1995–2015 · six cylinders and up
About
Between roughly 1995 and 2015 a handful of manufacturers built engines that were designed rather than specified. Six cylinders and up, revving, mostly naturally aspirated. They are not coming back.
Those cars are now cheap, and that is the trap. Depreciation has run its course, but the bills have not: every one of these cars has two or three faults that cost more than the car is worth, and a dozen more that are simply age and can be left alone. Telling those two apart is the whole problem, and it is what these guides do.
How a guide is made
- Documented faults per engine and per body, with the workshop time each one takes.
- Written as work, not as a price: a job is half a day or a week in the workshop, because a euro figure from one country is wrong in the next.
- Read twice before it is published, and a third time by a working mechanic before it is sold.
- Where the community genuinely disagrees, you get both positions instead of our preference.
Why there is a free guide
Because you should be able to see how we write before you pay for it. The free guide is the short version: what the car is, and the questions that decide whether the one you are looking at is a good buy. The full guide is the long version — every fault and how much work it is, and the inspection card to print and take to the viewing.