My name's Eddy, I live in the Lake District (well on the edge of it, at least) and I own a 406. I bought it by accident almost, as an emergency-replacement. I'd have bought literally anything that was available immediately, road-legal, and the right price. Even a grey diesel Golf, which shows you just how desperate I was! However, one of the dealers I approached happened to have this hiding behind the gate. MoT and tax still valid and I could have it for not much more than scrap value, so I grabbed it. So what have I bought?
This was the first pic, on the afternoon I brought it home (as much as a mile, lol) in January. It's a 1996 P 2.0 GLX in Nordic Green, manual with towbar, aircon and an aftermarket Pioneer stereo. I've washed it since; well took it down the road to Sergei's Shiny Suds anyway. You can see it had no prep from the dealer at all! I pressed it into daily service immediately, as I drive a bakery van so I need to be able to get there at silly o'clock in the morning. It started letting me down, which was only an issue the first time as it was unexpected: either the starter or solenoid was sticking. A few taps with a hammer handle soon gets it going. However these occasions were increasing in frequency, so I finally spent some cash last week and picked up a used 306 starter. I'm glad I had a handy garage fit it! Why would one put the starter in such a ridiculous place, way up under the inlet tracts? Anyway, it starts much better now. I have no idea when the cambelt was last changed, so next week the garage is going to have a look at that, and change it if it looks old. I can see me getting at least one more MoT out of this... which considering I bought it as a scrapper, isn't bad. I'm also taking it on a Euro road trip in a few weeks! Well I have to, it's the only car I own at the moment! I'm enjoying it. It drives very well overall (been up the coast one afternoon) and is very comfy on my little commute.
I've always had old cars. I'm used to them being noisy, draughty, leaky, feeble, unreliable... all before their tenth birthday. This is 17 years old and is none of the above. It's almost refreshing!
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Run, Eddy. You have no idea what you stumbled upon here....
