I had one.
WORST CAR eVar!!
OK so it was this specific example, not the model in general. I bought it for next-to-nothing, and it wasn't even worth that. I had it for four months, through a cold winter, about seven years ago.
I'd finished a job that came with a company car on the Friday, and needed a cheap motor to get me to my new job on the Monday. I hadn't found anything all weekend (this was before eBay!) and the 340 was a 10pm Sunday night desperate purchase...
It was cold, wet and dark when I went to see it.
"I've just had it running, warmed it up nicely for you"...
Uh oh.
It had, in no particular order:
* A lovely, literally breathtaking, mold-smell as a result of a leaky sunroof. When I first got it and cleaned it out, I found proper orange and green fungus growing under a floor mat in the back.
* A knackered fuel guage. Not knackered as in "doesn't work", but even worse, knackered as in "every time you turn the ignition on it gives different reading". So I'd get in, embark on a fun-filled journey to work thinking I had half a tank of juice, and run out. I did this three times, the worst resulting in a mile-each-way walk to a petrol station in pouring rain.
* A loose battery, as a result of a broken weld on the battery tray. Hours of fun figuring out why the entire car would stop dead in an instant, at random.
* Knackered carb, which, coupled with the fuel guage, was quite interesting. The choke lever pulled out in my hand the first time I used it, so winter starts in the morning were quite an ordeal. Friends HATED me coming to visit, I'd say goodbye, they'd shut the door, and I'd be knocking 5 minutes later - "can you help me push start it?"
* TWO slow puncture-infested tyres. One front, one rear. It was easier to pay 20p to pump them up every couple of days. I could tell when it needed doing as a particular bend on the way to work (the left hander just past where you work Stu if you're reading) that was normally a "touch" sideways became a full on nearly-a-spin-but-not-quite-into-a-bus-queue...
* Mystery oil leak from the engine that irrepairably stained the driveway, yet the level on the dipstick never dropped.
* Random will-it-won't-it drivers seat that once or twice reclined without warning, not fun on a motorway! My previously smug I-don't-care attitude to speed humps changed rapidly.
* A masking-tape-and-bare-wire "ice" install that shorted out and caught fire in a traffic jam.
* No heater. Great in winter, the old ice-on-the-inside-of-the-windscreen scenario ;D
On the plus side, it was HILARIOUS taking mates out in it - the sheer terror on their faces more than made up for the frustrations. "I think I will be merging in front of you Mr company-Mondeo, my whole car cost less than your valve caps..."
WORST CAR eVar!!
OK so it was this specific example, not the model in general. I bought it for next-to-nothing, and it wasn't even worth that. I had it for four months, through a cold winter, about seven years ago.
I'd finished a job that came with a company car on the Friday, and needed a cheap motor to get me to my new job on the Monday. I hadn't found anything all weekend (this was before eBay!) and the 340 was a 10pm Sunday night desperate purchase...
It was cold, wet and dark when I went to see it.
"I've just had it running, warmed it up nicely for you"...
Uh oh.
It had, in no particular order:
* A lovely, literally breathtaking, mold-smell as a result of a leaky sunroof. When I first got it and cleaned it out, I found proper orange and green fungus growing under a floor mat in the back.
* A knackered fuel guage. Not knackered as in "doesn't work", but even worse, knackered as in "every time you turn the ignition on it gives different reading". So I'd get in, embark on a fun-filled journey to work thinking I had half a tank of juice, and run out. I did this three times, the worst resulting in a mile-each-way walk to a petrol station in pouring rain.
* A loose battery, as a result of a broken weld on the battery tray. Hours of fun figuring out why the entire car would stop dead in an instant, at random.
* Knackered carb, which, coupled with the fuel guage, was quite interesting. The choke lever pulled out in my hand the first time I used it, so winter starts in the morning were quite an ordeal. Friends HATED me coming to visit, I'd say goodbye, they'd shut the door, and I'd be knocking 5 minutes later - "can you help me push start it?"
* TWO slow puncture-infested tyres. One front, one rear. It was easier to pay 20p to pump them up every couple of days. I could tell when it needed doing as a particular bend on the way to work (the left hander just past where you work Stu if you're reading) that was normally a "touch" sideways became a full on nearly-a-spin-but-not-quite-into-a-bus-queue...
* Mystery oil leak from the engine that irrepairably stained the driveway, yet the level on the dipstick never dropped.
* Random will-it-won't-it drivers seat that once or twice reclined without warning, not fun on a motorway! My previously smug I-don't-care attitude to speed humps changed rapidly.
* A masking-tape-and-bare-wire "ice" install that shorted out and caught fire in a traffic jam.
* No heater. Great in winter, the old ice-on-the-inside-of-the-windscreen scenario ;D
On the plus side, it was HILARIOUS taking mates out in it - the sheer terror on their faces more than made up for the frustrations. "I think I will be merging in front of you Mr company-Mondeo, my whole car cost less than your valve caps..."