thinking of buying a mk4...got 5k to play with or there abouts...looking for a 2ltr zetec or high spec titanium/ghia....hopefully one with low milage..though not really to fussed as i'm, in the camp of ..if its got to lowmilage then its been sitting around etc...but any way...what should I look out for..faults etc ..??....thanks for any help and pointers...

If you buy high mileage, then try to get the best service history that you can. Actually, have a look at the service record to see if anything nasty is lurking there (you know, repeats of any one fault, large numbers of 'random' faults, etc, etc).

Did the car get to the services on time, or was its arrival chez Ford a bit lackadaisical? As if someone didn't really care?

Did it get there for all of its services (I saw one described as having a 'Full service history' that only made it for one out of every two of its scheduled services; Well, yes, I suppose it had a full history of the services which it had received, but that wasn't the issue...)

I find tyres are a good sign of how the car has been looked after; premium names are a good sign, as are the better mid-range options, but what you don't want to see are unknown Chinese tyres or weird wear patterns.

In my experience, service history is not worth the paper it's written on. I bought a Mk3 will "full service history", then had to do all sorts on it that a service/MOT should have picked up; aircon not working, defective brakes (bent guide pin), corroded crank pulley, perished aux belt, shot wheelbearing. Regular maintenance stuff that the seller (Evans Halshaw, who also stamped the service book), really should have known about, and told me about. Like they might have mentioned the car had previously had a towbar fitted and probably dragged a caravan half way around the country.

thanks for the replys so far...to be fair as soon as I buy the motor..its going straight to my local ford garage for a service and let them have a flick over it...then find out exactly what I brought...did that with my last mondy..the report was quite interesting...but in all fairness...the dealer I brought it from fixed all of fords recommendations.. B)

dont take it to ford.take it to a good indy garage. ford cant solve anything.only good at replacing things thatre in relation to faults on their ids.