The big red beast and I toddled off down to Hailsham, well nearly, Lower Dicker actually, for a look at that 2001 HSE with barely 35,000 on the clock. As expected it was smart, very smart confirming my opinion that dark green paintwork and lightstone interior is the best colour combination for a P38. It also reminded me that lightstone shows seat squab wear where you slide in and out very rapidly indeed. As might be expected from the miles this one had done a fair bit of short trip work which really showed up on the drivers seat. Pity. About the only interior deficiency. Started easily from cold running up smooth and sweet. A quick amble round the industrial estate showed it to be a bit tighter than mine but, given mine is due for a good go through, the differnce was smaller than expected. Suspension got a decent work out. Its approaching forty years since I was last down that way. Road surface was poor then and nowt seems to have been done since. The natives don't drive striaght down their own side of the road with ordianry cars!
Not as good as I'd hoped underneath. Better than mine yes but similar amount of the wire brush, rust-killer paint and Waxoyl, Dintrol or whatever needed. Just lots more aging paint and less rust. Like mine 3 years back. Still got factory exhaust. Why can't they make replacements as quiet. Air suspension did its stuff as it should and the owner said, without prompting, that coil spring conversion folk were nuts "It came from the factory riding on air so why change everything instead of looking after it properly". Yay. Our kind of guy. He'd been told it would soon need new airbus so there is a set to go with it. Didn't seem so to me but it has been looked after a combination of DIY and non-RR mechanics which on the face of it is odd given that there is a respected Indie in Hailsham. I knew the ABS & Traction control were showing faults so I took the Lynx to check codes. Lynx said 4125 left hand rear, short between sensors, hopefully just sensor replacement would fix it. 4066 left hand front showed up as historical. DIY fixed apparently.
Will I buy it? Thought probably would when I left but by now shading to probably not. A year and 50,000 miles younger is attractive but being retired guy where 5,000 miles is a high mileage year big red is unlikely to wear out. Would need to find and fit roof rails and reversing sensors. Underneath work will be similar and the solid rear brke pipe across the axle is on the advisories list from the last MoT. Not the sort of job I wanna buy. Big red has a droopy headlining and leaky aircon evaporator but I have the air-con bits and headlinings aren't silly expensive to do so he won't cost much more to get back into proper trim. Black upholstery may not be as smart as lightstone but its a lot more practical when you use a car as transit van substitute as I often do. Best guess is that I'll drop approaching £1,500 or so on the deal once I'd found a good home for big red so the nicer car probably isn't worth it. Really I'm not that sure how serious the guy is about selling anyway.
Am I talking myself out of a real deal?
Gilbert might be interested to know that the owner before this one used it for his business of hauling classic cars around. Mostly short trips by the look of it.
Clive
