I have been looking for a new car for the last couple of months, trawling gumtree and autotrader etc. I had a 07/08 plate Golf GTI in mind and appropriate budget. I do tend to buy from the Auctions tho, in particular Central Car Auctions in Glasgow.
So I went along today (for the 3rd or 4th time) after spotting what is pretty much my affordable dream car, which is an 09 plate Scirrocco 2.0 TSi. After looking at it, listening to it, checking out the mod cons etc I decided to take a gamble, more so than usual as there was no service history but had a couple of months MOT left on it.
When it was announced the auctioneer stated that it was a V Class (I had no idea what this meant) and bidding started rather low. I joined in and got the car at £5500 only to find out that V Class means that it was written off by the insurance company after a crash but has been repaired separately and deemed roadworthy (hence the MOT). Checking up on it, I found it was written off after a year, so has been run for the last few years at least, so hopefully should be ok.
So now im feeling like an idiot because I let my desire for the car get ahead of the practicallity of thorough research and I might have a bit of a lemon on my hands.
The good side to this is that tomorrow I shall have it delivered to my mechanic and have him check it out. I have a chunk of cash left out of my budget to have any work done that may be needed. If its too much however, its going right back into the auctions and I'll have to take whatever hit I get on it.
So moral of the story, if its too good to be true, it probably is.
Lets hope I come back here in the next couple of days with a happy ending.