Car for my Daughter to learn in?

[Welly]

They are quite easy cars with simple petrol engines but they can't be neglected, ironically they're reliable enough to be neglected.

I had the cambelt, warty pump and aux belt changed on ours* also oil & filter, air filter, cabin filter, spark plugs and brakes, and two front tyres, and the air con service....hang on it's starting to sound like my car now

Jasper, a tidy running 08 Twingo should net you £1,000.00 ??

[steve_earwig]

A 2008 Twingo for a grand you say? https://www.njuskalo.hr/karambolirani-a ... s-24137597

[jasper5]

I'm hoping to make about a grand, yes.

Perhaps I should take it out your way Steve?

[DaiRees]

Well lookie here, a fred about cars for young uns! I'm considerably tighter than you Welters and had set myself a budget of £500 max for my boy's first car. Been keeping a lazy eye out, well he isn't 17 until June, half thinking that if we got something sooner I'll run around in it and save the Vulva some of the short journeys to work and around town that can't be doing it any good.

Anyway I wasn't really taken with much, small cars within that budget are either chavved out or completely knackered. An unmolested, well kept 10 year old Fraud Fista or Poxall Corsa or similar will cost you upwards of £1500!

So last weekend we went to have a look at this...

Awww, doesn't he look chuffed!!


It's a Punto Active Sport 1.2 8V, shade over 100K and up for £500. Crawled all over it and it's very straight, a few stone chips on the bonnet but nothing of note wrong with it, drove lovely without any noises or problems, so I offered 400 and shook on 450. Quite pleased with that.

Going to enjoy having a car I can tinker with a bit again It's SORNed at the moment, think I'm going to tax and insure it from next month...

Jasper, any pointers?

Welters, how's the insurances for your daughter?

[jasper5]

My son had a Punto for a couple of years and worked in the Volvo dealers (which is also Fiat dealers)...there are several common faults to keep your eyes open for.

Heater fan...if you get a problem with heater fan only working on high speed it will be the module under the passenger's side dash...you will most likely have to replace a loom section that goes under the centre console (you buy it as a loom section with connections.)....look at the wires going to the module for any signs of burning.
Top strut mounts...I've replaced dozens...they get rough and noisy.
Coil springs and front shocks...I've replaced dozens.
N/S driveshaft oil seal...again, replaced dozens.
Rear lights leak water into the car, any signs of water ingress will be light unit sealing issue.

Wipers....The wiper unit fails, it has the wiper motor built into the unit...there is a fault on the wiper motor top relating to some electrical fault but I've never been able to sort it...if you take off the lid and connect 12v to the 2 wires the wipers work, so the issue is with the wiring in the motor lid, the wiper linkages are a problem as well.

The major thing you have to watch for is a noisy gearbox which has a gearbox oil leak as a symptom, be paranoid about gearbox oil leaks!
The fault is a failed first motion shaft oil seal which gets ripped to bits when the first motion shaft bearing fails....with the box out the bearing and seal is easily replaced.
The top gear linkage which mounts on top of the gearbox has an oil seal which fails...easy fix by removing the top bolts...there is an odd way of removing the gear linkage shaft but there's lots of online info...the Fiat forums are very good.

I know I've listed lots of stuff, but seriously, the Punto is a good little car...my son had the water leak, driveshaft and gear linkage oil seal leaks, 4 top mounts and 2 shockers, plus the wiper unit fault in the time he had it....not all at once.

[DaiRees]

Thanks Jasper, will keep an eye on those things.

Had a first chance to have a really good look at it yesterday, can't find anything of note wrong with it at all so for. Service history is poor but it's clearly been serviced recently, oil filter looks new and the oil is clean (although it has been overfilled a bit), air filter is clean, got new coil packs and leads, exhaust is very recent. I need to take the covers off the timing belt for a look and unless it's obviously brand new I think I'll change it because I don't know when it was last done. Other than that the list of things to do is very short; air filter housing is loose because of a stripped thread so I need to replace a bolt, there's also a bolt missing from the exhaust, needs a wash and a polish, oh and the front left speaker is blown .

The only other thing is that it only has one key, I've been looking on 'tinterweb about how to get another cut and programmed. It'd be at least 2 limbs form a main stealer and a lot less from an independent, but still expensive! Currently undecided as to whether it's worth it...

[Bailes1992]

Becca had one as her 2nd car! It had HG failure about two months after purchase, then 6 months after that it started shutting off randomly, about 5 different garages along with her Father and myself never got to the bottom of it.

[jasper5]

Replacing the timing belt is a very easy job on the Punto, I usually do them in less than hour (25 minutes is my record)...the Punto engine does NOT suffer any damage if the belt breaks.

The early Punto used to suffer head gasket problems but I haven't heard of or seen one for a very long time.

Missing bolts on the exhaust is very common...fitting the exhaust at the front under the gearbox can be a pain.

[Welly]

I wouldn't bother changing the cambelt then, especially if it's non-interference

Dai - regards insurance; we registered the car in Daughter_Welly's own name and went with Collingwood's Learner Insurance scheme, cost approx £60.00 per month with no mileage limit and with me as named driver, it's cheap* because they're under experienced* supervision.

Once she passed (because I'm so good at supervising) we found a policy with Smart Wheels from More Than Insewerance, this is a Black Box policy limited to 4000 miles PA and it was £950.00 all in with me and SWMBO named (important).

Oh and since passing last August she's done 1300 miles

[DaiRees]

Thanks for your input gents, Welly that insurance seems relatively reasonable to me, some of the prices I'm hearing about are eyewatering.

[Welly]

Well I had a kinda theory in my head that if I picked an unusual car or rather one that's not so popular with young drivers then there wouldn't be as much claims experience on record and it should be cheaper.

All the usual 'first car' suspects would have loads of claims on record....all classed as a risk I guess?

You should get your lad a Triumph Herald

[steve_earwig]

Not this one tho
oJtsCOUVgM0

Can fledgling drivers get any sort of classic car policy?

Btw I have a mate here trying to sell a classic m-f combine harvester...

[Welly]

As far as I know yes a young driver here can drive a classic and I think they benefit from reduced insewerance as a result.

Trouble is Classic cars aint go no Air Bags, ABS and Blue-tool and are definitely NOT COOL on the street (much to my annoyance at their misunderstanding of motoring and other people's pre-judgements etc).

I tried, I mean really tried, to get daughter_welly to have a Volvo Estate. She vehemently declined

I think seeing women driving large cars is cool, they don't apparently, unless it's a high-seated SUV...they bloody love them

[steve_earwig]

Classic cars aint go no Air Bags, ABS and Blue-tool

Less to go wrong

and are definitely NOT COOL

I want one!

So vanity over sanity wins again, that's neat

[piglet]

I did explore the classic insurance loophole for my lads.
The policies I found were limited mileage and required another car to already be insured.
ie. 2nd car policy.
Plus a couple of the well known classic insurers that I actually called won't insure youngsters (U25 typically)

Myth busted