Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

I had a quote for over £5000 once, but then I was 18 and it was for a 205 GTi. Garaged too!

You're right on the money. One of the favourite cars I've owned (actually the car I kept hold of the longest) was a Series 1 106 Rallye. Obviously the AX and the 106 had a lot in common and shared the TU engine in various forms. The 1294cc in the Rallye was a little screamer and the chassis was great. If the body is as tidy as it looks it could be a good candidate to try and make a bit of a sleeper hot hatch out of it.

If the engine is good I'm probably just gonna leave it completely stock and auto trials it.
Lightweight and boatloads of suspension travel, it should be good.

If the engine shits itself I might do something mad with it.

I've just been given this little beast, a Seicento Sporting 1.1. I'm 6'5.

It's been sat for a year though, anything obvious I should do before putting it in for MOT?

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Fill up the washer fluid... testers can be cunts.

But they're just doing their job.

Run through a pre-MOT checklist like this http://carcaremadeeasy.com/motchecklist.html
Get a mate help with the lights.

You wouldn't happen to remember the wheel PCD would you?

I got a set of 13" REVO alloys with P zeros mounted on them thrown in free when I bought my mini and it'd be nice to put them to use.

It probably doesn't need it, but an oil, oil filter, coolant, and fuel filter change would cost less than £100 and would help. Cabin filter too because there's going to be so much crap in the vents.

Really weird sight at the top of my road, a house that doesn't usually have a car, suddenly there's a silver 993 coupe parked out the front, beautiful

Check the oil levels? Maybe add engine lubricant to tank? Before turning over?

I had a seized pot on an old golf through non running.

If they're the 4 stud ones then they should be the same as the Pug which were 4x108. On some of the smaller engined variants of AX/106 etc they did have 3 stud hubs though.

Another fun little car. Not too much power but as we've recently discussed here, theres a lot to be said about driving an underpowered car quickly (when appropriate) and using 95% of the power available unlike faster cars. We had a Cinqucento Sporting and a Punto Sporting through the family fleet when I first started driving and they were both great fun.

Okay so 2011 GTI 30K miles.

Cant be bother to change my oil at this point in my life so went to a station. You know the kind you wait in the car while they do what they do. Long story short they left the coolant cap loose and two days later while having a spirited drive my car alarms for temperature and fluids simultaneously. I obviously pull over and after a few minutes of genuine confusion I fill it with water. I didn't make a huge litigious issue out of it because I figure good karma, waste of time, full warranty, etc.... They've flushed the coolant system and replaced the oil.

I suspect it was truly running hot (>300F) for only a few minutes because I only drove 5 miles to work and back, before it alarmed on the faster drive.

What would you look for and is there anything you absolutely replace? Spark plugs? etc?

The like.

You'll find them all ^ on Amazon under 'Homeopathic Remedies and Placebos'.

with a picture of that prick quentin wilson's smug face and a quote...

Getting it back to mine later but from that list I know the windscreen wiper is a bit seized up but everything else seems alright. The guy who gave it me did mention something about the emissions but he can't remember what exactly. He thinks it was something to do with not getting up to temperature. Does that sound plausible?

I'd just monitor the car. See how it behaves over the next few days/weeks. If it's no different to what it was before then you've got away with it & lesson learned. If it starts acting up, not running like it was/should or you're conceded with anything, get it back to the garage and get them to do whats needed to correct.

Just saying if you haven't turned a car over for a year or more it might save you to run the tank with an engine cleaning product.

You said oil. I corrected you.

Whether the shit actually works or not is neither here nor there.

You Winnet.

For the record, I don't like some cars.

White E30 cabriolets for example.

Unless.

Well it happened!

Really can't believe it, runs and drives perfect so far. Surprisingly it accelerates a fair bit slower than the beetle. Definitely cruises more easily at motorway speeds though.

It's incredibly clean inside too.

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Could a loss of power steering be caused by the battery not having much charge? It's electric and there is no warning light on for it

Pretty sure the alternator is dead too, the battery warning light is on.

The Seicento off the last page, it's been sat for at least a year and now trying to get it through an MOT.

I'm just going off the warning light on the dash saying the battery isn't charging correctly, though I guess that could be the battery too

If the light's on whilst it's running it's likely to be the alternator.

You need to stick a volt meter on the battery. It ought to be 13-14v with the engine running and 12-14v with the engine off.

If it's lower when running it's the alt if it's lower switched off it's the battery.

Is the steering defo electric? If not it might be the belt that drives the steering pump also driver the alternator and is slipping or broken.