Dan

I don't think buying the exact right car is such a big deal, but then being in the trade probably changes my outlook. I have loads of cars on my "must have" list but I'll buy whatever takes my eye whether it's on the list or not. I always make sure I'm buying a first class example of whatever the car is, so I can sell it easily when I have had my fun. The beauty of buying cars is that the money isn't spent and gone forever, you just sell the car and buy another.

Skyline pic...more on the website.

I have two Rottweilers and really need to keep an estate car or 4x4, preferably one that isn't too expensive and one that can be a bit of fun when required. I've seen these Legnum Twin Turbos for £3500-£4000 but I've never driven one. Apparantly they are 2.5 litre V6 Twin Turbo, 280bhp and 4 wheel drive so they sound quite interesting. Has anyone owned one or driven one on here ? Any comments or opinions welcomed. Thanks in advance.

I went to view a 350z on Thursday. I had been looking forward to it because I haven't had one for a few weeks, but I was gutted when I got there. The whole passenger side and the boot lid had been painted - and quite badly. The drivers side had been keyed and someone had attempted to polish it out but the scratches were through to the metal so all they had done was thin the surrounding paint ! The bonnet was peppered with stone chips so it had obviously ploughed the motorways for a living and both near side alloys were badly kerbed. To make it nice you would have to paint the entire car, but who wants to own a car thats had a full re-spray ! And this on a 53 plate car with 27,000 miles. I've seen ten year old cars with 100k in better condition than this. On the bright side I picked up a very pretty Skyline on the way home so that will keep me entertained until I find something better

I heard of a biker being prosecuted and they used his own video evidence against him, and I'm sure someone else was done in a supercar filming himself doing high speed runs.

I agree with your point on the pricing, they are all over the place. I've had a couple of real bargains from private sales of cars I spotted on Auto Trader and bought cars behind trade money, they would have made more in the Auction ! I have to disagree on them being difficult to sell. None GT pack cars and imports are always tough to move to the point that I won't buy them unless they come very cheap, but Uk cars with GT pack are very good news. The last one I had was for sale less than a week and I had other dealers calling asking me if I would trade it which is always a sign that the car is in demand. I'm quite prepared to travel the country to buy nice ones because I know they will sell. I've got a 53 plate Coupe coming tommorow and an 06 Roadster coming next Thursday and I don't expect either of them to hang about.

I second that. I stick to the limits in urban areas and purposely head out into the countryside late Summer evenings or early Sunday mornings when I want a thrash. I get up at 6am Sundays and decide to either take the Bike or take the car if I have something decent on my drive. I drive quickly across country in cars and on bikes and always have done, and yet I have a clean license so saving it for the wilderness seems to work well for me. I don't get much of a buzz from seeing off inferior machinery, it's only a laugh if you take on something quicker, same with the bike. On the R1 it's not much of a thrill because it's supposed to be quicker, but on the Duke with only 90bhp it's enormous fun to ride round the outside of Superbikes with the footpegs scraping the tarmac I had one very memorable blast through some very twisty roads in my last 350z with a Peugeot 306 giving chase. Respect where it's due that guy could really drive, there is no way that car should have been on my tail. I pulled away on the straights but not as much as I expected to do, I was seeing as much as 130 but he was right back on my tail in the corners. When we got to a roundabout at the end he pipped his horn and waved at me and gave me the thumbs up so I guess he was used to bullying people down that road. I felt kinda peeved that I couldn't get away from him, but I'm not Lewis Hamilton at the end of the day so maybe he was It was the same bit of road where a couple of years ago I followed a guy on a Yamaha R1 in a Honda NSX, with my mate looking kind of nervous in the passenger seat. They biker kept looking over his shoulder to see if I was still there and if anything he was holding me up I didn't get the chance to run the Z against anything particularly quick whilst I had it, but the Monaro came next and would have left it very easily I'm afraid, so don't take one on if it crosses your path, at least not the 6.0 VXR !

I just can't see anything like that sort of money in that car.

My glasses aren't that good

Hmm, not sure about that one in this case, note the square front number plate - that roadster is an import.

Modified cars are very difficult to sell. The more you modify a car the more you narrow it's appeal. People that want a modified car prefer to modify it themselves. It's a shame because the descriptions say "this car started out as a low mileage standard example" - that car would have sold !

If you have no success I'm getting a roadster on the 14th so you can pop along and see one close up and I'll take you up the road in it if I'm not mowed under with customers I'm just at the end of the M66, between Rawtenstall and Bacup.

I would guess thats an old wives tale, I can't see how towing a car can damage the axle. Lots of cars have slippery diffs and I've never heard of this before. Unless there is something very specific about the S2000 diff that makes it different from all the others...

My what big hands you've got !

Ha ha. I did 8 years at Perrys before I saw the light and started on my own. I've always been car mad and this is my dream job. As a child I would play with matchbox cars and buy and sell them using Monopoly money ! If I won the lottery I would just buy more cars

That thing is mad. WHat engine is it, the Rover or Honda or a tuned V6? They normally run the General Motors LS1 V8 engine ( Corvette etc ) in various states of tune. The factory demonstrator - the one on the videos - is 720bhp and the car isn't very heavy ! It's a serious piece of kit and I am sooooooo very tempted. I'm just worried about getting in an out because I'm not particularly sleek myself

I use Glass's because thats what the finance companies use, so I know what we can get financed on the car. If you work off Cap you never buy anything because it's usually a chunk behind Glass's However it takes experience to know which cars are worth book, which cars are behind book and which cars to throw the book away To be honest I know what most cars are worth more or less without looking in a book, but the book keeps you right on stuff your not used to buying. The best price guide of all is Auto Trader, because if you want to be competitive you need to know what other people are asking for the same car.

Here you go, watch those videos. On the track day clips he passes an Elise, a TVR and even a Noble like they are stood still. www.ultimasports.co.uk/gtr/

45k is nuts for that car. You could be in a superb Cobra rep or an Ultima for that money. Ultima, oh yes, Ultima... I spent two hours on Sunday watching the videos on the Ultima website. Proper car. 0-60 in 2.6, 0-100 in 5.3, 0-150 in 11.5. 0-100 and back to 0 in 9.6 seconds. All of which are records for road cars and quicker than Zonda, Mclaren F1 etc. Thats bike fast that is.

You can blame these nonces that knock together these "car buying guides" and programs like Used Car heaven etc. No doubt Parkers guide ( the one on the shelf near the comics ) tells its readers to "avoid cars without the GT pack at all costs". PMSL I love those car buying guides, I mean who are these people ! Most of them sound like they have never sold a car in their life...

That explained it much better than I did. They do look at the overall picture and if they know they are getting the finance they have more to play with on the part exchange price. If it's a cash deal they won't offer much more than the 5k already on the table, if they are getting the finance they will offer a bit more to get the business. This is especially true with something like the Z which they know will sell and are not quite so easy to replace. The last Z I had was advertised for less than a week and I've not got another coming until June 14th...with the GT spec and good mileage they are good news.

Posh git

I agree and thats how I do business. But Perrys don't work that way, they want to maximise the profit in the deal and they want to sell him finance. Most big dealerships and car supermarkets are the same. There will be a grand to be made on that balance and they want it ! If the deal is not a great one they will wait for the next punter to come along. Trust me, I did 8 years at Perrys before I set up on my own

To someone in the know, like an enthusiast like your self this may well be true. But your average punter wants a high spec standard car, not a low spec car with aftermarket bits on it. I'm speaking purely from a retailers point of view here