My first members motors thread... I thought the Panda VIP deserved it.
Collected the car today and drove the 185 miles home, mostly at a steady 70mph with no problems at all. It was rattle, bump and knock free with everything working very well.
Upon inspection the bodywork turned out to be in very good condition considering it was never garaged!..
there are a few problems though...
Some blistering on the arches of both front wings...not through the paint.. Yet!
The rear arches have been repaired and painted about 8 years ago..they are very very solid and the paint is good, but when you look along the line it's quite wavey.
Two tiny blisters on the bonnet lip.
As seen in the sale photo the door jam/A pillar bit where the interior light switch is located has the most rust issue.
I'm not sure that I'm going to rush into getting the above sorted out as I wish to keep it as an original/unrestored car as much as possible.
The service history is complete (27,000mls) all by the fiat dealership.
However....yes it was serviced 2000mls ago, but that was 4 years ago! It has had work done during this time for the mot (of which it has every year) as well as new maintance parts...and here comes the next but....4 years of sitting about which no coolant change means it does not exactly have a nice blue tinge to it. It has more of a brown hue to match the paintwork I guess. I think the Italian service thrash around the motorway loosened things up a bit.
The interior is lovely...not much else to say about it other than the headlining sags at the back. It comes with every extra including a digital clock above the rear view mirror.
It was funny to see two stickers inside the boot lid indicating the paint codes of the two tone paint job.
So, all in all a good start. Tomorrow I will be doing a coolant flush and an oil change as well as giving the car a wash and a good going over checking as much as possible...wish me luck..
Oh, and photos will follow once we get a different connection on the laptop...
Collected the car today and drove the 185 miles home, mostly at a steady 70mph with no problems at all. It was rattle, bump and knock free with everything working very well.
Upon inspection the bodywork turned out to be in very good condition considering it was never garaged!..
there are a few problems though...Some blistering on the arches of both front wings...not through the paint.. Yet!
The rear arches have been repaired and painted about 8 years ago..they are very very solid and the paint is good, but when you look along the line it's quite wavey.
Two tiny blisters on the bonnet lip.
As seen in the sale photo the door jam/A pillar bit where the interior light switch is located has the most rust issue.
I'm not sure that I'm going to rush into getting the above sorted out as I wish to keep it as an original/unrestored car as much as possible.
The service history is complete (27,000mls) all by the fiat dealership.
However....yes it was serviced 2000mls ago, but that was 4 years ago! It has had work done during this time for the mot (of which it has every year) as well as new maintance parts...and here comes the next but....4 years of sitting about which no coolant change means it does not exactly have a nice blue tinge to it. It has more of a brown hue to match the paintwork I guess. I think the Italian service thrash around the motorway loosened things up a bit.
The interior is lovely...not much else to say about it other than the headlining sags at the back. It comes with every extra including a digital clock above the rear view mirror.
It was funny to see two stickers inside the boot lid indicating the paint codes of the two tone paint job.
So, all in all a good start. Tomorrow I will be doing a coolant flush and an oil change as well as giving the car a wash and a good going over checking as much as possible...wish me luck..
Oh, and photos will follow once we get a different connection on the laptop...
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