General Post-shunt

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General Post-shunt

pilgrim42

New member
Joined
Jul 10, 2012
Messages
41
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9
Location
Lytham St.Annes Lancs.
Having reported on here previously about having my TA Lounge thumped, I'm glad to say I got it back from repair today after three weeks (which included the holiday season) so that's not too bad. The Panda and the hire car were delivered to my door both before and after repair; everything was quite efficiently handled. Fiat managed to supply the wrong rear lamp fitting, which delayed things for several days, surprise surprise.
For a replacement I was graced with a Kia Picanto. What can I say? Closing a door brought memories of a biscuit-tin lid, the suspension felt like the tyres were at 100psi and you could feel every road ripple through the steering wheel. The engine/gearbox were OK, and the performance was similar to the Twinair......... assuming the turbo was disabled and a cylinder was missing. Think of the engine as an amiable donkey: it did what was asked, but in its own time and with no great enthusiasm.
I had a whizz round the block as soon as I got the TA back, and now I remember why I got it in the first place: bloody good fun! :devil:
Mike.
 
Glad you got it back all sorted. :)

Seconded :)

The last hire car I drove was a Hyundai i30, spacious, comfortable and
seemingly quite sophisticated. But at any speed, its quiet 1.4l engine
was spinning at least 1000rpm more than my Panda's Twinair would
have been, in the same gear :(

Its size and weight needed low gearing to give acceptable performance,
to the detriment of fuel economy: it struggled to achieve 40mpg...

Fiat's engineers really are rather clever, IMHO!



Chris
 
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