JAC
New member
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2015
- Messages
- 222
Some of you may have read my "newbie" post, well today I picked up my new (to me) car.
Although I had driven a few Puma's over the years, they were never much more than a test drive, but today I got to do a 200km drive home, mostly motorway, but also some nice secondary road bends that I "visited" on the way.
I must say, this car is great!
My intention was to do my normal routine, drive it for a few months before deciding on what (if anything) needs changing/upgrading.
Unfortunately, the 2 hour drive home was enough to decide that suspension and brakes need upgrading, hence the reaon for me starting a "project" thread.
The suspension I feel is just old, it has done 120.000km and never been changed, but seeing that I need to change it, I will probably upgrade at the same time.
The brakes on the other hand... are scary! When braking with any kind of force, the car feels as though the ABS is kicking in (which I doubt, as it should have been nowhere near the point of engaging) and sometimes I was not convinced that it was going to stop. I will take a look this weekend to see if the pads are worn or crystalized (is that the correct term in English?), but I think an upgrade will be in order.
This is nowhere near the fastest or most powerful car I have owned/driven, but it sticks to the road like glue, even with the suspension that is not 100%. Driving it over 3500rpm is a lot of fun and I was very suprised that I didn't find the "limit" of the car (I usually find a small cars limits pretty quickly ), it certainly kept a smile on my face.
The thing that suprised me the most about the car is how new it feels. As I said in my "newbie" post, it has had one owner since new, who is in his seventies, so I doubt it has ever been pushed. It looks like he cleaned it at least every week, without using any products, so the interior is spotless. Everything is original (except for changes due to maintenance), the spare wheel has never been lowered, the ashtray seems to have never been opened (it still smells of new plastic after 17 years!?!?!), and the back seats have probably never been sat in. He gave me a full service history, all done at the Ford dealers, with invoices etc.
The owner spent 30 minutes explaining every detail of the car, and how it works, which would usually bore me, but you could tell he was really proud of his car, in fact, at one point I thought he was going to shed a tear or two.
Anyways, enough rambling (sorry, I am just happy I guess)! Unfortunately it was dark when I got home, so I will have to take some pics over the weekend, but here are two from the listing.
Although I had driven a few Puma's over the years, they were never much more than a test drive, but today I got to do a 200km drive home, mostly motorway, but also some nice secondary road bends that I "visited" on the way.
I must say, this car is great!
My intention was to do my normal routine, drive it for a few months before deciding on what (if anything) needs changing/upgrading.
Unfortunately, the 2 hour drive home was enough to decide that suspension and brakes need upgrading, hence the reaon for me starting a "project" thread.
The suspension I feel is just old, it has done 120.000km and never been changed, but seeing that I need to change it, I will probably upgrade at the same time.
The brakes on the other hand... are scary! When braking with any kind of force, the car feels as though the ABS is kicking in (which I doubt, as it should have been nowhere near the point of engaging) and sometimes I was not convinced that it was going to stop. I will take a look this weekend to see if the pads are worn or crystalized (is that the correct term in English?), but I think an upgrade will be in order.
This is nowhere near the fastest or most powerful car I have owned/driven, but it sticks to the road like glue, even with the suspension that is not 100%. Driving it over 3500rpm is a lot of fun and I was very suprised that I didn't find the "limit" of the car (I usually find a small cars limits pretty quickly ), it certainly kept a smile on my face.
The thing that suprised me the most about the car is how new it feels. As I said in my "newbie" post, it has had one owner since new, who is in his seventies, so I doubt it has ever been pushed. It looks like he cleaned it at least every week, without using any products, so the interior is spotless. Everything is original (except for changes due to maintenance), the spare wheel has never been lowered, the ashtray seems to have never been opened (it still smells of new plastic after 17 years!?!?!), and the back seats have probably never been sat in. He gave me a full service history, all done at the Ford dealers, with invoices etc.
The owner spent 30 minutes explaining every detail of the car, and how it works, which would usually bore me, but you could tell he was really proud of his car, in fact, at one point I thought he was going to shed a tear or two.
Anyways, enough rambling (sorry, I am just happy I guess)! Unfortunately it was dark when I got home, so I will have to take some pics over the weekend, but here are two from the listing.