Right guys I'm back, and want your opinions.
Went the look at the car and its very nice and kept in a very nice home (always a good sign). It belonged to the owners daughter who has since had babies blah blah and its too small, he doesn't use it enough to justify keeping it hence the sale.
It's very clean, the mileage is genuine having had its last service 3000mls ago (all stamped, not just written). It has 3 good pirelli tyres and the 4th is a Goodyear, bizarrely the spare is a Pirelli so I'd probably swap those over at a tyre centre. It hasnt had a timing belt but I'd do that as a matter of course on any car I bought anyway tbh.
Boot is immaculate, interior is very clean, engine bay is nice and dry and clean as is the coolant and oil. It starts and ran fine (throttle was a bit sticky initially). Brakes look farily new with Ferodo pads and pull up squarely. It has 11mths MOT and had some advisories on some corrosion on brake pipes and sills. I had a dig around and it looks underneath like any 15 year old Ford....slightly flaky but not "Crusty" in my opinion.
Bodywork apart from the usual is good with no scuffs or dents, and the usual isnt that bad yet either. This struck me as a 'looked after' car.
Onto the bad/unexpected bits:
I was told models with the 6000 CD player were higher spec but this car didn't have air con nor an electric seat height adjuster. I'm not bothered about either really though I did have the usual complaint of it feels like your sitting too high, but I didn't play around with the seat much to be fair. Is that a bad thing not having air con?
It had the T bar key and the main remote key, but the buttons didn't work..this could be a flat battery.
The clutch had a high bite point but I did the usual tests and it seemed ok. My Mondeo has had a high bite point the last 2 years I've had it...again should I be concerned?
The final thing is the only thing that stopped my putting a deposit on it there and then: It ran hot. I was driving it for about 4 miles and it ran fine, when I stopped concentrating on the road (heavy shower) I noticed the temp gauge was almost into the red. The guy on the drive with me (a friend of the owner) said not to worry as he had seen other Fords read high(!) so I kept driving...now it didn't SMELL hot and burny and drove fine, it did stall when I stopped at a set of lights once but only once and whenever I stopped the gauge dropped to 1/2 almost instantly (within 10 secs). Once you got moving again it rapidly rose.
I got back to the house and popped the bonnet, the engine was hot but didnt sound or smell as hot as the gauge was indicating (I've experienced a few overheaters). I explained to the owner about it and as he hadn't really driven it much or far he seemed surprised and said he'd get someone to look at it tomorrow. I told him its most likely a blocked rad which could be flushed or more likely repaired.
I said I'd get back to him tomorrow after a think (and chatting to you guys
). He's open to reasonable offers and a new rad is about £40 plus fitting and being honest I'd be happy to pay £800 for the car but I'd rather him get that issue sorted before I drive it 45 mins home rather than knocking £100 off the price to do it myself and risk cooking it on the drive home.
What do you guys think? Thanks in advance.