Wheeler Dealers tonight

wheeler dealer bodgers

Just a little history on the car and the show. I road tested the car 2 weeks before the show was filmed .The body and paint was very good and general a very nice car with little things like the oil temp and stereo didn't work but on road test it would not tick over when cold and when hot it was on 1700revs at tickover and rough. I was not aware of the overheating shown on film other than they told me it had a gearbox and cyl head overhaul which cost them £1600 but they would not show this on the program, only a water pump replacement.. When looking underneath it was evident the engine and gearbox had not been removed and the gearbox had a bad oil leak although I think this was the engine rear main oil seal and an engine water leak. I made an offer which was accepted but it was conditional on what work had been done on the gearbox and engine as i was concerned it had much work and still had a water leak on an aluminium engine. They showed me the purchase invoice which was 15500 euros not as shown on the program but they wanted me on the program to say I paid a higher price than my offer as they could not be seen to loose money.
They called me many times the evening before the filming and gave me the info I needed confirming the engine and gearbox had not been removed and only head gaskets had been changed and could not guarantee the work that was done so I reduced my offer by £1000 as I was prepared to take a small risk but I would not appear on the show. I was told I was the only phone call on the car in all the time advertised. they were desperate for me to get someone just to attend in my place to accept the sale which I declined and then did not want to accept my revised offer as the losses would be to great. I believe they were going to take the car back to Europe to sell unless anyone can say different

Interesting, and I'm not suprised at all, after all it's television isn't it.

[stephendell]

The car did not tick over properly because they did not fit the PCV valve as per the fitting instructions. There was no setting up done on the new carb it was just bolted on so it was surprising it ran as well as it did a brands.

IIRC The basic deal was pay £13500 for the car on screen and then put in an up to £2k ish bill for filming expenses to comply with broadcasting standards meaning effectively you would have paid £11500 which was a steal really for a white lie and a few seconds on TV. It was basically a good car which had the hidden bonus of recent headgaskets.

[Alpineandy]

the oil temp ....didn't work

Do you mean the oil level guage which only works before the engine is started, or had they added an oil temp guage?