Evening,
Got offered my sisters 56 plate Pug 107 for free on the basis that it was utterly filthy inside, the paint was in bad condition and it was 20k overdue a service. She was going to PX it until the offer was £200. The plan now is I use it to cut down my commuting fuel cost (for those that don't know my main car is an 850 T5 that gets a whopping 27mpg on my commute).
Anyway, without further ado, I present to you the hateful shoebox. This car will not be named, it does not deserve personification.
nsf by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
ns by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
nsr by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
It is, without a doubt, the worst car I have ever driven or been driven in. I've owned it for two days. I hate it.
The 3cyl 1.0 engine is utterly gutless, requiring constant downshifting to maintain progress on even the slightest of gradients - even at 70mph on the motorway, slight incline and you lose 5mph immediately. In neutral the whole car vibrates, and the noise out of such a small engine is frankly ridiculous - it is far louder than anything I've owned and rattlier than a diesel.
The clutch has a ridiculous bite point, less than 2cm from the top of the clutch pedals travel - which is why, combined with a lack of a footrest, the typical clutch life in these cars is about 15k. Pathetic.
Anything about 50mph deafens you with road noise as the 3mm thick interior carpet is quite literally the only sound insulation on the floorpan. You can actually see this in a later picture, where the carpet is starting to wear through as it presses against a frame rail.
On the subject of ergonomics, there isn't any. Seat backs can be adjusted up and down in a small range, and the seat slides back and forth but thats it. The steering wheel, like the backs, can be adjusted slightly up and down but does not feature telescopics. Getting comfortable in this car for anything more than an hours drive is impossible if you're a normal sized human. The seats themselves have no bolsters and no support and are actually the most uncomfortable seat I've been in.
You'd think this would be bad enough, but no, my particular example only features 2 speakers located in the dash, which are not powerful enough to drown out the road noise but are terrible enough to make you wish they weren't there anyway. All this, despite being the middle-spec option! I'd hate to wonder what the base spec has. We have no A/C, no glovebox lid and manual mirrors, but at least we have an aux in and 4 cupholders; every cloud and all that.
As I'm sure you can see, it is truly worthless. In terms of the exterior, there is that aforementioned paint condition.
On top of numerous instances of fading (its not single stage, weirdly), etching, and watermarks, this car has been scraped multiple times. Once it even knocked a wall down - seriously. The steel wheels are also badly corroded, but I'll take the blame for this. I painted them as a present for my sis 4 years ago, but after stripping back the old paint I never used an etch primer, using normal primer instead... Whoopsie :lol:.
Corroded steelies example by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
osf scrape by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
osr scrape by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Paint defect by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Bad bumper fitment by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
It has had a boot leak for years now, literally years. This recently got 'fixed' in a recall last Mon - which apparently means I can't wash it for a while. Bugger. I used " ' " as I highly doubt this will actually fix the leak, given there are at least 5 common leak sources fro the boot alone on these badly designed shoeboxes.
The exterior, however, was not the worst part. No no no, that belongs to the interior. This car was used as a daily driver by someone not interested in cars and who happened to own a 40kg Old English Sheepdog. The backseats, where Jasper (the dog) lived, were covered in dog hair, the carpets and seats saturated with mud and sand, not to mention all the nose art on the windows. In fact, the interior was so bad it will get an entire post of its own, and after 2 days its still not completely done!
In terms of plans for this thing, I don't really want to spend a penny on it. Going to give it the service its long overdue (£52 for oil, filter, air filter, and spark plugs!!), and clean it within an inch of its life but really that is all I want to do. :detailer:
I *might* upgrade the lousy dash speakers, just to maintain some degree on sanity on my commute, but we'll see. I *might* fix the broken mirror adjustment, if I can be arsed or if anyone actually knows of a fix. Beyond that, I'm just going to track fuel expenditure, how much I'm saving and and just fix things as they break.
Got offered my sisters 56 plate Pug 107 for free on the basis that it was utterly filthy inside, the paint was in bad condition and it was 20k overdue a service. She was going to PX it until the offer was £200. The plan now is I use it to cut down my commuting fuel cost (for those that don't know my main car is an 850 T5 that gets a whopping 27mpg on my commute).
Anyway, without further ado, I present to you the hateful shoebox. This car will not be named, it does not deserve personification.
nsf by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
ns by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
nsr by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
It is, without a doubt, the worst car I have ever driven or been driven in. I've owned it for two days. I hate it.
The 3cyl 1.0 engine is utterly gutless, requiring constant downshifting to maintain progress on even the slightest of gradients - even at 70mph on the motorway, slight incline and you lose 5mph immediately. In neutral the whole car vibrates, and the noise out of such a small engine is frankly ridiculous - it is far louder than anything I've owned and rattlier than a diesel.
The clutch has a ridiculous bite point, less than 2cm from the top of the clutch pedals travel - which is why, combined with a lack of a footrest, the typical clutch life in these cars is about 15k. Pathetic.
Anything about 50mph deafens you with road noise as the 3mm thick interior carpet is quite literally the only sound insulation on the floorpan. You can actually see this in a later picture, where the carpet is starting to wear through as it presses against a frame rail.
On the subject of ergonomics, there isn't any. Seat backs can be adjusted up and down in a small range, and the seat slides back and forth but thats it. The steering wheel, like the backs, can be adjusted slightly up and down but does not feature telescopics. Getting comfortable in this car for anything more than an hours drive is impossible if you're a normal sized human. The seats themselves have no bolsters and no support and are actually the most uncomfortable seat I've been in.
You'd think this would be bad enough, but no, my particular example only features 2 speakers located in the dash, which are not powerful enough to drown out the road noise but are terrible enough to make you wish they weren't there anyway. All this, despite being the middle-spec option! I'd hate to wonder what the base spec has. We have no A/C, no glovebox lid and manual mirrors, but at least we have an aux in and 4 cupholders; every cloud and all that.
As I'm sure you can see, it is truly worthless. In terms of the exterior, there is that aforementioned paint condition.
On top of numerous instances of fading (its not single stage, weirdly), etching, and watermarks, this car has been scraped multiple times. Once it even knocked a wall down - seriously. The steel wheels are also badly corroded, but I'll take the blame for this. I painted them as a present for my sis 4 years ago, but after stripping back the old paint I never used an etch primer, using normal primer instead... Whoopsie :lol:.
Corroded steelies example by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
osf scrape by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
osr scrape by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Paint defect by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Bad bumper fitment by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
It has had a boot leak for years now, literally years. This recently got 'fixed' in a recall last Mon - which apparently means I can't wash it for a while. Bugger. I used " ' " as I highly doubt this will actually fix the leak, given there are at least 5 common leak sources fro the boot alone on these badly designed shoeboxes.
The exterior, however, was not the worst part. No no no, that belongs to the interior. This car was used as a daily driver by someone not interested in cars and who happened to own a 40kg Old English Sheepdog. The backseats, where Jasper (the dog) lived, were covered in dog hair, the carpets and seats saturated with mud and sand, not to mention all the nose art on the windows. In fact, the interior was so bad it will get an entire post of its own, and after 2 days its still not completely done!
In terms of plans for this thing, I don't really want to spend a penny on it. Going to give it the service its long overdue (£52 for oil, filter, air filter, and spark plugs!!), and clean it within an inch of its life but really that is all I want to do. :detailer:
I *might* upgrade the lousy dash speakers, just to maintain some degree on sanity on my commute, but we'll see. I *might* fix the broken mirror adjustment, if I can be arsed or if anyone actually knows of a fix. Beyond that, I'm just going to track fuel expenditure, how much I'm saving and and just fix things as they break.