Whitstable New Owner
- Thread starter ByronL
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Whitstable New Owner
Please don't say that !!!welcome to you! roll up those sleeves!-troubles coming!
The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
I think hes joking. My experience is the lowest failure and breakdown rates of any of the 90 something cars I have had, apart from our 2002 Seat Leon. ( now scrapped) I have only driven around 350, 000 miles in Fiats but can say Ive had few troubles and so far easily fixed. But stay away from dealers whenever you can and you will be better for it! While its no Panda, the 500 is the next best thing.
I am joking!(always).
Our fiats have there quirks and troubles but we love em anyway! the good thing here is everybody's seen it and been through it so whatever happens to you, some of us will find the answers (eventually)
The car has just done over 30K miles which I think is good for a seven and a half year old car. It appears in really good condition, beautiful interior, no leaks and had the cam belt and water pump, plus new discs and pads replaced last year. However the roof does have a few small patches of mold which I must get rid of ASAP. Anyone any ideas , are there any specialist products for cleaning and perhaps dying the colour back to black?
The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
I find they do like fettling. I ttink its built in due to the evolutionary design philosophy, the design has never had this flattened out of it. If you like to keep a close eye on things it does encourage you and this seems to keep things going. Stuff like careful lubrication of Panda rear door locks (never a bad thing really) will help dely the rear door lock failure... My first of my run of Fiats was the Panda 100. It was astonishingly reliable and trusty. Iin 100,000 miles it needed tyres brake pads, 1 set of discs, cam belt, 1 set of shock absorbers, 1 exhaust, a new heat shield, caliper slider rubbers and two window regulators. Only the window regulators. That is a better record than CItroen, Peugeot, Renault, Ford, Vauxhall and VW and not by a small margin. Pretty well the least reliable car I ever had was the Golf which craked and rattled, had paint peeling off in square meters and a host of much more expensive things wrong. Its saving grace was it was very nice to drive and even with a respray needed hardly depreciated at all. The best Car by a country mile was the Seat which was nearly 100% reliable until scrapped last year due to daughters lack of maintenance. The list of things needed was by then so long it was a no brainer to mreplace it. (with a Panda) Panda and 500's biggest weakness seems to be the clutch slave cylinder I might as well pit a spare on the shelf and the suspensions habit of getting rusty. All that is only topped off by dealers who stole my 100HP undertray, left the Bravo with no oil in the engine after a service and recently failed tomput all the bolts back min my TA undertray. As its also a sump guard I am very browned off about this as I now need to buy a new one and then get right underneath to fit it.
The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
Gentle application of steam then a fungicide wiped on with a damp cloth.
Thanks for that, I have ordered some soft top cleaner , but are you saying use a clothes garment steamer, which I fortunately have?
At 78 I've now been retired for some time and, because I look after the "family fleet" ( although less now) on my front driveway, most of the neighbours are aware that I "know about cars" and tend to pop in for advice or a second opinion when they are worried about something. Noises from loose undertrays are depressingly frequent and usually due to fixings being absent. I think this is depressingly common and it's something I quite often see when following a car down the road. (Observe it flapping in the airstream) It's one of the first things I check if one of the family vehicles have had to go into a workshop - which, as my physical abilities are now declining, is becoming more frequent.
