Budget Of $18,000

[Rossnall]

Best piece of advice I can offer is just keep looking. I spent about three months looking through all the sites and then one popped up in my local paper (in Bundaberg!) that fit the bill perfectly. BF Mark I with 130K km for $13K. I was looking at BAs in same condition for $15K odd. And it was in exactly the spec and colour I wanted. Admittedly, a bit of luck though.

I need to have a gearbox service and some suspension bushes plus about $500 of minor work and it's in great nick. All up will be a good car for about $15K odd.

Ask the seller if they've had a gearbox service and if they say no cause they were told it's a sealed for life unit, get it checked. That's what Ford tell people apparently as they should be ok not touched till they're out of warranty. I'm up for $1200 odd for gearbox service (oil is $60 odd a litre).

If you plan on doing bit of work to it, look for the newer ones with better specs as suggested, but I'd suggest getting at least BF with ZF box (which it looks like you are already). Beautiful to drive, especially compared to 4 speed.

Other than that, as said, post up an add if you see one and best of luck. These things are awesome for the money they are going for these days!

Edited 08/06/12 12:01 AM by Rossnall

[Turbo777]

I'm selling a lightning strike BFMKII june 2007 model. Never modded other than a generic flash tune I sometimes ran. Need to sell due to change at work travelling 1000km a week. Had to downgrade to a focus :( Immaculate condition and loved more than my Mrs. Only thing is it has 135,000 country km's on the clock and is 6 speed manual so not exactly what you're looking for unfortunately. I advertised it for 20k but would happily sell for 18k.

[ajb]

Yea I was exactly the same as you, didn't want someone else's car that had just been flogged around and sometimes modified cars are like that. But once you learn to know what needs changing on these cars and how some people have gone to extremes to keep them in top condition, then sometimes its worth looking at.

As for the model you want with the kms you want that's going to be hard to find.I been looking for the last 18 months for a turbo and have only really seen half a dozeen that match what you want (given your budget). If your deadset on what you want then be patient and something will pop up, if not maybe look back to a MK II but 2006 that way there you still get all the good bits in your bottom end, but have lower kms, or you may need to take a few more kms up to 100-110k to get the newer model. Personally I prefer lower kms, but if you find one with slightly higher kms but has been looked after well than shouldn't be much of an issue.

Heres a couple that you may have looked at:

This 2006 MKII in octane only 75,000kms for $18,500 - Its been for sale for about 6 months now so price could be negotiable quite a bit

http://www.carsales....eage:Min,100000

This 2008 MKII has a lot in the way of options and pulls a fair bit of power - also been for sale for about 6 months and clearly state price is negotiable at $19,300 so you could probably squeeze that in your price range. The only think I'm not a fan of ex-cop cars

http://www.carsales....eage:Min,100000

Again 2006 MKII only 50,000kms - awesome colour, lots of options, and ridiculously low kms - again has been there for about 6 months so price is negotiable for sure. Bit higher price but for those kms its worth it cause from what iv foound when it comes to resale kms is worth more than year model!!

http://www.carsales....eage:Min,100000

Thers just a few I've had my on for the last few months. They may be ones you could be interested in. I guess depends on how far your willing to travel for a car and what the owner says about the cars history and maintenance

Gee thanks for all that info man. Yeah very true in regards to the owner's who look after them regarless of mods.. guess ill have a bit more of an open mind now when im looking..

They all look pretty nice, the leather is an awesome touch.. And yeah it always seems like I come accross the perfect example but then down the bottom of the page 'ex chaser' lol.. not keen on them either.. the fact that it has had its arse kicked for the first half of its life is a deffinite no no for me, and I bet they dont even run them in properly..

Just go in and offer them 15. If they want a quick sale then go get it. 15 and you'll pick it up on Saturday.

I like that white one. I'm looking for a white but without the crap grey incerts

that's what im hoping to do haha.. just someone who is desperate as, knock 2000 of the asking price and snag a bargain haha..

Best piece of advice I can offer is just keep looking. I spent about three months looking through all the sites and then one popped up in my local paper (in Bundaberg!) that fit the bill perfectly. BF Mark I with 130K km for $13K. I was looking at BAs in same condition for $15K odd. And it was in exactly the spec and colour I wanted. Admittedly, a bit of luck though.

I need to have a gearbox service and some suspension bushes plus about $500 of minor work and it's in great nick. All up will be a good car for about $15K odd.

Ask the seller if they've had a gearbox service and if they say no cause they were told it's a sealed for life unit, get it checked. That's what Ford tell people apparently as they should be ok not touched till they're out of warranty. I'm up for $1200 odd for gearbox service (oil is $60 odd a litre).

If you plan on doing bit of work to it, look for the newer ones with better specs as suggested, but I'd suggest getting at least BF with ZF box (which it looks like you are already). Beautiful to drive, especially compared to 4 speed.

Other than that, as said, post up an add if you see one and best of luck. These things are awesome for the money they are going for these days!

thanks for the heads up about the gearbox., yeah im deffinatley sold on the BF and I think that ill end up getting a MK II when the right one pops up..

I'm selling a lightning strike BFMKII june 2007 model. Never modded other than a generic flash tune I sometimes ran. Need to sell due to change at work travelling 1000km a week. Had to downgrade to a focus :( Immaculate condition and loved more than my Mrs. Only thing is it has 135,000 country km's on the clock and is 6 speed manual so not exactly what you're looking for unfortunately. I advertised it for 20k but would happily sell for 18k.

Thanks for the offer man, not quite ready yet though, just have to wait for my tax return to come through haha.. also im looking for something in white, black, ego, dark grey etc..

[Bellato]

No worries mate, this place has saved me so much $$$$ when it comes to things to look for in these cars and future mods so just trying to repay the favour.

I been wanting to get mine for 18 months but all my money was tied up in shares which f*cked me over so finally gonna have my money saved up by christmas to finally get one! So yea I been looking for a loooooong time and I seen whats a bargain and whats not and seen the ones that I can really hit up for a good price if they're still there at the end of the year because anyone whose had their car for sale for a year will be pretty negotiable on price if they really want to sell lol.

Oh and don't restrict the places you look! You never know where you'll find the best deal. carsales, carsguide, ebay, tradingpost, picklesauctions, countrycars, usedcarsonline, manheims auctions are the main ones but then you have all the other random ones

[ajb]

http://www.carsales....r&cr=1&__N=1216 1246 1247 1252 1282 4294966463 4294966285 898&silo=Stock&find=xr6 turbo|CarAll

Not sure if youv seen this one.. I thought id share it.. looks pretty neat and tidy and has a female owner also..

Id be happy to pay up to 17,500 for something like that if it was a 2007 - 08 model, that's pretty much what im looking for..

[bng]

That one is recent. In the last week. Comes from around my area.

[nathos]

AJB-

I once thought the same as you... ex cop cars are rubbish etc.

however you need to open up your mind and not be so ignorant/simple and think of the benefits as well as the negatives

benefits:

-usually highly optioned eg side airbags(expensive factory) digital speedo(which is great) im not sure what else comes on them but mine has almost all the options

-has been serviced regularly, log books, no log books doesnt matter it HAS been serviced

-as soon as the car is damaged or needs some work done it is done

-no owners that have run out of money due to financing a impulse buy that they cant afford, have ever owned the car and failed to do the required maintenance

-The car may be a detectives car (mine was an undercover detective) I know this is not much better, but not all are regular use trashed chasers.

-Also it is sometimes acknowledged that the police xrs put out more power, not due to the any special mods but just because they have been run in well and hard.

-May possibly be cheaper

Negatives:

-May have been in a previous crash

-May have possibly been trashed, driven over gutters etc

-Not much choice of colour / must be auto

-Sometimes the interior is badly worn

Theres absolutely no way I regret my purchase of an ex cop car, haven't had one trouble with it yet goes super hard and looks great. To top it off I got it at a steal of a price!

[Bellato]

Nathos you are right, I think its more from the perspective of ex-chaser's because there the ones that cop it hard. As for an ex-detectives car your right, they come with brembo's, typhoon rims, and yea plenty of options.

They're probably all fine but just a mental thing that personally I find hard to ignore, but yea im sure there are some good ones out there.

As for that turbo ajb nah I haven't seen that one because I do my searches with max 100,000kms. That doesn't look too bad, but just note its not optioned at all by the look of it (no premo sound, leather etc) but it does look pretty neat and tidy. My NA hasn't got any of the fancy features and I upgraded the sound system from the word go so if the features aren't a big thing for you then yea that's probably one worth looking into. Just double check if its MKII or not cause the badge at the back is there but its not in the description.

And make sure you go through the technical forums and check most of the pinned topics, they're normally maintenance and stuff so you can get an idea of what to ask the owner in terms of services etc, plus you can check the service history to see what they did and when and maybe even post here and some of the turbo guys can tell you if its been serviced properly and often enough

[Bellato]

Hey ajb just found this! Looks like a fantastic buy for what your after!!!

http://www.tradingpost.com.au/Automotive/Used-Cars/AdNumber=TP005207227

[ajb]

AJB-

I once thought the same as you... ex cop cars are rubbish etc.

however you need to open up your mind and not be so ignorant/simple and think of the benefits as well as the negatives

benefits:

-usually highly optioned eg side airbags(expensive factory) digital speedo(which is great) im not sure what else comes on them but mine has almost all the options

-has been serviced regularly, log books, no log books doesnt matter it HAS been serviced

-as soon as the car is damaged or needs some work done it is done

-no owners that have run out of money due to financing a impulse buy that they cant afford, have ever owned the car and failed to do the required maintenance

-The car may be a detectives car (mine was an undercover detective) I know this is not much better, but not all are regular use trashed chasers.

-Also it is sometimes acknowledged that the police xrs put out more power, not due to the any special mods but just because they have been run in well and hard.

-May possibly be cheaper

Negatives:

-May have been in a previous crash

-May have possibly been trashed, driven over gutters etc

-Not much choice of colour / must be auto

-Sometimes the interior is badly worn

Theres absolutely no way I regret my purchase of an ex cop car, haven't had one trouble with it yet goes super hard and looks great. To top it off I got it at a steal of a price!

Sure, no argument there man. If it was a detectives car then that's a different story. I was thinking more along the lines of highway patrol cars vs. a maintained daily driver that's done the same milage. And they are cheaper! that's deffinately a plus..

Hey ajb just found this! Looks like a fantastic buy for what your after!!!

http://www.tradingpost.com.au/Automotive/Used-Cars/AdNumber=TP005207227

hell yeah! that is perfect.. even got the ba rims I used to have on the eb haha.. im not ready to buy yet though, unless he wants to swap for a ute :-) ..