Mine are more or less in the state your where in. The rears i would say would not need a rebuild because mine have hardly any rust on them.
I must say that wishbone surface rust is not something to worry too much on. They can clean well if not satisfied replaced. Dont loose too much sleep over this.
mark’s friends on one side : rust is great !
The others on the other side : what a shame !
So funny…Frank - I’m no friend of Mark; but clearly aren’t going to be your best friend either.
You have not said whether the car was viewed by anyone before the sale or was bought “blind”?
It’s hardly like Mark has deliberately hidden something or done something underhand. You seem to imply that he had some duty to point out the condition of suspension but from the range of posts it would appear that this could be viewed as “normal” by some; whilst to others maybe not.
Either way I think you have been unfair to the seller. Why did you not post the pictures under a tag line “Look what my plonker mate has just bought?”
I don’t know Mark either, just saying it like I see it.
Well I know Mark & he is a good friend before I start.
I have had far better & far worst rust on a similar age car, Mark (as he says) isn’t a mechanic & doesn’t know the first thing about working on a car so to blame him for rusty wishbones I think is very unfair.
If there was a problem with them being in that state then I guess all the companies that serviced it should have said something. I can’t comment on the interior but as for suspension & wishbones why would they need a refresh unless they were failing? If you take a car for a service (even a comprehensive one)no one will EVER say “oh btw your wisbones could do with a spot of paint!” Indeed any company that even changed the ball joints and/or bushes would not bother painting them.
Mark in no way would ever sell a car to someone & kowingly misrepresent it - aside from anything else he doesn’t need the mnoney!!lol
I think it has been blown out of all proportion & if the guy who purchased it was genuinely upset at the condition then why not contact Mark & try to sort something out.
Its extrememly unfair to make accusations about a guy when he has had no chance to even try to rectify a situation that he wouldn’t (as a non mechanical person)have known existed.
I sold an S160 (to a friend who I am still very good friends with) which was a 2000 W with only 22k & wishbones every bit as rusty as those, I did point them out but then I am a mechanic & do actually go under the car from time to time.
As said if the purchaser had mentioned any problem to Mark then he would have done something about it including a refund.
If the asthetic condition was important to the buyer then either a question or a photo request would have been prudent.
And no I haven’t spoken to Mark about this & haven’t seen him for a while & the first I knew of it being sold was this post at the start
Junks
Junks
I also know that Mark is not a gangster, and that he does not need any money
I can believe that those who serviced his car did never tell him about the real car condition…
But it’s still incredible that a “specialist” did not say anything…must change the “specialist” !
Never mind…Stephane loves his car and will give it all the attention it needs
I’ve always thought that the real issue here is the statement that the car has been maintained regardless of cost.
Perhaps it would have been more accurate to say the car was specialist/dealer maintained with all reported wear fixed as required(or words to that effect).
‘maintained regardless of cost’ is another matter entirely, suggesting (IMHO) far more than a servicable condition than the underpinnings may well be.
Just to drag this on what do the collective consider the definition of maintenance is, as this has a huge bearing on the statement? I think in many circles maintenance would be defined as keeping something in a “worthy” condition, hence “maintained regardless of cost” may be seen as spending whatever is necesary to ensure the car is roadworthy, I don’t think anybody is suggesting the car is not roadworthy?
All that said my guess is that Stephane has a much bigger on his face for buying the Exige than Mark has for selling…
I would consider my Exige, and the three VXs that preceded it, were maintained regardless of cost. In other words everything that was required in order to keep the car(s) in 100% safe condition for use on both road and track was carried out. I don’t have the facilities at home to inspect the underpinnings of my cars and so I have to rely on what the specialists tell me. Would anyone such as Plans, Back on Track etc advise that wishbones which were 100% safe and structurally sound required attention just because they looked a bit naff? Probably not I think. At least, no one has ever said that to me in over 7 years of owning little plastic cars.
I think the misunderstanding here related to it being a featured car which certainly lead me (when I first viewed the ad) to think concours rather than the more likely well maintained car.
Edited to add: If “maintained regardless of cost” meant doing absolutely everything including cosmetics, then we’d all be getting the front clam re-sprayed at every service to get rid of the stone chips
We all know that one persons definition of “it’s mint mate” is diferent to the next persons.
In this case the guy that bought the cars version of “mint” meant that he had to be able to eat his dinner off the wishbones and quite clearly the sellers version of “mint” meant that you can’t without risk of catching something.
At the end of the day, if you buy a car without even looking at it, then in my opinion you waive the right to whine about it afterwards.
nice write up
nice write up
Yes I’d buy that car without a second thought … Oh hang on … er …
Just to drag this on what do the collective consider the definition of maintenance is, as this has a huge bearing on the statement?
I run my Exige along side an 11 year old Landrover Discovery. The Disco is very definitely on a different maintenance regime than the Exige. The Disco is fix on failure, i.e., running pads down to the backing plates and letting rust go its way until a part falls off.
The Exige is maintained irrespective of cost - if the servicing guy says theres a rumbling wheel bearing then it gets changed out. Many other parts are swapped out well before they are life expired, although this usually is in the persuit of an “upgrade” as the car is as much a hobby as a means of transport.
I would imagine that most regular memebers of this site fall into the same category when it comes to looking afer their Exige. They probably spent more money than is absolutely necessary. They may even have a pertner that reminds them of this on a regular basis
I also realise that I have ruined any chance of selling my Disco to anyone on this site
I agree it just looks like surface rust to me aswell. I have seen a lot of wishbones in a lot worse state than that.
Sometimes when I get my car home from a race weekend, if it has been raining on the journey and it goes into the garage wet, it can still be wet a week later. Sometimes cars that sit outside and have a constant breeze round them dry out much quicker.
I recently reconned my wishbones and they weren’t far off what those in the picture look like and my car has done a total of about 15,000 miles and has never ever spent a night outside and IS maintained regardless of cost.
As Dave has said, Lotus don’t rust protect anything, and the wishbones are always the first to cop it. I bet there are a lot of S1 Exige wishbones on here that look like that on original cars.
An hour in a sand blaster cabinet and a tin of paint and they would look better than new!!
Sean…
Hi Sean
Here’s a pic of yours from 2005 (love the AndyD patented dampers )
[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/SeanBicknell/frontwiring.jpg[/image]
Well thats exactly the point isnt it.
You dont take your shopping trolly for service and ask them to check suspension parts for rust do you ? … you just expect it to be roadworthy.
Equally if your just getting your Exige serviced at a dealer I doubt they would offer a wishbone polish service … if they did it would be 80-100 quid an hour, which means a refurb would be upwards of 2 grand minimum I guess.
No, simply there are Exiges that are worth far more than market price as they have really been maintained “regardless of cost” … however they rarely come on the market, and if they did it would take an equally like minded owner to pay the right price.
No this one was very well marketed and someone bought it based on that … happens all the time in the automotive world … “caveat emperor”
Maintained regardless of cost implies that the car has wanted for nothing !! anything however minor has been attended to whatever the expense.
The reality is far from that.
The magic word in your last post though Chris is “implies” it’s not an exact science, especially with you!! lol
I run my Exige along side an 11 year old Landrover Discovery.
Does it keep up
The magic word in your last post though Chris is “implies” it’s not an exact science, especially with you!! lol
glol :-p
lol better keep my mouth shut !!
Maintained regardless of cost implies that the car has wanted for nothing !! anything however minor has been attended to whatever the expense.
The reality is far from that.
It is interesting that we all have such widely differing views; but I guess if we really think about it then that’s not a real surprise & goes some way to explaining why most peole would want to view a car for themselves, or even have an “expert” give it the once over before buying.
Where would concourse condition fit in most peoples scale, as i think a few have aligned what i think is that standard to this lower spec?
I run my Exige along side an 11 year old Landrover Discovery.
Does it keep up
Not without bits falling off…
![http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/SeanBicknell/frontwiring.jpg[/image]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/SeanBicknell/frontwiring.jpg%5B/image%5D){kind=link}