This is very much a head over heart sale as I really do love driving this beast. I even enjoy seeing it sitting outside the front of my house. However my head is saying it's not got long left on the MOT, it's going to need some work, and I currently have four cars ahead of it in the MOT queue, at least two of which are almost certainly going to need money spending on them, so if I keep it it's probably going to end up sitting around for months until I get round to getting it sorted, which would be a bit of a waste.
Having said that, if it doesn't sell I certainly won't be shedding any tears.
Anyway, let's start off with the good bits.
-Starts every time , and goes pretty well for a big barge - I took it up my private* test track last week and it recorded a 0-60 time of 9.6 seconds, which is only 0.1 sec behind the official quoted figure.
-Not too bad on fuel on a steady run for a 3.8 V6, although obviously not quite so good round the houses.
-Just about the ideal size of Yank IMHO - big enough and wallowy enough to feel like a proper American car, but small enough and wieldy enough to be usable in this country. It'll even just about fit into a Tesco parking space.
-Lights, wipers, horn, indicators etc. all work. I've fitted new wiper blades as they were utterly knackered when I bought it. I've also fitted LED reversing lights as the original reversing lights were repurposed to work as indicators when the car was brought into the UK. Climate control works from a heating point of view - no idea if the aircon works. Original stereo is in working order and doesn't sound too bad. Electric seats work (or at least the driver's one does, not tried the passenger one). Interior is a nice place to be, in a slightly tacky American sort of a way.
-Seems generally pretty solid, drives straight and true with "no knocks or bangs" as they say in the eBay adverts.
-Actually handles reasonably well - it wallows and bounces and there's very little feel through the steering, but it clings on through corners better than I'd expected.
Not so good bits:
-MOT runs out on 19th March. It'll definitely need a repair to the battery tray to pass, and something doing about the ABS light which stays on.
-The MIL also stays on, although I don't think that's an MOT issue on a car this age, and it says "Service engine soon" rather than showing a picture of an engine, so a tester might not pick up on what it is anyway. I interrogated the on-board diagnostics but they didn't show up any fault codes, so not sure what's going on there. The "Change oil soon" light also comes on, but goes off after a bit.
-Central locking doesn't work from outside, and only two of the four doors work on the inside button. Boot and fuel flap releases don't work either - boot has to be opened with the key, and fuel flap released manually (oh, the ignominy).
-Electric aerial is temperamental - it comes up OK, but needs a hand going down and doesn't seem to know when to stop retracting sometimes.
-Headlining has been removed by a previous owner (the one before Bramz) - apparently it was sagging so they just ripped it out. No, I have no idea either.
-Think it needs a wheel balancing as there's a bit of a vibration above about 65.
-Radiator lower mount is quite rusty, although don't think this counts as structural for MOT purposes.
-Paintwork is typical of a Florida car - quite faded. General bodywork condition is also typical of Floridian giffer ownership - couple of scuffs and scrapes and a couple of bits of chrome trim missing. Still looks respectable enough from a short distance away though.
-Cruise control doesn't work.
-It could do with a set of plugs (they're not expensive, only about a tenner for a full set) and one of the HT leads has seen better days, although that doesn't seem to be affecting the running at the moment.
Think that about covers it. It owes me £600 [plus the odd little bits I've spent on it since], and I'd like to see that back. It's in NE Norfolk, about 15 miles from Norwich.
Pics:
Having said that, if it doesn't sell I certainly won't be shedding any tears.
Anyway, let's start off with the good bits.
-Starts every time , and goes pretty well for a big barge - I took it up my private* test track last week and it recorded a 0-60 time of 9.6 seconds, which is only 0.1 sec behind the official quoted figure.
-Not too bad on fuel on a steady run for a 3.8 V6, although obviously not quite so good round the houses.
-Just about the ideal size of Yank IMHO - big enough and wallowy enough to feel like a proper American car, but small enough and wieldy enough to be usable in this country. It'll even just about fit into a Tesco parking space.
-Lights, wipers, horn, indicators etc. all work. I've fitted new wiper blades as they were utterly knackered when I bought it. I've also fitted LED reversing lights as the original reversing lights were repurposed to work as indicators when the car was brought into the UK. Climate control works from a heating point of view - no idea if the aircon works. Original stereo is in working order and doesn't sound too bad. Electric seats work (or at least the driver's one does, not tried the passenger one). Interior is a nice place to be, in a slightly tacky American sort of a way.
-Seems generally pretty solid, drives straight and true with "no knocks or bangs" as they say in the eBay adverts.
-Actually handles reasonably well - it wallows and bounces and there's very little feel through the steering, but it clings on through corners better than I'd expected.
Not so good bits:
-MOT runs out on 19th March. It'll definitely need a repair to the battery tray to pass, and something doing about the ABS light which stays on.
-The MIL also stays on, although I don't think that's an MOT issue on a car this age, and it says "Service engine soon" rather than showing a picture of an engine, so a tester might not pick up on what it is anyway. I interrogated the on-board diagnostics but they didn't show up any fault codes, so not sure what's going on there. The "Change oil soon" light also comes on, but goes off after a bit.
-Central locking doesn't work from outside, and only two of the four doors work on the inside button. Boot and fuel flap releases don't work either - boot has to be opened with the key, and fuel flap released manually (oh, the ignominy).
-Electric aerial is temperamental - it comes up OK, but needs a hand going down and doesn't seem to know when to stop retracting sometimes.
-Headlining has been removed by a previous owner (the one before Bramz) - apparently it was sagging so they just ripped it out. No, I have no idea either.
-Think it needs a wheel balancing as there's a bit of a vibration above about 65.
-Radiator lower mount is quite rusty, although don't think this counts as structural for MOT purposes.
-Paintwork is typical of a Florida car - quite faded. General bodywork condition is also typical of Floridian giffer ownership - couple of scuffs and scrapes and a couple of bits of chrome trim missing. Still looks respectable enough from a short distance away though.
-Cruise control doesn't work.
-It could do with a set of plugs (they're not expensive, only about a tenner for a full set) and one of the HT leads has seen better days, although that doesn't seem to be affecting the running at the moment.
Think that about covers it. It owes me £600 [plus the odd little bits I've spent on it since], and I'd like to see that back. It's in NE Norfolk, about 15 miles from Norwich.
Pics:
