For the last few weeks, I've been the owner of this fine machine (sniggers)....
It's a 1997 pre-Facelift 2.5 TD CDX Auto Estate in metallic black. It's a bit battered and scratched, rust patches on the doors, but surprisingly solid around the rear arches and sills. Nice clean interior too, just a few plastic bits that have become detached and held on with tape! I picked it up off a local Facebook group for £250 with MOT till January. It was advertised as having warped rear discs and a missing back box. There's a few other faults too, but nothing that stops the car being used. It's on 163k at the moment, I have paperwork and receipts up to 140k, so it has been looked after until the last few years.
So far, I've replaced the rear discs with a cheap set bought new off Ebay. The old ones were VERY warped! Now the braking is vibration free. I've also managed to get the remote central locking fob working again, just needed a new battery and re-syncing to the car.
I've only done a couple of hundred miles in the car so far, but nothing dramatic has happened so far. Faults found so far as follows:
Cruise control not working
Air-con not working (or at the very least needs regassing).
Radio doesn't communicate with the dash display (wiring behind it is a mess!)
Engine oil dipstick isn't properly attached.
Engine and gearbox oil & filters need replacing.
Engine undertray missing.
I'll be ordering the necessary parts to replace the missing back box and doing the engine and gearbox fluids in the next few weeks. I'm not to worried anout the cosmetic body issues as it's a daily hack, not a show car. If the car behaves itself, I may try and get the cruise and air-con working, as I don't like to have switches that I can't use.