Cookeh goes shedding...

[Cookeh]

Evening,

Got offered my sisters 56 plate Pug 107 for free on the basis that it was utterly filthy inside, the paint was in bad condition and it was 20k overdue a service. She was going to PX it until the offer was £200. The plan now is I use it to cut down my commuting fuel cost (for those that don't know my main car is an 850 T5 that gets a whopping 27mpg on my commute).

Anyway, without further ado, I present to you the hateful shoebox. This car will not be named, it does not deserve personification.

nsf by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
ns by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
nsr by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

It is, without a doubt, the worst car I have ever driven or been driven in. I've owned it for two days. I hate it. The 3cyl 1.0 engine is utterly gutless, requiring constant downshifting to maintain progress on even the slightest of gradients - even at 70mph on the motorway, slight incline and you lose 5mph immediately. In neutral the whole car vibrates, and the noise out of such a small engine is frankly ridiculous - it is far louder than anything I've owned and rattlier than a diesel.
The clutch has a ridiculous bite point, less than 2cm from the top of the clutch pedals travel - which is why, combined with a lack of a footrest, the typical clutch life in these cars is about 15k. Pathetic.
Anything about 50mph deafens you with road noise as the 3mm thick interior carpet is quite literally the only sound insulation on the floorpan. You can actually see this in a later picture, where the carpet is starting to wear through as it presses against a frame rail.
On the subject of ergonomics, there isn't any. Seat backs can be adjusted up and down in a small range, and the seat slides back and forth but thats it. The steering wheel, like the backs, can be adjusted slightly up and down but does not feature telescopics. Getting comfortable in this car for anything more than an hours drive is impossible if you're a normal sized human. The seats themselves have no bolsters and no support and are actually the most uncomfortable seat I've been in.

You'd think this would be bad enough, but no, my particular example only features 2 speakers located in the dash, which are not powerful enough to drown out the road noise but are terrible enough to make you wish they weren't there anyway. All this, despite being the middle-spec option! I'd hate to wonder what the base spec has. We have no A/C, no glovebox lid and manual mirrors, but at least we have an aux in and 4 cupholders; every cloud and all that.

 

[Cookeh]

As I'm sure you can see, it is truly worthless. In terms of the exterior, there is that aforementioned paint condition.

On top of numerous instances of fading (its not single stage, weirdly), etching, and watermarks, this car has been scraped multiple times. Once it even knocked a wall down - seriously. The steel wheels are also badly corroded, but I'll take the blame for this. I painted them as a present for my sis 4 years ago, but after stripping back the old paint I never used an etch primer, using normal primer instead... Whoopsie.

Corroded steelies example by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
osf scrape by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
osr scrape by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Paint defect by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Bad bumper fitment by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

It has had a boot leak for years now, literally years. This recently got 'fixed' in a recall last Mon - which apparently means I can't wash it for a while. Bugger. I used " ' " as I highly doubt this will actually fix the leak, given there are at least 5 common leak sources fro the boot alone on these badly designed shoeboxes.

The exterior, however, was not the worst part. No no no, that belongs to the interior. This car was used as a daily driver by someone not interested in cars and who happened to own a 40kg Old English Sheepdog. The backseats, where Jasper (the dog) lived, were covered in dog hair, the carpets and seats saturated with mud and sand, not to mention all the nose art on the windows. In fact, the interior was so bad it will get an entire post of its own, and after 2 days its still not completely done!

In terms of plans for this thing, I don't really want to spend a penny on it. Going to give it the service its long overdue (£52 for oil, filter, air filter, and spark plugs!!), and clean it within an inch of its life but really thats all I want to do. It is here as a money saver, so whats the point spending?! I *might* upgrade the lousy dash speakers, just to maintain some degree on sanity on my commute, but we'll see. Beyond that, I'm just going to track fuel expenditure, how much I'm saving and and just fix things as they break.

 

[Cookeh]

Reading this made me laugh out loud, what a terrible car . Isn't the car worth a bit over £200 in scrap? I'd honestly take the reduced MPG in the Volvo than driving that thing. Surely the additional insurance cost doesn't make it worth running?

Edit - It's yellow, should get it lined up next to Gibbo's Ferrari and Kindai's Lambo

Is it actually saving you much money? What with insurance, tax, etc for two cars now?

55mpg would more than halve my fuel costs (which sit at almost £4k pa at 16k mi), VED is £30 and insurance around £600 (the same as my T5...ha). So the potential to save £1300 or so. 55mpg should be achievable with a spot of hypermiling and crusing at 60mph or so. More than that deafens me anyway. I did consider it quite seriously before agreeing to take the heap on, plus I have a 3-6month placement which would add 8-16k to my yearly mileage and hence increase potential savings.

The colour is the only thing I like about it.

 

[Cookeh]

£1300 is about 10% of my my PhD stipend (I'm still a student, so make nothing). This equates to 3 months of my mortgage or a significant contribution to an upcoming wedding. Not a lot to most people, understandably, but with the wedding coming up and a fiancee who wants a full blown Disney wedding (eugh) is every little helps. If I end up on the 6 month placement it will save me £2.6k or so.

Will be seeing how I get on and how much it actually saves me and reviewing it in July when insurance on both it and the Volvo (multicar) are up for renewal.

 

[Cookeh]

what you got planned for it ?

18" rims and a spoiler ?

Needs black rims and wind deflectors.

Pretty much what Skaif said. Black Wolfrace rims, wind deflectors, a spoiler wider than the car, some front canards, and a Heinz bean tin as an exhaust.

_____

Anyway, onto the interior of this heap. You may recall I said it was filthy? Yes, well, that and some.

We'll start with the general crap and detritus in the stowage bins:
Stowage bin dirt 2 by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Stowage bin dirt by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Dirty glovebox by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

Now I know what you're all thinking, it's not that bad, I'm just being a drama queen. Well, scroll on.

Next up we'll go for the centre console:
Dirty dash vents by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Dirty stereo by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Dirty centre console by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Nasty handbrake trim by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
I believe Tosh mentioned a sugary experience with Coke? Yes, this heap is familiar with that too.

Dirty speedo by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Dirty knob by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Mmm, skin and human slime.
Dirty indicator crap by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Slime? Make-up? Something else?

Okay, getting a bit worse, floormats and seats next:
nsf mat by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Rear seat hinge dirt 3 by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Is that sand? I hate sand.
Rear bench dirt by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
More sand, and dog hair. Great. I hate sand AND I hate dog hair.
Rear bench dirt 2 by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
More? Lovely.
Rear bench dirt 3 by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Again? What is this, a BOGOF offer?
At this point I elected to remove the rear bench (rear uprights slightly trickier, couldn't be bother in the rain).
Rear seat hinge dirt 2 by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Sex? In this car? About this car? Either way, just no.
Rear seatbelts dirty 2 by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
20p, wahey! This car has cost me -£0.20 so far, saving money already :lol:
Rear seatbelts dirty by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
More sand. Top stuff. Can go to the beach without ever leaving my drive... if this heap ever deserved to be parked in the drive that is. But it belongs on the street, with all the other trash.
Dirty seat sides by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Quick trip to the front, with more sand and dust. Excellent.
Boogers by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
What on earth is this? Both sides of the seat? Looks like boogers or ear wax? I did actually confront my sis about this. She's adamant it wasn't her, told her to check her fiancee's seat and see if its his. I mean, it's someones right?!

Fair enough, plenty of you have probably seen worse but this is the nastiest I've dealt with. What I wanted to do was park it on an enemies drive and torch it, what I actually did was break out some APC, some mf cloths, a magic eraser and the trusty Vax 2000 that I adopted off my parents when they got a Dyson 8 years ago - the Vax is almost as old as me, still works flawlessly.

What followed next was about two hours of vacuuming, and about an hour on cleaning the door cards (or is that just doors in this case?) and centre console. I haven't gotten round to actually cleaning the carpets or seats with upholstery cleaner yet. This Saturday I think, weather permitting.

Onto the afters then, shall we? First up, the floors - easy enough with a vacuum, upholstery brush and some APC for the pedals:
Cleaned osf by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Cleaned nsf by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Cleaned nsr by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Cleaned osr by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
See in the area beneath the accelerator pedal? Where the carpet is a lighter shade? That is the aforementioned floorpan/frame rail wearing through the 3mm carpet.

Next up, that rear bench area. Again, lots of vacuuming, all 8 sections of a folded mf and a whole lot of APC. I found a small nylon brush to be excellent for the areas around the seatbelts:

Clean rear floorpan by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Clean rear seatbelts 3 by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Rear seatbelts clean by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

Going to attack this with some Hammerite to hide and protect the rust a bit, as well as adding a bit of wax to the metal in a pointless bid to protect that.

Penultimately the console area and doorcards (doors?), again copious vacuuming, plenty mfs and APC:
Clean doorcards by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Cleaned dash vents by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Cleaned stereo by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Clean seatbelt by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Clean centre console 2 by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Clean handbrake trim by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

Lastly, that booger infested seat? Yeah, couldn't leave that until Saturday. Halfords Upholstery Cleaner, stiff bristled brush and the VAX dealt with it:
No more boogers by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Clean seat sides by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

Definitely not perfect, but not a biohazard anymore and doesn't quite reek as much anyway. Needs a protectant, probably Autoglyms VRT on Sat. We also knocked the first little 'project' off in the form of the gaitor. Was collapsed and flopping way down on the frame:
Collapsed gaitor by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

Turns out it was missing a little rubber sleeve (sitting in the centre console oddly), which helps grip it and stop it sliding. Put that back on the stick, removed and re-installed the gaiter and voila:
Gaiter fixing by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Gaiter fixed by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

Okay, it looks ridiculous - massive wide gearknob abruptly ending and then a tiny skinny gaitor starting, but nothing I can do about that. Just another crap bit of design.

Roll on Saturday so I can get in the car without overalls...

 

[Cookeh]

Could we have some pictures of Jasper please?

Ask and you shall receive. All my sisters pictures, apparently she cant turn a phone sideways either.

King Jazz by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Sofa Jazz by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Lazy Jazz by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

Shame it's not the Citroen version as you could have taken it racing!

Could always Nurburgring it, there is a 1000cc and under racing club there that do Aygos, C1s and 107s etc. Think BridgeToGantry started it up.

 

[Cookeh]

Jazz is an old english sheepdog, though you'd never be able to tell looking at him. He gets cut short and had his entire undercoat brushed out in error (silly sisters boyfriend) a couple of years ago- hes never been the same coat-wise since. Much more wiry than he should be. He is a very good boy, dim but loving and playful.

 

[Cookeh]

For amusement and potential advise on the numerous boot leaks I have the exact same thread running on the C1 owners club forum. It isn't going down well. One chap openly states he prefers his C1 to the RS4 he had, will copy it across later.

So much defense over these cars, blaming my opinions on unrealistic expectations and wishing it was something else. Oh well. I honestly don't see what they see in them, nor do professional testers either judging by their reviews.

Coming from an 850 I have to admit multiple normal sized cup holders that aren't placed in the way of your gearstick is a big plus, and an aux in is nice. But honestly I can't stand the car. Will give it a 500mile review when I hit that milage in a fortnight or so.

 

[Cookeh]

Most of the people on that forum are probably 17 - 19 and think their little C1 is the best thing in the world and would defend it to the ends of the earth. They probably haven't had any proper experience with a decent car.

Rather alarmingly, only 19% are under 20. A whopping 49% are over 40... There are actually more people over 50 on that forum than there are under-20s. So says the user age poll anyway, which is probably about as reliable as a Lada Samara.

 

[Cookeh]

My reasons for hating it are fairly well covered so far, but I can do it further. I also don't believe I'm suffering from elitism, my dream car happened to a 25 year old I5 Volvo 850 T5, hardly a "V12UltraSuperDuperCar+" or whatever it was you spouted. I don't believe there is anything wrong with expecting a car to be actually driveable at all 'normal' speeds without causing discomfort. In any case its here for at least 4 months, perhaps more, and I will hate every second of it.

I got a bit more time to work on it today before the heavens opened. I was still trying to make it safe to enter without a hazmat suit at this point, but I'd say its now fairly respectable. Further maintenance cleans of the interior will only improve it, and if I'm honest I don't care about it enough to get it properly 'concours'.

First things first I figured the sparks plugs needed changing, my sister had been advised of this at a service some 200000 miles ago but never did anything about it - despite me offering to do it for her. As it turns out, they weren't terrible. Gap was only 33% larger than spec... Would I be right in saying it looks like it might be running a bit lean too? Removal requires unclipping the airbox (some 4 clips or so, then removing two squeeze clips), revealing your three DI coils with a single 10mm bolt. Spark plugs themselves are your fairly standard 16mm thread. Some pics of old vs new and the three old ones.

Spark plugs old vs new by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Spark plugs old by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

The car runs a little better now, less dag-dag-y on start up and a fraction quieter throughout the rev-range. Still very unrefined but better. Can only hope it gives even more mpg to cover its cost.

Next up it was onto that interior. The rear bench was obviously removed previously, so I tackled that last night inside (thankfully I have an understanding and car-sympathetic fiancee!). This was by far the worst seat in the car, so it got a vacuum, a healthy scrub with upholstery cleaner and finally a steamclean. Came out fairly well I think.

Couple of reminders of the before...
Rear bench dirt 4 by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Rear bench dirt 3 by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Rear bench staining by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

Then some 50/50s and finals:
Rear bench 50/50 vacuumed by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Rear bench steam cleaned by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Rear bench steam cleaned 3 by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

Much better methinks. The rest of the car wasn't so bad and was unfortunately confined to the outsides so I decided against using the steamer (too much effort being wired and not being able to leave the seats by a radiator to aid drying). That meant a slightly different approach. Copious vacuuming, followed by a huge scrub with plenty of upholstery shampoo before vacuuming out the liquid and giving it a final dry down with some microfibres.

Rear bench upper 5050 2 by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Rear bench upper 5050 by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Apologies for image quality phone camera had a hard time focusing due to the pattern, and I'm a lousy photographer!
Rear bench uppers after by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Passenger seat after by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Drivers seat after by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

And here is the dirt from just the headrest on the drivers seat... Scrubbed with a microfibre as I was curious just nasty it was.
Drivers seat base dirt by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

So now that the seats are acceptable, minus some loose fibres, it was time to move on to the door jambs. I still can't wash the exterior (apparently), so this is as close as I can get. Quick clean with some APC, a soft bristled detailing brush paired with a small nylon brush, and some microfibres later:

osf after by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
osf after by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
osr edge dirt by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Area under this seal was grim, but came up well. Oddly there are some tar spots in there, and I'm fresh out of tar remover. Will get that at a later date.
osr after by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
nsr after by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
nsf after by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
nsf after by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

These were then treated with a spray sealant to try and keep them cleanish for a bit longer.

 

[Cookeh]

EDIT - I bet by the end of your tenure you’ll be a little fond of it given the fact that you’ve rescued it and given it some love.

I dunno, it was free and sitting in it disgusted me. Not really any love spent yet Just trying to make it so I don't gag everytime I see it. We'll see, I may develop a touch of Stockholm Syndrome...

I've looked a but more in to that C1 racing and I'm probably gonna go for it. Ridiculous fun on pennies.

Would love to, might consider it down the line. Would very much like to get into track days and that would be a very cheap way of doing it. Unfortunately the aim here is to save money not drop £3k on making it into a little racecar haha.

 

[Cookeh]

It's the only thing expense I have planned for this turd. It pains me every time I see it.

 

[Cookeh]

Blow £300 (if that) of the savings you'll make and just get it plastidipped. It'll last up to 3 years cover all the **** paint and it's easily removable.

Then, take out the passenger seat, rear seat, parcel shelf etc (Spare wheel too if you like). Just leave what you need i to drive from a to b. That'll lighten it, increase mpg.

Then, run it into the ground.

Rather not waste the money, can live with the tired paint. If I took the rear seats out I'd lose my mind as the lack of refinement would increase exponentially. Rear bench only weighs 5kg anyway, rear uprights another 8kg, so would only save about 2% weight but have a significant impact on the noise and vibrations. Definitely not worth it.

In other news, a sidelight bulb blew. Had to remove battery and ground strap to get access. Minor inconvenience, made up for given I had a spare of the bulb lying around at home - total cost 0p. Perfect.

 

[Cookeh]

I'm also "shedding" at the moment, for the first time in a long time, in a £300 2004 Fiesta TDCI

Cleanliness is the main thing for me - once I'd scrubbed the interior clean (she'd allegedly had it valeted ) it was absolutely fine.
Currently racking up 300 miles a week and returning 57mpg.

Would you believe my sister also paid for a valet no more than 3 weeks ago? I have no idea what on earth she paid for, but whatever it was it clearly wasn't up to much! That's the same sort of mileage I'm doing in this thing, though no idea of mpg yet as I haven't had to top up yet. Hopefully it will be something similar. At least the Fiesta has some sort of refinement, and the diesel means it will at least have some torque to help pull it along - definitely a more sensible choice.

 

[Cookeh]

I'm sure many people run them for years without even thinking anything negative of them at all. It's hardly aimed as a motorway cruiser is it?

We used to have one at work available for odd errands as it was so cheap to lease and just leave sat in the car park, I drove it a fair bit one summer for a project where I was between two sites that were only 2-3 miles apart and it served its purpose perfectly, the alternative was to use my own car and faff around claiming mileage for it constantly. I'd go as far as to say it was fun to drive just because it was so basic, in the cabin it sounded funny for a tiny gutless engine and you could throw it around like a toy with its skinny tires without risking stacking it into a wall as you're only doing 25 mph...

It doesn't sound fun, it sounds like a misfiring 1990s diesel Transit. Awful noise. You can't throw it around either, the steering is so over-assisted that you have no idea what the front wheels are doing; the damn thing has so much body roll that cornering at anything above 20mph makes it feel like it's going to tip. Complete lack of any support means you you will slide out of your seat if you don't tip. You can hit potholes, speed bumps, your neighbours dog, a corpse, whatever, you wont feel it through the steering. Will shatter your spine as the car has rubbish ride, but you wont feel anything through the wheel. For a car designed for use in the city, full of potholes and speed bumps the ride is atrocious.

Anyway, it took a while - between waiting for the sealant to cure and for a long enough gap in the weather - but I'm pleased to announce the crapbox finally has a clean exterior(ish!).

Still lots to do, especially with regards to some weird contaminants (more on that shortly) and the many paint defects. Could do with a proper LSP too, only got CarPlans No1 Super Gloss on it at the minute; though I have been very impressed with its performance over winter on both my 850 and the fiances Rolla.

The car was filthy, so I jumped straight into pre-cleaning with Power Maxed TFR at 10%. There was no protection on this car so I was far from worried about stripping LSP at this conc. I am, as I always am, impressed by just how effective TFR is. Some before and afters of various parts pre- and post-TFR:

ns by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
NS after TFR by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

nsr by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Rear after TFR by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

Arches on these were properly minging. Still are to be honest, really need a good scrub and some tar remover - never seen so much tar! That will have to wait for another day, however. Not least because I'm fresh out of tar remover after using what little I had on the bodywork.

Rear arch preclean by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
OSR after TFR by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

Front arch preclean by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
NSF after TFR by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

Petrol cap preclean by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Petrol cap cleaned by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

With that done I applied a coat of snowfoam - Auto Finesse's Avalanche to be precise - so that I could get into the gutters, around the lights and panel gaps in greater detail. If I'm honest I don't like Avalanche. I don't find it has much cleaning power and its cling time isn't particularly impressive (possibly because unless I double up the concentration its pretty thin).

Obligatory foamed picture:
Snowfoamed by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

and then the cleaned gutters. Could do with tar remover here of all places too to get them perfect.
Gutters cleaned by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

After that it was on to a contact wash. I actually didn't use 2BM on this occasion, opting for a single bucket with a couple of mitts (one for top half, one for bottom) and rinsing the mitt as I went along. I figured that after TFR and a snowfoam there wouldn't be much left to do any damage, as inspired by the Forensic Detailing Channel. What was left, however, was an awful lot of contamination:

Contaminants by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

There was also this weird contaminant pictured below. I tried clay, tar remover (what little I had!), and a glue/sap remover. None of them touched it. Any ideas what it is or how to remove it? Its all over the front bumper.

Weird bumper residue by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

To tackle the contaminants I used the tiny bit of tar remover I had left, as well as a fallout remover, then clay. Here's some bleeding shots:

Bonnet fallout by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
OSR door fallout by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
NSR quarter fallout by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

For a bit of a giggle I also applied it to one of the corroded wheels:
wheel fallout by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

After all that, drying, and using the aforementioned sealant, I was left with something sort of respectable.

Cleaned and fallout wheels by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Post spray sealant by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

The paint on this thing is dreadful. Just the quality from the factory for a start, colour match between bumpers and door is shocking; the bonnet and wings are different shades, despite both being factory and original; the paint all round is oxidising and fading to a pretty high degree, which is not at all commensurate with a car this young - heck my 850 (twice the age!) still has no issues with either of those! Once cleaned I could also properly see all the damage inflicted to it. Guess I need to invest in some sick-up coloured touch-up paint...

NSR arch dmg by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
IMG_20190311_151413 by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
IMG_20190311_151436 by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Untitled by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
OSF scuff by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Wing mirror scuff by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Wing stonechip by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
There are 4 of these stonechips that are starting to rust quite badly. Must do something about those at some point, as cheaply as possible of course!

I also saw this bit of contamination on the roof, again I cant figure out what it is and nothing I have touched it. Any ideas? It's textured, sits up over the surface so isn't clearcoat damage I don't think?

Weird roof residue by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

 

[Cookeh]

Ahem, yeah, that's an iffy typo.

 

[Cookeh]

Not the light, as mentioned in the post. The hugely different ones are light, however. Almost every panel is a different colour and has been as long as I remember. Think it was one of the first things I questioned when my sister bought it 8 years ago.

 

[Cookeh]

You'll find this actually less economical than the Volvo because you'll have to work it harder

I get 28.4mpg from the Volvo on commutes. On the motorway, at 70mph the Volvo will get 34mpg; 38mpg at 60mph. If it wasn't for the 9 miles each way of city driving on my commute I would stay in the Volvo, but given I get about 23mpg in those 9 miles it really hurts the overall mpg and fuel costs. This heap is currently doing 58.1mpg, and I'm not exactly driving it gently at the minute. I hate it, but it does have impressive fuel returns.

 

[Cookeh]

People that call themselves "petrol heads" and deride small, low powered cars are really no such thing, they are simply snobs. You can have at least as much fun in cars like that as in V8 powered monsters, it's just different. Personally I love little cars like this, three cylinder engines sound great and the low power just means actual skill is needed to keep momentum up.

First car was a 1.2L Corolla, pretty much as slow as the Pug (12.7s to 60mph as opposed to 13.7s). Difference is it actually wanted to use the full rev range, it could corner without toppling, there was feedback from the steering letting you know where the wheels were and when they were approaching their limits of grip, the steering wasn't horribly over-assisted, it was refined enough to not make you lose your mind, seats were comfy and had support so you could push it without falling out of the seat, brakes actually have modulation where you can feel the biting point, they increase in pressure as you brake harder, the gear change wasn't like stirring porridge, the throw wasn't longer than a football pitch and the clutch had some weight and a definite bite point.

I loved that car, so much so I made my partner buy a 1.4L Corolla as her first car (and she's now in love with it too). I had it for two and a half years, I legitimately shed a tear when I sold it. I actively looked for excuses to go for a drive with it, I hooned it around the Evo triangle, I took it on Snakes Pass two or three times a week, I razzed it all around the Pembrokeshire coastline. I had so much fun in that car.

Small cars can be great. Low powered cars can be great. Especially when you can use the full rev range and feel the engine note rise without ever having to worry about your licence. The 107 is still very much not great, though, and I am far from a car snob. There will be a little review clarifying why this car is so horrid, purely looking at it from a driving point of view at all road speeds and scenarios, coming when I have some more free time.

 

[Cookeh]

There I was thinking computers were bad for TLA (Three letter acronyms). Then I read that last post with the pics and hardly understood any of it!

I'm guessing tar remover does what it says on the tin. No idea about the rest.

My bad. From the top:

LSP = Last Step Product. Cover wax, sealant, coatings, etc. Any protection you put on your paint.
TFR = Traffic Film Remover. A type of product designed specifically to cut through road grime and muck without contact.
2BM = Two Bucket Method. A method of car cleaning employing, you guessed it, two buckets. One full of soap and one with just water. The idea is the water only bucket becomes the rinse bucket and that is where you rinse your mitt after each panel. This keeps the mitt clean and the soap bucket clean so you don't re-introduce dirt you've just cleaned back onto the panel and inflict scratches or marring.

That's it on the acroynm front... I thought there were much more than that given your comment!

Other than that, tar remover removes tar, glue/sap remover removes glue/sap, fallout remover removes ferrous based contamination, clay removes almost everything contamination wise that is bonded to paint.