Jas

Hi there If it's been sitting for a while get it sparked up and see if it holds its level. It will probably be fine. Pumps are much more common than legs, I've got one to do this weekend on a xj6. Be careful of values; A very nice 4.2 will pull in decent money on low mileage, but other engines aren't nearly as valuable. Getting one forecourt ready might be a nightmare. Making sure EVERYTHING works on these was hard enough ten years ago, let alone know Ultimately you're going to end up putting in more time, money and effort than turning a hatchback, I know I should stop messing with them, but I love Jaguars.

I know of a high mileage money pit that was traded into wbac and punted on via BCA this week. Knowing the cars issues it would be a good acid test to see what how much weight the BCA inspections are and what they would pick up on it, umm yeah, no faults listed it was a grade 1 with 220k miles plus and a clean mechanical report, but of course "AS SEEN" was added to the listing. They didn't even have pictures of it at the auction house, just the wbac pictures, meaning I'm 95% sure they couldn't get it running for pictures. And someone went well above cap clean on it lt... While I've had some beginners luck with UKCGR cars, I won't be touching another after that.

Yeah, had a customer with a non start old n reg 220 Merc that went from running great to not starting after a tank of E10. Was flooded to bugger and back, and even with the bores clear it isn't easy to get going, and would cut out under gearbox load. Popped in some super fuel and it was as good as gold. Heard the same story on a 420sec Merc I suspect the initial batches of this E10 stuff is piss weak and not agreeing with classic engines.

Thank you for the advice guys. At least we are doing the right thing by going by our guts, but the prices on almost everything that we have taken a good while to research the market, vehicle and track as potential stock seems to sail into "Yeah, good luck with that" pricing due to the warped market, but I'm fully aware that I'm preaching to the choir on that front and that we might just need to put on big boy pants and go a little bit stronger to secure the cars we want, as opposed to waiting for a good deal as we've had a degree of beginners luck on that front. I'm a statistics junky so having "verified" valuations and market data as per the autotrader package appealed at lot, but I'll stick to compiling my own data for the meantime Thanks again :-)

Hey all, I hope you are well. I was just wondering if there were any recommendations for valuation and possible analytics tools, or am I best sticking to cap prices and doing the legwork and researching each and every car myself? I really liked the autotrader dealer portal when it was demonstrated to me, however the £873+VAT per month for 10 slots means it's something I'll have to consider later down the line. Thanks!

As embarrassing as it is to be a tech that did a fair few of those recalls in the past, you might be right about only the clock spring being replaced - Its been a while and we did also do a lot of those steering column modules as well that came as one unit. If its just the clockspring that has been replaced now it will be the module itself up the duff I'd bet. Might not be down to the recall then, but I again, at least offer to diagnose it for the customer (at least, imho)

Hey IIRC for this recall they were replacing the entire steering column control module that comes with the clockspring affected. I've seen the steering wheel buttons, horn and sometimes times the indicators and other stalks fail because of a duff module, a replacement steering column module, a code and off it goes. Can you get them to confirm they replaced the steering column as a whole unit? I'd be in awe if one has failed that quickly, but as per what halfpenny says, I do doubt the squib diagnosis, and ideally you're going to want to find someone with a star/xentry not a generic code reader. If the is still serviced at Mercedes or is it still within the 1 year of purchase roadside assistance will be able to xentry scan it for you. My money is on something being damaged or not fitted correctly during the recall unfortunately

Did you ever figure out a solution? You will want to get someone with a proper xentry diagnostic machine to relearn and adapt the clutches. How many miles? While they do self adjust I've seen some really terrifying gearbox complaints being sorted out permanently with a relearn. This is of course assuming that transmission oil and filter isn't overdue.