MG TF 1.8 YH03 KHJ - 46,300 miles - 2 Owners from new - £2,500 O.N.O

Good Afternoon All,

I am new to this forum so apologies if I am posting in the wrong area.

I am helping a family friend sell their MF TF following a death in the family. It's a red MG TF 1.8 with both a soft and hard top - all in working order (the soft top was replaced approximately 2 years ago). The vehicle has covered 46,300 miles. We have just put the vehicle through it's MOT which expires 24.03.24. We had the front discs and brake pads and rear brake hose replaced. It's never been involved in an accident and is free from finance. We want £2,500 O.N.O.

That’s a nice looking car, low mileage by Aussie standards.
Best of luck with the sale, and I hope it goes to an appreciative buyer.

Thanks Cobber 👍🏻

There are members here from all over the world so it would be best to put the country and region where the car is.

Also the year and the model. As a manual 1.8 TF it could be either be a 135 or a 160 vvc

Close ups of areas such as the sills and some comment on how it drives would all be good.

Thanks for the reply. The vehicle is a 2003 UK car based in North Yorkshire. It’s a 160 VVC. I’m not an expert on this vehicle so cannot provide meaningful insight as to how it drives - what I can say is that it has a full service history and recently passed the UK’s MOT test (so road worthy). Everything works on it. Pills and stops very well. Any serious buyer would probably put some new tyres on it simply to bring it up to 2023.

Seems a shame to put it through the ‘webuyanycar’ machine so just trying here. Genuine car. I suspect anyone serious enough will check the credentials on Car Vertical before buying etc. happy talking to any perspective buyer and can provide any pictures of the car you may require including a video call if helpful. Thanks

Looking at the wheels it appears to be a 135?

The lady selling it (the registered keeper) is in her 60’s so not sure if she knows. How would I check if it’s a 135?

It will say on the V5, but I checked it on car check & it says TF135 but that’s not infallible, I think the 160 has a higher red line on rev counter, plus I think it says VVC on top of the engine if it’s a 160, someone else may be able to help you better.

Neil.R wrote:

Looking at the wheels it appears to be a 135?

If you have sight of the V5C, the engine number will be quoted on it. I cannot remember how to decode that, but any serious buyer would be able to look-up the relevant pages on this or any other Forum to know if it is a 135 or VVC (160 HP) engine.

MG TF 160 - VVC - red line on rev counter starts at 7250 rpm.
MGTF 135 - a 1.8i had its red line at 6750.

By the look on the pictures in the first post this is MG TF 135. However V5C should tell you exactly what it is.

ACETAJ wrote:

The lady selling it (the registered keeper) is in her 60’s so not sure if she knows. How would I check if it’s a 135?

I have found the document which translates engine number into something meaningful to us mortals:

@ MGTF
120PS 1.6 mpi 16K4Fxyy xxxxxx
135PS 1.8 mpi 18K4Fxyy xxxxxx
160PS 1.8 VVC 18K4Kxyy xxxxxx

So if the engine number on the V5C has that extra K in it, it's a 160 VVC.

As someone else has pointed out, if you open the "boot", the top of the engine should look like this if it is a TF135:


If it is a VVC. the inlet manifold (Grey metal casting across most of the width of the picture) will have the letters VVC on it and I think it is painted.

There is just a slim chance that someone has stealthily put a VVC engine in , NOT recorded it on the V5C, and used a plain manifold to hide the VVC ness, but this is not a n easy swap, as the wiring loom is different and the ECU has to be changed.