[iceman50005]

Is it getting a very high mileage Alfa GT jtd ?
The mileage is 198k for a £1000 but it was maintained well and full service history

 

[dgmayhead]

Definitely worth it. Rust is the only killer. Mechanicals can keep going when cared for. Trim gets a bit tatty. You could either spend nothing on it and hope for 1 years cheap motoring and drive it to the scrappy or I'd budget £2000 maintenance for every year to keep it tip top. If you think that's worth it then another 100,000miles should be ok.

 

[iceman50005]

Cool thanks, one more thing, would it be alright to remap it then ?

 

[_The_Editor_]

Cool thanks, one more thing, would it be alright to remap it then ?

There's absolutely no way of knowing how well it would take a map...

198k isn't a reason on it's own to avoid buying it, but going ahead with remaps etc. without a thorough health check would be unwise.. Turbo could be on it's last legs.....

 

[Shawnobi]

Over at the Fiat forum (which I used to frequent) a tech stated that the designed service life for the JTD engines was originally 300k. So no worries at all providing it's been looked after. I generally find that most things needing replacing have been done by about 80k. I generally don't buy a motor with less than 100k and my cars usually sail through MOT's. So by 200k all those things have probably been replaced again so you'll be fine :thumbup:

 

[115686]

It's true that body condition is more important than mechanicals, but a £1000 car will always be capable of throwing you surprising bills, especially if you can't spanner it yourself.

Aside from the usual suspension fun:

1) is there a clutch somewhere in the history? Does it bite properly, or does it only engage at the top of travel?

2) Does the turbo whistle? If yes, then it is probably dying.

Other than that, assuming it drives well and you have the budget to fix what will inevitably go wrong, go for it. Don't map it unless you are prepared to put a new engine in. It may be tired, but able to do another 30K with no problems. If you turn up the boost,bit will probably break...

 

[imski]

a £1000 car will always be capable of throwing you surprising bills, especially if you can't spanner it yourself.

An old cheap car and low budget to try to keep it going can teach you some decent life skills though.
The trouble is that this is usually not paired with having access to alternative means of making it to work etc...