I feel awful - unwittingly just bought a tampered car :(

Dandle · 27 Jan 2006 at 16:09

My old 1983 Audi 100 didnt have a temp gauge it had an overheat warning on the driver information system(only displayed if the car overheated). Although everytime you started it it went through a self check to make sure the sensors were working properly, it even checked the side and brake lights. I thought it was pretty high tech for a car so old

Brain · 27 Jan 2006 at 19:31

picture of the odometer:
looks a bit dodgy doesnt it...

im much more relaxed about it today unlike last night when i was in panic mode

tb2000 · 27 Jan 2006 at 20:10

Looks a bit strange, granted. But to be honest I shouldn't worry. I'm never worried about the mileage really, I'm more concerned with the condition that the car and engine is in.
It may be that the first number has got stuck, as though it's gone to click from 8 to 9 and stopped half way, I've seen it happen before. I remember a mate of mine bought a Fiesta where the trip wasn't working, just making a buzzing noise. Just needed the reset button pushing a few times.
Obviously there's a slight chance it's been clocked, but to be honest as everyone else here said, it's more likely to have been clocked back further than that if indeed that is the case.

Bug One · 27 Jan 2006 at 21:44

Thats not that odd. You should see the state of my gf's corsa. Got all the problems, and a whole lot more!

Does your temp gauge move at all. Try running the engine for a while without moving the car. If it goes up, but goes back down when you start moving its probably your thermostat.

If it doesn't move at all, it could be your water temp sensor.

Either way its not an expensive or uncommon problem.

atpbx · 27 Jan 2006 at 21:52

You can tell by the interior if its a lot leggier than the Odo suggests.

On a mass produced shopping trolly like that, there is likely to be heavy wear on the steering wheel, pedal rubbers, Gear knob, door release, stereo controlls etc etc.
Nobody is going to of bothered clocking something down to 82 i wouldnt of thought.
Average milege for that age of car would be around 120k, thats a lot of work in a 1.25 festa.

tb2000 · 27 Jan 2006 at 21:58

atpbx said:
You can tell by the interior if its a lot leggier than the Odo suggests.

On a mass produced shopping trolly like that, there is likely to be heavy wear on the steering wheel, pedal rubbers, Gear knob, door release, stereo controlls etc etc.
Nobody is going to of bothered clocking something down to 82 i wouldnt of thought.
Average milege for that age of car would be around 120k, thats a lot of work in a 1.25 festa.

I agree, but that's not always the case - we've got a K reg 1.0 Uno at work which has only got about 60k on it!

Tesla · 27 Jan 2006 at 22:13

We have a G Reg Micra with 36K on our drive way, shame it's rusting away as it's mint and the engine runs as good as new.

Only thing we have ever spent on it in 5years is for a clutch (exluding oil, filters service stuff).

tb2000 · 27 Jan 2006 at 22:16

Tesla said:
We have a G Reg Micra with 36K on our drive way, shame it's rusting away as it's mint and the engine runs as good as new.

Only thing we have ever spent on it in 5years is for a clutch (exluding oil, filters service stuff).

That's a pretty low mileage! I saw an F Reg Sierra Sapphire on eBay the other day that only had 8000 miles on it from new (but there was a bit of rust on it)!

Brain · 27 Jan 2006 at 22:21

The temp gauge does not move at all - even after driving for an hour. Im taking it to a Ford garage on monday to get it checked out - for free - and ill decide then what i can get done to it. I figure its better having someone look at it who actually knows more than me [not difficult in this case] about cars.

benneh · 27 Jan 2006 at 22:22

chopchop said:
only because you had a rover

too true

Tesla · 27 Jan 2006 at 22:28

Yea age is much worse than mileage on most cars, assuming they have been regularly serviced.

geiger · 27 Jan 2006 at 23:29

Tesla said:
We have a G Reg Micra with 36K on our drive way, shame it's rusting away as it's mint and the engine runs as good as new.

Only thing we have ever spent on it in 5years is for a clutch (exluding oil, filters service stuff).

My dad used one every day (70 on a motorway commute) for 10 years and clocked up 160k on the first engine and another 40k on a scrappie engine after that. Eventually he scrapped it because of a few things were about to give way, rust being the main concern (it was still roadworthy but in the end its no longer cheap to run)

I doubt a Fiesta could be as good as that though