Got Pissed. Bought A Car I Don't Need.

[DodgeRover]

Don't the pizza firms provide you with cover? I know the ones locally do as they advertise all you need is the legal minimum and they cover you for deliveries on their policy.

[Warren t claim]

Don't the pizza firms provide you with cover? I know the ones locally do as they advertise all you need is the legal minimum and they cover you for deliveries on their policy.

All the big chains supply you with business cover. I ran a pizza shop over twenty years ago and even then we had cover for deliveries which back in the pre ANPR days meant that everybody who drove for us didn't bother to insure their cars and just used the shop insurance. We even knew of a Post Office that didn't look too hard at the policy meaning any driver could use the policy to tax a car. Even the local plod were unsure about the legality and was happy to accept the shop policy whenever a driver got a seven day ticket. The exception was when a diver smashed his Sierra estate into the central reservation on the M6 near Stoke, a mere 50 miles from the shop!

[Warren t claim]

After running around in this for a couple of days here are my first impressions.

The driving position isn't too bad as I can lower the seat to a better position. The driver's door lock is a bit stiff. Early economy figures suggest that I'm getting about 38mpg. I can't believe how chuckable it is compared to the earlier Mk3. It keeps up with motorway traffic OK. The heater takes ages to change temperature. The remote tailgate release is handy and fortunately only works with the ignition off as it gets knocked whenever I take my Subway cup in or out of the cupholder. The brakes need a firm push. It's even slower than my "Jeep". I really wouldn't want to carry anyone in the back as the rear legroom is on a par with an XJ-S. I forgot how much I missed having a car with a glass sunroof. The radio/CD player has much better reception than the aftermarket item fitted to the P38. Early T Cut efforts have been disappointing, I can see me booking it in for a machine polish with a mop. It does seem sluggish and maybe has a misfire under load, Vmax run showed a top speed of only 84mph. The speedo is dead accurate according to my GPS. The driver's seat is pretty hard. The courtesy light doesn't come on when I open the driver's door. The 1.3 Kent/Valencia/HCS/Endura motor is pretty tractable and happy to pull from as low as 25mph in 4th gear.

[AutoshiteBoy]

The heater takes ages to change temperature.

Known issue, even the after market parts fix this for about a tenner.

[Warren t claim]

Checked tyres today to discover that the OSR was down to 1.7mm. Nipped over to the garage I'm associated with and found a decent previously cherished example in the part worn stash so I bunged my mate who owns the place a tenner and two packs of Poundbakery chocolate cornflake cakes and I got my hands dirty swapping it over.

As the Fezza has a small missfire under load, not fantastic fuel economy coupled with struggling to put 80mph on the speedo I took the opportunity to plug it into his Snap On OBD fault finder. I removed the cover to the fuse box, reclined the driver's seat and spent a fruitless quarter of an hour squirreling away upside down trying to find the OBD2 port. After nearly passing out I crawled out admitting defeat and had a quick Google. It turns out that the OBD socket is located behind a tiny blanking plate in the passenger side footwell. After spending what seemed like an eternity going through all the menus the only code it came up with was for a faulty fuel gauge sender. Although the gauge is actually working I can see why it's coming up with that fault as when I folded the rear seats I saw that the metal around the pump and sender looked like it had been opened with a tin opener, the metal looked like the held open arse of the bloke in the goatsee viral internet picture.

Time to check the plugs then. Being a Ford Endura E engine somewhat predictably number 4 plug sheared as I was applying a gentle removal twist shattering the ceramic into the plug hole! As this happened before the plug was fully out I managed to blast the broken bits out with an air hose so disaster averted. I was only planning to remove the plugs and clean them with a wire brush but with the Fezza being system critical to my job I paid £11.20 for 4 replacements, much cheaper than the £70 I used to pay for a set in the Ioniq although I was richer then! New plugs were carefully inserted with copious amounts of copper grease on the threads and leads put back on after the HT caps were cleaned and WD40d.

Well, performance and economy have improved a fair bit but I think a new air filter might be the next step when funds allow.

[Warren t claim]

Now getting 160 miles to four gallons of unleaded. Not too bad for around the doors, if I'd bought a Mk4 Mondeo 1.8 diesel then I'd only be getting 42mpg and paying 15p more per litre.

[DodgeRover]

Not if you were running on cherry

[Warren t claim]

Not if you were running on cherry

The Ford Endura Diesel goes into limp mode when running on cherry.

[DodgeRover]

Not if you were running on cherry

The Ford Endura Diesel goes into limp mode when running on cherry.

Really? Kero and a bit of 2 stroke then?

[Warren t claim]

I'm actually starting to bond with this little Ford in a way I never did with the P38.