Puma: now £SOLD!

[laser wheels]

What on Earth happened there?!

 

Had a thumb through the service book and it had the timing belt done 4 years and 40k ago so well within the recommended there then. The car seems to have been all over being supplied by a dealer in Norwich to the first owner who lived in Dagenham and serviced in Croydon for a while. Then before the last owner who lived in Newton Aycliffe it was up in Scotland!

[greengartside]

What on Earth happened there?!

 

Had a thumb through the service book and it had the timing belt done 4 years and 40k ago so well within the recommended there then. The car seems to have been all over being supplied by a dealer in Norwich to the first owner who lived in Dagenham and serviced in Croydon for a while. Then before the last owner who lived in Newton Aycliffe it was up in Scotland!

 

I was literally going to say that's a Norwich registration, supplied by Busseys I should imagine - very local to me. How long is it since it's lived away from the land of Colman's Mustard?

[laser wheels]

The last owner from oop here had it for 4 years - and from the looks of things never went near it with a sponge in all that time, but I digress - and before that it was owned by a chap in Scotchland. I'll check out the history later, see if I can find anything else.

 

In other news, I have finally had time to take it out for a proper hoon and I have to say it is a bonkers little thing. It took a while just to get comfortable in it but after that it really did become quite addictive. It just seems to demand that you rev it harder and harder.

 

Tomorrow I will hit hard with the sponge...

[laser wheels]

Was out first thing this morning with the hosepipe and took some more detailed pictures.

 

Looks pretty good from 10 feet away.

 

 

 

 

Dealer plates are always nice.

 

 

Oh, I am getting SOGA on this guys arse first thing Monday!

 

 

Now here are some for all you rust fetishists out there.

 

 

 

 

The wheels are pretty shagged but they do the job. One of the nuts* fell of while I was cleaning so just didn't bother and left them as is.

 

 

Interior is scrubbing up okay, but haven't turned the vac onto it yet.

 

 

 

That's all for now.

[Parky]

Bro in law has one. It is classically rusty and terribly abused. He told me yesterday that he did his six monthly check on levels, etc and found no oil on the dipstick. He bunged in a bottle of Asda 10/40. Tyres are a mix of whatever was cheap so it wears two Marangonis, an Autogrip (?) and a barely legal Pirelli. I would imagine it can turn left OK but right handers are more of a challenge.

 

Sis is planning to replace her Leon FR soon but is planning to let Bro have that so they both have two decent cars. I am angling to get the Puma as a project but if the local Seat dealer is doing a minimum 2000 pound px deal it is worth more to them. If its a case of "we'll take it off your hands but will throw in some nice mats in exchange" I reckon I could get it for a couple of hundred.

 

It's a 1700 too. Flat silver paint, rusty arches, no service history, no idea of cambelt replacement and the bonnet alignment suggests a cheap repair at some point. It's Autoshite Gold!

[beko1987]

Wow thats beautiful, and bringing back strong memories of my 1.7 Black!

 

All the plastic 'nuts' fell off my wheels too, and looked shit. Half looked at the Mondeo equivilants with the caliper change but didnt bother!

All the front paint blew off my front bumper, which was ruined with stonechips. Yours looked ok!

Arches look like they have a year in them, mine went from what yours looks like to me pulling the lip off with my hand! Also had rust on the floorpan!

 

I bought mine on 98k with the cambelt overdue and put another 24k on it and it was still fine when I scrapped it! I had the gearbox fluid changed with the clutch though and that made it feel alot better!

 

Keep your interior in good nick, I sold mine to a student from projectpuma for £450! Someone else had my drivers door for £50, someone had a track puma and bought my bonnet for spares, came and picked it up in an x reg mondeo ST200 for £30, another £100ish in random parts. Scrapped the shell, wheels and engine (as I had no way of storing stuff and needed to push it onto the trailer) and made about £600, their worth their weight in parts!

[laser wheels]

Wow thats beautiful, and bringing back strong memories of my 1.7 Black!

 

All the plastic 'nuts' fell off my wheels too, and looked shit. Half looked at the Mondeo equivilants with the caliper change but didnt bother!

All the front paint blew off my front bumper, which was ruined with stonechips. Yours looked ok!

Arches look like they have a year in them, mine went from what yours looks like to me pulling the lip off with my hand! Also had rust on the floorpan!

 

I bought mine on 98k with the cambelt overdue and put another 24k on it and it was still fine when I scrapped it! I had the gearbox fluid changed with the clutch though and that made it feel alot better!

 

Keep your interior in good nick, I sold mine to a student from projectpuma for £450! Someone else had my drivers door for £50, someone had a track puma and bought my bonnet for spares, came and picked it up in an x reg mondeo ST200 for £30, another £100ish in random parts. Scrapped the shell, wheels and engine (as I had no way of storing stuff and needed to push it onto the trailer) and made about £600, their worth their weight in parts!

 

That's what I was thinking too! The MOT is due next February, so if it fails that - assuming it gets that far, of course - I can get most of my money back from parting it out. It's a great little car, but the woeful build would put me off sinking any serious amount of money into a good* one.

[beko1987]

Mine needed bushes all round, exhaust, cambelt and probably lots of other things too! I just drove it until the tax was nearly out and bought my first ZX!

 

If I didnt have Eva I'd be tempted by one again, will probably go down the disposable route though rather than buy a good one.

 

They are fucking excellent in snow and ice too! It snowed really badly when I got it and I drove up to our local cinema which was closed and did low speed handbrake turns in the carpark and learnt alot without binning it! 

 

Dont have the windows open in the rain too, it runs in. As a smoker it was a massive issue! The rubber gaitor under the arial can perish too, leaking in water. Oh, and when it rains/has been raining recently, dont open the boot fully. Open it a little bit, wait for the water to run off and then open fully. You'll find out when it rains!

 

Oh, and when the parcel shelf fucks up as they all do it'll suddenly flip around as it undoes itself leaving you unable to see out of the rear window until you resolve the issue...

 

Have the carpeted rear acch liners out to lean off all the mud and buy yourself some time. Mine passed its last MOT with the rear arches siliconed up and smoothed over then sprayed black... Was awfully close to the rear seatbelt mounts when I stripped it out though

[purplebargeken]

Looks fun. Hmmmm, Ford Cougar.......... would.

[laser wheels]

Well, wouldn't you know... after six months of flawlessly reliable motoring were all I've had to do is put petrol in it the exhaust turns to dust just before the MOT. So, MOT tomorrow and if all it needs is the exhaust then it'll be done and tested. Anything more than that and I'm sad to say this may be getting binned.

[laser wheels]

And I've just washed it, too.

[laser wheels]

Well would you believe it it's gone and got through the MOT without even an advisory! Guy who did it reckons it's mint underneath.

 

So, equipped with a new cat-back exhaust the plan is to run it through the winter months and then put it up for sale. Despite being arguably the best and easily the most reliable car I have ever owned I must admit I'm getting the itch for something else, possibly French or Italian, because I've never done French or Italian before...

[320touring]

huzzah- I'm fancying a play with one of these this year- a few mates really rate them

[beko1987]

Their ok in the winter, mine was always superb. Very predictable, and the abs acted like a snow mode for getting going, just point it, accelerate and eventually it stops absing and sorts itself out!

[laser wheels]

huzzah- I'm fancying a play with one of these this year- a few mates really rate them

 

They really are very, very, good!

[laser wheels]

Their ok in the winter, mine was always superb. Very predictable, and the abs acted like a snow mode for getting going, just point it, accelerate and eventually it stops absing and sorts itself out!

 

Well it's certainly coping better than a 33 year old Sierra.

[RoadworkUK]

Sister had one on a '98 S, early, non-Lux 1.7 with the submarine propellor wheels. Bought it from me when I took it in as a trade in, high miles but tidy.

 

Hers actually held out pretty well in the rust stakes. I thrashed it around for a couple of days before she bought it, enormous grins on the back roads between Frinton-On-Sea and Ipswich, alloy gearknob is very cold in the morning and exhaust has a lovely bassy resonance at low revs. Just before I handed her the (one) key I realised it had zero oil in the sump.

 

Seems to have triggered a latent Fast Ford leaning in her, she chopped it in five years later for an ST170. I'm quite proud.

[fordperv]

Well it's certainly coping better than a 33 year old Sierra.

My sierra has been great in the omgsnowchaos

[greengartside]

Completely forgot you still had this pooma, never driven one but it's an itch I need to scratch, especially in 1700 flavour. They are getting binned at an alarming rate - mainly for the Fiesta brigade to pillage the engine to put in theirs.

[stuboy]

my mate got x plate one last year and giving it a quick once over for mot next month and found these horrors..

[laser wheels]

So, much to my surprise, Laser Wheels Sr. has announced he would like to by the Puma from me! Fine by me, as it means it gets to stay in the family where I can keep an eye on it and have first dibs on it if he ever shifts it on himself. It also leaves me with £500 extra in the kitty for something older and slower.

[fordperv]

I'm sure there's something in the ebay tat thread for you

[face]

I sold my 1.4 version last weekend. I wish I could have kept it as they are bottoming out price wise and will be worth a few bob in years to come.

 

They still look and drive ACE.

[greengartside]

Dammit! Can I have a dibs of sorts if either of you get bored of it? Pretty please?