Discussion
Well I've had my puma 1.7 for around 15 months now so I thought it should be about time to do a proper thread about it!
I bought it when I previous car gave up completely on me. At the time I just needed a car so I looked at a few focuses, some 306s and a few others I'd rather not mention *cough*astra*cough*. All at around £1000-£1500. I had resigned myself to getting something dull. Until this puma popper up on my AT search. It was advertised at £1500, and it was the first car I went to look at on a day of car shopping in which I looked at 5 or 6 cars in total. After the first test drive in the puma, I knew it would be the one I bought but I went and looked at everything else and slepped on it anyway. I went for a second test drive and spoke to the garage owner about what he was gunna do to the car before I got it, he said it would have a full service, cambelt, water pump, it had just had a clucth and I'd get a three month polciy. He also told me (atfter a asking) I could have it for £1350. SOLD!
Anyway, since then I have been to a couple of PH meets, and organised a few of my own. The puma is such a good car to drive, and I was able to keep pace with much more expensive metal for two reasons I think. The pumas excellent handling, and my more gutsy approach as my car was worth £1350 and others, well, considerably more
. The revvy engine is fantastic and loves being pushed hard, it really is a hoot to drive. The only bad point I would say are rusting arches and a close ratio gearbox making motorway driving a little less comfortable than it could be.
Anyway, I'm sad enough to keep a spread sheet of costs, so take a gander if you will. It hasn't been the cheapest 15 months, but it could have been worse...
Repairs/maintenence
Investigating rattle £130
Pirerlli P6000 £70
Extreme DipBeam £24.99
Full service/Front bushes and ball joints at pumaspeed £333.65
2 x Toyo T1-R £113
Wheel alignment etc £89.76
Thermostat £129.90
Bosch 5yr Battery £113.99
HCV £44.32
Exhuast £100
MOT (+Brake hoses, Fuel Tank, Wiper blades and labour £488.92
Coil Spring £150
Side Light (x2) £2.99
New Alternator £189.90
FORD dust valves £4.99
Total: £1,986
Fuel
Average MPG - 38.3
Best MPG - 44.5
Worst MPG - 35.4
Interesting results from average costs for different petrol stations...
Shell R 36.1
Shell V 35.2
Morrisons 39.9
Sainsburys 37.1
Esso 37.5
BP 40.2
Total R 34.9
Total cost of fuel: £2770.55!
Total cost of the car including insurance, tax etc including purchase price of the car: £7,750.22
Mileage: ~19,000
Cost Per mile based on everything: £0.42
And finaly, a photo I took after a quick clean. Not a bad photo for a camera phone snap if I do say so myself
I bought it when I previous car gave up completely on me. At the time I just needed a car so I looked at a few focuses, some 306s and a few others I'd rather not mention *cough*astra*cough*. All at around £1000-£1500. I had resigned myself to getting something dull. Until this puma popper up on my AT search. It was advertised at £1500, and it was the first car I went to look at on a day of car shopping in which I looked at 5 or 6 cars in total. After the first test drive in the puma, I knew it would be the one I bought but I went and looked at everything else and slepped on it anyway. I went for a second test drive and spoke to the garage owner about what he was gunna do to the car before I got it, he said it would have a full service, cambelt, water pump, it had just had a clucth and I'd get a three month polciy. He also told me (atfter a asking) I could have it for £1350. SOLD!
Anyway, since then I have been to a couple of PH meets, and organised a few of my own. The puma is such a good car to drive, and I was able to keep pace with much more expensive metal for two reasons I think. The pumas excellent handling, and my more gutsy approach as my car was worth £1350 and others, well, considerably more
. The revvy engine is fantastic and loves being pushed hard, it really is a hoot to drive. The only bad point I would say are rusting arches and a close ratio gearbox making motorway driving a little less comfortable than it could be.Anyway, I'm sad enough to keep a spread sheet of costs, so take a gander if you will. It hasn't been the cheapest 15 months, but it could have been worse...
Repairs/maintenence
Investigating rattle £130
Pirerlli P6000 £70
Extreme DipBeam £24.99
Full service/Front bushes and ball joints at pumaspeed £333.65
2 x Toyo T1-R £113
Wheel alignment etc £89.76
Thermostat £129.90
Bosch 5yr Battery £113.99
HCV £44.32
Exhuast £100
MOT (+Brake hoses, Fuel Tank, Wiper blades and labour £488.92
Coil Spring £150
Side Light (x2) £2.99
New Alternator £189.90
FORD dust valves £4.99
Total: £1,986
Fuel
Average MPG - 38.3
Best MPG - 44.5
Worst MPG - 35.4
Interesting results from average costs for different petrol stations...
Shell R 36.1
Shell V 35.2
Morrisons 39.9
Sainsburys 37.1
Esso 37.5
BP 40.2
Total R 34.9
Total cost of fuel: £2770.55!
Total cost of the car including insurance, tax etc including purchase price of the car: £7,750.22
Mileage: ~19,000
Cost Per mile based on everything: £0.42
And finaly, a photo I took after a quick clean. Not a bad photo for a camera phone snap if I do say so myself
Edited by balders118 on Tuesday 8th November 13:34
Yeah the fuel stats were a bit of a shocker at first. They're fairly reliable too as its over a lot of mile (19,000) and with about 330 miles to a tank tops thats plently of fill ups. Most of the stations have at least 5-10 fill ups to get the average too, but I only ever fill up at morrisons now. The BP looks good, but thats from just one fill and was a long 250 mile motorway drive, which with morrisons I'll get 44mpg everytime. During the summer morrisons fuel tended not to drop below 42mpg. Kind of defeats those that say supermarket fuels are s
t! I really didn't expect to see such a difference!
More pics
okay, I don't have too many but here is a side view from when I first got it...
And here is my fav pic, half way around a dales run...
t! I really didn't expect to see such a difference!More pics
okay, I don't have too many but here is a side view from when I first got it...And here is my fav pic, half way around a dales run...
supersingle said:
Nice car, considering one of these myself.
I've seen more of these cars with rusty arches than without, how easily are they repaired?
I think for a quick repair of sand down, re spray its about £150 per arch but really isn't worth doing. They really rust from the inside out due to soggy carpet arch linings resting on the metal. The garage I got it from had given it this treatment when I bought it and it lasted 2 months tops before the bubbles reappeared. To do the job properly you need to cut the metal out and weld new metal in which is a fairly big job and is usually quoted at £300-£400 I think. Something I want to do, but is hard to justify on a car whose value wont go over £1500, but it would make me a lot happier! TBH although it does look bad, its only cosmetic so never going to stop you driving it. And you're right, rust free pumas are a very rare sight indeed!I've seen more of these cars with rusty arches than without, how easily are they repaired?
balders118 said:
I think for a quick repair of sand down, re spray its about £150 per arch but really isn't worth doing. They really rust from the inside out due to soggy carpet arch linings resting on the metal. The garage I got it from had given it this treatment when I bought it and it lasted 2 months tops before the bubbles reappeared. To do the job properly you need to cut the metal out and weld new metal in which is a fairly big job and is usually quoted at £300-£400 I think. Something I want to do, but is hard to justify on a car whose value wont go over £1500, but it would make me a lot happier! TBH although it does look bad, its only cosmetic so never going to stop you driving it. And you're right, rust free pumas are a very rare sight indeed!
The thing is, fun lightweight cars like the Puma aren't really being made anymore. In that context spending a few hundred quid getting the aches repaired properly starts to make sense. Maybe worth getting the car waxoiled too.Very impressive fuel economy figures btw. Why bother with a diesel?!
supersingle said:
The thing is, fun lightweight cars like the Puma aren't really being made anymore. In that context spending a few hundred quid getting the aches repaired properly starts to make sense. Maybe worth getting the car waxoiled too.
Very impressive fuel economy figures btw. Why bother with a diesel?!
Yeah you do have a point. I have always intended on getting them done at some point I think.Very impressive fuel economy figures btw. Why bother with a diesel?!
Yeah I'm happy with how frugel it can be. Even after a very hard run where it doesn't drop below 4,500 rpm all day I still can't get much worse than 35mpg.
wolfy1988 said:
That was a very interesting read!
I have just got my self a 1.7 puma and I love it! tell me, are they supposed to have the front lip or is yours after market?
J
It's supposed to be there, it's totally standard.I have just got my self a 1.7 puma and I love it! tell me, are they supposed to have the front lip or is yours after market?
J
Just a few engine pics because I gave it a bit of a clean a few weeks ago. TBH it looks like it needs another quick wipe down, but its raining outside.
cg360 said:
Are the costs for your alternator and thermostat right? If so, wow!
Great mpg, though. I only rarely have my kids in the car and would enjoy one of these if it was as economical as that!
Unofortunatly they are. It does includes fitting. The place that did the thermostat were a bunch of knobs, and it wasn't too cheap labour. The Alternator was done at another (my regular) garage and they really are great, labour costs there are about as cheap as they come around here but the cost of the part was a lot. I was there when the owner rang around several different suppliers looking for the cheapest one they could find. I had got a quote a month or so earlier for considerably less for the part than I ended up paying, but the suppliers just couldn't get them at the same price a month later. Not really sure what went on there, but I do trust this garage as they are very good. Yeah, a lot of money though - which is why I try and do stuff myself, like the HCV but I'm no mechanic.Great mpg, though. I only rarely have my kids in the car and would enjoy one of these if it was as economical as that!
Yeah I surpise myself with the mpg, I'm not light footed but I do consiously drive efficiently when I'm not driving hard, i.e. lifting off the throttle early, running reds so I don't have to slow down
shalmaneser said:
Wow, someone actually bought one!!!
I hope the Toyos below were a swift replacement!
nice car, always liked the Puma.
I hope the Toyos below were a swift replacement!
nice car, always liked the Puma.
When I bought the car I had 1 x p6000 on the front, 1 x something else, and 2 x regal sports on the back. With a car in this budget, I didn't see it as worthwhile replacing the tyres before they wore down. The pirelli was nearly new. The other front got a puncture so replaced it with a p6000 to match the front. They wore out in about 12,000 miles (on the inside, worn bushes caused this I think) so replaced them with the toyos, but put the toyos on the back and the beuatiful regals on the front, which are now about 1000 miles or less from being replaced with another pair of toyos. TBH the p6000 arent as bad as they're made out to be, but they did cause the car to tramline like a b
h. The regals aren't totally st either, as long as its dry, and they've had half an hour to warm up balders118 said:
Unofortunatly they are. It does includes fitting. The place that did the thermostat were a bunch of knobs, and it wasn't too cheap labour. The Alternator was done at another (my regular) garage and they really are great, labour costs there are about as cheap as they come around here but the cost of the part was a lot. I was there when the owner rang around several different suppliers looking for the cheapest one they could find. I had got a quote a month or so earlier for considerably less for the part than I ended up paying, but the suppliers just couldn't get them at the same price a month later. Not really sure what went on there, but I do trust this garage as they are very good. Yeah, a lot of money though - which is why I try and do stuff myself, like the HCV but I'm no mechanic.
Yeah I surpise myself with the mpg, I'm not light footed but I do consiously drive efficiently when I'm not driving hard, i.e. lifting off the throttle early, running reds so I don't have to slow down
Fair enough - I just wondered as I've recently replaced my wife's Civic's thermostat for under £20, including antifreeze. Yeah I surpise myself with the mpg, I'm not light footed but I do consiously drive efficiently when I'm not driving hard, i.e. lifting off the throttle early, running reds so I don't have to slow down
MPG sounds good though, maintaining momentum is what fun fwd driving (and it can be had) is all about. I like your car.
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