[starfire039]

Hi mate, welcome!

Have you considered a diesel? They are 105 or 115 (get the 115 obviously!). Great fuel economy and don't think to bad on insurance, quite hard to find a clean well priced example I'd imagine though, but worth a look.

The good think about a ZS, apart from inlet manifold on the V6 and head gasket issues on the K's, the issues you may come across are easy to fix and not to expensive. It would be ideal to use any potential issues as haggling points when buying the car.

Look for:

> Leaky boot. Check under the carpet in the spare wheel well for any water or signs of water. Haggle on price if spotted, if it leaks then get some clear silicone for about a fiver and just smear it round the rubber seal corner with your finger so it fills the gap. Done!

> Heater blower 1 + 2 not working. This is like a 69p fix if you get a resisitor and do some soldering your self, or you could get one from a scrapper, or buy a kit off someone that I think has them on the MG-R forums. Takes about 10 minutes to fix. But could get you a bit knocked off the price of the car. Very common, but an easy fix.

> Seat bolster wear. The drivers side in particular WILL have wear on the leather part of the seat. I picked up a pair of front seat covers for 30 or 40 quid.

> Obviously, head gasket failure- check oil filler cap and dipstick to make sure the oil is the right colour and not a milky "mayo".

> Check rear door handles- are they stiff? Haggle, and if you buy the car, you will need to take off the door card (not hard) and shove some WD40 or something in the handle mechanism.

> Check for rear bumper sag on the mk 2's. Easy fix if you have the tools, cheapish fix I guess if you don't.

> Check coolant is nice and clear with no bits in.

> Check for metallic sounding rattling from the doors when driving round corners- this is just the metal connecting rod from the door hand to the latch mechanism. Can knock off money and get a roll of flashing tape or something and line the area of contact on the door so it won't rattle anymore. This has happened to a few people.

> Sometimes the female seatbelt connector rubs against the leather of the seat making it squeak. Flashing tape on the contact area will fix.

And obviously, as it's your first car take someone with some car know how. Check things like brake pads, tyres, ask how old the exhaust is, look for panel gaps, check for leaks etc etc.

I guess that's all you need to know... if going for a 110 or 120, you will either get say, a 110, or a 110+. The + means it has aircon and leccy windows and fogs. Optional extras that apply to the non + and + are things like sunroof, 180 body kit etc.

If you go for a 110 or 120, you can get a 180 body kit on it which is what you said you liked. Mark 2's need some undersealing as this was a casualty of project drive by MGR. Also I believe the mark 2's alarm sender unit needs modification as water can get in there.

If the alloys have kerbing, you can get touch up paint off ebay for £8 or so- easy to touch up yourself, worth knowing.

Hope this helps!