fiat

eBay… Why the hell did I decide to look at eBay?

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Ebay is both fantastic and the absolute bane of my life in one fowl swoop. I’ve sold so much stuff on there, I’ve lost count. Other than the couple of cars I’ve part-exchanged, I’ve used eBay successfully to sell my motors when I’m done with them. I’ve bought a few from there and both car and eBay on these occasions have done me proud. Having said that, though, strangely the last car I bought I used a social networking site that will remain Facebook and we’ll call nameless.

Where it’s the bane of my life is late at night where the boredom sets in and I have to go looking through the Classic car category. Now, I’m sure I’m not the only bloke that goes on eBay late at night and clicks onto the Cars category to look what’s around. Luckily I don’t drink often as if I did, my garden would have to be converted into a car park, I’d be in serious debt and my wife would have taken our child and buggered off. Or killed me, whichever would work out more convenient. Now, as I’m sure my one reader will vouch for, I’m quite partial to slightly unorthodox cars. Or as I’ve been told, unorthodox is another word for “fucking crap”.

I’ve made a list of my favourite eBay motors that if I’d had a lottery win I’d rip the seller’s arm off for. Keep your Ferrari, Astons and Lamborghinis, for there is a Talbot Samba on the list. No, really! Just don’t expect me to explian why I find a small French shopping car more interesting than a supercar.

1983 Talbot Samba 1360 GLS, one owner and 11,000 miles from new, in red.
1984 Citroen Visa 11RE Convertible, in red.
Another Visa 11RE from 1984 but a hatchback and in blue
1990 Lancia Dedra 1.6
1971 Mini Clubman Estate in orange, 12,000 miles from new
1980 Escort RS2000 in red
1984 Talbot Alpine S in blue
1980 Austin Maxi 2 1750 HL in blue, less than 40,000 miles. Yes I do quite like these!
1983 Fiesta XR2 in white
1984 Sierra XR4i, white
1991 VW Corrado G60
1985 Lancia Beta Coupe
Late Ford Capri 280 Brooklands
Peugeot 504 2.7 V6 Pininfarina Coupe
1983 Fiat 127 1300 GT in burnt orange
1990 Fiat Uno Turbo i.e in grey
1986 Alfa 33 Green Cloverleaf, mostly red!
1981 Golf MK1 GTi in red.

That’s just the last week! Previous stuff I’ve seen on eBay I’d quite happily give garage space to include a 1981 Citron GSA, 1992 Fiat Tipo 16v, 1985 Renault 11 GTX, 1990 Citroen XM 2.0, Fiat Strada Abarth 130TC, Alfa 155 Silverstone, Lancia Thema 8.32, Mk1 Astra GTE, Opel Manta, and another Samba – the convertible.

You see, most of these cars aren’t of any interest to most people. Unless, you’re probably thinking, a complete moron with a strange taste in cars. What they offer, to me, is (except the Golf GTi) something a little different. Something outside the box. I’d rather have any of the cars in the lists above than anything new on sale today. Or indeed, a Ferrari.

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Fiat Punto 1.2

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What possesses people to do certain things can sometimes have the world’s finest psychiatrists baffled. Generally buying an Italian car rather than one of the more reliable, better built Japanese or German counterparts would indicate a unique mindset. To go one further, anyone buying a decade old Italian car with nearly 95,000 miles on the clock for a very princely sum should be sectioned. So I bought a ten-year old Fiat Punto with 93,000 miles on the clock for a princely sum.

The Punto range was always regarded as being a well specced out car, that is of course if you steered well clear of the poverty-spec, entry-level model, which was advisable to do. So I bought a poverty-spec, entry-level, ten-year old Fiat Punto with 93,000 miles on the clock for a princely sum. I could not any more in that sentence as I have run out of hyphens.

To be fair, the equipment levels aren’t sparse, when compared with, say, the equipment levels of a brick. Standard equipment includes seats, dashboard, wheels, engine… erm… doors, yes, it has doors as well. Five of them, in fact, and they allow you to gain access to the interior of the car in a most convenient manner. It’s been well thought out, really. For example there is a windy thing on each door that allows you to raise and lower the windows. At the same time, it exercises the muscles in your hand, which is excellent thinking on Fiat’s behalf. The other excellent feature is four doors that lock independently of each other. This allows you to get wet in the rain trying to open all the doors, which saves you on showering when you get home. It also allows you to lock the keys in the car, which is an excellent security feature and stops you from losing them.

It drives well, it stops well and up to 70mph it performs well. Past 70mph it’s about as quick as Paris Hilton’s intelligence. 0-60mph takes somewhere in the region of six to ten working days. However, on the flip side it’s as miserly as Scrooge when it comes to fuel consumption. Handling wise, it’s typically Punto. Neutral, safe, quite fun to chuck around the bends but the steering is a tad light.

I have to say though, get a good Punto and it will be a cracking car. I’ve had two previously, both Mk2 Sportings and both were superb and 100% reliable This one also appears to be a highly likeable car. It was pretty much a steal and had a reasonable amount of tax, a near as makes no difference full MOT, immaculate interior, service history and a cambelt change in recent months. It has a few bits that need sorting such as the exhaust system and could do with a good engine service, but these were things reflected in the price. Otherwise it seems exceptionally solid. There are also a few bits and pieces here and there that I want to do to tidy it up in places. Get rid of those black bumpers for instance. Get a decent set of OEM Punto alloy wheels for it when the tyres expire. In five weeks so far, the only thing I’ve had to do to it is repair the wiper linkage which decided to fall apart. The whole repair cost less that a fiver so I’m going to cheat and not count that. So, stay tuned for the running (un?) reliability report. Go on, you know you want to. Have another laugh at the expense of a Fiat driver why don’t you…

So long, old friend

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Well, last weekend was quite a weekend quite frankly. Most shockingly I’d been accused of being a sexist pig by someone who I don’t know let alone even met. Now, as my wife, my friends and anyone who has met me will say that is far from the truth. Call me what you want but I am neither a sexist, nor a pig. On the contrary, I am an incredibly quiet eater. I quite resent it, especially when plastered all over Facebook because this woman couldn’t be bothered to communicate with her husband. But hey ho!

On the same day, I also had to bid a fond farewell to an old friend. A rather fine, trusty and faithful friend. It has been a grand six and a half years. Sadly and quite worryingly, I’m talking about a car. Its name? Fiat Stilo Active 16v to be precise. Our trusty steed that got us wherever we wanted to go. It got us from Cornwall to Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Middlesbrough, Newcastle and Scotland without a worry or issue apart from a coil pack breaking down. Once. It still got us to our destination.

It kept my long-suffering wife Jayne safe from harm when needed. It was used as a workhorse. It got used as a loan car by family members and friends when needed. It was also used as our posh car (our other car, a Corsa, can never be described as such) that we wanted to get noticed in. And last but most important – we were to bring our newborn son home from the hospital in it. That never happened as we never left home as our son decided to make an early appearance at home. And he’s been in the car a maximum of five times. And unfortunately that was the main reason for selling it. It’s not practical anymore. We need something with more doors. We need something more practical. Now don’t worry, I’m not on my way to buy an MPV, my life is far from over and as such am not requiring one just yet. Especially not one of those fucking Scenic bollocks things or one of dem well phat Shitroen Picasso pieces of wank stain.

But back to the Stilo. Apart from the usual jibes about it being a Fiat, no one that’s been in it has had a bad word to say about it. Which has made me glad in a way as if other people other than me like it, it goes to prove that the Stilo is in no way as bad as people will have you believe. Far from it. Other than largely wear and tear stuff, not much was replaced. It’s the best kept secret in the motoring world, just don’t tell everyone how good they really are. In my eyes at least, as a car it shouldn’t be in front of the firing sqiad just yet.

So what’s come up as its replacement? Well, the first option was to go down to being a one car family. That doesn’t work. So in the mean time, whilst we wait for the Corsa (and God am I waiting, as that will be replaced by something top notch and hopefully Italian) to expire and child number 2 to appear, the Stilo has been replaced by something Italian again. The Lancia Delta I wanted was sold before I got a chance to say Lancia Delta. I wanted a break from Alfas as repairing it would mean going to my old place of employment, which ain’t happening. So it’s another Fiat. A 2001 Punto 1.2 finished in Astral Blue to be precise. It’s nothing special. It’s a basic, poverty spec Punto with black bumpers and some seats. It’s not going to win any races or awards for best equipped car in the land. But it looks smart and drives well. Stay tuned for its first breakdown…