Hi All,
Just a quick post to introduce myself.
I'm John and I was on the lookout for a cheap little runabout to get me the five miles from home to the railway station each morning, when i move house in a couple of weeks. The original plan was to pick up a £200 80s Polo, but the scrappage scheme seems to have removed all of these. The only one I could find didn't so much leak, as look like it had been dunked in a swimming pool, needed a replacement headgasket and a month of tax and MoT . The owner seemed surprised that I passed on it...
I was bracing myself for a year or two of having my soul slowly chipped away by a Micra, when my wife suggested I look at some older, more unusual cars. Years ago she suggested a VW campervan as well, hence the avatar... But that only comes out on the nice days.
Prowling round the free ads I found a 1992 Panda 750L in white. I always had a soft spot for small Italian cars, although never actually owned one before. I had a good search for a buyers guide (that's how I found this place) went to take a look and am now the proud owner of an almost rust free 49,000 mile Panda. I absolutely love the simplicity of it, and complete and utter lack of frills. Although there is a sunroof. Mmmm luxury
Of course there's a few things to fix...
Door locks
Rear hatch lock - photos once I've fixed these!
Cam belt
Alternator belt - No service history other than MoT certificates so probably wise
General tune up - the idle is a bit high and it needs a couple of minutes to get the choke into a point where it's prepared to drive. Equally I haven't driven a car with a manual choke in years so I'm happy to accept operator error on this one.
New tyres - the rears are a rather old pair of Pirellis, which look perished enough for it to have rolled out the factory on them.
And last night, after a whole 26 hours of ownership the bonnet catch decided to stop releasing! - Got a couple of leads from the search function though, and I suspect this has just got to the top of the jobs list.
Anyway I daresay I'll be along with a stream of daft questions in the coming months...
Cheers
John
Just a quick post to introduce myself.
I'm John and I was on the lookout for a cheap little runabout to get me the five miles from home to the railway station each morning, when i move house in a couple of weeks. The original plan was to pick up a £200 80s Polo, but the scrappage scheme seems to have removed all of these. The only one I could find didn't so much leak, as look like it had been dunked in a swimming pool, needed a replacement headgasket and a month of tax and MoT . The owner seemed surprised that I passed on it...
I was bracing myself for a year or two of having my soul slowly chipped away by a Micra, when my wife suggested I look at some older, more unusual cars. Years ago she suggested a VW campervan as well, hence the avatar... But that only comes out on the nice days.
Prowling round the free ads I found a 1992 Panda 750L in white. I always had a soft spot for small Italian cars, although never actually owned one before. I had a good search for a buyers guide (that's how I found this place) went to take a look and am now the proud owner of an almost rust free 49,000 mile Panda. I absolutely love the simplicity of it, and complete and utter lack of frills. Although there is a sunroof. Mmmm luxury
Of course there's a few things to fix...
Door locks
Rear hatch lock - photos once I've fixed these!
Cam belt
Alternator belt - No service history other than MoT certificates so probably wise
General tune up - the idle is a bit high and it needs a couple of minutes to get the choke into a point where it's prepared to drive. Equally I haven't driven a car with a manual choke in years so I'm happy to accept operator error on this one.
New tyres - the rears are a rather old pair of Pirellis, which look perished enough for it to have rolled out the factory on them.
And last night, after a whole 26 hours of ownership the bonnet catch decided to stop releasing! - Got a couple of leads from the search function though, and I suspect this has just got to the top of the jobs list.
Anyway I daresay I'll be along with a stream of daft questions in the coming months...
Cheers
John