A Vehicle Is Chosen

The Brief: Find a car to take four people ten thousand miles across varied terrain to Mongolia.

Conditions: The vehicle in question must have an engine capacity of one litre(ish) and be registered on or after January 2003 (less than ten years old.)

The Budget: One thousand of Her Majestys' pounds.

 

I'm not sure I could count the number of emails fired between Dan and I with links to Autotrader pages. Peugeot's, Citroens, Vauxhalls, Daihatsu's and the odd Hyundai were thrown backwards and forwards in the attempt to find a suitable vehicle. Saxo's and 106's seemed to come up most in our price range. A cheap easy to fix French car. Great.

A chance visit to Dan's uncle Stu told us that he had a 1.1i Saxo he was selling. It seemed perfect, the right age, only 80,000 miles or so. We took it for a spin and things got better. It had some decent power for a tiny little car and absorbed bumps beatifully. Unfortunately further inpection showed us that the French suspension, great at absorbing lumps and bumps, was a bit squishy. A lot squishy actually, with me and Dan in the back the rear arches were almost rubbing on the wheels. Bugger.

Back to autotrader we went.

Our next trip out took us to the streets of Cleckheaton. A promising advert for a Peugeot 106 with a small dent in the tailgate meant we had high hopes. If we could find the place. After trying a few streets near where we thought it was Gemma noticed a sign. It read, USED CARS and was painted by hand on a wooden board, which had obviously been used to replace the door of the burnt out building it was attached to. Warily we approached and noticed the little black 106 parked out front. I can tell you catergorically that pictures lie! The small bump in the tailgate looked more like a large hole that had been carelessly filled before being painted, probably with the same brush used for the sign. Sticking my hand under the rear wheel arch told me that the space between the inside wall of the tyre and the bodywork was limited to say the least. My favourite feature however was the shiny, stainless stell bolt head protruding from the obviously wonky front bumper. We didn't bother asking for a look inside.

Feeling slightly put out we headed to leeds and another promising Saxo. Reasoning that we could just replace the springs to sort out the suspension issues. On arrival the car looked good, a few scratches and chips but nothing obviously wrong. Dan wandered off and got the keys. Things looked good inside, if a bit cramped (Dan is 6'6" and I'm 6'5"). Dan got the bonnet open while I stuck the key in the ignition and.... nothing. Dead battery, not a good start. While the garage owner sloped off to get some jump cables, looking grumpy in a way only the eastern europeans can manage, I decided to look in the boot. WOW. The previous owner had obviously owned some kind of dog. I can only assume that it had somehow managed to glue itself to the side of the boot and it's owner was forced to cut it free with scissors. The entire left side panel of the boot was covered in thick browny-grey hair! Disturbed but not put off the car was finnaly going. Dan took it for a litle spin and concluded that reverse didn't work particularly well. We made a bit of an offer anyway but were shocked by the guys claim that with road tax for a year he wanted £1150 for it.

Back to Autotrader we went.

A friend at work then reccomended we look at a Vauxhall Agila, are car he had previously owned. A quick flick through autotrader showed there was a pleasant little red Agila just between Dewsbury and Brighouse Dan made the call and arranged for us to go pick it up. £750 was handed over and we were the proud owners of a Vauxhall Agila! [Check her out here.](index.php?mode=teamwebsites&name=northern-monkeys&page=vehicle "Car") We set off home with a smile, Dan and Gemma in the little beast, me following in my car.

I quickly decided Dan was being a bit dim and had forgotton where the accelerator was. At a petrol stop at the next petrol station however I was informed that the clutch was being difficult and that 3rd was off limits. Uhoh. Once we hit the motorway things got worse. 55mph was achieved after several miles. After several more I could no longer take the smug looks as people passed me in my loud, spoiler covered car, crawling along the inside lane really quite slowly. I left. Quickly.

Back at base we took the car out for a spin, I found that Dan wasn't making it up and the clutch was slipping (alothough I found third gear fine). Gemma's turn didn't last long, she couldn't even get the car moving. Not a good start. We dropped the car off with Johnny at his yard and a new clutch and some shiny new liscence plates were ordered. Word is that she drives a treat now

Mongolia, here we come....

 

Jimmy