[rnv]

Hi all,

Have looked at your site after being pointed in your direction and am well impressed.

Writing as a complete newbie in search of first puma after 12months of saving and trying not to think about getting one.

Am based in Worcestershire and looking to start with one for me and t'other half to escape in at the weekends and for general day-to-day driving (commute 35 miles round trip; A-roads and motorway once a week 250 miles round trip).

Any suggestions for a starter-for-ten (not FRP), current prices, places to look - quite like the later c.2000 models? Have looked at a few Ford and indie dealers (dodgy) and the usual flog-it sites, but too many yee-has out there for our liking......

Any/all comments gratefully received.

Ta v much

RnV

[pumapilot]

Welcome to Pumapeople.

We have a for sale section on the homepage with well cared for owners cars for sale

[HFStuart]

Hi and welcome.

You don't give your age but that could influence you choice of model and the insurance can be pretty high.

The good news is there are loads of them out there - what sort of budget have you got ?

BTW Fill in your profile !

Stuart

[happy-kat]

the Wiki has plently of articles on the Puma to read

[Midnight Blue]

Hi - welcome to PP. Good luck in your search

[Crystalpuma]

Welcome to the site!

My advice is to test drive as many as possible to get a feel for what feels right (e.g. bushes can be worn, giving a disappointing ride). Also, take a list of stuff to check over as it is very easy to miss something important when buying a car of this age.

Good luck

[shyann]

Hi & welcome
Good luck in your search

Ann

[rnv]

Thanks all for the welcome, rapido advice and comments.

On the age question - clearly 21 is the answer! (+12.... ) so am hopeful that the insurance won't be too painful.

c.2.5k to spend.

Will get behind the wheel of a few and also will check out the 4sale section.

Any major no-nos that should be aware of? Cambelt seems to be a recurring theme.

RnV

[cgandps]

welcome to the site

Claire

[CONLISA]

Welcome and have fun!!

[Guy Incognito]

yeah, either get one with documented prrof of cam belt service or knock £300 off the price to do it yourself. Or get it done I mean.

Welcome to the site. Good luck in your search.

[HFStuart]

On the age question - clearly 21 is the answer!

Odd, the concentration of members around that age

My experience was I had to look at loads (around a dozen) before I found one that was in good condition. They almost all had rust on the arches or at the bottom of the B pillar. FSH was quite common though.

The frustrating thing was that the dealers didn't have clue - I'd ask if it was rust free, they'd say yes and then I'd go and have a look and show them the rust. After a few I looked at the car first before talking to the sales guy. Invariably they didn't know if it had the heated screen or not either.

Don't want to teach granny to suck eggs but have you tried the Autotrader advanced search ? You can set your criteria and then save it as a favourite. So each time you click you'll get the latet list of cars that match your requirements.

Stuart

[BenF]

welcome aboard - hope you find a kat that suits you

[rnv]

Cheers all (still searching)...

RnV

[rnv]

The search continues (with good advice) - got my eye on a Thunder with low mileage & patchy SH, clean interior, no rusty bits, but no cambelt change (hmmmm.. - haggling required)

Views from them what know would be great? particularly as low miler.....

Thanks .

RnV

[pumapilot]

Full service & cambelt change would bring your service history back to a point.

£250-£300 off for the cambelt, if they offer to do it then:

A/ make sure that a Ford Cambelt kit is used.

B/ have they done a VCT Puma cambelt change before - if they get it wrong then the Kat wont be right.

C/ how much warrenty will they offer on the finished work, less than a year then walk away.

Pumabuild is in Birmingham for the cambelt if the garage drops their price by not doing cambelt.