Cheers Cappers - Yes I love watching peoples car evolve. Some lovely ones on here, not least yours. :thumb:
Go for it Yas. It looks so much better. If I sat on motorways regularly in the rain I may have kept the wiper but for a summer car you don't need it. Plus you can get these glass treatments so the water just beads off anyway.
So you got that MK2 then ED. Great stuff!
I PM'd you the other night to see if you'd bought it but the bloody thing wouldn't send.
It looks lovely as it is but I know you like to put your own stamp on it.
For the wheels I'd be thinking Weiss Gold but Agate Grey probably just tops it. I'm sure you'll have it tip top in no time! Cracking car and how rare is a MK2 Carrera with MK2 GT3 kit!? Unicorn hunting. :thumbup:
Pointless update but I'm excited so will bore anyone who reads this -
Nothing much done this week. Took my wife car shopping as she's had her '08 Focus for years now. She'd usually change much more often but we've had bigger fish to fry, what with doing our house for over 3 years etc, plus her and I having health scares and things.
Anyway, I wanted to use the C2, as salesmen respond better to you and take you a bit more seriously. I know it shouldn't be like that and some people purposefully go in a banger and if the salesman over looks them they go elsewhere, but I just wanted to get the job done and unfortunately in life people's impressions sometimes affect a situation or the service you get.
Like I say it shouldn't be like that and I'm not shallow at all, but it's not great pulling up in £1500 worth of focus to test drive a £25k car.
So I gave it a quick wash yesterday morning anyway.
So we had a test drive booked and completely believed we'd be buying an Infinity Q30.
They are to Nissan, what Lexus is to Toyota, using Merc components and built at Nissan in Sunderland, so we thought 'quality car and we can buy British", what with Brexit an' all that.
Anyway, long story short, bad budget creep kicked in, no car available in our ideal spec and sluggish (1.5D). Nice interior but the car itself was generally bland and just didn't excite us. Disappointing as we honestly thought that was our next car before going there.
So it was almost closing time at the Silverlink, which is a big area of car dealers in the north east and we popped into a different manufacturer dealer on the way past. Great sales lad. No slavver, just honest and helpful. We ran out of time so booked an appointment for 9 this morning, to test drive a bog standard car, as my wife was changing cars to save on fuel and running costs primarily. We then drove the version I liked. The result? Well we left a deposit on this.
The pics don't do it justice, especially the side view. Loads of nice little touches and styling bits.
Press pic.
So bear with me...
It's a Fiat 595 (formerly 500) Abarth. These have been a guilty pleasure of mine since they were launched. They look cool, have Italian flair and sound like old skool 80's RS Turbos and Renault 5 GT Turbos, which I grew up around.
Of course they're so girly I could never own one for me and my wife generally needs a decent boot as she's a teacher. So why now? Well we wandered around the dealership when we first passed on Friday night and were generally like kids in a sweetshop. These cars are just so much fun. Not mature, not a premium product, but they just make you smile. Then sitting in the corner of the showroom was a brand new Trofeo model. It has telemetry for trackdays, different wheels and most importantly a mental exhaust. Honestly I don't know of any cheapish hot hatch that makes a noise even half as good. It's bonkers. It has a few other bits too like Apple Car Play, full digital dash with loads of screens for telemetry, tyre monitoring, sport mode etc. Sport mode moves the speedo out the way and the rev counter appears in the centre of the dash. Very 911. :wink:
We paid £500 for the metallic Rekord Grey paint and it comes with yellow accents, centre caps and calipers. Apart from that, thats it. It's bordering on chavvy but you know what, I don't care. For once we are going with our hearts not our heads and it feels bloody great.
Anyway, we both just loved that exact car so we've bought it. It's honestly the most excited I've been about a car for years and years, 911s included. It's like being 18 or 19 again. Obviously I love my 911s but buying a 911 for me is one half 'excitement", other half 'I hope this thing doesn't bankrupt me".
Buying this Abarth is just pure excitement, worry free. It feels good I must say. I knew I'd own one one day and that time has come. :grin:
Anyway, I know this is 911uk not Abarth jizz-fest uk, but that's the focus of my attention this weekend, so there.
Next update will be Porsche related.