[oldnail]

Hi folks,

Thought I would ask opinions from your good selves about what condition you would expect an Approved Used Car to be in.

I'm looking at an F30 on Thursday. It was registered in March and has only 1300 miles on it. It was one of the "Olympic Cars". It's loaded with extras and the price is very good (comparable with cars of the same age but with no extras on them).

Now, my question is, what would be termed "reasonable condition" for a car of this type?

My feeling is that it should be almost showroom fresh, there should be no bodywork, wheel damage or windscreen damage, certainly no scrapes, possibly a chip or two on the front might be acceptable? Interior wise, it should be perfect I would think.

The reason that I ask is that I've bought three AUCs before, and the first two were in really good condition (they had 3k and 1.5k miles on them respectively, ironically the one with 1.5k was in worse condition that the one with 3k), but the third one (which as 6 months old and had 6000 miles on it) was in terrible condition to the point where I left it back (and bought my current 318i new instead).

So I'm wondering if I'm expecting too much in terms of the condition? What I usually end up doing is comparing the condition with the car I'm trading in which is my 318i, which is in perfect condition (30k miles and a few chips on the front but nothing else) and then being disappointed.

I have the option of walking away from this one if the condition is not to the level I expect, but I'm just concerned that I'm setting unfeasibly high expectations (i.e. expecting the car to be effectively brand new).

All opinions gratefully accepted!