cars

In a desperate bid to raise a laugh I’ve combined the phrase ‘a new day is dawning’ with ‘Hyundai’.

Didn’t really work.

Anyway, what’s important is that we have a new addition to our fleet in the form of this fine Hyundai IX20 1.4 NAV Blue Energy from 2017. I became aware of this vehicle, and the opportunity to acquire it last November when my wife noted that one of her customers was looking to get rid of his car as he was no longer able to drive. I considered it briefly, as one of our kids might have been interested, but dismissed it as not really being their thing. But the months rolled by and I asked Helen whether it was sold, wondering if we could offer to help move it on. So she made some enquiries and its appeared that the owner was having some trouble getting round to selling it, having seen off some cheeky offers and reluctant to go down the line of one of the online car buying firms as he suspected they would get knocked down on the headline price. We did our own research and the price offered by the one line buying firm would make a good basis for us to purchase, with no intention of knocking him down further. So we initiated discussions and I went to see the car which apart from being grimy from having been left outside was in fine overall condition. With mileage of only 34,000 miles the price versus the product appeared to stack up economically and with my own Honda Accord racking up the big miles, it would be good to have a fall-back and potential future replacement.

Initially, I though I’d just pay up and drive away, but life is never that simple. First of all, and no surprise, was the battery being flat. The owner had a jump pack which proved it would start up and run for a few minutes, but it would then stall. It took me several goes at this to realise that what was happening was the stop/start system was initiating and the battery didn’t have enough life to restart the engine. The jump pack was now tired so game over for the day. I took the battery away to attempt a charge on my trusty old charger at home but this showed the battery to be U/S as following an all-night charge it was showing only 5v. I bit the bullet and bought a stop/start battery from Halfords for £185, having been put off the dealer price of £302. Happily, the new battery restored normal service and with the stop/start system isolated, the little 1.4 petrol would start, idle and restart on demand. Great.

Next step was to organise an MOT so I could tax it and complete the purchase. No problem said the owner as he had a friend at a local garage who would sort this and how about about I pick it up in a week at the start of the new month and off we go. Great. Unfortunately, said friend did not return the owners calls, so when I called in for a progress check, there was no new MOT. Deciding we had to take control of the situation, we reassured the owner that we would get the MOT sorted, but would collect the car in the meantime and keep it on our driveway. We arranged a time for a smooth handover and before long the car was on our drive as the new owners.

At home I was able to appraise the vehicle and took the photographs above as a record of our starting point. The panels all look straight with no obvious dings and scratches. There is one visible scuff on the drivers door mirror is all I could spot. The alloy wheels have some light corrosion and scuffing, nothing horrendous, but something which could be improved on if I thought it would be worth spending the money. The tyres are matching Bridgestone’s all round and look recent, so a win there. The car was clean when it was left outside, but now has baked on dust in all the cervices and the beginnings of mould on the rubbers which is going to take a bit of shifting. Unfortunately, with a hose pipe in place, I’m not really able to get started on the exterior and until the MOT is done, I cannot even take it to the local hand car wash. So for now, the exterior will remain dull and cobwebby – the dark grey metallic will clean up nicely though. I have made a start on the interior. I emptied and brushed the mats and gave the front seats a good dosing of upholstery cleaner, more to freshen them up than anything as the car is a bit stale smelling. The rear seats have barely been sat on it seems and the boot floor was immaculate, the spare wheel and jack kit all present, correct and new looking. The steering wheel rim was shiny leather, so I dosed it with leather conditioner to try to remove some of the dirt, although not much was coming off. This will be a case of repeat and repeat until we can soak through the grime, one does just not being enough.

Everything electrical seems to work well and its a nice spec for a little car, the only obvious omission being cruise control and heated seats, but for the money who’s complaining.

Under the bonnet, lots more baked on dust and cobwebs – it will be enjoyable to gradually address this. On previous cars I have done a sponge wash with soapy car shampoo and then rinsed with a hosepipe at mains pressure. The electrics seem fine with this, as long as you avoid directing the jet directly at the electrical components. I will follow this with a cloth wipe over and cleaning spray to really remove the dirt and bring the finish up.

So there we go – this will be an interesting experiment. I don’t intent to run two cars for long, but also in no hurry to move the Accord on to a new owner as its such a good workhorse and the Hyundai is as yet untested. Watch this space.

I had removed the centre dashboard panel to replace the hazard switch but I was having real difficulty finding the correct part in all the usual internet places. I got a correct looking switch but it was the wrong alignment and although I tried cobbling a Frankenstein switch made up of the old and the new I reached a dead end. Cue refund and another approach. I even considered remounting the hazard switch where it’s put on the later model but this would bring other complications such as having mismatched dashboard parts.

Regrettably I had to purchase ANOTHER WHOLE centre dashboard panel to get the correct switch! I really could not see another way around and having checked with the vendor that the panel included the switch I went ahead and ordered it. Fortunately all was well and the panel arrived with the switch and it all went back together very easily. Of course I had a couple of screws left over. I wonder where they were supposed to go?!

As it was a nice sunny day I then went under the bonnet to fit the new air filter and this went fine although the incredibly tight space to fit the rear screws was as hard to do up as it was to undo. I also put back the plastic engine cover which I had cleaned.

Last job was to put the wiper arms back on. These are very worn but new units are expensive so I’m wondering about finding something from a scrap yard. These will do for the moment (post test drive note: they were not tightened up enough!).

So with the car looking more roadworthy I was itching to have a drive so I taxed it and drove up the road to Tesco to lob in some petrol as it was getting a bit low. One brake was slightly scuffing but not enough to actually bind, otherwise she drives like a 116,000 miles VW – not bad all round.

After refuelling I dropped the roof down and enjoyed that wind-in-the-hair thing we all love.

There are quite a few things left to do for eventual sale, next will be the passenger door handle which has pulled too far out. I’ve looked at how to remove it and it either needs refixing or replacing. Also I need to find out how to replace the battery in the remote – I can’t figure it out but without it the alarm keeps going off when I park it which is antisocial and very annoying. Also, with the warmer weather I’m more inclined to crawl underneath to explore the oil leak and hopefully remove the undertray which was previously reluctant to come off.