Hi All,

Not been around here for a few years - dropping in to see if anyone wants to give a good home to my now slightly tatty 1.4 cvt.

My wife, who has always been the main driver has been finding it a bit unreliable of late - it will occasionally stall and run lumpily for no apparent reason - most of the time it is fine, and we have bought a newer car for her to use. I suspect a good clean of the carb will have it purring away again, but she doesn`t feel secure driving it.

58,000 miles, MOT 11/6/10, tyres good. Silver. Damage to drivers door and some rust on bonnet leading edge and odd spots on wheel arches. New battery and thermostat this winter.

£50 to someone who`ll use it.

Based in Milton Keynes - will.plummer@talktalk.net

Will

Christ, £50?!

Jesus will, I've been hunting something similar for a while, but just purchased something.
50 quid is an amazing offer.
If I had somewhere to keep it I'd love to have a crack at restoring it.
I don't though. Unfortunatly.

Someone please take it and look after it!

I`d just like to see it go somewhere it `ll be looked after.

I`d probably ask a bit more for it if was on the open market......

Will

Will, really good to see you back, shame about the circumstances.

Since you've been away prices have gone skywards a fair amount.

If I had the space I'd take it, but I havn't atm. I'll ask Pete, you know what he's like but he doesn't get chance to come here often anymore.

Hi Chris

Sad circumstances indeed. I`d keep the car if I had room, but I don`t even have a drive I can stick it on. And I`d probably hardly ever use it as I hardly drive at all these days - maybe 1000 miles p.a tops.

Not bothered about the cash, if it goes to an enthusiast - we`ve had 7 years of ultra cheap motoring off the car.

Will

This has now gone subject to collection - cheers Macplaxton and John

Will

Not surprised, very generous offering it up for £50, if it's anywhere near the condition it used to be in it'll be well worth it!

good news indeed!

well done both!

Saved!

That's great news Will! Hope the collection schedule all goes to plan on Tuesday.

I travelled to MK yesterday to collect the car, the journey home was uneventful and, thanks to the large portions of the M1, M18 and A1M which are currently under 50mph average speed limits, I used only slightly over half a tank of fuel on the way.

It was great to meet Will and his very lovely wife, thanks to you both for making me feel welcome in a strange town, and for the tea and toasted crumpets.
The car, and I really don't want to gloat here, is better in the flesh than Will's description made it appear, indeed it is usable without attention for the time being. The speedometer over reads by 10mph at all speeds, yet the mileage recorder is accurate, according to my GPS, but that is the only way in which I could fault the vehicle on the drive home, not that I'd dream of picking fault with so solid and pleasant a car.
Solution; read speedometer, subtract 10mph. Job done!

I'm glad that the car is a good one though, and I even had my AA card with me as I didn't think I'd get home. How wrong a chap can be.
Having owned several other cars with the "Sierra" engine, including a couple of Renaults and having had an '83, 4-speed manual 340 in the family, I had come to accept that these things are rattly right? Well no, this one is as smooth as a very smooth thing that's been made smoother by polishing. At idle, the engine is barely audible, under acceleration it remains smooth and quiet and the transmission works brilliantly, most impressive.

Anyway, I shall be taking photos of the car as I gradually tidy up the few very minor marks on its bodywork and will continue to come on here and bore you all with my rediscovered fondness for the 340.

Will, thanks again for being one of the most honest and scrupulous people from whom I ever bought a car and rest assured, this one will be looking like a 3 year old before too long.
'Bye for now, I'm off to buy more Waxoyl........

Nice little story there you lucky bugger and welldone! Nice to know it's gonna get looked after still

Cheers John!

Will

Spent two Hours today looking for hidden rusty bits, found nothing more serious than slightly flaky paint in a couple of easily accessible places, so wire brushed and splashed a bit of Waxoyl over it for the time being.

Haven't taken piccies that show any actual work being done yet, but I did reattach the speaker grilles so that they won't fall off again, yet can still be removed without too much bother, since I found a nice pair of two-way Audioline (remember them?) speakers that fit the original holes and will be going in there. Priorities? 1: Tunes.
Other pics are just shots of the car in its new home, sniffing around the back end of a nice old bit of BL tin that I also own, like two dogs getting to know each other: