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Punto (Mk1) My exploit yellow 75 elx

Introduction

Hi.
My name is Simon and I haven't been on here in ages.
I'm a fiat nut who has owned fiats all my life as have my family. I work in a fiat dealership in dundee and have treated myself to a new car, as it's the first time in my life I have been without a fiat.

I bought the following car off ebay for 4 reasons

1. I had one as my first car
2. I just bought a house and have somewhere to keep it
3. My mum had a brand new exploit yellow 55 sx back in '95
4. Have plenty fiat techs to fix it when it breaks

So, I'm in dundee, the car was in Yorkshire, so my dad and I left 5:30am Saturday morning in his 500L to pick it up. I was worried about bringing a near 20 year old fiat 260 mile up the road, but it didn't miss a beat. It drives like a new car.

History- we'll it was sold new to a mrs crappe, at carnell fiat, she had the car garaged from new, done 70,000 miles in it. It had its original dealer plates on it which I changed, as they were tatty. Full years mot with no advisories, and a full service history. She specced it up with a drivers airbag!

The car come with a few parking dings, original scuffed wheel trims, and a couple of light scratches, otherwise it's mint.
Luckily working in a fiat dealer, I can get parts, a workshop with a 40 years served fiat technician, a dent man and body shop.

Took the car into work today to get all the dents removed, was up on the ramps for a health check- solid underneath, just needs new discs and pads and a rocker cover gasket. Underneath is solid, clean and all present and correct. It also needs a new cam belt cover as mine is burst. Then that's it mint.
Turns out the rear tyres are the factory originals, made 3rd week of 1995, so it will be getting a full set of brand new Goodyear duragrips I have in my garage.
Surprisingly every single thing works on the car, even the remote locking and being an elx it has an electric sunroof!!!

It's quite funny because all the fiat techs were all over it today, donating parts. One of them had an exploit yellow touch up pen that's been in his toolbox for 15 years, got handbrake cables and a rocker cover gasket, with more bits offered. They also went on e-sigi and printed out the complete history of my car, showing recalls for brake pipes, airbag ecu etc which is nice to keep.

Work so far done-

New genuine wheel trims
New genuine punto mats
Original fiat tape deck
Genuine fiat lineaccessorie front and rear mudflaps
General tidy up
Clay, wet sand, machine polish bodywork
New numberplates
Dents removed
Brand new badges
Full valet

I love this car, I can't believe how mint it is. Taking bad with no power steering though.
I put it in the showroom and took some piccies.
Anyway the pictures.......

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And my main/ daily car

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Back in 1995 when my mum had her 55sx, I remember it having these stickers on the rear windows- as mine still has the factory Philips fiat stereo I found a set and put them on as I'm assuming the car would have come with them in the book pack when new.....

Also got the plates on the 500x
 

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Also did a job today I was dreading- replacing the damaged door mouldings on the back doors, but armed with a heat gun they come off no bother and now back to 100%
 

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So so. The 500x is no where near as nice as the kuga was, but I do very little mileage now my wife has the fiesta, so having an expensive 2.0 diesel auto 4x4 was a total waste, However i do like the 500x and it's halved my monthly bill for a car.

It's also nice the fact that I was in Turin for the international launch of it a few years ago.
The 500x is away this weekend getting a professional detail
 
Don't get me wrong, I do like it, otherwise I would t have bought it.



We considered one for my wife to replace her old mini, she looked at it for 30 seconds and decided she didn't like the plasticky Hollow dash, she then replaced her mini with a F56 mini which in my opinion isn't as good as the old one and has a similar plasticky feel to the 500x, that said I do like the look of the 500x, possibly the best car Fiat currently make and have made in a long time.
 
I may be acquiring another mk1 ?
My wife's uncle phoned yesterday saying he has purchased a mk1 punto as a runaround while his wife's antara is broken and was left liooking for a cat to get it through the mot, and that I can have it when he's done with it.

Turns out it's a p reg 60sx selecta- with 24k miles ?

No idea what I'm gonna do with it lol
 
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