Wandy! (Vauxhall Nova)

Name: krisgb

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Product:	Vauxhall Nova
Date:	12/03/03 (317 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap to run, Reliable & built like a tank, Makes a good trampoline at a drunken barbeque

Disadvantages: Prone to rust, Safety poor by todays standards

Fed up of getting the bus to uni everyday with the great unwashed ("Ey! 'Dis bus smells like an ale'ouse la!"), I decided to get myself a cheap car.

I ended up with a C Reg Nova 1.2 Merit, which was bought from an old family friend and mechanic! It was in Everton blue! It had 1970's Opel Manta Alloys! It had a full service history! It was £300! Perfect!

For three glorious years the Nova ferried me and my student buddies all over Liverpool, the North and North Wales, I never had a problem with it on the road. The one major disaster being that its camshaft went on 95000 miles, outside my house, and was replaced for £45. Apart from a few minor problems such as rust - Ive never seen a car with as much on a roof as mine had - a broken window winder (solution? duct-tape, an elastic band and a brief to all passengers to not attempt tp open it!) and a drivers side windscreen wiper failure (new wiper arm cost £2 from a scrapyard), I never had any other major problems with it! It flew through every MOT despite its "rustic" external appearance, was (comparitively) cheap to insure for a Liverpool based teenager, was in the lower tax band, and was returning diesel style fuel economy and cost £35 to fully service! Marvellous!

Alas, one fateful night in the rain, a lamp-post leaped out at me and crunch! Front axle bent, I limped it to its resting place of 6 months - the driveway of Wandy's student house, much to the annoyance of its shrieking banshee of a landlady. I've never met anybody with, in my opinion, as odious a personality as her. So odious in fact, that her tenants told her I was in Spain (a blatant porkie!) and so the car couldn't be removed. But I digress.... It stayed there for many a month, being used as an emergency bedroom for drunks who couldnt find the front door key, a shed, a home to vagrants, as a parts bin for friends Nova's and finally as a trampoline for drunken Welshmen called Lia
m, before being towed away by a remarkably oily gentleman to his breakers yard. An injust and premature end to a faithful companions life.

The ghost of my Nova returned to haunt me when the DVLA said I hadn't renewed my tax or declared a SORN. So, despite the fact the car didnt even exist anymore, it still cost me £25 notes to finally put it to rest.

Was that a car review or a short story? Ah, who cares?

So, to summarise - Nova's - theres still a few good 10 year old ones around - if your'e a poor student and need a cheap, reliable old banger, then buy one. If youre the sultan of Brunei, then get a Ferrari you cheapskate! What are you doing reading about Vauxhall Novas?!

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