write off

My old English white year 2ooo mgf that I have owned for 21 years in Spain has been written off.
It was parked in front of my house when a nut hit my neighbors' car and rear ended mine.
As my home in Spain is a holiday home the car had only done 40000ks.
I am now looking for a LHD mgtf, I have seen one advertised as a mgtf 160 with a hp of 135. as this cant be right, how can you tell if the car is in fact a 160.
Any help much appriciated.

Im sorry to hear about the sad demise of your MGF.
Yes that is an odd description and could mean one of 2 things. The seller isnt very well informed and assumed 160 is a spec level rath than bhp. Or the car left the factory as a VVC 160 but the engine was subsequently changed for a MPI ( standard, non VVC) 135bhp. Ask the question and take photos of the engine - if the seller is genuine they should be ok to remove the engine cover and take the photos. Also get them to send the VIN as this will at least identify what the car was built as.

Thanks I will get the vin, the car is in Germany, I suspect confusion rather than any alterations.

Good luck. If the seller is that badly informed about their vehicle you may be able to use that to argue down the price.

I met someone a couple of years ago who bought a very cheap TF due to the same miss description. Lots of potential buyers turned up expecting a 160 TF and walked away when they found out it was a 135 model, the result was the seller took a very low offer.

I hve asked for the vin still no reply.
Have also seen a 135 first registered 01/2006.
if this was built in 2005 I think it had the improved suspension?
I have also read the last ones built were a bit shoddy any thoughts?

I have no first hand experience of the later (Saic) cars but a friend claimed he had to put much more effort into the later car than he did on his f. Both cars were bought on spec, the later car had a pile of service info whilst the f had a minimal amount. Shall I say commensurate with a car which had been reliable throughout its life; service & MOT documents in order of issue & only the odd fail.
Sometimes you are lucky, sometimes not.
M

The soft ride suspension on the later TFs is regarded as noticeably softer & has been compared favourably to the gentler ride of the MGF. Although the soft ride suspension parts are available as a kt and can be readilly retro fitted to earlier TFs it's not something I have considered as I dont feel the standard suspension is unduly harsh for a sports car.
Comfort wise Id say the standard TF suspension feels a little closer to say the BMW Z3, early Mazda MX5 to drive (though more satisfying than either) and very similar to the ride of a Honda S2000 than to the bone shaking intensity of something like the S1 Lotus Elise. Indeed I find my current 2003 135 much better mannered over urban speed bumps than my daily Mercedes estate.

It's not a 100% guarantee of what the engine might be but here is a very simple visual check. 

The 160TF has the VVC engine which produces its peak power at a higher RPM.  To this end, you will see the rev counter red line in a different place.  Off the top of my head, I can't remember the numbers exactly but the non-VVC red lines at about 6,750rpm and the VVC red lines at about 7,250rpm - i.e. on the 160 the red line will be above 7,000rpm and the red line on the135 will be below 7,000rpm.

The vehicle index number (VIN) also indicates the power output.   Lots of useful information here on the Rimmer website