New owner

[Hollywood]

Hi All.

Just picked this up for £1020. Hope I've not bought a lemon!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/110737973...WAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649#ht_500wt_901

I wanted the leather seats because otherwise it looks too much like my other half's fiesta interior!

Things to do now:

1) Replace the stereo with a bluetooth one for my iPhone to have my music and phonecalls easily dealt with, hopefully I can lift the stereo from my Golf GTi which is going and pop it in fairly hassle free, but I'm going to have to read through the forum on that as I'm led to believe the Keycode stereos cause some problems!

2) MOT and service. Hopefully when I pick it up it will have a gleaming service history, with a nice fresh Cambelt, but if not that'll need doing.

3) One of my favourite bits; given it a nice clean inside and out! No better way of getting to know and find your cars faults!

Please sooth my nerves of buying on impulse and tell me what a good price it is and what an awesome car it is compared to a fairly bland Mk3 Golf GTi 8v!

 

[evilrob]

Hi and welcome. Fingers crossed you got a good one! If you have, you'll be over the moon.

Get a bad one, though, and you'll enter a whole world of pain. I bought one that looked alright, drove alright, 50k on the clock, had the book stamped in all the right places, one owner from new - turned out to be a total bag of shite.

I had my second one checked by a mechanic before I bought it!

Seeing as you're in the London area (I assume from having bought a car in Feltham), you should take it to our very own Steavie (http://www.performancepuma.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - a mechanic and Puma owner) or check the Puma garages thread in my sig below, particularly for cambelt work - the installation and timing is just as important as the parts.

Brownie points for making the cambelt/tensioner a priority! :thumbs:

 

[Puma Babe]

Welcome to the forum.

Happy Puma ownership!!

 

[martinthrapston]

Welcome
Just need a facia adaptor,wiring loom anf aerial adapter try ebay for them

 

[deejames]

Hi and welcome

 

[Hollywood]

Thanks for the welcomes people!

I've already looked at the list, as I said in the service forum, Steavie is just a bit too far for me unfortunately. I think Dagenham motors in Hounslow will be used, less than a mile away and a previous forum member used them and was happy.

Martin, thanks, is it that simple?! I thought the keycode complicated things? Glad it doesn't, nice easy job!

Id love to have looked at it thoroughly before buying, but it had 10 mins left on auction, and was £1000, and Ive been looking at the Ltd Ed Blacks for a while and they are all around £1600-£1800, so I acted on impulse! Could be a bargain, if not I have the extra £800 to spend on it if I have to.

 

[yippeekiay]

You've got it spot on in your last post, your thinking when buying the car was spot on because you had done your homework. Only wish more people would think like this then they wouldn't be then bitching like hell when the car they bought needed repairs.

You knew what they were going for and how much it was worth then bid accordingly leaving a safe margin for any repairs that may be needed. This is ALWAYS the way to budget when buying ANYTHING from an auction or even a fixed sale.....especially a car. Well done :thumbs:

 

[Sparx]

Welcome to ProjP k:

 

[slayllian]

Hi welcome along! k:

 

[lb81]

You've got it spot on in your last post, your thinking when buying the car was spot on because you had done your homework. Only wish more people would think like this then they wouldn't be then bitching like hell when the car they bought needed repairs.

You knew what they were going for and how much it was worth then bid accordingly leaving a safe margin for any repairs that may be needed. This is ALWAYS the way to budget when buying ANYTHING from an auction or even a fixed sale.....especially a car. Well done :thumbs:

Spot on! I budgeted 2k but looked at some utter crap before settling on mine for 1.4k leaving a healthy budget which covered it's immediate trip to Tremona in Southampton for cambelt & water pump! I'm traditionally a Golf man too, trust me when I say the Puma will blow a Mk3 away in terms of driving enjoyment! hope you enjoy yours as much as I'm enjoying mine mate :thumbs:

 

[yippeekiay]

I just bought mine as a stop gap but it too was £1400. Afraid I bought it without even checking or test driving it...so I'm guilty a little....but it was too cheap to ignore. That was 3 years ago for an 02 reg and it's only the second car I've actually enjoyed spending money on even though it didn't need it.....lol.

Having a stop gap car for 3 years has to say something about it k:

 

[lb81]

lol that's testament to the joys of Puma ownership in itself!! :lol:

 

[madhillbilly17]

Thanks for the welcomes people!

I've already looked at the list, as I said in the service forum, Steavie is just a bit too far for me unfortunately. I think Dagenham motors in Hounslow will be used, less than a mile away and a previous forum member used them and was happy.

Martin, thanks, is it that simple?! I thought the keycode complicated things? Glad it doesn't, nice easy job!

Id love to have looked at it thoroughly before buying, but it had 10 mins left on auction, and was £1000, and Ive been looking at the Ltd Ed Blacks for a while and they are all around £1600-£1800, so I acted on impulse! Could be a bargain, if not I have the extra £800 to spend on it if I have to.

hi and welcome, remember if you think it needs more work than you thought when you get there,you dont have to buy it as it wouldnt be as described

 

[deejames]

You've got it spot on in your last post, your thinking when buying the car was spot on because you had done your homework. Only wish more people would think like this then they wouldn't be then bitching like hell when the car they bought needed repairs.

You knew what they were going for and how much it was worth then bid accordingly leaving a safe margin for any repairs that may be needed. This is ALWAYS the way to budget when buying ANYTHING from an auction or even a fixed sale.....especially a car. Well done :thumbs:

100% agree with the above, i paid £1050 for my Thunder with the cambelt done plenty of service history but a little bit of rot on the arches and a dodgy HCV on the basis that all the really perfect ones were heading for £2k , now i`ve had the arches done and sorted the HCV it stands me at well under that and i`m more than happy - i hope you have the same experience :thumbs:

 

[red]

Welcome to the site, looks like a good car for the money from the advert providing there's no underlying issues... even then as above you have room to manoeuvre.

 

[Hollywood]

Having a stop gap car for 3 years has to say something about it

Ha! I hope I'm as happy as you guys are! It has 77k so whether its had it done or not, I think for the peace of mind I'm going to get the belt done, and water pump at the same time. It is an older car after all, and will still be cheap for the amount of enjoyment you guys are talking about!

One thing I haven't really bothered looking at is the running costs petrol wise. Can't be worse than my 2.0 Golf? I get about 26-27 Mpg from that driving short distances in London. On longer runs I get 34. Similar from the 1.7 or more?!

I got the Golf a year ago for a fun run around car, for £900. The sunroof and driver window didn't work (not switchgear but the expensive motor) but it's been quite fun. Over 100k now though, so time to go. I've always been a VW driver, but whenever I buy cars for my other half its a Ford Fiesta, which the Puma is based on, so I'm confident it'll be a good car.

 

[mac tools]

Hello and welcome


cheers boys'n'girls

 

[Leopold]

Hi & a big welcome to ProjP looks like you've got a nice example there mate k:

 

[yippeekiay]

Mpg should get you well more than your Golf.....once the blasting everywhere syndrome leaves your system a little - it'll never go totally especially if you see a twisty road....lol.

I've average 39mpg (as my signature below) over 36k odd miles, worst was 25-ish, best 52-ish so all depends on how you drive.

 

[Hollywood]

Anything above 30 I'm more than happy with! Ace, thanks to everyone for your input!