All good until the price of diesel and the cost of insurance start to go through the roof, explained here in a previous Stone174 post.
So here we are at the beginning of a new journey.
An eleven year old, soft blue, 1.4 Lupo, fairly basic spec except for the wheels, mudflaps and pop-out rear windows. Just over 72,000 miles on the clock. The paintwork is pretty tidy; the usual amount of stonechips, a typical car park ding to the rear wheel arch, and a slightly grubby interior.
All sounding good so far?
Well I'm not going to pretend I've bought a peach. The only real downside (and it meant a bit of haggling with the seller) is the seven previous owners...
...yes, seven. Amazingly the car has a fair amount of service history and plenty of old MOT certificates with it to confirm genuine mileage. For further peace of mind we used the AA's car data check service to make sure all was legit.
The car also came with a bunch of receipts for previous work, brakes, oil pressure switch, gearbox rebuild... Gearbox rebuild?!
It would seem that one of the seven careful owners wasn't so careful - hence the gap in the service history, busted gearbox, and it was probably her kids that have left filthy marks on the headlining!
But, the only way from here is forwards and, although it is like finding out your new hot girlfriend has had a ton of previous lovers, what has happened is in the past. From here on in the car will be looked after.
So later this week we'll be dropping the Lupo off at Aire Valley Workshop for a thorough check-over; fluids, brakes, drivetrain etc. The outcome of which will determine how much budget is left for the car as a project.
Thanks for reading,
Richard
