23:13

Hi
As Interwired said plus :-
Mine was 93 L 325 TDS SE manual with Sports suspension and seats/leather. Excellent seats very comfy over long distances - Citroen took time to acclimatise to (XM) - BMW no time.
Fuel consumption on fast a-road runs 45 normally 48 if I drove like a nun (in other words no point going slow). "Official" fuel consumption (manual) 66 at 56 mph (lies damn lies statistics [:D]).
Great overtaking, wonderful sound, silky delivery. Get 2K on tacho and will go up any gradient any gear.
Tally of repairs - lower balljoint, 6 glow plugs (would not start - tried new battery as well but was not problem). All in 30K and 2 years. Started first time every time. Engine would not feel warm (tappet cover) even when engine fully warm. I think due to thermal efficiency keeping heat in engine or something (would start without glow plugs when warm). Should have had a recall for steering - new union in engine bay - mine done by dealer FOC.
Only changed as fancied Citroen again. And repair bills [8)]
Cheers
Andrew

ddahaa · Post by **ddahaa** » 03 Feb 2004, 13:58

Thanks for the reply, nice to hear from someone who's actually owned one!!
I know lots of people have their own ideas about the kind of person who owns or drives a BMW but that doesn't bother me. I'm not buying it for the badge, I'd be buying it because I like the car. When I owned my E30 sport, I bought it because it was quick, rwd and had an lsd and other goodies as standard. Soon afterwards a friend at work bought an E36 316 and said wouldn't I prefer to own his car? He couldn't understand that I bought it for the performance not the badge like he did!!
It looks like I am going to be getting one, so the ZX is going up for sale!! I'll do another oil change and check over the brakes first though.

first-things-first · Post by **first-things-first** » 03 Feb 2004, 18:12

Glad to be of assistance.
One last point. The service lights supposedly give you a variable time between services. Mine always was around 5K between services. I was told it could be up to 8 - 10K but never saw that. It goes oil service, oil service then Inspection 1, oil service, oil service then Inspection 2, etc. So you get 15K between major services with oil changes inbetween.
Cheers
Andrew

Fox · Post by **Fox** » 04 Feb 2004, 04:32

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by KevMayer

Forget the BMWubbleYou.
Get yourself a nice Xantia HDi 110 hatch with leather seats.
Keep the faith.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Xantia HDi Exclusives are rare as rocking horse manure - as I type this, there 0 in Autotrader for the whole country!

ddahaa · Post by **ddahaa** » 04 Feb 2004, 13:15

The Xantia is also FWD and I want RWD

uhn113x · Post by **uhn113x** » 04 Feb 2004, 13:31

Dave
I did have a 520i for about 18 months, and found the following:
For:
Easy to work on, spares not too expensive, build quality excellent
Against:
RWD - useless in winter - we live at top of 1 in 4 hill
Not too comfortable - suspension too hard
Technical info very difficult to obtain - no printed manual exists.
Very thirsty
So I got a BX

KevMayer · Post by **KevMayer** » 05 Feb 2004, 04:40

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">
Xantia HDi Exclusives are rare as rocking horse manure - as I type this, there 0 in Autotrader for the whole country!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Thats because the people who own them don't want to sell them !!

ActivaV6uk · Post by **ActivaV6uk** » 05 Feb 2004, 20:56

I wanted Rwd or a 4x4 untill I had an activa... if you want a car that moves and wont come off a corner befor the seat belt cuts you in half try one.
Andy
(it also only cost me £890 so there are some very good cheep ones out there)

Frog · Post by **Frog** » 15 Mar 2004, 08:22

Greatings Ddahaa
Have u sold the ZX ? I am very interested in it.
It's been my 'affordable' dream car as soon as the TD version came out (I am French and I was living my teenager days in France then).
I've looked at several now, havn't been so happy with what I saw (one of them was Bleeding oil..)
I'm after a TD Volcane, Black best, What colour is it if it is still available?