Well finally off to look at another XF on sunday but have a question.... it's a july 04 and mileage is good at 26k described condition is good too so hope it all works out - however here are a couple of the sticking points... between 3 and 5 owners dealer says 3 hpi says 5 (though it should be pointed out hpi does sometimes screw up previous owner #'s) easy enough to sort out over the weekend when I see it and the description of it is riddled with errors... though on questioning it has (apparently) got the FSH

The question is being as in the UK 3.2 is quite a large engine and as such is liable to have more owners than a 'normal' car - how many owners is too many? Just out of curiousity is the US market different as regards previous owner numbers?

 

Depending on the age of the car more than three owners is a lot around here. Our Crossfires are not that old. I would hope people would hang on to a car at least two years or till the lease payments are over in two to three years.

 

well it looks like this one is a bust without further information about servicing etc...

got there and the Crossfire is the most expensive car on the lot - not that this is a bad thing, however looking at the other cars doesn't give a good impression of this dealer's quality (or lack thereof)... anywho onto the car itself...

Bad:
rust round the lock on the tailgate (not a whole heap - but it's there)
small rust blister near drain plug on tailgate (and funnily enough about the same size too)
rear tyres shot, these to be replaced as part of the MoT (UK annual road-worthiness test)
wear on the drivers seat bolster
5 previous owners
only one service stamp (18,800 miles)
curb rash on all 4 wheels (not dreadfull but still)
severe discoloration under passenger side air vent (8/9" long 2/3" wide), no idea what this could be but it did seem to be permanent
tailgate has left a mark in the plastic on RHS main body work (like it was slamed too hard and took a chunk out - paper clip wire wide and a mm or 2 long)
small hole in headliner just on-top of "A-pillar" (about the size of a maker pen mark)
plastic temp control wheel has some cracks
clear plastic surround around one of the temp contols has some cracks
some rattle from the tailgate when driving on poor roads

Expected
some stone-chips (it is after-all 5 years old)
engine not dirty, nor obviously cleaned
a/c works (with no unusual smells)
straight body-work
good front tyres
oil seems good and clean
water seems good and clean has antifreeze and no evidence of 'sludge' or oily residue/foam
radio works well
no stone-chips on windscreen
both seat electrics work
both electric windows work

Good
Price - £7,200
low miles - 26k
drives beautifully (pulls well for a small car, steers and stops fine too)
steering nice and tight with good feel
heated seats work
all previous MoTs (UK annual road-worthiness test)

e-mailed a couple of others today for futher details and see how those pan out....

 

One bad owner is too many if they mistreat a vehicle.

I read your summary carefully and I'd steer clear of this one. The rust bothers me -- I rarely see rust on a XF but most owners I meet only drive them in the summer and rarely in bad weather. Acknowledge that the UK is known for it's wet climate. The fact that there were five owners in 5 years makes me wonder if it was bought, and then they found something wrong and dumped it. Did you mean 26k kms or miles? -- I again suspect the former which is about 18.6k miles. Seems like a lot of wear for a few miles and too many owners.

 

cheers all - I had pretty much decided that this one was a 'steer clear' butjust wanted to make sure that I wasn't being unreasonable....