[talkingcars]

I have just bought FE54 - a stunning pearl black mk2 ZS180 saloon from ZS Sam at a price we were both happy with. Two trains and a taxi took just over two hours to get to Sams, not bad considering the drive back is over an hour.

Before I go any further I want to say that I mean no disrespect to any of the previous owners, mechanically the car is spot on and she drives as well as my mk1 did when I bought her in 2008 at 56k, they have all loved the car and looked after her and many if not all the things I have found are probably me being picky, she is nearly 10 years old after all.

So where do we start? I think the worst bit is finding signs of previous accident repair from a heavy rear end shunt. The bottoms of both c pillers have had filler which is starting to fail, the panels at the back of the car have been seam welded rather than spot welded, the gap around the boot isn't quite even and there is signs of repainting around the openings for the rear lights.

However the repair has been to a high standard as there are no mismatchs to the paint work and as there has been no mention of an accident in all the time the car has been on the forum I guess it happened many years ago. I have a couple of ideas about how to repair the c piller flaking without having a full respray. I wouldn't be suprised if the previous 3 owners didn't even know of the repair.

I was also a bit disappointed with the number of changed fixings but these are easily changed so will be, proberbly with new ones from ebay.

My final concern after the drive home was that the seats just didn't feel as comfitable as I was expecting.

As Mrs TC ws away for a couple of days over the weekend she didn't know about the car until I picked her up from Stansted and after a frosty reception for a few minutes because "we always do things like this togeather" she warmed to the car and identified why the seats felt different, they have firmer side bolsters so are more body hugging.

Knowing I might get a bit of a reaction I spent my spare car time over the weekend doing bits on the MGF and made sure the house was clean and tidy for when she got home, it worked as I've been released to spend time on FE54.