brillomaster

I've decided, if the seller isn't prepared to do things my way and sell me both the car and the plate, i'm not going to buy the car, since as soon as he puts the retention request through online, he wont have the correct documentation. And im not buying a car without the correct V5c present. but it wont come to that, as he'd be mad to turn down £9000 cash for the sake of a £250 private plate. and if he is mad, I wouldn't want to buy a car from a madman. besides, just seen there is a back up identical spec car from a dealer just come up for sale, so if sale number 1 falls through I have a back up car to look at the same day!

strongly suspect they'll need spacers... even if they fit without spacers, the width and offset will mean they're completely lost in the arches. But why 17s? And why only 7.5" width?

when i view the car im going to mention the dvla advice and get his wife involved - in my experience most women are sticklers for doing things by the book, if the dvla says not to sell or transfer a vehicle without the correct documentation, she'll talk him round!

but that means the buyer went away with a car but no matching V5c document, and it would have been a good month or so before he got the V5c through with his name, and the right registration! Plus i'd have to trust the seller to do all of that, when he'd already have all of my money. Its basically either i'd have to trust the seller to sort the documents for my £9,000 car, or the seller would have to trust me to sort the documents for his £250 private plate. And yeah, i'm already budgeting the cost of buying new plates when I get the reg transferred, since the seller has been to stingy to buy new plates themselves - that's the only reason i can think of why he hasn't transferred the reg already.

Split it, put the parts on sale on here. They'll all be gone within the hour, like vultures we are!

depends how close the rolling diameter of the spare compares to the 19s you have on the car - do a willtheyfit comparison between the two tyre sizes, if they're within a few percentage you'll be fine. obviously if you use the spare be aware that one wheel has massively less grip than the other 3...

put back to standard, for two reasons.... one, the parts will be worth considerably more separately, and two, you'll appeal to more buyers if its standard - selling a heavily modified car is a very niche market.

hmmm found the dvla advice, it seems like i will have to buy the car with his plate on and then transfer it back to him at his cost, as its too late even to do it online and get the new V5c sent out before saturday. really dont know why the seller didnt pull his finger out and do it earlier!

That's what im hoping he agrees to! would just take the cost of the fees off the price of the car. I have no interest in keeping his private plate, it means nothing to me and would prefer an age related one to show I can afford a 56 plate BMW

yeah that's ok, im just wondering if it will work ok if he puts the plate on retention on the same day I want to drive the car home? for some reason the seller is clearly waiting until he has a sale agreed before putting the plate on retention, but I don't have the inclination to make two 5hr round trips (one to pay a deposit, one to pick up the car and pay the balance once the plate transfer has gone through!) if I go view the car, I need to drive it back the same day.

that's the thing, im not sure it does have original plates, the seller says the car was first registered on a private plate. but even so, no physical plates exist, so would need to go to Halfords or somewhere to get some plates made up, but they wouldn't do that without the correct documentation, which I wouldn't have. Don't really want to drive home with a registration number hastily scribbled on a piece of paper in the back window! I've dropped the dvla an email, but might well give them a call tomorrow. apparently the seller says its simple, but with the requirements to tax and insure a car immediately after buying it, im not so sure getting the plates changed at the same time is a brilliant idea!

Hi, query... trying to buy a new car, but for some reason the seller hasn't yet taken his private plate off, which he wants to keep. Haven't a clue why the seller hasn't taken the plate off a month ago before he advertised it for sale, but hey, im trying to buy the car, not the seller. there is an online service for taking the private plate off which then generates a replacement age-related reg number, but if I do this i'd then have to immediately get new plates made up, which I wouldn't be able to do without the correct documentation. The car has been on private plate since new, so there are no old plates already (don't even know what the new number would be yet) Anyone had any experience with this? from what I read, you can't (shouldn't?) transfer registration of a car and transfer a private plate at the same time very easily, you should do one first and then the other. Ideally, I guess it should have been the seller takes off the private plate, and then transfers sale of car with new plate on, but the seller has had a month to do it that way round, so now im thinking it will be seller sells car AND private plate to me, then when I receive my new V5c, I then use the online service to take the private plate off and send it back to him. Clearly the plate isn't that important or urgent to the seller otherwise he'd have done this already, but I obviously want to make sure I have the right documentation to take ownership, tax and insure a car when I hand over a large wad of cash!

Ha ha, that's where Chris S always told me to keep my foot in Going anti-clockwise towards the end there's a horrible sharp left just over a small crest where you lose traction and what looks like a cliff ahead, I prefer clock-wise. that sounds like the part i mean but im sure it was coming down through the trees on the east side? but could be wrong, it has been a few years since i was up there!

You're never too old for a nice car. In fact most nice cars come with age, having money and lower insurance costs. I'd be driving round in a brand new M6 if I had the money and reasonable insurance costs. However, you may be too old to drive a low slung sports car due to difficulties getting in and out, or may be too old to drive a manual due to leg pain or whatever. in which case your nice car becomes a supercharged jaguar if you can get in and out of a sportscar and happily drive a manual, then buy it! if, however, you become so old that basic driving flummoxes you (roundabouts, lane discipline, parking, driving at the speed limit) then please, start getting the bus.

yeah got quite a few messages from ebay, no crackpots, no silly 'wud u swap it for a 1.4 nova, innit' messages - generally pretty straightforward!

Brillo has the zed gone Yeah zed's sold matey, moving onto German and twin turbos!

I think autotrader charged me £35 for two weeks, whereas ebay charged £15 for 4 weeks, so I went with ebay - mainly get dealers selling on autotrader. Also Ebay allows you to format your advert better, wheras autotrader you have to fit in to their very prescribed template. cant comment on pistonheads, although when I was looking for cars for sale pistonheads did seem more expensive than most. as for sorting wheels, its a simple cost equation - how will it cost to get them refurbed, vs how much someone might knock you down for them as they are. personally if im buying a secondhand car, I wouldn't expect the wheels to be perfect! I would however try and knock the price down if the tyres needed replacing soon or were budget items. what wheels have you got? if they're something particularly fancy you'd make more money sourcing some standard wheels and selling the good ones separately - you'd also appeal to more buyers with standard wheels on.

yeah take it easy up there! would probably say anti clockwise is easier - that way you'd do the twisty B4501 section going uphill, and the faster more open A543 section going downhill. but if you have time drive it both ways! I've driven it clockwise, and had a bit of a moment locking the front brakes coming downhill through the forest into a tight left if I recall

ha cant afford forgestars... but 3SDM 0.01 wheels look pretty sweet, 9.5 inch rear too.

BMW e92 coupe - these are it on the Cades Berns, but the others are similar.

fair points. theres not a lot in it... the preferred wheel style is 18x9 with ET40 (Cades Bern), and the second choice wheel is 18x9.5 with ET35 (OEMS 111). but given they're pretty similar in style, i'll get the latter which will go on and sit right without any spacers.

Quick one... the new car im thinking of getting has rubbish 17" OEM wheels, which are too small for my tastes, so will be getting some 18s. Question is, given the choice of the two, which would you pick? option a) your preferred choice of wheel style, with a 15mm spacer to correct the weak offset, or option b ) second choice of wheel, but no need for a spacer. I think i'm swaying towards buying the wheels that fit without the need for spacers?

probably be a good idea to get an alignment when the new front tyres are on - my front tyres had to be replaced prematurely because poor alignment (toe setting) had completely worn away the inside edge, the middle of the tyre still had 4mm of tread. New tyres on and alignment checked, the new fronts have now done 20,000 miles with no uneven wear.

if it was a V10 R8 or a GTR it'll definitely be the R8... dat engine however, V8 R8 or GTR - probably the GTR. Never really thought of the V8 R8 as a proper supercar, just a sports car same as the GTR (which is definitely not a supercar!). therefore, i'd have the GTR and get it tuned to make supercar power, no option to do that with the V8 R8. then again, how much is a supercharger kit for an R8? that could be interesting...

nice one that looks heaps better! don't know if its the bright light but the cloth seats look really grey... the leather takes it back to black