General 100hp enjoyed so far but has been tampered with previous owners...

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General 100hp enjoyed so far but has been tampered with previous owners...

Thatpanda100hp

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:bang: I've nearly owned this 100hp a year and I've been unfortunate with paying out on problems, 1st ever Italian car and more than likely will be the last, (n)
I will say I've enjoyed driving it but coming from jap car background I can see why they call, Fix.It.Again.Tomorrow. I paid £2000 with Milage of 126k, I fill I over paid, :bang:
I've learnt that 100hp burn oil every 1000miles or less.. No leaks. Engine bay gets real hot, no cold air coming in, I've made adjustments so cold air can come in by cutting the grill and adding induction kit, the car had twin exhaust Ragazzon, expensive and real pointless (no power) using alot of fuel with x2 4" tips with 99bhp ?.
Sold that and got custom 2" tip single exhaust what wasn't cheap. But works much better and fuel consumption is greater... Its had AC delete in its life and no hot air, took it to fiat specialist, common faults the plastic flappy panel snapped, replaced with metal spindal £265 later.. Someone decided lower it with springs and not done the rest of suspension upgrades, every time hit pot hole alignment goes :bang: looking into getting original suspension very soon. It has abarth 500 interior front and rear seats, steering wheel, buttons don't work as not wired up.. Bigger mirrors in red that I do like, calipers have been sprayed red, green stuff pads on rear and yellow on front. It has halo lights whats pretty cool but not wired up to work Apparently the rear beams get rusty and can snap, mines okay atm, I may be bickering about 100hp but I feel I've been real unlucky with it so far and I can't sell it back out for what I want as auto trader has said £610 atm has 137k and I want my money back, has some service history but no proof, had cambelt changed at122k. Done service this year. An engine with 73k goes for £1500. My insta is @that_panda_100HP
 
I feel I over paid

I think you're right. Back in the day, the 100HP was basically a cheap lukewarm hatch with an anticipated economic life of around 10yrs/100k. In 2010, you could have driven a brand new one out of the showroom for under £8000. Paying 25% of that for what you bought doesn't seem like a good deal to me.

I can't sell it back out for what I want

I think you're right about that as well. From your description, I'd value it at £200 + £50 for each remaining month on its MOT.

I want my money back

You probably don't want to hear this, but you're not going to get it (unless you find a complete mug). What's lost is lost; I'd suggest you sell it for what you can, cut your losses and move on. I don't know how much more you'd have to spend to get this car into decent order, but I'm sure it would be more than you'd ever get back from it.

If the 100HP specific body parts are in good shape, the best way to extract value from what you have is probably to break it for parts, if you have the facilities to do so.

I don't know if it will make you feel any better, but way back when I bought my first car, I was well and truly ripped off. I handed over my life savings of £200 for what turned out to be an immaculate looking but rusted out 7yr old ADO16 (four month's wages in those days); eight weeks later, it failed its MOT catastrophically and I got just £5 for it.
 
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I will be honest I've not had alot of luck in cars in my days of driving, the panda is my 12th car and been driving for 9 years. I more than likely won't sell in parts as I've done that before with other previous cars and I'm still left with parts what's been sat in the garage for years on end, not selling, so I chuck it, as its taking up space in my garage. I had Coilovers brand new, not opened the box for my civic and sold them couple of days ago and been seen sat their for year.

I will keep the car till it dies and I'll save up for another jap car preferably old Civic or the new GT 2.0L Type R. 2018/2019 models as I know they're reliable.

I nearly had to get a new engine as my car broke down with no oil, then I topped it up, then didn't want to start for days, had mobile mechanic to have a look, it was spark plug that had snapped and dropped into the engine, it was running on 3 cylinders, after new spark plugs fitted it ran fine, as new engine it'll cost me £500 including postage and the mechanic said 450 labour cost what I think is way to expensive plus cambelt and service (engine that has been sat in Silverlakes) takes me well over a grand let alone how much I've spent so far, also had to get new tyres, garage said they don't do low profile tyres 45 I wanted but they said no and I had to get 50 now it's scrapes in the arches when theirs dips in the road.

I'm missing passenger arch plastic and they've had polish all over them, looking little tacky, I have semi gloss black to spray them back how they used to look like.
 
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I will be honest I've not had alot of luck in cars in my days of driving, the panda is my 12th car and been driving for 9 years. I more than likely won't sell in parts as I've done that before with other previous cars and I'm still left with parts what's been sat in the garage for years on end, not selling, so I chuck it, as its taking up space in my garage. I had Coilovers brand new, not opened the box for my civic and sold them couple of days ago and been seen sat their for year.

I will keep the car till it dies and I'll save up for another jap car preferably old Civic or the new GT 2.0L Type R. 2018/2019 models as I know they're reliable.

I nearly had to get a new engine as my car broke down with no oil, then I topped it up, then didn't want to start for days, had mobile mechanic to have a look, it was spark plug that had snapped and dropped into the engine, it was running on 3 cylinders, after new spark plugs fitted it ran fine, as new engine it'll cost me £500 including postage and the mechanic said 450 labour cost what I think is way to expensive plus cambelt and service (engine that has been sat in Silverlakes) takes me well over a grand let alone how much I've spent so far, also had to get new tyres, garage said they don't do low profile tyres 45 I wanted but they said no and I had to get 50 now it's scrapes in the arches when theirs dips in the road.

I'm missing passenger arch plastic and they've had polish all over them, looking little tacky, I have semi gloss black to spray them back how they used to look like.

Spark plug cracked and dropped into the cylinder?
How?
And if you tired it over with the plug in the cylinder I'd expect some damage to the cylinder unless it was a really tiny part
 
I will be honest I've not had alot of luck in cars in my days of driving, the panda is my 12th car and been driving for 9 years.

If you can identify what all these purchases have in common, you can take away something from all this that will help you make a better buying decision next time. If buying used, paying over the odds on a good one is far, far better than getting a bargain price on an indifferent example.

Continuing to throw money at a car in an attempt to get something back from what you've already spent is generally a losing strategy. From your description of this particular car, giving it away for nothing is probably a better option than paying £1000+ to have a secondhand engine fitted.

But I do hope you'll be able to keep using it for awhile longer without having to spend any more, so that you can at least extract some value from what you've already forked out. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.
 
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It's 2008, I don't know how you upload pictures on here (newbie alert) ��.

A standard car in Good condition
Private Price £730 ish
Dealer forecourt Price £1,325 ish

All the extra parts will limit sales

its already High road tax

there not a fast car by todays standards

But with the interior, suspension, lights, engine, brake and exhaust mods some of which not working are all going to push up the insurance it will limit buyers.
 
1st ever Italian car and more than likely will be the last

I will say I've enjoyed driving it but coming from jap car background I can see why they call, Fix.It.Again.Tomorrow.

They're not inherently bad cars, but they won't tolerate neglect and most 100HP's have seen too many miles, too many owners and too little maintenance to be much better than end of life scrap now. Someone who bought one new, kept it for 3-4 years and then traded it away before it needed serious maintenance & repair most likely got excellent value for the £4k or so it would have cost them in depreciation; you couldn't have bought anything nearly as fun for anywhere close to the deals you could have got on a new one in 2010.

It's true that Fiats are probably less tolerant of neglect than many other marques, but that doesn't make them bad cars; it's just that, once they're past their prime, the less well maintained ones don't always give the ownership experience their buyers might have been expecting.

Unless you're handy with the spanners, I'd say they're probably better bought new than used. If shopping new, it's hard to find a car that will put as big a smile on your face as a Fiat for the money; but if you buy used and get a lemon, the smile may not last as long as you might have wished for.

Providing you can do most things for yourself, base versions of the less fashionable models can be run on a tight budget, as most commonly needed parts are cheap and, as modern cars go, they're not that hard to work on.

There's one more plus point; Fiat owners also benefit from the support of an excellent forum ;).
 
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Nevermind Fiat reliability...

There's a good chance any car with an aftermarket twin exhaust, halo lights etc. has been ragged from pillar to post. That's before you hit the fact at nearly 140k it's probably beyond how long Fiat built it to last.

You can break anything with mistreatment nevermind a cheap car. Out of interest were a lot of your previous cars "pre-modded"?

Shame you got stung so badly on the purchase price though.
 
I will be honest I've not had alot of luck in cars in my days of driving, the panda is my 12th car and been driving for 9 years. I more than likely won't sell in parts as I've done that before with other previous cars and I'm still left with parts what's been sat in the garage for years on end, not selling, so I chuck it, as its taking up space in my garage. I had Coilovers brand new, not opened the box for my civic and sold them couple of days ago and been seen sat their for year.

I will keep the car till it dies and I'll save up for another jap car preferably old Civic or the new GT 2.0L Type R. 2018/2019 models as I know they're reliable.

I nearly had to get a new engine as my car broke down with no oil, then I topped it up, then didn't want to start for days, had mobile mechanic to have a look, it was spark plug that had snapped and dropped into the engine, it was running on 3 cylinders, after new spark plugs fitted it ran fine, as new engine it'll cost me £500 including postage and the mechanic said 450 labour cost what I think is way to expensive plus cambelt and service (engine that has been sat in Silverlakes) takes me well over a grand let alone how much I've spent so far, also had to get new tyres, garage said they don't do low profile tyres 45 I wanted but they said no and I had to get 50 now it's scrapes in the arches when theirs dips in the road.

I'm missing passenger arch plastic and they've had polish all over them, looking little tacky, I have semi gloss black to spray them back how they used to look like.


I think the problem is your choice of car, spending too much on something that has gimmicks and shiny stuff, a dog with high miles, and then spending too much doing things that may not need done, while not doing everything to make the car right, so it will be what you want, then giving up and getting rid at a massive loss.
Which is what you have, high miles is never going to be desirable, even if you get everything fixed it will never be worth what you paid for it let alone what you have spent or going to spend on it.
It sounds to like you get bored quickly with cars, that is a lot of car changes in a short time,
I suppose you have three choices
Fix what is nessesary and run the car for as long as possible.
sell for whatever you can get for it
or take time to find/choose a good car with low miles for sale that you actually want, then trade in and accept the fact that you will have to pay a lot more and be on finance for many years.


The best thing to do is break the cycle that you are on, choose carefully and get the car checked properly before you buy.
 
595 steering wheel buttons can be made to work if you have an aftermarket headunit with the ability to map buttons, there's a topic about it recently where I gave a quick how to.

Not sure if it's doable on a standard headunit though
 
Why waste money on a 595 steering wheel for an old car?

Put the air intake back to standard. It breathes cold air direct from the front grille so you wont improve anything with an intake kit. You will probably make it slower.

Back axle rust on all cars. I recently saw a 3 year old Ford Focus with an axle that looked like it had been parked on the beach all its life.

The cheapest and (IMO) the most effective rust treatment is a mix of chainsaw bar oil with white spirit (paint thinners). It soaks into the rusty pores and gradually gels. Don't get it on the paint.

Any 10+ years old car will need maintenance. Toyotas tend to be stronger built than most but very few models are exciting to drive. Lack of DRIVE ME FAST excitement = longer parts life.

Fiat use a lot of through bolts on alloy parts. Corrosion seizes the bottom turn of threads so a regular soak in easing oil may help. That's at the back end - into the open threaded hole. Not the head end.
 
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Lack of DRIVE ME FAST excitement = longer parts life.

:yeahthat:

My 2010 1.2 with oh so very nearly 100k on the clock has needed almost no parts (just a thermostat, battery & a couple of sets of front brakes; the suspension is all original); but then again, it's never been driven above 2500 rpm all its life.
 
The Fiat 1.2/60 is so under-stressed, you can thrash it all day long and it just shrugs it off.

Ditto the 900/40 used in Seicento.
 
I nearly had to get a new engine as my car broke down with no oil, then I topped it up,

Any 2nd hand car and you should watch the oil consumption, i.e. be paranoid. There are few things more basic to car ownership than checking the oil. "No oil" should never happen to anyone who knows anything about cars unless there was a catastrophic failure.

It looks like you bought a car that was "pimped". Car manufacturers spend billions on R&D to design them right, why do people think Joe Bloggs down the road can do better? In some cases Joe Sixpack is smart and improves a car for niche appeal, but more likely something will be screwed up and this type of owner has likely also thrashed it.

Only buy that type of car for money you can afford to gamble or lose and you want a project.
 
Has the cam belt been changed on time?

I had a Punto HGT that I knew needed a cam belt. I used the car while waiting for parts to arrive and of course than cam belt failed 2 days later. I should have known better but for sure I wont make that mistake again.

The Panda 1.4 16V is NOT A SAFE ENGINE. If the belt fails you will bend valves and might well scrap the whole engine.
 
I had a Punto Mk2b Sporting from new in 2005 (same engine as Panda 100hp). I used to kick it's head in everyday, to be fair it got to 130k miles without any major problem except for the common gearbox issues when it was new. But I did look after it, new oil, filter every 6 months. New spark plugs every 10-12months.
 
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