The £1300 MOT, can any one beat that.

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RICHARD MANSFIELD2

Active member
Joined
May 6, 2013
Messages
910
Location
Elmstead Market Essex
HI,

Many of you out there will think I am mad. Well events over took me on this one. I decided before the MOT was due I would be proactive so two months before the due date I started to check the Puma over, after all it is getting old and the mileage is now up to 130k. The first thing I found was rot on the nearside sill and inner sill and bottom of the wheel arch. This was all repaired to restoration standard for £300. About a week later whist prodding around the offside in the same area I found similar rot but not so much on the arch, again welded to restoration standard, again at £300. I fitted new handbrake cable, new rear wheel cylinder,new brake shoes, F/N/S ABS sensor and a new F/N/S driveshaft (inner CV joint noisy).

Full of confidence, off to the MOT test.....failed on emissions. I needed a new CAT. Now my Puma has a FRP system and the sports cat is welded in the system behind the joint with the manifold next to the gear lever mechanism. There is nothing available off the shelf so I had a bespoke one made and fitted £450.

So all the above with the cost of two MOT tests came to £1308. Now, we could say I should have scrapped it due to the economics. The reasons I did not were as follows.

1. If every one took that attitude we would not have any classic cars today. After all how many other cars would have survived if applying a strict policy of beyond economical repair.

2. I could have scrapped it and bought another Puma, but who is to say that in the future the replacement Puma would not have the same problems.

3. I have owned my Puma 14 years and it has wanted for nothing (you can say that again :grin:). So I know my car is good. As the saying goes 'Better the devil you know' In addition over those 14 years my over all expenditure has been quite low. I just got hit all at once on this occasion.

Can anyone beat the £1300 MOT?

Regards,
Richard.
 
:cool: if you're happy that's all that matters, it should see you right now for a good few years for those items at least!
 
Fair play Richard, I don’t blame you one bit!

If it makes you feel better, mine is booked in for a new cat, fuel pump and four new tyres plus an MoT so I’m going to be about £600 lighter at least for a car that’s probably not worth a significant amount more!!
 
Hi, XAF
I think spending money is an occupational hazard of owning a Puma that is getting a bit long in the tooth. It catches up with all car owners eventually. Then it becomes a question of scrap and save. I can understand that attitude with the bulk of nondescript bland cars that are on our roads at the moment. But I just love the lines of the Puma and after all these years it is just as fresh and modern as the day it it left the production line. That's why I strive to keep my Puma on the road.

Regards
Richard.
 
Exactly! I’ve had my Puma 14 years and I’ll never sell. It’s heart over head!
 
I'm expecting similar with mine. The clutch has now starting slipping if I stamp my foot down in 4th on the level... oh dear. I think the way to approach this is to consider how much a car without an of those problems would costs. I bought a £500 Thunder-shed in need of a full engine refresh, with 113k miles and plenty of rust, but hopefully not too much rot. I could have bought an 80k Millenium with no visible rust for £2k from a dealer. So I figure I've got £1500 to play with, and the chances are that the £2k Millie would still need work doing anyway.

So at least if you spend the money, you know it's been spent well!
 
Your high expenditure has been diagnosed as the Puma bug! Highly contagious and hard to get rid of! :grin:

I have been lucky in this sense as my bills have always been a few £100's per year but similar probs as yours (and others :eek: ) so spread out the cost.
BTW this forum and the wise people posting have saved me £100's per year in being able to learn how to fix things I can do myself BUT also when to see if I were to be ripped off my mechanics! :p
 
If money wasn't an issue I certainly would have spent whatever was need to keep any of my past Pumas. There isn't another car on the road that I've seen that looks anything like the Puma, everything nowadays is just plain and similar to everything else.

Anyway, why shouldn't people pay hundreds if not thousands on keeping their car on the road. After all, a car can't be much different to a house can it...? We spend money on buying it and then spend hundreds or thousands over the years with the repairs and general upkeep.
OK, so a house costs considerably more than a car but they both need money spent on them over time.
 
But typically a house never loses 95% of it's value whilst you're spending that extra 5% on it sadly.
 
red said:
typically a house never loses 95% of its value
Let's see how Brexit pans out... We'll be glad we spent that money on our Pumas when we've got to live in them :lol:
 
My T reg 1.7 is off the road for restoration. Rust has eaten away the bottom of the inner sill so the outer sills (from Expressed Steel) will have to wait.
The Puma is a classic in waiting but it is unlikely I will see that so my family have been told to hang onto it until it does.
You can guarantee all 20 year old cars will have significant hidden rust - just look at MX5 sill problems!
I will have to wait to enjoy driving the little cat but once I do will also have to avoid letting out the boy racer in me!!
 
Mine cost £50 in welding to the near side sill, should have been £100 but because it caught fire and the passenger front seatbelt died I made him feel guilty and he charged me half price, that plus two front part worns saw it legal for a year, maybe I should mention he lost his licence 6 months later... and carried on testing... 🤣
 

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