Fieldl

Go with your gut feel if it doesn't feel it right it probably isn't.

1, Other cars in the garage were not in keeping, ie lots of small sub 6k cars. Par for the course for most car dealers I think. Keep a lot of cheaper stock and 1 or 2 more expensive sport/prestige models for higher margin.
2, All the other motors had orig plates, S had brand new "Halfords" on Could be that they have moved from a private plate. Quite common on the S, it's from a dealer though I wouldn't have expected to see a Halfords plate ? Could have been replaced due to crash/repair
3, Painted red brake calipers.. matt finsh!! eek Looks crap unless done as well as Rahula has managed
4, right side drivers seat leather.. i'd say f**ed! Quite common I think. I looked at a few early cars and this always seemed to be the case although the mileage seems low for it to be that knackered
5, gear stick. orig, scatched loads... .. do they? prob from wearing a ring. Your probably right
6, rear wheel arches (inside) pretty muddy, but under the fronts was pretty clean.. no mud or dirt.. is this normal? being rear wheel drive? Possibly
7, between exhaust underneath... where bottom off boot is I suspect,was painted like cream? normal? I think there is some sort of heatshielding or similar on the bottom of the car......

For that kind of money your better off leaving it there. I saw a 51 plate silverstone for similar cash but it did have 50k+ miles on the clock.

It might take a bit of time to find the right car but you really do not want a bad one.

Fieldl

I think the dealer is not far from me although the car has gone from Autotrader. If you drop me the garage details I might be able to pop up there later if I can escape for a bit. But it doesn't sound right though.