Shirley Knott

Bad luck on the starter motor, at least it's cheap and easy to fix. I'm glad the Lupo has *mostly behaved itself during its time with you, its an awesome little car that I was genuinely very fond of when I had it. I'm pretty sure @davehedgehog31 was after one of these at one stage? Being a later example with £30 tax I should imagine it would appeal to lots of folk after a super frugal city car. RE MX5's, it's not a particularly popular view in roadster circles but I actually found the NB models better to drive than the NA. They do pretty much do the same thing as the first model but with a more rigid chassis and far less scuttle shake.

This looks splendid! As mentioned these seem to have now established themselves as a 'proper' classic with prices to reflect so unfortunately I doubt I'll ever own one. I'd also be polishing it FWIW.

Both literally in that instance and also metaphorically in the sense that there will be no more home improvements until at least 2025,. Renovation work on a 1950's house makes maintaining old cars seem like a walk in the park.

You're right, bad form on my part. I'm essentially the equivalent of one of those psychotic women that are attracted to wrongun's because they think they can 'change' them, only for me its with cars. This lot get MANN and they probably deserve Crossland TBH. Thanks, it's a definite ten footer though!

Two months without updates here. Poor craic on my part but frankly it's a pretty decent reflection of what's been going on...Very little! I've now reached what they call the 'middle aged spread' stage of my physical state and working in cold weather doesn't suit me much these days, nor does being underneath them if I don't have to. none the less here's a brief summary: C1 Basically doing the same job the Lupo did but with a more modern appearance, poorer soundproofing and a deeply inferior build quality. Perhaps a bit harsh as it's been mostly trouble free aside from an airbag warning light that popped up recently as a result of a cable being knocked. The sore point of this was it resulted in forking out £65 on a new code reader that would scan and clear SRS faults (No pics of this but you can all imagine what an overweight bald man holding a scanner looks like) Golf Doing what Golf SDI's do and causing no bother at all. This has been the pattern for about the last three years I've owned it despite being subjected to daily use, not many 15 year old diesels could claim that accolade. I know there's not a lot of love for them here but for me this could perhaps be *brace yourselves* the most reliable car I've ever owned. V70 It's been with me for over three months now and has well and truly earned it's keep having been used extensively during a recent house renovation for shifting rubble, importing/removing large furniture and also (I'm ashamed to admit) as a skip to store rubbish between tip runs. I really quite like it and it actually feels nicer to drive than my old 940 turbo. Despite all of the abuse it actually still feels like a really luxurious car to drive and in spite of the rough treatment managed to get through an MOT yesterday with only an advisory about a poor handbrake on one side (Shock). I really bonded with the RWD Volvo but the V70 is now seriously starting to win me over. Pre-MOT inspection of the battered Swede yesterday morning...

+1 on the injector seal leak, I've looked a few of these and literally every one of them was doing this. The cruelest thing about them is that they routinely rot out catastrophically around the trailing arm mounts whilst looking deceptively clean up top, but at the money they go for who cares eh? Top shiting and well played to the OP, red is by far the fastest colour irrespective of any engineering nonsense.

They've had a proper go at that test haven't they, at least you're on the go and enjoying the savings from here on in. I'd love to find an excuse to buy one of these for 'her indoors' but frankly I think her 9 mile each way commute would bork the turbo and the EGR in a matter of months so just a couple of tickets for me if/when you develop back problems from driving it!

Alternators are a pain in the arse but at least simple to diagnose. Probably a bit late now but have you had a look around to see if there's anyone locally who refurbishes them? I ask because there's a company close to me who do them for circa £40 while you wait, they've saved me a fortune over the years.

Yes, but a fuel pump that doesn't leak is a joyous thing and I was keen to keep things that way so it's not something I ever bothered with tbh. 60mpg made things cheap enough anyway really.

I think the pull with the Lupo's is that that engine set up is pretty much the the same as the 1.9 derv lump that made VW famous only with a shorter throw crank and shaved head to make it a 1.7. If looked after and the belts are changed on time they seem capable of doing 500k and more without major intervention, that appeals to me. RE the Panda's, they're interesting and I recon they have the potential to out do the Lupo/Arosa's by a few MPG's assuming a side by side test with both cars operating good thermostats etc, but then there's slightly more to go wrong (Turbo, rear beams that rot etc) Either way they're pretty much the two cheapest cars to run available on a sub £1k budget, the £30 tax helps too. Both make interesting prospects IMO.

Always love a Jim Bell collection mission even if @Bucketeer seems to have done most of the legwork on this one (Hat doffed) I actually love these little 1.3 multijet Pandas, it was a toss up between one of them and the Lupo SDI back when I was looking for the ultimate budget eco-car and the Lupo won purely on the basis I'm more comfortable with VW's and their foibles and a nice one turned up before I could find a Panda. RE the EGR, I know nothing about them on this car but I will say I've never had one that couldn't be made to work again with a can of Mr muscle and a bottle brush/screwdriver combo. Hopefully you've kept your ECP receipt!

@Broadsword had something pretty similar happen recently too, bad times.

That looks absolutely amazing. It's bad form to have favourites, but out of your current fleet this one's by far and away the fittest to such an extent that I've actually been looking at XK8's on Ebay this afternoon. In short I definitely would!

Are we nearly there yet?

IIRC the Superbs are basically a B5.5 Passat, if so as others have mentioned you've dodged a bullet there! I had a Highline speced one with all the chrome + heated cream leather interior coupled with the PD130 AWX engine and whilst it was a lovely place to be, the front suspension set up is a pigging nightmare and they leak for fun from everywhere eventually taking out the CCM that Volkswagen cleverly installed at floor level. One of their lesser known 'quirks' is that the heater matrix often fails on them causing a misted up screen and rendering them undrivable- Ask me how I know ( Actually please don't, not enough time's passed yet and I'd prefer not to talk about it) An Octavia, whilst not as swish, is probably a much better call IMO.