As you might know if you've read my concurrent Z4 thread, that car has been quite the menace to live with over the last few months has progressively gotten worse and worse as the weather has become harsher. I won't repeat the specifics of that thread but suffice it to say that the biggest problem is an intermittent stall/ no start condition on a cold start which seems to somewhat improve once the engine warms up. I really tried a few separate things to fix this but with no luck so far, the final straw came when the car let me down badly when I was trying to get to work on a particularly nippy morning last month. I'm a shift worker, and my work aren't very tolerant of things like missing work because of car troubles, especially since I've already been down that road a few times with the XJ8 I had before.
It was for this reason that I began looking for something, anything, that I could get in the short term. Initial plan was to store the Z4 off the road and fix it up over the span of a few months, and get something that would be basic and reliable transport in the interim. I looked at all the usual suspects- small French hatchbacks, a couple of Vauxhalls, Toyotas, etc- but I was doing this literally the afternoon before I had a 6am start and knew I really needed something that evening so the pickings were slim. It seemed like everything I found either needed an MOT or was a spares/repairs job. I found a nice looking little Pug 206 which would have been perfect, but it had sold by the time I called the seller. Then I found a high mileage T25 Avensis which I thought might make for a solid stop gap based on my dad's experience with Toyota being very dependable, but after arranging to go and view it after work, the seller told me about 2 hours before that it had sold. This left me up the proverbial creek without a paddle until I stumbled across this.
Ehh, I mean it's one of those cars eh, no one's dream car when they're a kid but the sort of reliable daily hack which keeps the world running
Had a nice long MOT, no really worrisome advisories, seller confirmed no issues with it. Full main dealer service history, 85k miles on a TDCI lump isn't much at all and it had only had one owner from new until 2022. It struck me as something I could get in and drive, even just as a short term measure. Anyway, I committed several car buying sins when buying this. I went at night, during the rain, didn't even look at the bodywork because there was no point, it was filthy, dark and wet and I wouldn't have been able to see any issues anyway. Test drive, it was fine- pretty slow and sounds like a Transit but I assumed that was just because I'm used to V8 jags and little sporty Z4s. It made me laugh how the seller told me to put my foot down as if it was something to be impressed by but when I did so, nothing really happened. Still, it felt well screwed together and pretty plush inside. Didn't smoke or make any weird noises, and everything inside worked. I was drowning that evening so I more or less clutched at the first straw I could find, but I entered it with no expectations. I just thought, if it buys me some time to work on the beemer then it's served its purpose. I'll wrap this intro post up by saying that it was a nice sedate drive back home from the seller's place (roughly 40 miles) and to work and back the next day. I was impressed with the refinement and road manners. It feels heavy but that gave it a stable feel as I navigated the roads following Storm Isha.
It was for this reason that I began looking for something, anything, that I could get in the short term. Initial plan was to store the Z4 off the road and fix it up over the span of a few months, and get something that would be basic and reliable transport in the interim. I looked at all the usual suspects- small French hatchbacks, a couple of Vauxhalls, Toyotas, etc- but I was doing this literally the afternoon before I had a 6am start and knew I really needed something that evening so the pickings were slim. It seemed like everything I found either needed an MOT or was a spares/repairs job. I found a nice looking little Pug 206 which would have been perfect, but it had sold by the time I called the seller. Then I found a high mileage T25 Avensis which I thought might make for a solid stop gap based on my dad's experience with Toyota being very dependable, but after arranging to go and view it after work, the seller told me about 2 hours before that it had sold. This left me up the proverbial creek without a paddle until I stumbled across this.
Ehh, I mean it's one of those cars eh, no one's dream car when they're a kid but the sort of reliable daily hack which keeps the world running
Had a nice long MOT, no really worrisome advisories, seller confirmed no issues with it. Full main dealer service history, 85k miles on a TDCI lump isn't much at all and it had only had one owner from new until 2022. It struck me as something I could get in and drive, even just as a short term measure. Anyway, I committed several car buying sins when buying this. I went at night, during the rain, didn't even look at the bodywork because there was no point, it was filthy, dark and wet and I wouldn't have been able to see any issues anyway. Test drive, it was fine- pretty slow and sounds like a Transit but I assumed that was just because I'm used to V8 jags and little sporty Z4s. It made me laugh how the seller told me to put my foot down as if it was something to be impressed by but when I did so, nothing really happened. Still, it felt well screwed together and pretty plush inside. Didn't smoke or make any weird noises, and everything inside worked. I was drowning that evening so I more or less clutched at the first straw I could find, but I entered it with no expectations. I just thought, if it buys me some time to work on the beemer then it's served its purpose. I'll wrap this intro post up by saying that it was a nice sedate drive back home from the seller's place (roughly 40 miles) and to work and back the next day. I was impressed with the refinement and road manners. It feels heavy but that gave it a stable feel as I navigated the roads following Storm Isha.
