A neglected one can take a bit of work to sort it out.
Once it's sorted out, and routinely looked after, it should give good service for years, rust permitting:
I look after 2.
The first one ( a '90 CL), had been run with virtually no money spent on it for years before we got it - I didn't know this when we bought it.
During the first week I did these things to it:
4 new tyres
inner driveshaft boots, and gearbox oil
engine oil and filter change
air filter change
spark plugs and leads changed
distributor vacuum advance changed
front brake calipers cleaned up, and new brake pads.
oil pressure light switch changed.
camshaft belt
alternator belt
100 ml batch of paint mixed up (obsolete colour - about 8UKP)
That probably cost abouy 150 UKP all up, 80 of which was the tyres.
2 1/2 years on, all it's had is oil and filter every 6 months (17UKP), air filter annually (6UKP). It romps through the MOT, and has only failed to start once when the battery died ( 28 UPK).
It also had the exhaust downpipe rust away (about 40 UKP ??)
If it had been looked after a bit more, and not had the ugliest mix of virtually bald tyres on it you've ever seen, it would have cost a lot less.
Oh, yes, I almost forgot - just under 5 UKP for a tube of araldite to stick the headlight mounting pegs back on, and repair the raditor fan mounting bracket, and repair the radiator grille back together when my eldest ran it up the back of another car [:0]
Conversely, my '93 CLX...
Had the following:
vacuum advance unit. (13UKP)
set of Lancia Y10 front seats ( because the drivers' seat was worn through... 40 UKP)
set of disks and pads ( 30 UKP)
metal coolant pipe (9 UKP)
drivers seatbelt (66 UKP)
oil and filters (23 UKP)
injector cleaner. (5 UKP)
gearbox oil. (8 UKP)
It has had the following failures-
electronic distributor (stops when hot - 20UKP second hand, you can pay a lot more though)
top hose worn through by clutch actuating arm!
wiper motor intermittant ( repaired with big soldering iron - but the fault took some finding )
intermittant lefthand indicator ( hacked wiring by previous "auto-electricians" adding and removing an alarm..)
horn (13UKP)
horn ring (2.91 UKP) see also the thread here about the horn, and its earth via the ignition switch..
Anything I've forgotten about will be on this forum somewhere, if you search in the panda section against my name.
It might look alarming, but if you can find one which has been looked after a bit it shouldn't be too expensive to run.
But, Just look at those costs in relation to
a tankful of fuel,
the tax disk,
or your insurance.
Regarding spare parts:
Everything I've needed has been available - my comment about the master cylinder is there because somebody in Wales couldn't get a new one there at some point during 2003.
The Panda has been "not for sale" in the UK since '95, although in Europe they were still available up to 2003, and ISTR manufacturers are obliged to provide spares for 5 years beyond end of production - so in the UK you're pushing your luck a bit
I hope I haven't frightened you off - but I'm being brutally honest:I
