nurse_liz is being nice enough to buy my perfectly-good-but-dull Mazda 323. Consequently, I went car shopping today :D
It's soon enough after my last shopping trip that I remembered the respectable places, the dodgy ones, and the places that lied to me (Raymoor Cars in Heaton Chapel - they told me to T-Cut a red car to stop it fading, and that an automatic would be more fuel-efficient than a manual...). Unfortunately, I'm still a girl and so went for the bigger dealerships on the grounds that being slightly overcharged is less upsetting than being treated like a dumb animal - even after being seen doing the vet test*.
Anyway. What used to be Reg Vardy and is now Evans Halshaw internetted around their other dealerships and found a
Toyota Celica for £6,500. Granted it's
enormously red, but it doesn't appear to have faded *at all*. It's due a cam belt change, but I'm angling for them to do that before I buy it (with the argument that if they do that, I won't haggle). I'm not holding my breath, but they're also hoping to get a 12 month warranty & 6 year UV blocking paint protector out of me, so I'm perfectly happy to look interested until they've agreed to what I *really* want...
The local Mazda dealership did have a 2001 MX5 - in black - but it didn't have a hard top. If I was after a 2 seater, I'd look at Alfas or the MR2 anyway - MX5s do tend to attract the Pointless Piece of Fluff type.
So they're getting it delivered from where it currently is in the north east, and I'm going to look at it on Tuesday! Whee!
====
*Sticking my hand up the exhaust pipe to see whether it's oily (bad) or just sooty (good).