we seriously intend to keep our 2003 1.2 dynamic panda for at least another 10 years. Long gone are the days of changing cars.
In Portugal, in general, cars don't rot !.
Mechanically they are usually excellent too as we have good dealers and lots and lots of backstreet traders with 30 years experience and more on all types. You choose the dealer for techy stuff if you cant do it yourself, and the time served small business for normal work. word of mouth, you get quality.
You see 1985 cars driving around like they cane out of the showroom, The most frequent 'repair' is a respray on older cars due to sun fading, and they have that down to a fine art. Minimum wage is only about3.5 to 4 euros an hour.. so no worries if you find the right 'man for the job'.....
Then we have the Germans, they tend to look after their motors, and bend em a lot lol, so you get a lot of raving mint parts on ebay Germany with cheap postage to here...

Part from rust I think people in the UK get bored and also high labour costs mean old cars are not worth while. I had a V reg Corsa years ago it was mint and I replaced all the suspension, brakes etc then the head gasket went. It needed a new chain two so garage bill would have been around £700. The car is still on the road and would have been a cheap fix for a mechanic but for me the high labour costs killed my ownership of that car.

I then replaced it with a brand new Panda.

JD82 said:

Part from rust I think people in the UK get bored and also high labour costs mean old cars are not worth while. I had a V reg Corsa years ago it was mint and I replaced all the suspension, brakes etc then the head gasket went. It needed a new chain two so garage bill would have been around £700. The car is still on the road and would have been a cheap fix for a mechanic but for me the high labour costs killed my ownership of that car.

I then replaced it with a brand new Panda.

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Yeah I think us and the Germans do change cars too readily, but also the resale on ours is generally poor. In Spain a battered but drivable 1982 Renault 18 is likely to sell for £2000! Something admirable about all of that.

Some used cars aren't worth it if you can't "do a bit" yourself.

I use the Jag forum for the X Type, I'm often amazed how much people will pay dealers and indies for quite simple jobs on cars that, to be honest, aren't worth 3k.

There are some incredible cheap deals around at the momment.
My sister has just ordered a new Mazda 2 on a PCP deal, 0% finance, £250 deposit, 10k a year mileage, £150 a month over 4 years.

Our new Panda, deposit (trade in of Archie), 5k a year (it won't do that as it's a city hack) with GAP insurance, service plan, £105 a month over 4 years. A month's bus pass would cost £77.60 a month!

AB100 said:

Yeah I think us and the Germans do change cars too readily, but also the resale on ours is generally poor. In Spain a battered but drivable 1982 Renault 18 is likely to sell for £2000! Something admirable about all of that.

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Quite right, for some reason, the Portuguese (in the north) tend to really look after their cars, possibly due to their general longevity (the cars and the people ) but also due to the very low earnings meaning a car IS a luxury item and is treated as such. Also a supply of very well skilled small family or one man and son garages charging sensible prices. I paid nearly as much for an 04 plate 1,2 as a Saucer Panda would have cost me in the UK. but thats how it is, my car is like new - underneath it looks like it just came out of the factory.
And, as said, we get the German folk to write them off, late model, low miles , extremely well looked after, then we buy the parts lol..

OK - I've sent you my VIN and am hoping that I have the car that spent the longest time sat in Grimsby docks.


It's one of the last registered 100HP's - 2 March 2011


I'm expecting a build date of 2010 sometime.

havent got a pm ?
try again or my username at yahoo dot co dot uk

got it and sent, that was an interesting one, very well specced -
Must be more info on the system on the later cars..
Enjoy, payment by small brown envelope - the UK Yacht with the Silver Fiat Panda, Portugal

captainslarty said:

got it and sent, that was an interesting one, very well specced -
Must be more info on the system on the later cars..
Enjoy, payment by small brown envelope - the UK Yacht with the Silver Fiat Panda, Portugal

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Thanks - there was indeed a lot of detail there. We traded in our 3 year old 500 Sport for this Panda 3 years ago. I wanted white, was happy that it had the roof, the Pandamonium kit (stripe removed immediately) and it came with the sub-woofer (though never use the stereo).


So built built July 2010, purchased March 2011. 8 months. It's run perfect since day one and has almost 16000 miles........

Yes, I imagine it was a dealer special with all the toys like that - I think it has every extra going lol .. that is probably why it was sat a while - in a showroom in pride of place - then of course, new model comes along, and so does interested punter - you. ! sounds like a great deal on a great car - enjoy. !
Cap.

Mine was built 2007, registered 2011. Do I win?

Shires said:

Mine was built 2007, registered 2011. Do I win?

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You win...........though I'll reserve judgement as 6 months ago Woodleigh had a yellow Panda 4x4 petrol that was registered on 63 plate but must have been much earlier.

there is a major difference between first registered and previously registered - cant remember when or if the rules changed in the UK, but some cars imported where just declared as something like 'not new at time of first registration'
I have not been back to the uk for more than a few days in 10 years.. so who knows what has changed apart from more corruption and expense (and tha's only the government

I restored and re registered a Triumph motorbike a few years ago.

It had lost it's original logbook and reg number, so it needed an owners club (club has to be on DVLA's list) to date it from the frame number.

Before you can apply for a reg number, it must be insured (on the frame number, dodge insurance companies only do it for 7 days) and MOT'd on the frame number.

When it came to MOT it, the tester fills out the details on his computer from the details from the dating cert.

As I only got a year of manufacture and not an exact date and the frame number it's self (as that's what the owners club dated), the tester could fill in any date of that year and name the bike anything he wanted (though profanity isn't accepted, I did check!).

I ended up with a log book that stated the bike was registered on my day of birth.
Manufacturer - Triumph
Model - Bonerville

Unluckily, the log book came back with Non Transferable number printed on it, shame as it was 819 GIT

Could someone look up my car?

ZFA16900000558197. '06 plate.

Cheers!

1.3 MJTD 70CV 51KW Dynamic
Built 7/1/2006
Engine number 1078224

Goudrons said:

1.3 MJTD 70CV 51KW Dynamic
Built 7/1/2006
Engine number 1078224

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Hi Mate, what version of ePER are you running, just got 01/14 (V80?) and it runs superbly on win 8.1 in Firefox. I was using a VM for an older version. It also install the database to the HD so no messing with Virtual drives or real drives etc. The old one only anted internet explorer as well which was a pain.
Excellent. That and a good copy of eLearn !!. - and MultiecuScan Multiplex version.. and trusty old Haynes, cant get much more info lol.