So last night I went North to collect my impulse eBay purchase. The ad was brief. The car was described as a 2003 late Elite with Bose and all the toys. Last owner for 11 years, who was an old boy, who very sadly passed away a week ago, and the family wanted the car gone asap.
The car was being sold by "MW Performance" in Cheshire. This company started as a GM specialist garage, and then moved to performance stuff, still largely specialising in Vauxhalls.
The ad for this car stated that it was sold as spares/repairs with possible faults, on the basis they haven't checked the car over properly in their workshop.
I very, very nearly walked after exchanging some messages with the garage, didn't go through with the deal, because, my interpretation of them was such that the car had something wrong with it. For example I sent a message similar to "I know you can't offer any warranty and it's sold as seen, but can you just confirm if it starts and drives without any major faults, such as inability to change gears or serious engine knocks". The response to this was simply "you might be better off looking for something more local to you", which again just didn't fill me with any confidence.
I made the decision regardless, that, for £595, I wouldn't lose even if I were to break it. And I needed something to keep me mobile. So in light of there being not much else around, apart from a 3.0 Manual on ebay (which I suspect will be a rustbucket with dodgey brakes) I went for it.
The garage said on the phone there was a lot of interest (which I believed) and that the first person to pay secured it. For this reason I didn't wait a day, to potentially travel and find it had gone, so I paid in full over the phone.
Upon arrival at their very modern and presentable workshop my fears were soon put to rest. The Omega was outside, and whilst not valeted (I wouldn't expect this) it was clean inside and out and looked presentable. The owners of the garage Marc and Louise were extremely friendly and basically told me they had maintained this car for the last ten years. From what I could gather the ad was written as spares and repairs purely because the car is not in the same league as the modern cars they sell worth tens of thousands.
I needn't have worried, because they were clearly being very honest and just trying not to raise buyers expectations to not expect dealer service and warranties on an old motor.
The drive home was excellent. The 2.6 V6 has absolutely bags of power, possibly the swiftest and smoothest of the baby V6 range I've driven. It's recently had Eibach springs fitted all round, which makes it sit lower than I would ideally like at the front, but it handles much better than you would expect any second hand cheap Omega to - with brand new tyres on the front, and good ones on the back. Brakes pull up well, discs look perfectly serviceable and there is plenty of meat on the pads.
Couple of faults I noted on the way home
- Thermostat is goosed. Stuck open. The car is "overcooling". At 5 deg external temperature, the needle sits just below the 80, and, at 2deg external temp, at motorway speeds, it only just lifts off the bottom. When this happens the heat in the cabin reduces too.
- Warning on the screen for a bulb out. They seem OK, so might just be a false alarm.
- Sticky drivers door lock
Cosmetically the car is very good. As per the pics, there is some surface rust just starting on the rear arches, but they are by no means badly gone, and all of the metal is still solid, so this will be able to be nipped in the bud easily enough once the weather warms up.
Mechanically it's all fine as far as I can tell. All fault lights come on with the ignition and go off upon engine being started. There's no EML lit, not even the precat code issue.
Apologies for the quality of these pics. They are after 200 miles of salty road grime and drizzle, and it was also just starting to snow and poor light, so they don't do the car any justice at all, but will give you a general idea:
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Topic: My Unseen eBay Elite (Read 11085 times)