High Km VE SS-V 6.0 Buying Advice needed thanks

[Dart77]

It doesn't seem too bad of a deal but the KMs are a little high for the asking price and I'd negotiate the price down quite heavily since it's been up for over a year and the seller probably wants to get rid of it...

However, a third party inspection is a must, even if the seller seems honest...

Also be careful that the car hasn't been warmed up when you go to inspect it, as this may be a sign that the seller is trying to hide something, such as lifter ticking...

Thanks, I agree. Good advice re lifters ticking, as I read that these, as well as the rocker pedestal bearings, can fail. I asked him what oil he uses and he said always uses Penrite full synthetic. I can only assume that that is what the engine wants.

I'm sure that this is "about right" km for this age car but he said it was laid up in the garage for over a year - let's say 18months, before he started it again. Plus he's driving around in another car now. So of those 15years, I'm guessing 12- 13 years of constant use. So that's a lot of km a year. He said he bought it for work, so by my calculations, that's approx 60-80km a day. Plus weekends and other daily usage.

200k km is still something to be considered, esp if i's been driven hard fairly often (have to assume it has!) and only had one auto trans service. And nothing at all mentioned about suspension work done. It's only the first generation and I heard they fixed up a quite a few things with the Series 2. But still, it is an SS-V, one loving owner with full history and some nice things like the cold air intake and Brembo front brakes and A.M rims and good tyres.

I appreciate all the interest and I will look at it tomorrow (Sun) and give my assessment here afterwards.

 

[Commo64]

Thanks, I agree. Good advice re lifters ticking, as I read that these, as well as the rocker pedestal bearings, can fail. I asked him what oil he uses and he said always uses Penrite full synthetic. I can only assume that that is what the engine wants.

Thanks for the feedback...

On top of the advice given already, a general inspection of the car is a MUST... Here's a video which (in my opinion), is a great resource how to conduct a general inspection of the car you're looking at:

 

[Commo64]

the owner told me that if the battery dies, you can't easily just open the rear door to get to it. You have to go through the back seat. Or try and charge it from the engine bay points.

The battery in these cars is located in the back of the car, and isn't too difficult to get to...

 

[keith reed]

To me the price is not an issue. The difference between $20,000 and 18,000 is minimal The condition is everything. As others have said get it checked out thoroughly. If it is A1 condition for it's age and what you want buy it.

 

[losh1971]

Thanks mate, yes that is my next concern after the trans - as he hasn't mentioned anything at all about suspension, and after 200k... well, it's a no-brainer. I don't want to be too critical but your post is a bit general. Saying "They didn't pick up on "it" and "it" was a bit worn out. But "it" is many different compenents that make up the suspension system. It's not just one thing that has to be replaced. There's all the bushings left and right, and struts, (L&R), sway bar stuff front and rear, ball joints and their seals left and right plus the rear links stuff, springs shocks etc etc. The suspension system encompasses a great deal of various things that wear out at different times.

To clarify, my shocks were quite worn out, and it was not picked up on an inspection just a few months earlier and not mentioned in the two inspections prior to that. But when I pulled them it was quite apparent the shocks had been buggered for some time. The bushes were all fine but the ball joints had some wear. Now they weren't totalled and would have been ok for another couple of years. However, since I had the front apart anyway and had bought the parts earlier chasing a knock in the front I replaced the lot.

You may already know the BJ's are not replaceable and the whole arm needs replacing. The bushes were fine and had another 5-6 years in them but the BJ's were at the stage where they were starting to get loose. Mine had done just under 200k when I rebuilt the front end.

All I'm saying is your mech may not pick up on everything that is worn. Unless I lucked out and two different garages were incompetent.

Just be prepared that unless it's had the suspension replaced it will likely need doing. For $18k that's probably a reasonable price in the current market, but there will likely be money to spend.

 

[hademall]

The battery in these cars is located in the back of the car, and isn't too difficult to get to...

Unless the back of the car is full of sh1t and you have a cargo barrier fitted.

 

[Commo64]

Unless the back of the car is full of sh1t and you have a cargo barrier fitted.

The cargo barrier shouldn't affect things, but yes you'll have to move everything out of the way for access...

 

[Dart77]

To clarify, my shocks were quite worn out, and it was not picked up on an inspection just a few months earlier and not mentioned in the two inspections prior to that. But when I pulled them it was quite apparent the shocks had been buggered for some time. The bushes were all fine but the ball joints had some wear. Now they weren't totalled and would have been ok for another couple of years. However, since I had the front apart anyway and had bought the parts earlier chasing a knock in the front I replaced the lot.

You may already know the BJ's are not replaceable and the whole arm needs replacing. The bushes were fine and had another 5-6 years in them but the BJ's were at the stage where they were starting to get loose. Mine had done just under 200k when I rebuilt the front end.

All I'm saying is your mech may not pick up on everything that is worn. Unless I lucked out and two different garages were incompetent.

Just be prepared that unless it's had the suspension replaced it will likely need doing. For $18k that's probably a reasonable price in the current market, but there will likely be money to spend.

Ta for clarifying - I must be a bit psychic because after reading your post and then thinking about the suspension, the shocks came to mind later on. No I didn't know that about the BJs - what a PITA having to replace the whole LCA! Expensive. I have no doubt that it would be easy to miss stuff like this unless I could get it on a hoist! And not much chance of that, don't think this seller would go that far. That's why I will need an experienced guy to go for a good drive and listen for front end stuff that he knows what he is hearing and can say pretty confidently that it's this or that problem etc. As well as know this model auto trans and get a feel for that as well. Not sure how I might find this type of experienced mechanic in a few days of looking.

As for incompetent mechanics - after years of reading sad horror stories about service centres, I reckon they are absolutely full of them! And not just Ford and Holden but even Mercedes and Audi etc. They seem to get away with so much bad work and go into denial when customers come back with stuff they did or didn't do.

 

[Dart77]

The battery in these cars is located in the back of the car, and isn't too difficult to get to...

Yes but from what this fellow was telling me, if the battery dies the back door won't open (if it was locked) because of it's electrical locking mechanism. I think he said it happened to him, had to go through the back seat to open the rear door from the inside. Maybe that's something they fixed on the Series 2, but I'm pretty sure that's what he said. I said that I thought that was crazy, but he said that at least the front doors have a mechanical override with the key.

I'm not really comfortable with all this type of electrical and computer controlled convenience stuff. You can laugh if you want ( I don't mind) but this VK which I've had for 23 years or so, is the most modern car I've had, out of about 33 cars since 17 year old.

PS - thanks for the Utube clip - I actually have just discovered that ReDriven series and watched the review on the VE ute that he did. (225,000Km) I was interested to see the extra notes on their website about the VE Commodore - values, equipment levels, options and what to look for when buying etc.

 

[vr304]

Ta for clarifying - I must be a bit psychic because after reading your post and then thinking about the suspension, the shocks came to mind later on. No I didn't know that about the BJs - what a PITA having to replace the whole LCA! Expensive.

my daily Mazda axela is the same, the ball joints arent replaceable separately, it failed a warrant inspection recently for worn lower control arm bushes but it turns out it’s actually cheaper and easier just to replace the whole control arm assembly so did that instead