Service

All posts tagged Service

Well the 124 Spider needed an MoT and annual service so I took it to the nearest main dealer again at 43,493 miles from new, up 1,305 on last year and at a cost of a little under £500 in total.

I had to do some maintenance on it the day before its service as when I got in after some storms recently the driver’s side footwell had some water beside the seat.  This is caused by the rainwater drain ducts getting blocked: on each side of the car, there are ducts leading down to the underside of the car, passing through two filters and catch baskets for any debris. They eventually get blocked by mulch and the water they catch then overflows into the car’s interior, so for the first time in ten years’ ownership I had to detach the cover plates and remove, clean and refit the basket and the sponge filter.  I did it on both sides whilst I was at it.

Then home again for more car tetris as we have family coming up for the weekend.

2027’s mileage should be much higher as we are heading down to Lake Como in May for the FuoriConcorso, so that should be just marvellous!

…and at 42,188 miles on the clock it’s only done 1,800 miles in the year.

Now that we have the Focus ST for family visits and longer distance stuff (like our trip to the Champagne region in June) we only use the Abarth when it’s local journeys and especially when we want to go topless, so to speak.

So now it leads a rather pampered life as a “future classic”…

Well as it’s the 124’s third birthday – already! – it was off to the dealer for a pretty expensive service and its first MoT test.

Unsurprisingly it passed despite its equally unsurprising rusty rear discs (given it had effectively been parked for three months thanks to the motorbike collision).

So there we are: 19,864 miles of smiles. Now do I keep it until it gives up the ghost or do I trade it in towards a sensible Alfa Romeo Gillian Quadrifoglio?