Another one bites the dust

[PhilLew]

The time has come to bid a fond farewell to my little Puma, now in the care of it’s new owner the brave little car will give up it’s vital organs to give life to a Fiesta track car.

I only bought it as a little run around for the winter and it served its purpose very well. I was very pleasantly surprised by the little guy, but I’m preaching to the converted, you already know how good they are.

In terms of depreciation and maintenance it’s been free motoring, I bought it for £500 ran it for 6 months and sold it for £525, the only mechanical repair it required in that time was a set of brake shoes. Where else can you have so much fun for 6 months for free!!

Given the frequency with which I change cars it’s quite likely I’ll be back in a Puma some day and I’ll make sure it’s a good one next time (might even wash it) but for the moment it’s back into the MGF for fun and a (yet to be determined) large saloon for family taxi duties. (thinking of X or S type Jag, any opinions?)

Thank you all for the warm welcome, good advice and friendly banter, I’ll keep my account open and pop in from time to time just to catch up, I have to say, it’s been a blast!

Cheers.

Phil.

 

[XIIVVX]

I'm an X-Type owner (Jagdeo) and have been for four years.

The 2litre diesel was my choice of FRP replacement, but mainly because I suddenly had huge motorway distances to cover. Get it specced correctly (Climate/Cruise/Leather) and you have a great way of covering distance and arriving relaxed having returned around 50mpg. The built-in sat-nav is not really worth having, it's an outdated and clunky unit that can't match even a phone gps these days. If you need a little more power there is a simple plug-in unit that will deliver an extra 20-25bhp for less than £200. Well worth having

The only weak point is clutch replacement, which is £1,000 or thereabouts due to the fancy flywheel.

But they are cheap as chips and have virtually stopped depreciating. Mine is now approaching 180,000 having started at 111,000

Once you get onto petrol, the small-engine one is awful, with the larger ones you are paying for a lot of fuel, and there can be a big gotcha with the transfer box for the 4WD.

I have never regretted buying the X-Type and can see it being on the fleet for many years yet.