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Hi there! Test drove a 1996 Caldina today which looked like it was in great nick and was clean and tidy. It drove well until we hit 100 at which point the revs stayed up but it didn't seem to tick over into the next gear up. I pushed it a little higher to see what it would do but it didn't do anything so it continued to make that slightly high pitched noise as if making an effort to get up to the next gear without getting there. Before that it had driven really well. I'm just wondering if this is a common problem with these cars, if there's something I should be looking for and, if there is a problem, whether it's an expensive job to fix or not. I don't want to waste money getting it checked out if there's potentially a massive gear box issue. Cheers!

Did you drive this car from cold? If so, this could be entirely normal. Automatic transmissions are mapped via a temperature sensor so that they hold lower gears for longer during the warm up phase, in order to warm the engine up quicker, saving fuel and reducing engine wear.
If it's still doing it when the engine is warm, then it could be a potential transmission problem, so the advice would be to walk away (unless the vendor is prepared to have the problem rectified).

Hi! Thanks for the great response! I assume so - it's on a caryard. Might be a dumb question but how long should I take it for a test drive for before it warms up enough to know if it's an issue or not? I'll take it for another drive and if it's fine then I'll get it fully checked pre-purchase. If not then I'll have a chat to the car yard owner and find out a bit more. Cheers!

Get it properly warm, with the temperature gauge reading in the normal operating temperature range, heater working fully etc. The time this takes can vary from car to car, but as a generalisation, allow 10 minutes.
Of course, it the thermostat isn't closing properly or there's a faulty temperature sensor, this could be a potential cause too.