How many are still nice and what are my chances.... ?

[ColinE]

Get your questionnaire into Tim and go green - whole new world will open up, then take a look in the club shop and let me know if you want anything

[Oddcat]

I went to MGF15 and saw quite a few 260's there.

I love them but it does seem that there are lots of variations of spec, spoiler, sill extensions, interior trim changes, exhausts, wheels, mileages etc. This all helped me to clarify, in my own head, my ideal car and, realistically, I don't think what I want exists.

My ideal car is a cherished non-SE Mark 2 with the 11 spoke alloys (in plain standard silver finish - they look great) in simple grey, blue, red or black (or anthracite or any other dark colour) with single lip spoiler half leather / half cloth, circa 30k miles with quality history and pretty much unmarked wheels / paint. With the basic upgrades done (heater hose, heater valve, fuel clip etc) and no obvious faults or leaks.

No body additions, no dash trim changes and, preferably, standard exhausts. Essentially, pretty much as it came out of the factory.

I know it's boring but I can't help it !

There was the red one recently on Pistonheads (BX55 UZX) that looks like it would have fitted the bill a treat and, aside from the upgrades was pretty much on spec, but my timing was hopeless and it was sold before I saw it.

So I guess it's not going to happen for me but thanks to all who contributed here in response to my original question and especially to Peter who showed me his lovely car yesterday and which, although not right for me, will surely find a new home very quickly.

OC

[AndyG]

I went to MGF15 and saw quite a few 260's there.

I love them but it does seem that there are lots of variations of spec, spoiler, sill extensions, interior trim changes, exhausts, wheels, OC

There are no two cars the same.

That is the excitement.

You buy a car and modify it to your personality.

Like a house, buy it and make it yours.

[Oddcat]

....well I do accept that it (my preference) is at the boring end of the spectrum.

Was trying to think if I'd ever had a car that was "enhanced" and the answer is....not really ! As a brief selection, in 1998 I had a mint totally original '85 Audi Quattro Turbo then a really lovely standard original K plate TVR Chimaera 4.0 and various cars after that including an MG ZS 180, a Nissan 200SX, a Fiat Stilo Abarth 5 cylinder (for the quattro soundtrack), Mondeo ST220 etc and all were completely stock and unmodified.

Must be my thing. Maybe all this means I'm just dull. I do agree that this means I might be looking for a needle in a haystack hence my acceptance of the unlikliness of finding what I'm looking for.

Would be interesting to see if many folks on here have completely original cars. Maybe 1 in 10 ?

OC

[SH4RKY]

Why non SE?

Oh and even non SEs are often a little SE. e.g, mine had a sunroof and apex alloys.

But yeah, i doubt you will find the car you are after. Not to belittle others or whatever, but often the cherished ones with full service history etc are nearly always tweaked by the owners to take them above and beyond what they were. Even if its a subtle upgrade like going from the rusty standard exhausts to proper stainless zeroes etc...

As for the whole unmarked wheels thing? I think thats really irrelevant. There are tons of places that will do a full refurb for 50 quid a wheel. And the fact is, if the wheels havent been refurbed then i doubt they will be factory fresh after 6 years of road grime and brakedust, even if they have been regularly cleaned. Apexes are famous for the finish coming off due to washing the damn things! haha

So yeah, i doubt you will find the car you are searching for... Well, unless someone down specs their car, sells off the bits and refurbs the wheels...

[AndyG]

Non Sum Qualis Eram

[Oddcat]

Hi Sharky

Non SE pref was because most of the things that come with that I don't need (sat nav, heated seats etc) and less to go wrong. And I really like the seats with the cloth centres (or alcantara). And I honestly prefer the 11 spokes. The Apex wheels are great but not keen on the smoked finsh that most have so thought non SE with pure silver 11 spokes would be absolutely fine and maybe slightly cheaper (given the £5k list price difference for what that is worth this far down the line - probably not a lot in reality).

Am absolutely fine with sunroof too that would be good (factory fitted of course !). And with nice burbly after market exhausts. So long as the car looks "stock".

There was a 'flip flap' paint (or whatever it's called sort of blue / green / purple) one at Gayden y'day with Apex wheels painted standard bright silver and they looked fab so no problem there.

I take your point re alloys being refurbishable but better to buy one where are mint from new or where the owner has already sorted (good sign of a well loved car either way)

Andy - I couldn't agree more !

PS None of this is about price. Am more than happy to pay good money for the right car. Would be happy to pay up to £8k for a really nice 2005 non SE for example so not looking for a ridiculous bargain as such (given that such things seem to ask £6,995 privately and then maybe sell for £6,500). Would expect an SE to be at least £1k more than that. And that is private with no dealer margin......

[Merl]

good luck in the search, don't give in though or buy one that's not quite right as you will kick yourself as you will bet as soon you do the one you want will come up...

Quite a few SE models had half leather seats like mine and well still need to refurbed my wheels as the original coating was so poor but been spending my money on making sure non cosmetic
stuff is put right and on upgrade projects. Seen plenty of cars where the wheels have been done to draw attention away from some major faults.

Thing with these cars is seats, wheels etc can all be changed, plenty of 190 that had half leather and the same for the wheels too so you can always make it the car you want if one comes very close as not sure if there are many with 11 spoke but they are nice wheels. Depends on the car and how much want to do...

[colintf]

just keep looking.

It's a waiting game, meanwhile, you may change your mind during the wait

:coo:

[SH4RKY]

I agree with the seats, i have the half leather (its actually vinyl i think) and cloth and really quite like them. They wear very very well (no bobbles/ creases etc).


Oh... one thing i noticed while playing around with insurance quotes this year... i found a site that gives you the insurance group of cars. Interestingly the Non SE was coming up as a 19 and the SE was a 20...? Not sure if this was just incorrect data on the website as i hadnt heard of it before, but I guess it may have been using data from the insurance data base too so it might be correct??