It was very scruffy when we got it, had a very noisy wheel bearing and a wheel out of balance at nearly 70mph. Apart from it trying to part company with one of its wheels on the way home after buying it, the journey back was pretty much uneventful.
It probably hadn't been washed since 2006 and had spent a good portion of its life under a tree. Plenty has been spent on it in the past, it comes with some history, and it feels like a really solid car. My brother and I spent a while cleaning it and fettling to find as many issues as we could and it performed pretty well until one day the clutch pedal clip broke. It was the proverbial straw and after he was towed back by my Dad and my brother had replaced the clip, I was handed the keys and told to make the problem go away.
This I was happy with given my circumstances. I knew the car needed a clutch (still does, got to wait until after I've moved house to get that sorted), a front wheel bearing and ball joint, a lot of cleaning and a couple of rear outer light clusters but very little else. It's easily the best car I've ever owned condition wise and certainly has the most amount of toys. Not quite as comfortable as my rotten old non-turbo diesel BX estate but much better put together overall.
The suspension was a bit hard and the car a bit skittery when cornering hard, some investigation found that there was about a litre too much LHM in the system and once this was drained and set properly, everything improved on the handling and comfort front. What came out wasn't great, and this is apparently from a system that was recently flushed and the filters cleaned. It's another job for after I've moved house.
A little while ago I got the front wheel bearing and ball joint replaced, which really transformed the aural comfort and tightened up the handling a little more. I also picked up a factory roof rack from the previous owner who did the repair work for me which will be very useful At this point the car has done about 2000 miles since April between my brother and I, including a faultless 400ish mile round trip to Maidstone where the car proved itself to be a very capable mile muncher and fairly good on fuel, though not quite as good as my old BX. This was the journey that cemented the car as a keeper rather than a stop-gap for me. It's trouble-free, very solid overall and in need of little more than cosmetic fettling to make it like new. Having done only just over 100,000 miles it's barely even run in.
After getting the new rear light outer lenses, something I was putting off until someone broke the already cracked lens more when they reversed into me in a supermarket car park, I couldn't resist debadging the tailgate.
This rear arch and bumper had a nasty scrape and there was a long shallow crease along the rear wing. I've done the first bit of fill and paint and it's now look much improved, especially now there aren't black scratch lines in the rear bumper.
I'd like also to get the rear corner sorted out where the black plastic is deformed from an old injury, well before me or the two previous owners got hold of the car. Oh, and that red Princess is my other Princess which is due to be leaving once the last few pre-MoT jobs are done.
Fettled the other arch too which had some rust staining and cracked paint. This is the worst part of the bodywork and the only bit that requires any welding, everything else is really solid. Just cleaned, rust treated and painted for now to stabilise and tidy the area.
Got the fuel filler pocket and flap cleaned up and the drain cleaned out. Since this car runs on veg oil - fresh and used - and has done in the past, previous owners hadn't done a great job of cleaning this up and it was all gunged up. I make sure it's always clean, you only realise the car is running on veg when you smell it these days.
My short list for important things are an LHM flush, brake overhaul and replacement clutch. There's numerous dings and stonechips to resolve, some bits of interior trim to replace and just a general deep clean of everything to make it as good as it can be. In the meantime it'll be used for everything it can be used for, it's a very practical, very affordable, very solid French estate car which is very difficult to find a worthy competitor for.
Bit like Hotel California, but more Gallic & garlic.
Mines a year older with two & a half times more mileage. Looks like your anti-sink sphere needs changing though.
