I GOT THE BLCK TZD OF CAR AND CLASSIC BACK HOME

[cavmad]

By the way our old mate Sleepy lives near Lincoln.

[ken newbold]

I thought we had someone on here from Medway from time to time

[mat_fenwick]

Yeah, we do but they only seem to pop along every now and again. See what they say over the phone Paul, and best of luck.

[Charlotte]

Hello

Its medway citroen here, its probley makes more sense if you have any problems with the car to ring us up and ask us to fix it as a first step. The car has not been on the road over the winter so I suspect any minor faults are down to electrical gremlins that some times appear when a car has not been used for a bit.

Try looking at the fuses as this sometimes knocks out instruments, if the problems persits its posible that the welding that we carried out to the car while it was off the road has affected a system, which we will gladly fix for you.

Please ring us, we dont mind that we are talked about, but if we dont know of any faults then we cant help you

thanks
medway citroen

[DavidRutherford]

this ^^ is very good advice.

Also... when buying anything at the cheaper end of the market you HAVE to beware, regardless of what anyone says about a car, you HAVE to make your own decision.

EG, I once went to look at an X1/9 that was described as having "some light surface rust, but solid". I took the roof off and stood on the driver's side sill, only to have the car practically fold-up around me! The windscreen and the roll-over hoop moved about 2" closer to each other.. possibly the most rotten X1/9 ever to still be on it's wheels!

When buying from someone you don't know:

Don't buy blind (unless you REALLY know what you're doing)
Don't buy in the dark. Definitely don't buy a car from under Sodium lighting.
Don't take anyone else's word for the condition of a car (unless it's a highly trusted friend)
Always test-drive (don't be fobbed off on this one!)
Always look for faults, lift carpets, check all electrics etc.
Always expect to find more faults after you've bought it
Always be ready to walk away (or ask for a massive price reduction) if the car isn't as described.

Also, bear in mind that car dealers have to make a profit somewhere, otherwise they wouldn't be in business. A £200 car, regardless of description, will be buggered. If it wasn't buggered, it would be a £1200 car.

[Linegeist]

Excellent advice David, and well said!

Silly question here though (from the forum thicko) .............. what about Ebay purchases?

As has been written about on here, I recently bought my Athena off Ebay - in fact I bid hard for it ..... and the bodyshell was all I really wanted, and I was assured that it was perfect - and it's as described. Zero rust!

However, the mechanicals .............

If I'd been someone after a working and reliable car (it was advertised as 'mint') I'd have been let down, because there were numerous faults - rear arm bearings, buggered distributor vacuum capsule, knackered hydraulic pump, seized sunroof, defective rear door mechanisms and more ... all stuff I've now fixed - but I was quite happy to pay the extra money to rescue an otherwise really clean BX.

But what if I'd turned up expecting the 'mint' car advertsied - and found instead a bag of spanners waiting for a mug?

What about your Ebay buyer's rating?

Can you, having bought blind, honestly start haggling when you get on-site? Doesn't every tyre-kicker play that tired old card?? I've had them do it to me, even when I've been flogging decent motors ....... you know the scene, <kicks tyres - sucks teeth> "Dunno mate. S'not what I fort innit? Ashtray's a bit dirty and them tyres have never bin polished. Tell you what, I'll do you a favour and give yer a ton fer it, cash!" (Why do they always pretend outrage when you snigger and walk back indoors with the keys?) I felt honour-bound, having agreed to buy blind, to pay the £550 I'd agreed ..........

Just curious what the club gestalt thinks...........

[DavidRutherford]

There's two ways of looking at eBay cars.

Either you can go and look in advance, that way you know what you are buying, and you won't be in for a surprise. (this is the safe method)

Alternatively, you take the seller at his/her word for the description, and bid accordingly. If you later turn up and find the vehicle not as described, then you have to walk away. If the seller gets shirty about it (which they sometimes do) you can make the point that the description of the vehicle is a part of the contract of sale, and as it wasn't accurate, the sale is void. It would have to be a fairly inaccurate description though, and of course you've possibly paid to travel to get to the vehicle, maybe with a trailer etc.

Buying a car over eBay is difficult. The only advice I can give is to know the vehicle you are buying, and ask very specific questions about it. EG with a BX you might ask what the hydraulics re-cycle time is, the specific condition of the rear door shuts, the inner front wings, does the heater dial move freely etc. etc. Speak on the phone for things like this, as you will get a better idea of the seller. If all they say is "it's fine, the whole car is fine", then I wouldn't bid. If they give you sensible answers, you can have more confidence.

I'd buy a BX blind over the phone or on eBay, but then I know them very well indeed. Same for a 405, an X1/9 or a C25. I wouldn't buy a Saab 9000 over the phone or blind on eBay as I don't know them.

[mat_fenwick]

"Mint" or "good condition" can be subjective opinions - do they mean good condition for the year or what? Perfect to me would suggest zero faults, so if I'd bought a 'perfect' car and found faults that were obvious to someone with half an eye I would be inclined to haggle or leave negative feedback.
If I found less obvious faults (and you can usually tell from the seller whether they knew or not) then I'd probably take it on the chin and pay up. My van was comprehensively described (surface rust only was one of the phrases use) but was considerably worse when properly inspected. The fact it had a fresh MOT (probably with hindsight a 'vehicle unseen' MOT) led me to only give the underneath a cursory glance, but fortunately there was no bidding war otherwise if I'd paid anywhere near my top bid I'd have been miffed. I felt like I got it at a fair price so kept quiet about it (didn't want to get bad feedback in return) and got on with welding...
If the description was vague and not detailed, I'd assume the worst and bid accordingly. Definitely buyer beware in cases like that, but it's only a problem if the 2 parties have different expectations.

EDIT - Looks like we posted at the same time - good advice!^^

[cavmad]

Wise words softly spoken. Never believe anyone selling a car and you can't go far wrong.
If you know about the car you're interested in then ask relevant questions, people are less likely to (but still might) bullshit about it but if you get there and the 'perfect rear arches' (or whatever) are obviously not perfect then you need to be on the backfoot straight sway as if they've lied about that what else have they lied about?

In this instance you should have contacted Medway BEFORE you started complaining on here as you had no idea whether they'd help you or not and thus didn't give them a chance.
I e-mailed them earlier to alert them to this thread as I believe there are two sides to every story, and as said you should have given them a chance first.

[jacksun1987]

SORRY MEDWAY
I was wrong. About putting stuff on here about your gauarge. But im sure you would feel the same way. If you drove all that way to pick up a car.
The thing what got me the most was the gum in the ashtray. Didnt taste that good it didnt

[DavidRutherford]

gum in the ashtray.

Given that an ashtray is in effect a very small bin, and that the car has been used for the last 15-or-so years, what on earth did you expect? Would you have complained as much if it were full of ash and old fag ends?

If you don't like it, take the ashtray out!

[Philip Chidlow]

Didnt taste that good it didnt

David, give Jacko credit, that's a humorous quip don't you know? Ease up, it's clear there was an element of youthful exuberance and naivety with the whole affair. I hope it will get sorted (as I'm sure it will) to all parties' satisfaction.

If you like, you could forgive Jacko his X1/9 moment - and be glad it wasn't that bad.

I know he gets a lot of stick, but c'mon - he's bought a BX and no-one can argue with his enthusiasm (or indeed understand it half the time )...

Oh, and David - you'd empty the ashtray of a car you were selling wouldn't you? I do. Even if it only contains screwed up parking tickets!

[ken newbold]

[quote="Philip Chidlow"
Oh, and David - you'd empty the ashtray of a car you were selling wouldn't you?

does that mean I'll have to, when I get rid of my wheelie bin

[Philip Chidlow]

Depends if you want good money

A ZX though... clean or dirty: I wouldn't have thought it'd affect price too much. I think the ZX is in BX territory now re: value

[jacksun1987]

Yes i know it was my fault. I bought it over the phone a week before and when i got there it was dark. So i just thought lets get back to the caravan site.
I only started noticing theses faults.The next day when i was driving back down. I think i need a 100 pound for a gauge to sort it out. Took my clio to the local gauarge for dashboard repairs came to 60 pound. So im sure it wonte be that much.
Mind you it travle over 200 miles and over taking over cars. With out reving the engine like you see other boyracers do. So really please about that.


The body work is good and the drive is good. It was so comfertuble it was unbilve how comfertube a 19 year old car is. Just the niggley bits that let it down. It could be a fuse thats lose or need replacing. See what happerns at the weekend. Mabye a good service might sort the bit of low performance and a tiny bit of noise. But it is 19 years old cant expact everything. But every time i look at it its alwosome

Ill have to put some pics up of it