Hello Forum, I haven't been on since Summer 2014.

Since then, the following summarises my driving/car experience:

Passed September 16th 2014
Drove parents Corsa 1.0 Active 1.0 2004MY for a year.
August 15:
Bought ridiculously cheap 2001MY Corsa 1.0 for £450
£1,070 insurance commitment.
Rolled into a new Kia Rio... CLAIM!
Numerous breakdowns and repairs totalling £360
Ultimate failure of the car, nobody knows what's wrong..
AUTO-TRADER to the rescue..
£750+ down from the experience.
Cant cancel insurance (a claim is on it, that's why apparently)

So I'm in a rather bad situation as I made the ridiculous choice of thinking I had a good deal on a cheap Corsa. Don't get me wrong, I like the cars, but I wasted a lot of money on that bad one.

I posted on the forum last year about buying my sisters Panda, it was her intention to not own it for too long. Turns out, she never did sell it because it was just so damn reliable.. But now, the time has come and she really does need a people carrier for the kids etc. And her Fiat got a LOT of use going all over NI etc and really doesn't suit her needs anymore.. but hey, that's GOOD NEWS for me!

Given my unfortunate situation with cars explained above, another family member has told me they'll buy the car (from her) for me next month. Fantastic, if they keep to it! I'm paying insurance until next August anyway due to my claim, so I thought why not get something out of it. :slayer:

So now I'm praying nothing falls through and she does sell the car :worship:

And also, a remark on OTHER car forum sites about... During all my problems with the Corsa the harebrained chavs on 'Corsa C' forum were absolutely useless. Honestly, they gave very little in advice and experience. They only cared about things like spoilers / exhausts which were ridiculous. - I might be 19, but I am not impressed by that crap. I was expecting a forum like this, which I'm glad to be back on to be honest.

Should the deal go through, I'll own a 2005MY Fiat Panda 1.2 Dynamic with around 86,000 miles on it. And for the record, I am going to cherish that damn car - hoping I too can benefit from its impeccable reliability record. It's been in the family now for about ten years too, so I feel it being passed down is a very big thing and my first purchase other than a full-tank and a service kit is going to be one of those fancy Autoglym kits, to make the thing shine!

Not to be too advertisy- and remove this if it's breaching any rules, but my Corsa is for sale here. It's in Northern Ireland so if you're interested or going to tell a friend bare that in mind!


So, I've learned some lessons the hard way but hopefully I can finally get into motoring seriously with my own car!

I've had experience on the Corsa C forum when I had my old Combo van.

Most on there wouldn't know a spark plug if you shoved it up their ar, sorry, showed them one.
I had some interesting banter with a few numbskulls regarding Corsa and other Vauxhall engines.
They all seemed to think their motors all came from Luton, and not Fiat, Isuzu etc.

One of the better forums for Corsa's and other Opel/Vauxhalls was a Polish site, but you need google translate and a Polish mate!
Saved me a fortune when my injection pump leaked, fixed for a fiver from a downloaded picture and some text I could understand!

I've had a bit of experience with the 1.0 engine in a Corsa of my sisters, and I'm sorry to say it's a dog!
Most manufacturers go to some trouble to make all their small engines usable, but they obivously didn't bother with this one, as far as I can tell, it's two main purposes are to make horrid noises and terminally breakdown, as a by product, it may occasionally propel you to somewhere, very very slowly (but more than likely not propel you back).

The only good thing about Corsas, is their ease of repair, everything is easy to get at and parts are cheap which is why they are popular, which is a god send when you've the head gasket to do a third time!

The Panda is a much better car all round.
The only thing worth noting as they age a little is some of the suspension parts and a few parts underneath start to crust up.

Carefully check the springs, shocks and the rear axle, these tend to suffer first, (the bushes in the top of the rear shocks can fail too) and the sump pan can get scabby too.

Goudrons said:

I've had experience on the Corsa C forum when I had my old Combo van.

Most on there wouldn't know a spark plug if you shoved it up their ar, sorry, showed them one.
I had some interesting banter with a few numbskulls regarding Corsa and other Vauxhall engines.
They all seemed to think their motors all came from Luton, and not Fiat, Isuzu etc.

One of the better forums for Corsa's and other Opel/Vauxhalls was a Polish site, but you need google translate and a Polish mate!
Saved me a fortune when my injection pump leaked, fixed for a fiver from a downloaded picture and some text I could understand!

I've had a bit of experience with the 1.0 engine in a Corsa of my sisters, and I'm sorry to say it's a dog!
Most manufacturers go to some trouble to make all their small engines usable, but they obivously didn't bother with this one, as far as I can tell, it's two main purposes are to make horrid noises and terminally breakdown, as a by product, it may occasionally propel you to somewhere, very very slowly (but more than likely not propel you back).

The only good thing about Corsas, is their ease of repair, everything is easy to get at and parts are cheap which is why they are popular, which is a god send when you've the head gasket to do a third time!

The Panda is a much better car all round.
The only thing worth noting as they age a little is some of the suspension parts and a few parts underneath start to crust up.

Carefully check the springs, shocks and the rear axle, these tend to suffer first, (the bushes in the top of the rear shocks can fail too) and the sump pan can get scabby too.

Click to expand...

Hopefully I'll sell the Corsa quickly :O Next month at some point I'm set to acquire the Panda

Fingers crossed that it happens for you this time.

So now my job is sell the Corsa!

My Panda 'welcome ceremony' (though the 'ceremony' will be literally in my head) includes the following;-

Thorough wash!!!

Wax and gloss.

Thorough cleaning of carpets and all finishes inside too.

Full tank of Petrol (never want to run it on the red)

Mini scale model of MkII Panda if I can find one (and paint it silver like mine will be) to mount facing forward on the dash.

Burn a **** load of CDs and a case for them. I had Aux-In on the Corsa but constantly fiddling with my phone / sitting for 5 minutes to set the music at the start of each journey was time consuming and then I couldn't switch songs as the cable didn't have skip functionality with my phone.

Think of a name for the car. Someone in the family has an ultra blue Corsa named 'Bluebell', my Corsa was silver and I never did get it cleaned up. Had dents, missing paint, and looked very sorry for itself so I named it 'Dusty'. The Panda is silver, Dynamic model, looks very awkward/small but certainly has character and I hope I learn to love it sooner rather than later. Someone suggested the name 'Sterling' for my Corsa because it was silver, but it sounded too premium for such a battered car. Maybe that's what I'll call the Panda?!

^ making a big fuss about the name, you're probably all laughing haha But ah well, as you can tell I'm looking forward to getting the Panda.

Expected: Late November

Oh the name is very important! It can be problematic too. Makes it part of the family and harder to part with. Or maybe that's just me?

The Panda is certainly part of the family, my granny owned it since 2006 (when it was one year old) until 2013, then my sister, now me. So the car and pretty much its entire service history / condition can be traced to someone I live down the road from! Possibly the best case scenario with a used car..

Selling the Corsa today. £300 is all I'm getting for it, Less than a months MOT, needs a new flex joint/exhaust and MAF sensor cable is fried.. I'm making a loss but with the free Panda I'm not gonna be stuck.

SB1500 said:

Cant cancel insurance (a claim is on it, that's why apparently)

Click to expand...

Who are you insured with.

This doesn't sound right as you cannot be force to insure something, especially if you've sold it or its been written off and no longer have an insurable interest. Although a lot of the nasty budget insurers have a habit of not issuing a refund or charging the rest of your monthly direct debits if there has been a claim made (which is why I always say that cheapest is never always the best).

Dial Direct, one of the sub brands of Compare The Market's BISL company.

They told me that because my insurance was a 12 month contract (even though I pay monthly) I have to see it through with a claim on it :/

I wish there was a way out, if you think there is please share details as you'd be helping me a LOT :O

Wee Smurf said:

Oh the name is very important! It can be problematic too. Makes it part of the family and harder to part with. Or maybe that's just me?

Click to expand...

My 100HP is called Rakete (with a prefix that I can't share). It means rocket in German.

SB1500 said:

I wish there was a way out, if you think there is please share details as you'd be helping me a LOT :O

Click to expand...

Have you still got the car insured

Most Easterly Pandas said:

Have you still got the car insured

Click to expand...

Yes, my Corsa which is for-sale (but not sold) currently is insured by my Dial Direct policy.

When I get my Panda, I will be transferring this policy over. Not sure if this will cost more going from the 1.0 to the 1.2. It cost £1,069 per year but £111 per month somehow.

Also, call me harsh, immature, whatever, but I had to post a rant on the Corsa-C forum over how useless they've been in terms of pointing me in the right direction during my problematic ownership... here

I know from simply asking questions in the past and reading some of the other threads that it won't happen on here! Thankfully.

SB1500 said:

Yes, my Corsa which is for-sale (but not sold) currently is insured by my Dial Direct policy.

When I get my Panda, I will be transferring this policy over. Not sure if this will cost more going from the 1.0 to the 1.2. It cost £1,069 per year but £111 per month somehow.

Click to expand...

Monthly will be more because the annual premium is being provided on a monthly basis. £263 is the cost of your credit on an annual basis.

So they're changing your policy over to your new car when you get it? Slightly different to refusing to cancel it.

Most Easterly Pandas said:

Monthly will be more because the annual premium is being provided on a monthly basis. £263 is the cost of your credit on an annual basis.

So they're changing your policy over to your new car when you get it? Slightly different to refusing to cancel it.

Click to expand...

Ah right, I see!

And well my first aim was to cancel it, they won't let me because I have a claim :/

But then, having been offered the Panda, they will let me transfer it to another vehicle (so long as I keep my policy paid)

SB1500 said:

Ah right, I see!

And well my first aim was to cancel it, they won't let me because I have a claim :/

Click to expand...

I suspect they would have cancelled it, but where you're getting confused is that they'd have still expected the remainder of the premium to be paid still (a nasty T&C specific to a lot of budget insurance companies).

Most Easterly Pandas said:

I suspect they would have cancelled it, but where you're getting confused is that they'd have still expected the remainder of the premium to be paid still (a nasty T&C specific to a lot of budget insurance companies).

Click to expand...

So it's not an industry thing? If I went with a bigger more established insurer they would be more lenient toward this?

SB1500 said:

So it's not an industry thing? If I went with a bigger more established insurer they would be more lenient toward this?

Click to expand...

Correct, not an industry wide thing. My insurer will prorata your refund from the date of cancellation even if you've had a claim.

So what's the best stuff to wash the Panda with? Probably never had a decent wash since new to be honest other than a cheap sponge wash drive thru. I was thinking AutoGlym stuff? It's silver metallic too.

As for was and gloss, I was also going to go AutoGlym but do any of you think that's good for the money?

Any good stuff for spraying on the engine to degrease / clean it all up cosmetically too that won't be too hard on sensitive components?



Could be the end of next week I take ownership, it's pending on the search for a new car for its current owner so exciting times!! I want to order my supplies online or get them bought from Halfords in good time!

SB1500 said:

So what's the best stuff to wash the Panda with? Probably never had a decent wash since new to be honest other than a cheap sponge wash drive thru. I was thinking AutoGlym stuff? It's silver metallic too.

As for was and gloss, I was also going to go AutoGlym but do any of you think that's good for the money?

Any good stuff for spraying on the engine to degrease / clean it all up cosmetically too that won't be too hard on sensitive components?



Could be the end of next week I take ownership, it's pending on the search for a new car for its current owner so exciting times!! I want to order my supplies online or get them bought from Halfords in good time!

Click to expand...

I use the Autoglym shampoo for washing, ArmorAll Shield for wax, and I've heard the Autoglym engine bay cleaner is good.