PaulQ
New member
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2014
- Messages
- 108
Hello everyone.
I ended up with a Puma as I had sold my main car because it was bigger than I required and it was a diesel but only doing shortish runs but had no idea what car I wanted to replace it with. Every make and model I looked at had some horrible disadvantage - I still have no idea what I want.
Years ago, in a similar position, I bought an old Vauxhall Cavalier for a few hundred - the thing was bulletproof and I held on to it for ages before persuading myself that I needed something more up-to-date :roll: . So I applied the same logic and looked round for an "interesting stand-in" car.
I had narrowed it down to a 2002 Toyota Celica or a Mazda MX-5 of a similar age and then I saw the Puma on Youtube ( Nürburgring, Topgear, etc.) and then I saw how cheap they were. I went off to see a few and decided that the only criteria worth applying were "Does it have tax and an MOT? If so, how long?"
So I ended up with "Tudge" (from the numberplate: TUJ) a moondust, 1.7, 2000: 12 month MOT, 6 months tax, 4 new tyres, recent clutch and cambelt change. Yes, it has the designer bubbly wheel arches, some ar*e had keyed it on the Front N/S, there's a bonking coming from somewhere (I suspected the spare was bouncing around, but this is not the case) the c/locking didn't work and neither did the advertised a/c but it had a year's MOT and 6 month's tax and was very cheap. But, hey, this was a temporary car.
You know how, if you're a cattle farmer, the last thing you should do is give the animals names? On the drive back from the West Midlands to St Albans (100 miles) every burst of acceleration, the torque, the smooth ride, every bend, every gear change just filled me with happiness - a car with no red line on the rev counter! I bonded with the car. In my life, I've driven about a million miles and I have never been so impressed. "Tudge" became a pet.
From "run it until it drops and scrap it", I refilled the a/c -> it works; had the wheels balanced and tracked -> much better, fixed the c/locking by reprogramming, booked it in for a couple of hundred pounds of welding and anti-rusting to cover the MOT advisories, Fixed the oil leak (rocker cover), stuck on new wheel caps and a new rear fog light and followed all the links to the Pumaschmied wheel arch replacements -> I'm very tempted.
So, after the welding, I'll have an idea if Tudge is likely to live longer than the MOT: if he is, I will start to empty my bank account in a futile gesture to recapture my youth.
They are wonderful cars, aren't they? :grin:
I ended up with a Puma as I had sold my main car because it was bigger than I required and it was a diesel but only doing shortish runs but had no idea what car I wanted to replace it with. Every make and model I looked at had some horrible disadvantage - I still have no idea what I want.
Years ago, in a similar position, I bought an old Vauxhall Cavalier for a few hundred - the thing was bulletproof and I held on to it for ages before persuading myself that I needed something more up-to-date :roll: . So I applied the same logic and looked round for an "interesting stand-in" car.
I had narrowed it down to a 2002 Toyota Celica or a Mazda MX-5 of a similar age and then I saw the Puma on Youtube ( Nürburgring, Topgear, etc.) and then I saw how cheap they were. I went off to see a few and decided that the only criteria worth applying were "Does it have tax and an MOT? If so, how long?"
So I ended up with "Tudge" (from the numberplate: TUJ) a moondust, 1.7, 2000: 12 month MOT, 6 months tax, 4 new tyres, recent clutch and cambelt change. Yes, it has the designer bubbly wheel arches, some ar*e had keyed it on the Front N/S, there's a bonking coming from somewhere (I suspected the spare was bouncing around, but this is not the case) the c/locking didn't work and neither did the advertised a/c but it had a year's MOT and 6 month's tax and was very cheap. But, hey, this was a temporary car.
You know how, if you're a cattle farmer, the last thing you should do is give the animals names? On the drive back from the West Midlands to St Albans (100 miles) every burst of acceleration, the torque, the smooth ride, every bend, every gear change just filled me with happiness - a car with no red line on the rev counter! I bonded with the car. In my life, I've driven about a million miles and I have never been so impressed. "Tudge" became a pet.
From "run it until it drops and scrap it", I refilled the a/c -> it works; had the wheels balanced and tracked -> much better, fixed the c/locking by reprogramming, booked it in for a couple of hundred pounds of welding and anti-rusting to cover the MOT advisories, Fixed the oil leak (rocker cover), stuck on new wheel caps and a new rear fog light and followed all the links to the Pumaschmied wheel arch replacements -> I'm very tempted.
So, after the welding, I'll have an idea if Tudge is likely to live longer than the MOT: if he is, I will start to empty my bank account in a futile gesture to recapture my youth.
They are wonderful cars, aren't they? :grin:
welcome to the site, nice introduction!
