Fun Family Car - The Stagea
Nov 4, 2016 18:10:29 GMT
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Horney, atlex, and 1 more like this
Post by myothercarsa2cv on Nov 4, 2016 18:10:29 GMT
It all started when Tim at The Moff Shop posted about his Stageas. I'd never heard of this car, so I did some reading and liked what I saw.
With a new arrival in the household I was in the market for a family car. Now at this point I could have gone down the tried and tested route of just getting a German car, but that's just so not me.
So I played the Pistonheads game. After driving a Quattro on track in the US (550bhp meth injected S4!) I fancied something AWD. I also wanted an estate - I can't keep relying on Dad to help out. It had to be automatic as the wife will be driving this too and she's not a fan of the manual transmission. It also had to be under £6k. Pretty tight parameters. I was given a selection of Subarus and the Stageas. I also asked on here, naturally. Lots of love for the Subarus.
But one ad on PH caught my eye - it was a later model Stagea in pearl white and gunmetal wheels. It looked the business.
I exchanged a few emails with the dealer and made an appointment to view it. Off I went on the train to Leeds (with a return ticket just in case).
When I arrived the car was already waiting for me. The dealer had not started it up that morning in case I wanted to hear a cold startup. Good start. I had a poke around the outside, the dealer pointed out all the blemishes which were few and to be expected of a 14 year old car. He also explained the wheels had been freshly powder coated as the valeters had damaged the chrome finish that was on the wheels. I was grateful for this as gunmetal is nicer than chrome!
Inside the interior was almost immaculate. The engine bay was also very clean and tidy. Underneath it looked like a 1 year old car. All the electrics worked as they should. I could only find a couple of minor issues on the walk around, which were weak gas struts on the boot door and bolt floor, the split hatch didn't like closing, and the original air box that came with the car (cone filter fitted) had been hacked up to accommodate a rad cap that should have been on the other side.
Nothing major so off on a test drive we went. Not a lot to say about the test drive really, it drove like a large estate, went like a scolded cat and stopped surprisingly well (I was expecting crap brakes as most say they are awful). Two niggles surfaced, a wobble felt through the steering wheel at motorway speeds, and an iffy boost gauge.
Back to the garage and I had some lunch to mull it over. The minor imperfections bugged me, I didn't want this to turn in to a money pit and another car that spends a lot of time off the road - it's primarily for ferrying the wife and kid about after all. The other thing that bugged me was that this car was screaming for bit more up top to make it less lazy at higher rpm. That can be an expensive game and not one to play with a family car.
I went back for another poke about, and, with the help of the mechanic, fixed the split hatch issue. One less snag to worry about. Strut re-gases are about £15 a pop too so not a deal breaker. Sod it, I thought, let's go for it. A little bit of tame haggling later, a deal was struck to include a full tank of fuel and wheel balancing (all I had to do was take it down the road to Nigel
), as well as a 12 month warranty. Couldn't say fairer than that. We shook hands and did the admin.
While chatting the dealer mentioned some of his project cars, and showed me his two RX7s and a Cossie 4x4. He also had a mint MR2 Turbo he'd just acquired.
Then it was time to take my new baby home! Leeds is a nightmare between 3 and 6 apparently so I stopped in for a tea with a friend, and realised I hadn't taken any photos!
A long drive later averaging alarmingly low mpg (well, I was enjoying myself!) and to bed. Next day I reviewed the paperwork and found this nugget:
That says it can do 0-60 in 5.2s - officially the fastest car I've owned, the Caterham only ever managed 5.9s, and I think the 5 must be around that too. 2CV... 28s?
Anyway here's a pic of the engine bay to show how clean it is:
More to come from this car I think as I get to know it more... 5.2 is a bit quicker than book!
With a new arrival in the household I was in the market for a family car. Now at this point I could have gone down the tried and tested route of just getting a German car, but that's just so not me.
So I played the Pistonheads game. After driving a Quattro on track in the US (550bhp meth injected S4!) I fancied something AWD. I also wanted an estate - I can't keep relying on Dad to help out. It had to be automatic as the wife will be driving this too and she's not a fan of the manual transmission. It also had to be under £6k. Pretty tight parameters. I was given a selection of Subarus and the Stageas. I also asked on here, naturally. Lots of love for the Subarus.
But one ad on PH caught my eye - it was a later model Stagea in pearl white and gunmetal wheels. It looked the business.
I exchanged a few emails with the dealer and made an appointment to view it. Off I went on the train to Leeds (with a return ticket just in case).
When I arrived the car was already waiting for me. The dealer had not started it up that morning in case I wanted to hear a cold startup. Good start. I had a poke around the outside, the dealer pointed out all the blemishes which were few and to be expected of a 14 year old car. He also explained the wheels had been freshly powder coated as the valeters had damaged the chrome finish that was on the wheels. I was grateful for this as gunmetal is nicer than chrome!
Inside the interior was almost immaculate. The engine bay was also very clean and tidy. Underneath it looked like a 1 year old car. All the electrics worked as they should. I could only find a couple of minor issues on the walk around, which were weak gas struts on the boot door and bolt floor, the split hatch didn't like closing, and the original air box that came with the car (cone filter fitted) had been hacked up to accommodate a rad cap that should have been on the other side.
Nothing major so off on a test drive we went. Not a lot to say about the test drive really, it drove like a large estate, went like a scolded cat and stopped surprisingly well (I was expecting crap brakes as most say they are awful). Two niggles surfaced, a wobble felt through the steering wheel at motorway speeds, and an iffy boost gauge.
Back to the garage and I had some lunch to mull it over. The minor imperfections bugged me, I didn't want this to turn in to a money pit and another car that spends a lot of time off the road - it's primarily for ferrying the wife and kid about after all. The other thing that bugged me was that this car was screaming for bit more up top to make it less lazy at higher rpm. That can be an expensive game and not one to play with a family car.
I went back for another poke about, and, with the help of the mechanic, fixed the split hatch issue. One less snag to worry about. Strut re-gases are about £15 a pop too so not a deal breaker. Sod it, I thought, let's go for it. A little bit of tame haggling later, a deal was struck to include a full tank of fuel and wheel balancing (all I had to do was take it down the road to Nigel
), as well as a 12 month warranty. Couldn't say fairer than that. We shook hands and did the admin.While chatting the dealer mentioned some of his project cars, and showed me his two RX7s and a Cossie 4x4. He also had a mint MR2 Turbo he'd just acquired.
Then it was time to take my new baby home! Leeds is a nightmare between 3 and 6 apparently so I stopped in for a tea with a friend, and realised I hadn't taken any photos!
A long drive later averaging alarmingly low mpg (well, I was enjoying myself!) and to bed. Next day I reviewed the paperwork and found this nugget:
That says it can do 0-60 in 5.2s - officially the fastest car I've owned, the Caterham only ever managed 5.9s, and I think the 5 must be around that too. 2CV... 28s?
Anyway here's a pic of the engine bay to show how clean it is:
More to come from this car I think as I get to know it more... 5.2 is a bit quicker than book!
