Project Meg the Visa.

[HillmanImp]

I would like to introduce you Meg. 

 

 

Last week I updated the GOM thread with this:

 

Just been outbid on the car I wanted 

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/citroen-visa-1-0e-leader-mot-/321228514391

 

My highest bid was £370. Oh well, back to searching. After a trip to the pub with Mrs Imp who is probably secretly pleased she would not have to be driven around in that.

 

 

Well, the car was relisted a few days later but I decided not to bother bidding on it and instead I would spend the money getting the work done on the Audi as its MOT is up in a months time.

 

However I popped it on my watch list, y'naa just in case.

 

It is now apparent that the 'just in case' was whether or not I had a bit much to drink on Saturday afternoon as after a few beers and half a bottle of the finest vintage Vino Collapso I thought it might be a good idea to put in another 'cheeky' bid. The car was at £250 with an hour to go so I chucked in a bid of £260 just for the hell of it but decided that I would not go an higher and just poured myself another glass of wine.

 

But as the time left in the auction went down and the amount of wine flowing round my system went up, I started wondering if £260 was a bit silly. 'There was not even any point in making that bid as you know it will get beaten' my brain slurred at me. 'You are right' I thought back, I need to pick a more realistic figure and go for that. So the figure of £353.52 was entered for some reason and my finger hovered over the 'Confirm bid' button as the auction entered its last minute. With 15 seconds to go I was still the highest bidder with £260 but I pressed confirm bid just to make it more interesting. It was just as well as 2 people popped in last second bids but my bid was enough to secure the car for me at a princely sum of £335.00.

 

Excitedly I shouted through to Mrs Imp 'I have just bought a new car'. She has been feigning interest in my desire for a new car for the last few weeks. She even came across to Crewe to look at a Xantia with me and regularly nodded at me going, 'Yes, thats nice' and 'Thats interesting' humouring me as I told her titbits of information about all of the cars I had been looking at. 

 

Coming through to the front room she asked to have a look. 'Oh god, not that one' she said. 

 

Ah, whoops. 

 

Well it was bought now so this morning we got up and headed over to Halifax to pick it up. Its not far over the tops but as it was humid it was a right pain in the arse in her Mazda 2 as it kept on steaming up. I really need to look online and see whats causing that as its a right royal pain. You have the choice of not being able to see out of ANY of the windows, having the windows open so its wet or having the heater on full blast so that its so hot your face melts.

 

Anyhow, we got to the address and the Visa was outside. 'Dear me, its even worse in real life' exclaimed Mrs Imp. 

 

I went in the house, looked round the car. It was tidy enough. The seller, John seemed genuine enough too. I looked at it started it up and the exhaust roared at me from somewhere near the front. It was listed with an exhaust blow but this is quite bad. Looking underneath it has a fair bit of putty round it but will probably need a section replacing. However it was pissing down and I thought fuck it, gave him the money, he gave me the keys and the deal was done. 

 

With the car came quite a lot of history. Not just all the old MOTs and service receipts. I mean that actual car history:

 

 

Not only that we got some photos of the cars 1st owner with Roy 'Dedication' Castle:

 

 

and some photos of the car from days gone by:

 

 

Well, I got in the car and started following Mrs Imp back home. I set off up the hill from the sellers house and up the hill to the main road when suddenly it cut out. Dammit. I tried restarting it but to no avail, it was just turning over and that was starting to get a little slow. So i put the choke back in, put it in gear, turned the ignition and let my foot off the clutch. Nothing. Fucksticks. Tried again. Nothing. By now I was thinking I was going to have to go back to the sellers house and ask for a hand starting it. I could see Mrs Imp about 100m away parked up wondering WTF was going on and could almost hear the 'I told you so' and general disapproval emanating from her car. I turned it over again and it spluttered into life. THANK GOD. 

 

The car was pretty low on fuel so we stopped off at the nearest garage. As I filled it up a young lad with a lowered VW Passat came over to me and started asking me about the car. Apparently he loves classic cars owning a Mk1 Golf and has always been into VWs. He finished the conversation saying how nice this would look slammed with a nice set of deep dish alloys on it....

 

The rest of the journey home was pretty uneventful. There were a couple of steep hills that I struggled to get the right gear on but other than that the car was really quite nice. 

 

I was expecting this to be a clattery drive on uncomfortable seats, with the French plastic interior squeaking as bits rubbed together but it was really quite nice. the seating position is good, the engine silent on idle, so much so I kept panicking it had stalled again (anything more than idle and the exhaust was rasping) and it went where I pointed it. 

 

Braking was a little scary but that's maybe because its not moved for a couple of months. It did seem to get a bit better as the journey went on but I am not sure if that was simply because I was getting more used to them. 

 

So I made it back. 

 

 

It does look like its been in a fight. As Trigger said on the GOM thread someone has had a bit of a bump in it. 

 

 

The only noticeable rust though was this on the bonnet. 

 

 

There is a scrape down one side and the bump in the o/s corner. The interior is lovely (as much as it can be for a 1980's Citroen) and everything seems to work, even the fan was blowing out hot air all the way home. 

 

So I ventured inside to have a look at the paperwork that came with the car. 

 

The old lady who bought it new was obviously very organised as she had kept everything. She had kept all the tax discs:

 

 

And here is the original bill of sale:

 

 

I note that she had traded in another car which is shown on the invoice. Sadly it did not last much longer after her:

 

Vehicle enquiry

The enquiry is complete.The vehicle details for XPL 341T are:

Date of Liability 01 08 1992 Date of First Registration 31 08 1978 Year of Manufacture 1978 Cylinder Capacity (cc) 1130cc COâ‚‚ Emissions Not Available Fuel Type PETROL Export Marker N Vehicle Status Unlicensed Vehicle Colour BROWN Vehicle Type Approval Not Available
 

 

looking through the history it looks like she maintained it well but it does look like it will need a good service before I push it into daily usage. 

 

A very interesting point to note though is that it was previously serviced by Darth Vader!

 

 

And I have literally no idea what this is all about. 

 

 

 

Possibly something to do with the tights Darth Vader wore when he was the Green Cross Code man?

 

All in all I am quite happy I bought it. I need something cheap to run as I am moving further away from work and the MPG I get out of the Audi is pathetic. The GT6 will be on the road in the next few weeks too but it is also pretty shit when it comes to frugality.

 

There is a piece of paper in the handbook that suggests that Meg will do an urban MPG of 41.5 or 51.4 MPG at 56 MPH. It says I can get 37.2 MPG at 75 MPH but I will just assume that is right for the time being. 

[Jim Bell]

Nice!

 

Are these little things sprung and damped or Hydrualic Octopus powered?

[phil_lihp]

Winnah!  Her face looks a bit wonky but otherwise lovely, it's pretty rare now to see a Visa on the road.  Is that tartan seats I see?

[Lord Sterling]

Wow! This looks great Mr Imp! I'm impressed. Will you be keeping it in the care and comfort of which its come accustomed to?

[Cavcraft]

That's just great. It sounds soppy I suppose, but that kind of history, along with the photo's, makes it far, far better. Usually when you buy a car the sort of proper history (like you have here) is long gone so you don't get to know the whole character of it, but in this case it's just got a metric shit load more interesting. 

[cort16]

That looks pretty good I like the history. So what's the plan for this HermanImp? Are you going to press it into daily duty's or are you just going to potter around in it?

[Wilko220]

What a find. I love it when a car comes with loads of history like this. Plus, when you finally come to punt it on, you now have all the ammunition you need to produce a "Doctor special" type ad without having to just make it all up...

 

I've very much fancied trying out an old Visa ever since I took on Ruffgeezer's old C15 (which I love). Hope you enjoy it.

[trigger]

Great! I bet that turns out to be a fun little runabout for you, I love all the old history with it too.

[brickwall]

The history makes it more personal and more likely to be a keeper

[HillmanImp]

Nice!

 

Are these little things sprung and damped or Hydrualic Octopus powered?

 

Good old fashioned suspension on these. No hydraulic wizardry.

 

Wow! This looks great Mr Imp! I'm impressed. Will you be keeping it in the care and comfort of which its come accustomed to?

 

As much as i can. Will see how my enthusiasm keeps up. Its a simple machine so hopefully even I should be able to keep on top of it. 

 

 

That's just great. It sounds soppy I suppose, but that kind of history, along with the photo's, makes it far, far better. Usually when you buy a car the sort of proper history (like you have here) is long gone so you don't get to know the whole character of it, but in this case it's just got a metric shit load more interesting. 

 

I know what you mean. I feel duty bound (at the moment) to get it looking good and running right as much as she did.

 

It was the same with my DAF. I got a photo of the old lady who originally owned it with the car. 

 

 

That looks pretty good I like the history. So what's the plan for this HermanImp? Are you going to press it into daily duty's or are you just going to potter around in it?

 

It will be a daily but it should not get much mileage on it. I am planning on cycling into work but will need a car for the days when I can't be arsed. Hopefully wont be too many days. 

[KruJoe]

My experience tells me that although steel sprung, these Visas are well comfy.

 

Also, those 'Leader' wheel trims tell us you are a WINNER.

[wuvvum]

That has to be pretty late for a non-C15 Visa doesn't it?

 

I really liked the 14TRS I had.  Very comfy, as you say, cornered well and plenty of space for a small car.  The steering did seem to have a shedload of castor action though - possibly trying to imitate the DIRAVI system on the CX?

[Alexg]

The car looks great, a bit of a bargain IMO, and the history that goes with it tells a wonderful story, absolutely priceless! First rate write-up too, really a brilliant read - excellent stuff mate, thanks for sharing. It's threads like this that remind me why I love this forum. 

[For Fiats Sake]

Congrats, my aunt and uncle had an oil burner version and I always wished I'd bought it off them when they wanted rid.  Still I did get the SD1 off dad instead which proved a reliable* sensible* alternative.

 

Don't forget to regularly fart into the front grille.

[Stixy]

Great story  of bid buy and collect .

 

I love the excitement of buying and fetching a new to me motor and the drive home making a list in my head of all the work it needs .

 

My wife is a lot less enthusiastic though  

[vulgalour]

Even with the battle scars that seems like a paltry sum to pay for an entire car.  Good luck getting Meg back to tip top condition again, looks like a car that's totally worth it.

[Doctormop]

Had this on my watch list too Mr imp, didn't bid though as my alcohol cupboard was sadly depleted.

Looks like a top purchase indeed, best of luck with it.

[fordperv]

That looks a good little buy, I love a good bit of history with a car, I'm especially honoured to have met the old boy who my saph used to belong to who also happened to be the salesman at ford who sold the car new to his son, we sat had a brew and a chinwag about old times

[SambaS]

Nice one, drove a Visa the other week and was impressed

[500tops]

You should join the Visa forum - It's been discussed a few times on there:

 

http://visaforum.freeforums.org/for-sale-visa-leader-t1739.html

 

http://visaforum.freeforums.org/for-sale-on-autotrader-visa-10e-leader-t1564.html

 

http://visaforum.freeforums.org/leader-on-ebay-t1936.html

 

[Vince70]

It looks a steal for the money and rarer than a Ferrari and more presence on the road than a Porsche all for £335.

 

Cheap to run and well maintained with a good history and bags of character, I would say you've got yourself the perfect little Citroen.

[skattrd]

Cracking buy there, and as Wuv said, that does seem quite late for one of these as well.

[crapcarcollector]

That's such a funny write up. I had to read it out loud to her indoors who, like Mrs Imp, has suffered the ignomy of collecting "a minter".

 

She feels your wife's pain. Lol.

 

Good save. Like it, what could possibly go wrong pressing a 1980's Citroen into daily service for the work run?

[Richard]

Is the Visa a Peugeot 205 under the skin?

[Fat_Pirate]

No, but they used to bolt the 205 front end into the diesel/GTI ones.

 

That's unusual on an E plate, seeing as the AX was first available on a D plate.  Wasn't even cheap at nearly £5K!  Looks much better value now.

[alf892]

Nice car! good collection tale too..........especially the bit about the air of disapproval from Mrs Imp's vehicle while you got acquainted with the Visa!

[Barry Cade]

I like that! Too late for the mad dash though?

 

Re the steamy Mazda: Either press your recirc button or chnge the pollen filter.

[dollywobbler]

Lovely. Yes, too late for the bonkers Visa dash, but still top bombing. I'd advise soaking it in anti-corrosion wax ASAP.

 

The Visa is a quirky Peugeot really. Think it's very close to the 104/Samba under the skin. Citroen wanted torsion bars all-round and built prototypes to this spec. Peugeot said no, so Citroen shipped the design over to Romania and the Oltcit was born!

 

Have quite a hankering for an early Visa.

[HillmanImp]

This does seem to be a very late car. Wiki says the car was dioscontinued in 1988 so its towards the end. I will see about the steering next time I drive it Wuvvum. Do you mean it really forced itself back to centre (SOZ IF I IS FICK)?

 

I will get on the Visa forum shortly 500tops. I had been on the other week for a look around and now I have it will join as think it will be helpful.

 

I was a little dissapointed with the dash too Tiff, they had calmed it down a bit by the time this one was made hadn't they?

 

Will look into the steaming up issue on the Mazda 2 too. Thanks! It was awful and suppose it will get worse now winter has set in.

 

Will see about getting it serviced at the weekend. Will have to see if I can get parts locally were these engines used in anything else? The car is currently in tax exile in a garage about 7 miles from my house until the 1st of November but I might pop over later tonight and have a better look at this exhaust and see if it needs repairing or replacing.

 

The cosmetics can wait a little while until I get it sorted. When I look at the exhaust I will see what winter protection there is underneath and in the wheelarches as it is going to get some winter use (but like I say i should be cycling).

 

And Phil_Lihp, the interior is check. Its in good condition too but is very 80's. Here is the pic from the Ebay ad.

 

 

And the hubcaps are definately full of win.Hopefully they stay on better than the ones on its successor the AX. My mum was always losing them on her AX but that might have been a reflection on her driving more than the car. 

 

I suspect finding replacements might be hard.

[Junkman]

You could have had it a tad cheaper potentially if you'd have told me you are bidding. One of the two last bids was mine.