gargravarr
Member
Hi all,
Back in September, my precious Mk4 Fiesta was rear-ended by some careless !@£$%^&*() in a brand-new Astra, completely mangling the rear driver's wing. It took the insurance companies a month of arguing back and forth to do anything about it, meanwhile they gave me and my mother (who was driving at the time) an identical Astra hire car - they seem to have an odd sense of humour. Finally, they wrote off my 13-year-old 125k car for £600, and about 2 weeks ago I took the plunge on a Puma.
I'd been eyeing them up for ages, ever since I noticed they were related to the Fiesta, and I drove all the way from Kent to Warrington (225 miles!) to pick up one for £995. So, I'm now the proud owner of a 2001 Puma Thunder 1.7, and I'm really, really impressed.
I'm still getting used to driving it, but my current impressions are that it's quite a capable car. I admired the handling of the Fiesta for such a small, cheap vehicle, and the Puma shows this heritage, just further refined. And I LOVE the engine. The 1.25 Zetec-SE in the Fiesta was surprisingly pokey, and the 1.7 VVT is wonderful when it gets up to speed. I drove the entire 225 miles home without any problems, 70-80MPH most of the way, and much to my astonishment, got better MPG than the Fiesta!
The Puma's in overall good nick, and has 67k on the clock. No rips to the leather interior, could use a good valetting but cosmetically very good. Mechanically, however, it's not perfect. I've already had to replace the heater valve - only discovered after I bought it that the heater wasn't working as the valve had jammed closed. Me and the car got off to a great start when I tried to replace it, as the instant I started it up to put it in my garage and do the replacement, the heater started working again, just long enough for me to decide to postpone the replacement!
I've also discovered an oil leak. Digging through the paperwork, it was an advisory on its last MOT, naturally not mentioned by the dealer, and I've traced it to the sump; is it true the Puma has no actual sump gasket and instead is just instant gasket? I ask because I've seen a few gaskets for sale, on Euro Car Parts for example (though the actual product page won't load so I can order it!). I've patched it with sealant for now but obviously I want to fix it properly.
Is there anything I can do about the low-beams? They were very dim when I bought the car, and swapping in Halfords Ultra Brilliance (+120% ones) didn't make much of a difference, which the Halfords tech explained was because the projector lenses focus the beams so much - can this be adjusted? There's a neat rhombus of light in front of my car that ends abruptly with the tarmac to the sides and about 5-10 metres ahead of the car. Also, Halfords got it wrong, listing the low- and high-beams as being different bulbs, and I bought the wrong ones...
Final thing, where should I be looking for service info for the engine? I have a Haynes manual for the Fiesta, which helped me change the heater valve, but I'm a little cautious to do engine servicing (i.e. sump gasket) without a guide.
Still, as it drove home without complaint and is otherwise a very good car to drive, I'm looking forward to some happy motoring in my new toy!
Cheers,
Gargravarr
Back in September, my precious Mk4 Fiesta was rear-ended by some careless !@£$%^&*() in a brand-new Astra, completely mangling the rear driver's wing. It took the insurance companies a month of arguing back and forth to do anything about it, meanwhile they gave me and my mother (who was driving at the time) an identical Astra hire car - they seem to have an odd sense of humour. Finally, they wrote off my 13-year-old 125k car for £600, and about 2 weeks ago I took the plunge on a Puma.
I'd been eyeing them up for ages, ever since I noticed they were related to the Fiesta, and I drove all the way from Kent to Warrington (225 miles!) to pick up one for £995. So, I'm now the proud owner of a 2001 Puma Thunder 1.7, and I'm really, really impressed.
I'm still getting used to driving it, but my current impressions are that it's quite a capable car. I admired the handling of the Fiesta for such a small, cheap vehicle, and the Puma shows this heritage, just further refined. And I LOVE the engine. The 1.25 Zetec-SE in the Fiesta was surprisingly pokey, and the 1.7 VVT is wonderful when it gets up to speed. I drove the entire 225 miles home without any problems, 70-80MPH most of the way, and much to my astonishment, got better MPG than the Fiesta!
The Puma's in overall good nick, and has 67k on the clock. No rips to the leather interior, could use a good valetting but cosmetically very good. Mechanically, however, it's not perfect. I've already had to replace the heater valve - only discovered after I bought it that the heater wasn't working as the valve had jammed closed. Me and the car got off to a great start when I tried to replace it, as the instant I started it up to put it in my garage and do the replacement, the heater started working again, just long enough for me to decide to postpone the replacement!
I've also discovered an oil leak. Digging through the paperwork, it was an advisory on its last MOT, naturally not mentioned by the dealer, and I've traced it to the sump; is it true the Puma has no actual sump gasket and instead is just instant gasket? I ask because I've seen a few gaskets for sale, on Euro Car Parts for example (though the actual product page won't load so I can order it!). I've patched it with sealant for now but obviously I want to fix it properly.
Is there anything I can do about the low-beams? They were very dim when I bought the car, and swapping in Halfords Ultra Brilliance (+120% ones) didn't make much of a difference, which the Halfords tech explained was because the projector lenses focus the beams so much - can this be adjusted? There's a neat rhombus of light in front of my car that ends abruptly with the tarmac to the sides and about 5-10 metres ahead of the car. Also, Halfords got it wrong, listing the low- and high-beams as being different bulbs, and I bought the wrong ones...
Final thing, where should I be looking for service info for the engine? I have a Haynes manual for the Fiesta, which helped me change the heater valve, but I'm a little cautious to do engine servicing (i.e. sump gasket) without a guide.
Still, as it drove home without complaint and is otherwise a very good car to drive, I'm looking forward to some happy motoring in my new toy!
Cheers,
Gargravarr
