Classic Car #1 - Buying the classic.

Well, after some tooing and froing and working out funds etc, we decided to get rid of our 2012 MINI Countryman and put our pennies into something a little, umm, Older, 24 years older in fact, and going back to a brand that i really loved, so we welcome a 1990 Rover 827Si, fastback.

A long and tiring journey was planned to go from Cambridge to Southern Scotland, we planned on doing the entire journey in one day, and possibly we may well have been able to, but the weather was atrocious, it was heavy rain for the majority of the journey, it only stopped about 40 miles from our destination.

However, leading up to the journey i had a number of emails, texts and calls to the owner confirming various things, just to ensure we were not wasting our time, on a very long and tiring journey, and as we were chatting an agreement was made to include a number of spares, a genuine boot liner and some gearbox oil, ready for when we do a change.

So with all this in mind, we arranged to meet our seller at 2:30, on Saturday, this was then pushed back and hour, and then another chunk of time and yet another, as the weather got worse, and traffic was built up  en route, but we did eventually arrive at 5:30 and spent a while going over the car, there were a number of issues that we were not aware of, and, to be honest we should have been told about, like large dents and damage, which was causing surface rust.

the rust item, I was told was NOT through to the body work, where is quite clearly is, and upon looking, at the car, there were other dinks and dents that we were not told of, but once we had a drive, and Andy, my partner, had checked over the cars, underneath and engine, we spend a short while alone looking at some paperwork and chatting about the car.

The seller blamed the damage on the previous owner, but as you can clearly see above here, from the pictures that HE took on delivery of the car when he purchased it, there was NO damage to the rear quarter or bumper, whereas when I took delivery there was significant damage, so it looks like the damage was not caused by his previous owner at all.

Anyway, after some chatting we decided that we would get the car, as Andy can do a number of the jobs, making it not so costly, and a deal was struck, the pennies changed hands and off we went, to fill the car with petrol, something i have not done for a long while, as my previous three cars were diesel, we had already booked a stay a Premier Inn in Carlisle, as there was no way i would be able to drive back at that late hour in the dark.

We had a nice restful evening and set off early the next day for our journey home, we had agreed to keep at about 60mph, and stop every hour and half, or 100 miles, just so I could have a stretch and the car could have a rest, but I needn't of worried, the car performed faultlessly, and for the first time in years, i have been able to drive a car without being in enormous pain, i was overjoyed at that.

The car was amazing, i was aware that the mpg was not too good on the Rover, but then it is a 2.7 litre V6 auto, i was hoping to get about 27mpg, but once i filled up on arrival at home, and then worked it out, i was thrilled to get 36mpg, but the proof of how poor it will be is the around town figures which will be interesting.

On the Sunday afternoon, we had a poke about the spares, and what a load of old crap there was in there, 75% of it was not relevant to the car, some items were un-salvageable, others we had no idea whether they worked or not, so had to go, just to be on the safe side, the replacement seat belt on the passenger side rear, had a full set of the same wrong coloured belts in the boot, so off they went too.

And there was NO boot liner, which i was not too happy about, so i messaged the seller and mentioned it, only to be greeted with "oh i forgot to put it in".

following on from the journey, i was aware that the wheels needed to be balanced as there was a wobble when the car got up to 70mph, so on Tuesday the car went into Kwik-Fit for a balance, and £13.99 later it came away and seemed to be OK. 

During the rest of the week i spent time looking through the paperwork, and what a load of rubbish there was there, nothing to really be of interest, old receipts for batteries, and other spares, but nothing that is of importance, like full MOT history, or service history, yes the service book was filled in, until it was full, but then after that, it was very patchy, but i have sorted out what was there and placed it in a book.

A number of texts and emails sent to the seller about the boot liner have been ignored, until i asked for the dimension of it so i can arrange to have it collected, he did messag me back to say he would send them the next day, I have yet to receive them, so it looks like a county court judgement against him will have to be made.

So, what needs to be done, well a few bits.

• Get dents sorted
• Get paintwork done-Bumpers and NSR Quarter and rear door
• Get dash woodwork trim replaced or repaired
• Replace bulbs for hazard light switch and air circulation switch
• Locate and replace passengerside rear seatbelt EVL10026 (ARG Code)
• Either repair or replace wheel trims
• Get radio code

I have had the car into a local repairer with a good reputation for a quote on the repairs, so hopefully that will arrive soon, the bulbs should be a simple fix, and the dash trim might be able to be repaired, we will try, locating a seatbelt is nigh on impossible, i have checked online every day to see if one appears on eBay, but with no luck yet, the wheel trims are not damaged, they have just delaminated, so maybe we can sort that out ourselves too !

So Really there is not much to do, 

 The car is in a very good order, for a Rover of that era, and one that must be saved, a check on the "how many left" website, show that there are only 9 1990 827 Si models left on the road, 11 SORN, how many of them are fastbacks, i dont know, but i know of one saloon, this rare beast deserves to be saved, for the future, the car is in awseome condition, drives like a new car, the engine is sweet, as is the gearbox, and where ever we have been people have commented on it.

I just hope that the issues with the seller will resolve it's self soon, and then i can get on with getting her back into good order, we have our first classic car show coming up at Knebworth, so we are looking forward to that, and if anyone can help me with ANY bits and pieces please let me know.