Advice on buying..

[mattpettitt]

Hi,

As per the subject, I'm interested in your experiences on how you purchased your first e-type. It's of course a significant cost and the advice I've had on the subject has been quite diverse, i.e.

"Don't buy from a garage as their primary interest is to shift it as fast as possible."
"Buy from a garage so you can at least get some peace of mind with a warranty"
"Buy from a long-term owner who's a member of a club.."
"You'd be crazy to buy a car 'sold as seen' from someone for that much cash"

So, how did you guys give yourself as much confidence as possible that what you're buying wasn't a lemon? To me, buying from an owner known in an owners club with a PPI sounds like the best bet, but that's assuming someone happenes to be selling what you're after!

Anyone have any dealer recommendations in the UK they absolutely trust or other thoughts to prevent me from over-thinking all this?

cheers,

Matt

[tim wood]

I’ve had 3 e types.
The first I bought from a garage and a distant relative, rotten as a pear !
The second ( older and wiser) bought privately and was ok structurally but needed engine work.
The third ( now much older and maybe wiser) I bought privately. Got one of those cheap throwaway work overalls from screwfix. Spent about 3 hours with the owner, looked at all the paperwork, crawled under it.
Made a comprehensive checklist before I went and ticked bits off during inspection. Still had faults but at least I knew what they were.

Not sure what that tells you.
The other option if you’re not “au fait” with these cars is to pay for a specialist to give a view. A recognised specialist not just any national firm.

[DWW]

Firstly establish what model you want and a budget for purchase and work that may need to be done.

Are you interested in a coup, 2+2 or convertible, series 1, 2 or 3. Colour & interior.

The best cars obviously would be early cars that have been recently restored by a reputable establishment and as original as possible. Those will be the most expensive.

Buying from auction can be risky. The best option would be from a long time owner who is a club member or is a member here.

You don’t want to buy a car that requires full restoration as that can prove to be very expensive. These car are very complicated in their construction as opposed to other classic sports cars.

I bought mine at the peak as a driver for a respectable amount, it was the model I wanted but discovered it needed a lot of work so decided on a full restoration. That took three years and much money. As it stands it owes me a lot more than it’s worth.

Once you decide on what is acceptable to you, the advice given here as regards employing a specialist to examine your prospect will prove most beneficial.

Read as much as you can on here to discover what is involved in e type ownership and discover the various pitfalls one could face. There are quite a few good videos on YouTube that should interest any prospective owner.

I hope this is of some help.

[malcolm]

In my view, best advice is to take someone with you who knows what they are looking at. I did that and was for ever grateful. It might cost a couple of hundred but worth it in the long run.
Look at plenty of cars, make a shortlist of what you think, then take the specialist. I ended up turning down my first choice as a result, and bought the second which turned out to be a gem.
I'm a member of the JDC, and the Technical Guru of the Club is John Burton who provides such a service. I'm sure there are many more as well.
If you want his number, PM me. He's down south, but there are others people on here will recommend one of which will be in your area