In the market for a Cabrio CLK

[towat]

Don't know if anyone else has already suggested this but you could buy a cheap OBD reader from Ebay and plug it in to each car you look at, might let you know if anything electrical needs looking at.

 

[Craiglxviii]

But I did speak to the guy, he seem very well informed about the prices of this model car adn the percentages of damage because of which insurance companies write-off cars... strange for a guy who just learned his car has been a write-off... I presume AutoTrader did not pick it up as the seller was using a Private plate...
and he tried to warm me up to it, he seemed willing to drop the price down to £6000, as long as I buy it over the weekend...
I did get an HPI check on it and it came up with:
Vehicle Identification Number was not supplied. Do not purchase this vehicle until you have confirmed the VIN.
and
Vehicle Check Data Guarantee has not been registered against this vehicle.
and
Provate number plate changed 8 times over the years
and
Confirmed Cat D write-off... which personally did not bother me too much - until I read that the write-off was in 2009 - in my mind, the car has been way too expensive at 6 years old to have only a 'minor bumper damage' for example, which to warrant a Cat D. In other words the damage should have been easily about £5-£8K..

Anyway, the car is now de-listed on Autotrader, but it thought me the value of buying an HPI check (a bulk of 5 actually, so have 4 left for other cars too)

Oh ploughing on then, have a nice week everyone!

So sorry I didn't see this before. Bad news in one way but I think you saved yourself from buying a lemon!

Towat's idea is on the money. I bought my i980 code scanner to try to diagnose some problems on the CL, but it proved completely invaluable when looking at buying a 211 estate: 2 cars I spotted significant SBS issues and walked away from, and 1 car when I mentioned to the seller (dealer operating from his own driveway) that I'd be bringing a code reader, he told me not to bother turning up and hung up on me. The 4th car was spot on, no codes flagged, none flagged after a test drive of operating every function; drives spot on, I bought it.