So I've been trawling the classified's for a good HSE and spotted another potential one, in budget, not too far from home. It say's he's a dealer, but seems to be trading from home, which wouldn't be my preferred option when paying dealer prices, but I was prepared to have a look at it.
Rang the guy up, and politely waited 5 minutes while he gave me all the usual "it's the best one I've had for sale in a long time, sir.", "full service history", etc lines.
As it is over 7 years old, the first question I managed to ask was "Has it had the cambelt changed?". His reply was "Oh, the diesels don't have cam belts, they are all chains,sir".

So, how can I believe anything he now tells me about it, if he either deliberately lied, or didn't know, and just wanted to fob me off !
Shame, as it looked a nice one, but not sure I want to go and have a look now.

TDV6 or TDV8 ?

TDV6 !

Belt then, tdv8 have chains.
If you're not happy with the seller then walk away, plenty more out there.
Did you discuss warranty, if he's a dealer then by law he needs to supply one. 2005 Vesuvius 1st edition ( now sadly gone ).

Nope, I didn't get that far. As soon as he said it had a chain, it put me off asking any more questions.

Is there a reason why you're opting for the tdv6 rather that the tdv8
I'm getting rather tempted by the silver tdv8 that's been advertised on here, not sure what's stoppng me? 2005 Vesuvius 1st edition ( now sadly gone ).

Only that in my long-time-lurking on this site, it seems to me that the TDV8 is more troublesome than the V6. And if the worst did happen, there's only one turbo to replace, and a bigger supply of replacement engines

RogerDeFlor wrote:

So, how can I believe anything he now tells me about it, if he either deliberately lied, or didn't know, and just wanted to fob me off !

You cannot expect every dealer to be an expert on every brand. Maybe he had a V8 before and he heard they don't have belts. Innocent enough mistake really.

Go look at it, look at the service book. But if no cambelt change is all you can find wrong with it, then it is only a few hundred quid to do. You will be throwing money at it come what may, so cambelts are not the end of the world.

Perfect cars are like perfect women - neither exist. But there are plenty out there that fit the bill.

Yes, you are being too picky.  Get a 2005-2009 RRS (FAH500210) sat nav/dash mat here - the one that wasn't there when you bought the car.

Spiffing wheel centre caps available

Quote:

You cannot expect every dealer to be an expert on every brand.

No, but you can expect them to answer any questions you put to them, about a car they're selling, correctly, be it through their own knowledge, looking it up/asking someone else or, if absolutely necessary, saying "Sorry, I don't know".

I don't think he's likely to have lied about it deliberately but it doesn't inspire confidence... Visiting from DISCO3.CO.UK
2006 Discovery 3 TDV6 Auto HSE Zambezi Silver

Stuart wrote:

You cannot expect every dealer to be an expert on every brand.