Finally got round to getting the Wee Yellow Beastie serviced. My local dealers were doing a Please Come Back deal for old customers who had strayed elsewhere for their aftercare - your next service (which, in my case, was a major one) for just £99 all in - so it was a no brainer to get it done there. Tomorrow morning, the Wee Yellow Beastie gets a new set of Michelin CrossClimates all round (there's free fitting on those at ATS at the moment, so they only cost £60 a corner), and then we'll be all ready for the SNOW!!! Yippee!!

While waiting for them to finish the service, my eyes strayed to an Abarth 124 Spider parked on the forecourt. Pre-registered, delivery mileage only, in my preferred colour combo, and a cool £10k off the list price. Very, very tempting! :devil:

gar074 said:

...and a cool £10k off the list price. Very, very tempting! :devil:

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.... so their selling well then!

Fiat Panda 4x4 - check
ELD - check
Snow - check

Took my Panda in for its second service (£205) today and came back the pretty route.

It's a very capable car in the snow both up and down the hills.
Had to use the manual hill descent control, 1st gear and touching the brakes, on some down hill bits with no sign of of the car sliding or locking up.
Tried second gear but the car started to roll too fast.

R1NGA said:

.... so their selling well then!

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Back in the Autumn, you could pick up an Abarth (albeit with the sluggish auto-box) for under £200 per month on a 2-year PCH, which is stupidly cheap. Regretting not going for that deal now, as the cost of leasing over 2 years would still probably be less than the depreciation, even after taking into account the whopping great discount on the new price The £31k list price (with metallic and Bose) is stupidly high though, especially now that you can get an even more powerful, normally-aspirated, revvy 2.0 MX5 for several £k less than the Abarth.

That Monza exhaust noise, though... :devil:

gar074 said:

Finally got round to getting the Wee Yellow Beastie serviced. My local dealers were doing a Please Come Back deal for old customers who had strayed elsewhere for their aftercare - your next service (which, in my case, was a major one) for just £99 all in - so it was a no brainer to get it done there. Tomorrow morning, the Wee Yellow Beastie gets a new set of Michelin CrossClimates all round (there's free fitting on those at ATS at the moment, so they only cost £60 a corner), and then we'll be all ready for the SNOW!!! Yippee!!

Click to expand...

Forgot to add that the Wee Yellow Beastie got a clean bill of health on its "Health Check" yesterday, apart from slightly worn drop links. It's hardly surprising that they are showing signs of wear, after 40k miles, mostly on poorly-maintained East Anglian minor roads, with a further 2k miles (by my back-of-envelope calculations) on the badly pot-holed, unmade track to our farmhouse. Our old Mk 2 Panda 4x4 went through its front bushes on that same track 30 years ago like they were made of cheese, but the Wee Yellow Beastie appears to be made of (slightly?) stronger stuff.

So, that's 40k miles in nearly 4 years, and in that time nothing has broken or fallen off, it's always started on the button, run smoothly, and braked efficiently, and two of the original-fit tyres still had 3 mm of tread on them when I swapped them this morning.

Well chuffed with that!

Sold him! With regret as Alan Sugar would say he was fired for slime in the engine. I will miss the understated metallic blue that's no longer available. He is running well in spite of this and has been inspected and given a clean bill of health. Lovingly cared for and cleaned to a silly standard until today. New Panda awaited from EUvia in due course.

Eric the elephant said:

Took my car for its first service today,made the mistake of waiting for it.The showroom was full of 500s.Really miss my old 500 twin air plus.Cut a long story short think the panda will be replaced by a abarth 595.

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Interesting. I tried a 595 165hp yesterday and wasnt sold on it in spite of the fab leather interior as mentioned elsewhere decided to have another Panda instead. It must be an age thing.

Replaced all wipers, front and rear for new ones.

The Panda Nut said:

Sold him! With regret as Alan Sugar would say he was fired for slime in the engine. I will miss the understated metallic blue that's no longer available. He is running well in spite of this and has been inspected and given a clean bill of health. Lovingly cared for and cleaned to a silly standard until today. New Panda awaited from EUvia in due course.

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No joy on a warranty repair..
or just had enuff?

I got in it.....................
Awake at 04:00 Sunday morning, pottered about some then at 07:30 I breakfasted. After watching Andrew Marr show I realised I needed milk.
I got in the Panda, only collected it Wednesday pm, so I drove from Yorkshire to Lancashire over the M62 across the pennines, beautiful scenery.
Being my first "long 'un" in the Panda I was very impressed with the ride, it's quiet, supple and relaxing to drive.
The only bitch I've got about it I couldn't get over 48.4 (indicated) mpg, I was expecting more, oh, show it a hill and it throws a strop. It want's to go backwards.

tompiper said:

The only bitch I've got about it I couldn't get over 48.4 (indicated) mpg, I was expecting more

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<Steps back and waits for the predictable comments from TA owners!>

I love those impromptu 50-mile trips to get milk, or a newspaper, of a weekend.

Long-suffering wife's usual, dry comment is "You've been a long time?", to which the evasive reply usually is "Well, they'd run out in Bungay* "

(* conveniently, they often run out of stuff in Bungay. It's that kind of town. )

BopBopBop said:

Fiat Panda 4x4 - check
ELD - check
Snow - check

Took my Panda in for its second service (£205) today and came back the pretty route.

It's a very capable car in the snow both up and down the hills.
Had to use the manual hill descent control, 1st gear and touching the brakes, on some down hill bits with no sign of of the car sliding or locking up.
Tried second gear but the car started to roll too fast.

Click to expand...

Cool Picture.

gar074 said:

<Steps back and waits for the predictable comments from TA owners!>

I love those impromptu 50-mile trips to get milk, or a newspaper, of a weekend.

Long-suffering wife's usual, dry comment is "You've been a long time?", to which the evasive reply usually is "Well, they'd run out in Bungay* "

(* conveniently, they often run out of stuff in Bungay. It's that kind of town. )

Click to expand...

I fixed that, I got divorced. Answerable to absolutely nobody.

The Pretender said:

Replaced all wipers, front and rear for new ones.

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Doing just that when they arrive. I hate noisy wipers.

tompiper said:

Doing just that when they arrive. I hate noisy wipers.

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Rear wiper is a bitch to get off, look like it has never been replaced in the cars life time.
Have another try today to get it off.

The Pretender said:

Rear wiper is a bitch to get off, look like it has never been replaced in the cars life time.
Have another try today to get it off.

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Good luck feller, I'm not a patient man (if you want patience then go to a hospital, loads of patients there) I'll probably end up ripping it off.

tompiper said:

Good luck feller, I'm not a patient man (if you want patience then go to a hospital, loads of patients there) I'll probably end up ripping it off.

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The rear wipper axle is sticking through the rear window, so patient is required to preventing braking the rear window, when ripping the damed thing off.

Got it off with a Tongue-and-groove pliers—also known as water pump pliers.
Unscrewed the bolt to the end of the axle put the pliers behind the wipper arm and on the axle/bold and then i squeeze with a lot of force and it pop off.

varesecrazy said:

No joy on a warranty repair..
or just had enuff?

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The car is actually running very very well, and is really giving its best. When you look down the dipstick tbe though its got a layer of white waxy gunge at least 5mm deep and yellow slime on the dip stick filler threads. I really dont want to find out if this is an issue or not. 2 dealers say its OK but I am not convinced, particularly as no one on here seems to have the same issue. The crap appeared again 24 hours after service when I paid to have the engine flushed. I cannot see a high stressed turbo should have this sort of deposit if in good health. Its a sham as it really feels so good. I have decided as its over 2 years old and I got an acceptable trade in offer of £9k to just change and get a new warranty. Just wish I could have got another the same as its a blend in classy look in the metallic dark blue. I have decided to add the cbc and climate control to the new one so I get some added benefits from my £4k. This will also include paint treatment so I dont have to waste so much time polishing then beast. As I do this nearly weekly with very expensive polish I will also save a fortune over the next couple of years. I will keep you posted if the new one is ever delivered. If it dont make it by the end of March it could well be a while. Its going straight back to Italy when I get it on a tour of the lakes. - easy way to get it run in.....

Blast it Panda 2 (Daffo has a puncture). Ordered two new tyres but cant get till weds. So need to change the wheel.