Ekona

*facepalm* No. That could still be interpreted as threatening. For absolute clarity, THE SELLER DID NOTHING WRONG HERE. Well, morally maybe if he knew, but if he didn't know and the OP just got unlucky then that's life. I have massive sympathy for the guy as he's taken it really well, but if you buy the cheapest possible Zed you can with patchy history and don't do as many possible checks as you can, you're very likely to get bitten.

I'm sure they're great for businesses, but for the end user they're utterly appalling. Lack of cards left when delivery is missed, lack of attempting delivery in the first place, poor communication from staff when trying to arrange collection/delivery, just generally not a pleasant company to deal with.

Neither did I, until I tried to leave

Not sure what it's like now, but I had a great day. Really encouraged to push the car, to make it slide as much as possible.

I actively avoid any person or company that chooses to use Hermes or CityLink. Both utterly dire couriers. If you use DPD, I shall make many purchases from you.

Insurance doesn't cover breakdowns

Very bad idea. If it pops a rod through the block then you're going to leave a trail of oil down the motorway, which leaves you open to the very real possibility of killing someone.

I'm not sure you have much choice at this point. It's either about £1500 to get an engine swapped in, or you've got a dead car there that's not worth peanuts as it stands. I think you'd be best off to get the engine sorted, dump the cost on a 0% credit card then just enjoy it.

That's the one, Bill Gwynne! Top marks sir!

Similar (they had Escorts and Imprezas too), but not them. I can't remember the name right now, will have to take a look when I get home on the bottle of champagne I won for Most Improved Driver that day* *Which only highlights how bad I was to start with

Just a thought, but before you spend thousands on bodykits and paint and stickers etc, you could spend that much on making the car or yourself go faster. Each to their own, though. I quite like the look of the proposed design.

I did a rally day at a place near Silverstone back in '02, and it was immense. Driving a proper Group N Impreza around on a loose surface was just so much fun, and there were no limits put on the car or anything. Something like that, or the Caterham experience would be so much more rewarding than 3-4 laps of anything in a rev & gear limited supercar. Alternatively, a regular track day in your own car would be a good option. For some people, they might be perfectly happy just to drive a 458 at 3/10ths, but I'd personally find driving something slower at 8/10ths to be much more rewarding. Caterhams, Elises, rally Imprezas, all far more fun.

I thought I did, but Sky seem to be hell-bent on testing it I just wonder how many years NCB they'll say I have. I know how many it should be, and I know how many I gave them to start with, but I suspect the numbers will come back significantly different.

Apparently my proof of NCB is being posted today. Let's wait and see, shall we?

I'd put four different ones on each corner

Alignments should be done on a yearly basis at least, if not 6 monthly if the roads you travel on are of poor quality or you do a lot of miles.

I would imagine it's flashed to the ROM, so soft resetting of the ECU (i.e. taking the battery out) will not affect it.

I don't, why do you ask?

There is no 'next level'. This was a private sale, the OP didn't do anything like due diligence on the car, and they've bought an absolute snotter. Caveat emptor. There is no right of return, no reason for the seller to give any refund or even a partial refund. The contract is completed and appears to be completely legal. If I was the seller, and received such a phone call, I would have to think very carefully about my reply. I mean, once I'd finished laughing of course. Just because the guy you bought from gave you your money back, doesn't mean that he legally had to do so.

Hang on, I thought we were still talking about the OP getting his money back. If we're talking about tough guys trying to intimidate people, then yeah, that's a criminal matter. Sorry, my mistake.

The police wouldn't care in the slightest even if it was someone famous, as it's a civil issue.

Black ones.

Exactly. There were enough alarm bells in that ad to make sure I wouldn't even consider going to view it, much less pay money for it.

I was surprised. Also embarrassed that they were so bloody awful. Still, fair play to the young lad, at least he finished the race.

The OP bought a Zed with over 100k, with a CEL and after the seller admitted they only carried out a basic service 18months ago. He got it for around £4k. Buy cheap, buy twice. Tbh if you're not going to carry out the most basic of checks, then I struggling to find much sympathy.