2005 Nissan Primera S 1.8

[jmurray01]

Hello all, Jamie here.

Today we picked up our latest vehicle, the above mentioned Primera.  It was not bought out of want but more of NEED, as our 1999 Volvo V40's MOT expires in a couple of weeks and it would require more money spent on it than it is worth. 

Due to a lack of money the cheapest option had to materialise and thus after a little searching I found the Primera on Gumtree for £300 with 11 months MOT.  The catch?  It's an ex-taxi with almost 200,000 miles on the odometer. 

Having sold the Volvo for £220, the car only cost £80 to purchase and for that I'll be happy if it lasts 6 months and packs in - still cheaper than a hire car!!

That said, having picked it up this evening it is much better than I expected.  The mileage is actually 193,400 miles (still a wee bit to go before the big 200k), the bodywork is almost immaculate with no damage or corrosion (being a taxi it had to meet strict guidelines in terms of how it looked) and the MOT which was done in July passed with no advisories.  Plus, the mileage at the time of the test was only 30 miles lower than the mileage when picked up so it was literally driven from the testing station to  the person's home, parked up and left.  The one major worry for a high-mileage vehicle is
the clutch, but that was changed 35,000 miles ago and it is still in great shape having done slippage (full acceleration in 3rd uphill) and stall (ease off clutch when stopped in 2nd) tests.

All four tyres are almost new as well, which is a bonus. 

The only slightly worrying thing is that it naturally wasn't subject to the most rigorous maintenance schedule and the previous owner admitted that it only had an oil change once a year (which equates to roughly every 20,000).  That will change though as I've got it booked in for a change
next Tuesday and thereafter it'll be serviced every 5,000 miles as with all my previous cars - a routine which hasn't let me down yet.

The only thing left would be some photos, but as I only have my mobile phone at the moment (which takes terrible pictures at the best of times) and it is now nighttime, I'll wait until the weekend when it is a bit brighter and has had a wash!

Bye for now.

[jmurray01]

Further to my above post please find below pictures of the Primera!