Car for my Daughter to learn in?

[lozz]

Yes that's the right word for the Panda (cheeky)
Or at least that's what they shout when you ..weave in & out of traffic jams..

Iwas tempted to buy another as a 2nd car .. Maybe the 100hp.

[Welly]

Well I forgot to update this, picked up a 2010 Renner Twingo, 3 weeks ago now.

Saw it advertised by a trader in that London so after a quick HPi check me and Mrs_Welly got the train to St Pancras, then a tube, then an overground train to Enfield and found it's a little beauty. Easy to determine why it had been traded in because it was due a Cambelt, 2 x front tyres, the a/c was not cooling and there's 4 funny fist-sized dents in the bonnet The car is extremely clean inside and out (looks like it was always garaged to me) and we all like its quirky charm and relative rarity.

I've had the cambelt, warty pump and aux-belt changed and had my a/c man re-gass the a/c and we found no earthly reason why is was out of gas, he added pure refrigerant and the super oil he goes on about (£100.00 per litre) and my thermometer is reporting 5.5 deg's C at the face vents ever since. The car has no fluid leaks, the sussy is spot on, no signs of surface rust underneath and everything works as it should.

The fuel economy from the 1.2 16v pez engine is staggering, haven't been able to brim-test is yet because it won't use it up quick enough Going to service it next weekend myself.

[Doggy]

Sounds good.

Guess you got a reasonable deal on the car, but tickets on Midland Mainline? Now that sounds pricey.

Good luck with the servicing.

[Captain Jack]

How much did it cost... out of interest?

[Welly]

The train cost us £51.00 for two people (I knew I'd be driving home) and then £3.80 for the overground service to Enfield. It was nice just the two of us travelling on the train, bit like old times.

The car cost £1,900.00. It should have retailed at £2,400.00-ish.

It had what I thought was 'patchy' service history with a few receipts knocking about but I bought it by sight and sound and a bit of a 'feeling' about it all. When I got home I realised the owners manual doubles as a service record and found a full Renner service history (it's on 72K miles now).

And it's only ever once failed an MOT - on a track rod end

I reckon the Twingo's are a bit of a unsung hero; remember the early versions weren't allowed in the UK but it's almost like they wanted the MK 2 to be 'right' and stand its ground against other super-mini's. I like it and my research (and talking to a couple of random owners in Car Parks) seems to prove they're pretty trouble-free on the whole.

[piglet]

Cheapest car we could find to insure for our boys was th 1.0 VW Lupo/Seat Arosa. And I looked at loads & loads.
Ended up buying a tidy Arosa (affetionatley known as the Arouser) for 500 quid.
Insurance on 17 year old after test circa 1K with Admiral, NON telematics.
It helped adding us both as named drivers and don't fall into the 'Bonus accelerator' trap, you could end up stuck with that insurer.

Cars now on 2nd boy and still the same shape!
It's so much better than my 1st car!

[Welly]

That's not bad. I know some of the Kids at my daughters school have bought cars for £150.00 and insured them for £1,300.00

The Twingo was coming up at £980.00 but needed a Telematics box, think it was £1,100.00 something without.

She's going off to Uni in September so it won't be used by her much after passing the test (if she can within the time) but I thought I could use it a fair bit for going to work it should save me a fair bit in petrol over my 2.5 Volvo.

[piglet]

There seems to be an approximate inverse proportion of car value:Insurance premium. Dearer the car, cheaper the insurance.
Telematics wasn't any cheaper for us ,if we could get it at all, dunno why, maybe poor signal in our rural area?
Anyway mixed feelings on Telematics, I hear good and bad stories.

I was commuting in the Arouser while No.2 son was learning. I thought it was quite good but wouldn't want to do too much on the motorway with it.

[jasper5]

If you are changing the spark plugs on the service you will need a 14mm deep socket as the plugs are the very slim type....when removing plug leads twist them before removing as they often get damaged pulling them out....you would then need a coil pack as you can't buy leads without the coil pack.

[dirtydirtydiesel]

There seems to be an approximate inverse proportion of car value:Insurance premium. Dearer the car, cheaper the insurance.
Telematics wasn't any cheaper for us ,if we could get it at all, dunno why, maybe poor signal in our rural area?
Anyway mixed feelings on Telematics, I hear good and bad stories.

I was commuting in the Arouser while No.2 son was learning. I thought it was quite good but wouldn't want to do too much on the motorway with it.

My insurance company told me that when the car's value was below £2000.00 & that's their book price
That they start to load the premiums R.F.B

[Welly]

If you are changing the spark plugs on the service you will need a 14mm deep socket as the plugs are the very slim type....when removing plug leads twist them before removing as they often get damaged pulling them out....you would then need a coil pack as you can't buy leads without the coil pack.

Thanks for the tip, I already saw something (on youtube ) about the 14mm deep socket so bought one already, thanks for the 'twist' tip - I'd have just yanked them off

[Welly]

The little Twingo has just passed its MOT without a single remark

[Captain Jack]

I can't imagine there's much to go wrong with it?

[Doggy]

Result nonetheless, one less thing to worry about.

Dogmobile 2 is scheduled for it's annual handbrake adjustment* at the end of March, suspect it'll want a set of rear drop links by then too.

[jasper5]

I have a 2008 Twingo to rescue, a customer has had a timing belt failure (despite being advised to have it replaced) he gave me the car to do whatever I want to it.
Removing the cylinder head is a big job on these.