First Drive

I've been out and about this week, leaving me too busy to record the test drive I took last week. I was on a training course in Hampshire and I'd noticed that one of the cars towards the top of my list was near by, in Basingstoke.

I phoned the dealer to see if they were open late enough for me to shoot off (Yeah - through the rush-hour traffic. How do people put up with that every day?) and take the car for a spin. It seems that the premises in Basingstoke had closed, but the owner was still selling the 406 Coupé and running the business from home. This seems a little fishy as I write about it, but he had trade plates and promised all the relevant paperwork.

The car was a 2000(W) 2.0 SE in metallic red. 72,000 miles, black leather interior. A couple of small dings and scratches in the paintwork, but the alloys had scrubbed up nicely. Advertised at £4250, but the owner volunteered that he'd take £4000 pretty quickly when I hinted that it was out of my price bracket. We didn't discuss whether he'd take £3750 for it, which is about all I'd really want to pay. I suspect he may not, as he was complaining at having to pay £170 for a replacement switch unit for the driver's seat; I got the impression this was cutting his profit on the car by a fair bit, but then he'd want me to think that.

We went for a short spin, which is nothing short of miraculous given the state of the roads at 5:30pm on a Tuesday evening in market-town commuter-belt Hampshire. It wasn't really enough for me to get a good feel for the car, barely enough to get used to the clutch and steering, but I did find out that the leather is somehow a lot less slidy that I'd thought it might be, and that there's a decent driving position to be found in there somewhere. I thought this would be the case from my earlier visit to County Liquidations, but it's hard to tell without being out on the road.

One thing that did surprise me was that the engine seemed to be revving very high for a 2-litre. I expected it to be a few hundred rpm lower than my 1.6 Vauxhall, but if anything it was higher. By the time I had noticed this and checked that I wasn't still in 3rd we were in heavy traffic again, so I may have been mistaken. I'll have a proper look next time. I also checked that the rear seats can be accessed without too much trouble, which I'd neglected to check on a previous viewing.

So- will I buy this car? If the potential future boss #1 ever gets back to me to offer me the job, then I might. I was a little disappointed at the bodywork, but I have to accept that I am buying a seven-year-old car, after all. There's another 2.0 SE on my list that I'd like to have a look at, and it may come down to how much the two sellers are willing to budge on the price.