Crumbs...how long is it now?

Okay, so I haven't been keeping up with this but you know how it is - more important things to worry about. Like paying for the car.
There's good news and bad news.
The bad news was that the fan wasn't working and so the car was seriously overheating whenever I was queuing in traffic - so quite often on a school run or driving into London.
The result was that it needed surgery.-

Replacement of fan switch and thermostat
Replacement of timing belt kit and water pump
Investigation diagnosis
Total                     £428

That's including VAT (at 20% mind you....20 bloomin' percent!). So that's blown a hole in the budget and I'll have to add that into the running costs for this year. Over 12 months it's about £8.20 a week!
The good news?  Er....the garage washed it for me...

Nothing to report

Well - apart from the updated costs. And I had to correct my maths.
I always seem to update this in the wee small hours so maybe I'm a bit slapdash.
So, to update: car running okay. Still smells oily. Must check oil levels.
PS bought a rear windscreen wiper from a 99p shop. In fact two complete wiper arms cost 99p so a little judicious trimming of one blade saved a bit. It was a bit fiddly but the blade fitted and I have a spare for the front should I need it.

It's all going terribly well

Obviously, saying it's going well invites the wrath of Aarac (the god of breakdowns), but so far, touch vinyl, the car is behaving itself.
It's still got a lingering whiff of overheating or burning oil though the temperature gauge doesn't go up very far. Perhaps it just needs a jolly good wash.
I've updated the costs table (see right) and we have a new 'flash' which shows you the headline all-up costs per mile or kilometre (kilometer?).
Just in case you struggle with mixed measures, my mother-in-law has a couple of mnemonics to help...

A litre's nearly three foot three, it's longer than a yard you see.

Three and a quarter feet of jam weigh about a kilogram.

See? Easy isn't it?

Good news: Bad news

I quick post to say I've had my first couple of weeks of modest motoring.
I don't think it's just me who feels as if being able to hop in the car and drive down to B&Q or pick up the dog from the vet's is a reasonable aspiration. But at what cost?
I remember my A level economics teachers saying one day "I've been working it out and there's no way I can afford to run my car...but I have to." And he did.
Well, I just updated the costs on the table (see the link on the right) and it's not quite what I expected.
It works out that I've done around 382 miles on a tank of petrol. That sounds OK. A tank is around 10 gallons so it's about 38 mpg! Actually it's nearer to 9.46 gallons so that's 40.3mpg. Waaaayyyyyy!
Then comes the bad news.
When you add all the fixed costs of motoring for the year (including purchase price) the costs begin to be a bit more realistic. Incidentally, you can do your own calculations by following the useful links on the right.
Petrol prices are, of course, extortionate - half of the cost is tax (but then, why not?) - so the cost per mile is actually high.
You also have to add in the cost of the car. In this case, I reckon on it depreciating completely over two years so my annual cost included half of the purchase price plus all the annual costs like insurance.
Anyway, as I conclude, the car is costing about £40 a week or £2080 a year. Which, if you only pay standard rate tax means you have to earn £2600 to pay for it. If you're paying tax at 40% that's more like £3466 per annum.
For the sake of balance I should look at the alternatives such as rail and bus travel. And, in the future, I'm planning to look at the environmental impact.
For the time being....it's a heck of a lot of money...

Another new start

I'm a bit behind schedule here so I need to update what happened post-Fiat.
The 'new' car is from another garage and was bought rather hastily. Hence it being somewhat older and slightly more expensive. It may be called 'Max' because of its registration plate.
But the logic was that it looked clean, it had no mysterious dents or stains and...it has power steering! This (in theory) means that my wife will be able to, maybe even want to, drive it. For short distances, a smaller engine is supposed to reach its efficient operating temperature more quickly and therefore be more economical.
Silvery and reminiscent of a previous Corsa I owned, this car seemed to be okay. At least in comparison to the Fiat Seicento, it went (and way more than 3,000 rpm) and has more space inside. I have some affection for these cars, but the last one I traded in because I bought a longed for Alfa....(*sniff*).
Anyway, moving on. There was nothing wrong with the previous Corsa except that it had no air conditioning and the steering was heavy. Well, aircon is a cost (it impacts on fuel and, I think, is probably not good for polar bears). I might have to check that last point.
This car has, at least, solved one of those problems and the weather in the UK has solved the other. It's chilly.
All this brings me to the 'but'. The car was a bit reluctant this morning; it sounded like one cylinder was misfiring. It warmed up and was okay.
A more niggling thing is that when I first took it for a long run I stopped only to notice a wisp of smoke from the bonnet. It turned out to be some oil dropping onto the hot exhaust under the engine. The chap at the garage (let's call him Clarabel...see previous posts) said it was probably spillage form where the oil was changed and topped up. Mmmm.

I was getting a bit worried when the inside seemed to smell persistently of oil and then my 12 year old genius pointed out the new car mats I'd bought (£9.99 from Poundstretcher...needs to be added to the costs page). They are rubber with carpet insets and smell like...well, rubber of course...and oil.

Rest in Peace

Well, there's a turn up.
The tin can died on the operating table. It was a bit touch and go for a while and I had spent more time without the car than with it, even though I owned it.
No-one could find out what was wrong. It could have been the cylinder head, but that was checked and pressure tested. It may have been the ECU - but to replace that costs around 1/3 the value of the car.
I'll give the garage their due, they offered me my money back - no question of me asking or them haggling.
I now have to cancel the insurance and get a refund on the tax disc. So I'll update the money page. And of course, I have still to find a car.
So, as they say at the end of the Apprentice...the search continues.

Another judgement day

Well, to update you, the mechanic (Moira) has "cleaned up the sensors" whatever that means.
Guess what? The problem was still there.
So back to the Fiat forum to ask for advice.Put simply, they collectively suggest 'hooking it up to a diagnostics machine'. Sadly I now know that the car doesn't have a socket to do so (at least that's what Moira says).
But the problem persists.
Tomorrow then is a showdown as Moira has suggested the car (which has no name - though my sons have started calling it "the tin can") needs a new 'throttle body'. What is a throttle body? See this scary picture from Wikipedia.
It seems this bit controls the air/fuel mix and it also has (depending on the car) bits of electrickery to tell other bits of the engine what it's doing.
Now I recall reading (in the handbook I think) that the Seicento is fitted with some kind of device to stop you over-revving the engine. Maybe this is it!
The showdown? Well, I'm going to have to tell the garage that the car is undrivable on roads over 40mph (and is therefore dangerous) and so, if this doesn't fix it...they'll have to take it back!
Watch this space.