Today I went to a dealer to view a 20vt. It was at a dealer on a forecourt fairly local to me.
The screen price is £2150 (odd price)
I had good look round the bodywork first, the ink Black paint looking well from a distance. But on closer inspection the bonnet had been painted poorly previously.

Lacquer peel on the o/s rear quarter and around the lamps.

Rear arches have just started to go and will need sorting soon

The off side headlamp has some condensation.

The drivers door pillar moulding has been badly repainted.

Various scratches and little dents as to be expected from a 98 plate car.

The sills were very good. No sign of any surface corrosion. I couldn't get to see the inside the front inner arches.
All wheels will require refurb.
All tyres budget jobbies but good tread and directional. All same brand.

Non sunroof model and moving to the interior it seemed to be in good fayre.
Red key present.
Hand brake noticeably high but held okay.
Pedals not overly worn
Steering wheel in good condition as is gear Knob. However the stick doesn't spring back to neutral without help.
Centre console a little sticky.
Leather seats. Drivers very noisy internally.
Carpet good. Dry in the boot and inside rear quarters looked good.

Ignition on and no sign of airbag light?
Code light on then off on start. Engine was done cold.
Oil pressure rose to 3 bar
Still no airbag light?

Engine bay.
On start up slight tick from cracked manifold. Also when revs lifted a smell of exhaust and you can feel the hot gas.

Coolant level okay and the right colour.
Hoses all look good.
Dump valve fitted. Recirc type.
K&n panel filter fitted.
Cat back stainless steel exhaust.
Oil cooler and pipes look good.

Clutch light but high. Will need replacing soon.
Gearbox good no wines or other worries there.
Little bit of white smoke when cold. Probably just condensation.
Took a while to warm up. At 90 degree's oil pressure to 2.5 bar.

Supposedly hybrid turbo though unable to verify. But it's in the Paperwork.
Fsh bar last two in the book but receipts for cambelt and aux belts last year.

Road test.

Engine smooth and pulls cleanly, sounds gorgeous as it should. Reasonably swift but a little sloppy in the handling. Worn dampers and cheap tyres not helping.
Pulls to the left.

Brakes awful suspect sticky front caliper near side. Poor quality pads.
Turbo quite noisy but zero smoke on or off boost.
Impressed overall but needs a lot of work to get it right.

In short
Needs complete respray with arches sorting
Both handbrake cables.
Clutch replacement
Manifold sorting
Brakes overhauling
Dampers replacing

The guy will drop it to £1900 its got a long mot and coulple of months tax.

I've another to look at Sunday and potentially another on Tuesday.

Opinions please.

Hand brake is always very high, even with new cables. It's a "feature".

Same with clutch pedal, always bites high even on new clutch, another "feature".

Sticky centre console also very common, nearly all have gone like that if they haven't been refurb'd already.

Airbag light should be coming on with ignition and then going out, so something wrong there. Probably removed or
disconnected to disguise an error.

Overall sounds similar to the initial state of my current coupe and I only paid £700 for it, check this old thread for details :

http://www.fiatcoupeclub.org/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=125100&Number=1454829

for around £2K I think you could do better.

IMHO seems a lot to pay for the condition you describe?
Better ones come up on here for much less money? Inky black quite a rare colour though?

Seat noise probably the rear passenger pillar grab handle rubbing against the driver's head rest???

The major items depend on if DIY or if paying local garage/specialist?
Full respray etc say £1500?
Clutch approx. £500 fitted?
Dampers £100-150 each end?
New discs and pads - say £200-250 fitted.
Manifold?
Handbrake cables - £100?

That's roughly £2500 without doing anything else?
Suggest you offer £1000 max £1200.
A car which did not have this ones issues, I think would probably only fetch £1500 - 2000 tops?

As Graham has said, you could get a lot better for 2K, so definitely worth hanging on until you've viewed the others.

Thanks for the advice guys, the clutch is definitely not got long left on it. I coukd get it to slip on boost.
I'd be doing any work myself bar the paint.
I'll be looking at all of them before I think about buying.

Is the reg no. S731 EDL by any chance?

If it is and you're thinking of buying then please PM me first.

There are things you need to know about the car.

Hmm PM'd

overpriced

also budget tyres are a sure way to tell the car has not been maintained properly, scrimping on a few quid on the only thing that has contact with the road...

i'd run a mile from it!

Sounds like a bit of a pup. Loads of potential pit falls. Hybrid turbo; which one? Has the car been mapped?

You'd have to assume it needed everything. Even doing clutch and belts yourself will cost £300+. Might not be a bad car, not 2k worth though.

Plenty more fish in the sea as they say. It seems to be a buyers market at the minute.

It is certainly a buyers market. But that's slowly changing. There was a time, last couple of years or so, where it appeared to me that you couldn't give these cars away. But as you're finding, genuinely good cars are few and far.

If I was to offer you my tuppence worth I'd say buy a lemon. You seem to know your way around the car. As long as the engine is right and the body is rot free then the other jobs are insignificant.

Thats interesting - Close to my cars original reg. before I put a private plate on..... Original selling dealer in Winchester?

It is S731 EDL. Please shed some more light on this. I'm intrigued.
Not sure where it was from.

Coupe number two looked at. Lots of things to consider!

Steve for my two-penneth I'd always go for a car off here or from a Coupe-related services garage that are highlighted on the forum.

It's my old car. I'll fire you a PM shortly.

Currently a lovely inky on eBay, £2200, and its a newly listed one.

Definitely one of the best from what I can see.

I have a inky vt6 on a w reg that I'm looking to sell, drop me a pm if you're j retested, it's not mint though

That one in Royston looks well. Hopefully all of my Nissan stock will be collected tomorrow.

All I know is that the 'DL' on the plate means it was registered somewhere in Bournemouth.

Second Coupe on the bay from Royston in a week. Unusual for a small town!

A lot of photographs of the n/s but only one of the o/s and that's the rear quarter.

The search is over.............:)

Something tells me you know more about this Mr Patch

???

I've taken on board everyone's tuppence worth.
A deal has been struck....
It fits in with my criteria in that the bodywork is excellent, and red.
And it's got the potential to be a brilliant project.
It's been a regular at motormech and has a very comprehensive history.
I did a quick go compare which came out at £283 a year fully comp so I'm happy with that.