After an incident yesterday where the front skirt slammed in to the tarmac while going in to a petrol station, I decided to take a closer look at the Mig.
Initially I put it down to the road having a bit of a deep camber, in conjunction with the petrol station entrance having an equally severe opposite camber (front wheels hit the dip which caused the bottom of the front skirt to contact).
A quick visual showed the offside front shock to be leaking, and a bounce test all around pretty much confirmed that the shocks could do with replacing.
It always niggled me from day one that the car was a bit too much of an "armchair" in the ride stakes, although I put that down to it being just what it is (a big heavy motor).
Anyway, I paid £500 for the car originally knowing that the wishbones and windscreen needed doing (£50 for the windscreen), which means the car will end up standing me in £700 by the time both those jobs are done.
I got what I thought was a reasonable price for the shocks (£140 for the fronts, and £96 for the rears, including VAT), so this now pushes the cost of the car up to £940....not including what I will pay someone for changing the shocks.
The car itself books at £1200 in good condition, and I know it has always been serviced on time, with the next foreseeable expense (cambelt kit) being 25,000 miles away.
I guess the question is, how long does the 2.5 V6 and auto box realistically go on for before you start getting major issues?
If it's a case of them hitting the 200,000 mile mark with ease (with regular servicing of course), then it's probably worth spending the money.
However if that mileage is a lot lower then I'll probably get shot now and pull back what I paid.
Your opinions please?
PS
It's in the gallery at
http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1241860577