Seeing as buying a brand spanking new Classic Panda is a thing of, well, 11 or so years ago, I was wondering on the condition of your Panda(s) at the time of buying.
I spotted mine in the AutoTrader, complete with near useless night-time photos, but a good enough spec list (sunroof, low miles etc). I popped with my mum to Wigan and found the dealer pretty easily. Bridgemount Car Sales for those who may ever need to know. Had a quick skim through the forecourt but there was no Panda to be seen anywhere. After a few minutes of feeling a bit lost, the dealer popped out and I asked where the Panda was.
He took me around the corner, past his little repair shop, and there sat Rufus, squished in a corner and used by the dealer to tootle around picking cars up. It wasn't very clean, had the most horrific steering wheel cover on known to man, made out of some bizarre plasticky rubber material and held on by washing line or something. My mum chatted to the dealer and I had a play, checking every inch over for rust and all the rest. The interior was particularly bad, sweet wrappers everywhere, loose wires, and a collection of gravel in the rubber (hehe) floor. The paint was pretty badly faded too, especially on the bonnet.
Took her for a good drive and fell in love. Wind in the hair, no mechanical mischiefs, and a level of growl and tug from the engine I never imagined possible.
Anyway after much thought, wandering around the car and weighing up good and bad points, I bought him (a male car, what?) and tootled home with mum behind.
And here came the fun, and ultimately the main subject of discussion for this thread.
Off came the steering wheel cover. Revealing a rather brutal attack on the top of the steering wheel, a 2mm or so gap was there. This was amended with a nice smelling leather steering wheel cover, but I was perplexed by the gap. Meanwhile, the interior was cleaned and hoovered, the boot and underneath the rear seats revealed a particularly alarming collection of melted Pick & Mix, castors (y'know, dead maggots, I often don't trust my Dad's names for things) and, a whopping £2.54 of loose change. I also found a toy gun (tiny, about an inch long), which is my Panda's mascot and sits in the tray by the gearlever.
It took several hours to get the inside in a likeable shape. Even the nodding dog, which was crudely drilled into the parcel shelf, was renewed with a Churchill one, although he's currently obscured by a Gran Turismo 4 window sticker.
The next task was the outside. Namely the paint. A thorough wash and dry was followed by, more or less, a whole day of laborious polishing. My brother also cleaned up the bumpers and tyres with some Back to Black, and at long last I was happy.
But what about that sodding gap in the steering wheel? The previous owner, it was revealed, was disabled, and so my deduction was the gap was to accomodate steering wheel housed accelerator and brake controls. I'm still not concrete about this, and it's certainly not something which haunts me on a daily basis, heh, but there ya go. This meant the car had to be taxed in Chester and classified as non-disabled. Fun fun.
So, to sort of conclude, my Panda came with a lot of peoples memories. That of a family whose kids had a sweet tooth (but which kids don't!) and a seemingly keen fisherman.
I spotted mine in the AutoTrader, complete with near useless night-time photos, but a good enough spec list (sunroof, low miles etc). I popped with my mum to Wigan and found the dealer pretty easily. Bridgemount Car Sales for those who may ever need to know. Had a quick skim through the forecourt but there was no Panda to be seen anywhere. After a few minutes of feeling a bit lost, the dealer popped out and I asked where the Panda was.
He took me around the corner, past his little repair shop, and there sat Rufus, squished in a corner and used by the dealer to tootle around picking cars up. It wasn't very clean, had the most horrific steering wheel cover on known to man, made out of some bizarre plasticky rubber material and held on by washing line or something. My mum chatted to the dealer and I had a play, checking every inch over for rust and all the rest. The interior was particularly bad, sweet wrappers everywhere, loose wires, and a collection of gravel in the rubber (hehe) floor. The paint was pretty badly faded too, especially on the bonnet.
Took her for a good drive and fell in love. Wind in the hair, no mechanical mischiefs, and a level of growl and tug from the engine I never imagined possible.
Anyway after much thought, wandering around the car and weighing up good and bad points, I bought him (a male car, what?) and tootled home with mum behind.
And here came the fun, and ultimately the main subject of discussion for this thread.
Off came the steering wheel cover. Revealing a rather brutal attack on the top of the steering wheel, a 2mm or so gap was there. This was amended with a nice smelling leather steering wheel cover, but I was perplexed by the gap. Meanwhile, the interior was cleaned and hoovered, the boot and underneath the rear seats revealed a particularly alarming collection of melted Pick & Mix, castors (y'know, dead maggots, I often don't trust my Dad's names for things) and, a whopping £2.54 of loose change. I also found a toy gun (tiny, about an inch long), which is my Panda's mascot and sits in the tray by the gearlever.
It took several hours to get the inside in a likeable shape. Even the nodding dog, which was crudely drilled into the parcel shelf, was renewed with a Churchill one, although he's currently obscured by a Gran Turismo 4 window sticker.
The next task was the outside. Namely the paint. A thorough wash and dry was followed by, more or less, a whole day of laborious polishing. My brother also cleaned up the bumpers and tyres with some Back to Black, and at long last I was happy.
But what about that sodding gap in the steering wheel? The previous owner, it was revealed, was disabled, and so my deduction was the gap was to accomodate steering wheel housed accelerator and brake controls. I'm still not concrete about this, and it's certainly not something which haunts me on a daily basis, heh, but there ya go. This meant the car had to be taxed in Chester and classified as non-disabled. Fun fun.
So, to sort of conclude, my Panda came with a lot of peoples memories. That of a family whose kids had a sweet tooth (but which kids don't!) and a seemingly keen fisherman.
Last edited:
