Belmont stolen, fancy Fusion 1.4TD.

Hi All,

The Mrs parks (Sth Herts) the fairly tidy K plate charcoal grey 1.4 GSi Belmont (with roof bars) up beside the house at about 8 last night and when she went out to 'stick it round the front' at 2:30 this afternoon, there it was gone [1]. ;-(

120K, easy to drive, huge boot and a nice little car that was first my Dads, then my nieces then ours (it was the same one that was 'written off' in Sept 08, given back, fixed by me and has been fine ever since.

On the basis that we probably aren't going to get it back, we fancied something both a bit more economical and potentially a bit more flexible internally and a mate really reckons his 1.4TD Fusion (a £2K low mileage crash salvage repair (by him)).

I really miss my 2L Sierra estate so quite like the idea of having a mini-estate again but just wondered if they had any major issues or expensive gotchas?

We aren't 'into cars' particularly and aren't bothered about electric everything or air con etc and don't do a lot of miles so would be looking for summat sub 2.5k if it was realistically possible (to stand a chance of getting summat 'straight').

If anyone knows of anything etc ...

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m
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[1] Oops, I was going to say that'll teach me to say to the Crime Survey lady the other day that 'it's not bad around here ...'. ;-(

T i m

Reply to
T i m

It's a problem with older cars - new ones are near impossible for joyriders unless they can nick the keys. Hopefully, you might get it back if it was just joyriders.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Yup.

Thanks for that. If it was just someone who didn't fancy a walk home, and it's not too difficult to fix (I guess we are talking door lock, steering lock best case) etc them maybe we will take it back.

A mate I spoke to today suggested it may depend if they have 'previous' or not. If they do and if they get the chance they may well torch it to remove any DNA etc.

Oh well, as you say it was a 'soft target' (by today's standards) and ignoring the value we put on it because of the history in the family and it's general condition and usefulness at least is wasn't a valuable or classic car.

It had fully comp (with NC protection) on it because we are old and it wasn't much more expensive than TP (and gave us the convenience of windscreen cover etc).

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

In article , T i m writes

Is it like the Astras and Cavs where the top edge of the door is accessible to fingers and can be pulled outwards? That's a favourite method of breaking into those.

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

Yeah, I think so.

That's another reason I liked the Sierra (estate), gutters. ;-)

Stopped the rain running off the roof and into the doorways, gave you a load of flexibility for a (generic) roofrack and protected the edges of the doors from skumbag fingers (to a degree). Ok, you could unlock it with a house key but ... ;-)

The insurance company said something about 'a three way call between them, me and the DVLA' along the way? Any idea what that's about?

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

My wife bought a Fusion 3 1.4TD new in January 2006 because the dealer offered a 27% discount. It's now done 44k and will be up for sale from 1st September as she's ordered a Skoda Yeti. Only repair has been a rear wheel bearing last month (Fitted cost £61 by village mechanic.)

Hankook tyres cost £51 fitted (again, village garage) fronts last about 20k, rears about 30k still on the original brakes all round. Ford dealer servicing was dear, but cheap enough outside dealer network. Ford fuel filter was a horrendous £55 which is a mistake I won't make again. Needs a service annually or 12.5k miles.

It's a bit slow and noisy, but does about 57mpg and road tax is £30 p/a. I drove it with 3 passengers from Worcestershire to Antwerp without suffering.

It's not glamorous, but it's been functional and comfortable and I would have another if need be.

Reply to
Doctor D

Hmm, sounds interesting, assuming it's within our budget etc. The email addy works if you would like to talk further.

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

I hadn't planned my post as an advert, but let me know if you're interested closer to the date. I've got a couple of people in the village interested.

Cheers D

Reply to
Doctor D

Ok. I think it depends on both the Mondeo I've been offered, how the Rover lasts and if daughter takes over her b/f's Corsa and then what we do with her Ka. The Ka is a neat little runabout but won't easily take our weekly shop in the boot and putting stuff inside isn't as easy as chucking it all in a big boot / estate / hatch.

Ok, np.

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

Just a mini update.

Friday morning a neighbour (and the local Neighbourhood Watch contact) knocked and mentioned her son saw two 'lads' sitting in the Belmont at about 10pm the Wednesday evening. There were also a couple of cycles nearby. Unfortunately he didn't recognise it as our car or he might have done something more. Apparently when he looked at then they gave him some form of abuse so I'm hoping he might have been able to give the Police some sort of description

Yesterday a couple of PCSO's came round and spoke to all the nearby neighbours (I'd already spoken to most) including said lad.

They mentioned the car had been picked up going through a speed camera a few miles away at about 23:15 the first night and they were awaiting the photographs to see if it showed anything of interest.

T i m

Reply to
T i m

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