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Back to this month's car of the month
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Car Of The Month :
January 2013
'The Blue Lady' by ssizefive
T750 MAU was Priory Garage of Nottingham’s dealer launch vehicle and was registered on the 15th June 1999, having originally rolled off the Cowley production line on 20th May.
On the 17th January 2000 the car was sold to Mr William Burnside with 8900 miles on the clock for the sum of £24,500.
He had a set of mudflaps and a towbar fitted to the car together with Supagard paint protection plus 12 months road fund licence
that brought the total invoice price to £25154.25.
Mr Burnside passed away in early 2010 and the car, I am led to believe, was left to a family member who continued to use the car until I purchased it in July 2011.
I had been looking for a dealer launch vehicle for quite a while, this one appeared on ebay, I hit the buy it now button without stopping to think about it or even ask any questions,
I am so glad I hit that button.
Three pictures from 2nd July 2011, the day it arrived
The 75 had travelled just over 41,000 miles, this was confirmed by a comprehensive service history from the supplying dealer as even after the demise of MG-Rover
Mr Burnside had continued to have the car serviced by Priory Garage who were by now a Volkswagen franchise dealer.
Two items I noticed that were not working, the heater blower which turned out to be a failed relay and a non-functioning message centre display, more of this later.
I took the car to BigRuss for a full T4 session and found amongst other faults that the VIS motors were not working,
they were immediately replaced thanks to Stocktake as he’d just left a refurbished pair with Russ.
There was a much more worrying issue however as it was found that ABS ecu would not communicate with T4.
On another visit to Russ’s to fit a replacement IPK we discovered a piece of black card had been stuck to the message centre display screen which caused us some consternation.
It transpired that at some point the battery had leaked, this had corroded the pins on the ABS ecu and damaged the wiring loom.
Some quite knowledgeable person had cut into the
wiring harness and then wired in a relay to make the abs light go off. This bodge had been done presumably so the car would pass the MoT.
Luckily I managed to locate a used ABS unit with traction control plus some of the wiring harness and during another visit to see him Russ made a fantastic job of fitting it all.
I was quite determined to keep the car original but it didn’t take long for the upgrade bug to bite me.
The Crown rims have been replaced by Serpents, then came the wood steering wheel quickly followed by some xenon headlamps and finally a neptune and walnut gear lever.
I have kept all the original items so the car can be returned to its’ original specification should I ever want to.
First came the serpents
Then the wood and leather steering wheel
Next the xenon headlamps
Finally the walnut and neptune gear lever
The strut top mounts, drop links, lower arms and bushes, steering arms and track rod ends have required replacement,
plus a couple of months ago I took a trip to North Wales to see Jules who has replaced the timing belts and water pump.
At the Hollow Tree 25th March 2012, the dealer launch three,
mine with BigRuss and Andyg2011’s cars
I don’t use the car as my everyday drive but every time I do it brings a smile to my face and unless something drastic happens
I really can’t see myself parting with it for a very long time.
Article written by member ssizefive
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