Faults:

Rust on bodywork towards the very end, but not surprising as the car was 18 years old when I finished with it.

Stereo packed up when the car was 15 years old, so I bought a high tech CD player which was in a different age to the car. When the car was made, CD players didn't exist.

Tyres and seats wore badly.

General Comments:

The car's bodywork and interior started to show their age towards the end, but its mechanicals were faultless.

I bought it in 1997 for £500 off a man who'd owned it from new, 13 years earlier. Being so old it cost next to nothing to tax and insure.

This Talbot Solara was extremely comfortable and handled well.

But its engines were slow and noisy.

At the end of 2002, I sold the car for £30 to a man on a street corner near my home. It was lent out to various motorists until it finally crashed into a lamp post and was written off after 19 long years on the road.

Faults:

We got off to a turbulent start in our 4 and a half relationship. A mounting for the power steering broke, after 2 months of owning it. This wouldn't normally be too bad, but this bracket supported the engine as well.

Soon after the car would refuse to start on cool/cold mornings and by the time the garage ever saw the car, it was working just fine. Then one morning it refused to start for anyone and required a new electronic ignition.

After 4 months the speedo cable broke.

The clutch slave cylinder went a few months later.

Then for the next 3 years and 50,000 miles nothing other than normal wear and tear tyres, brake pads, exhausts and a wheel bearing and welding.

The above may sound a lot, but for a car that cost £550 and was 7 years old when purchased I was pretty pleased.

General Comments:

My Talbot Solara was immediately called Polly. All old cars needs a name, since they run on faith as much as mechanical soundness. Treat them well and they "should" treat you likewise. She was called Polly due to her number plate B842PVC, an abreviation for polly-vinyl-chloride. Sad, I know, but there you go.

The car may not have looked a million dollars, but she had personality, a comfortable ride with acceptable 35 m.p.g. Going round corners was fun, lots of body roll, but predictable and if pushed lots of oversteer that would unsettle the uninitiated, but was a real joy for those use to it.

On a good day, with a following wind, she would oblige with 100mph.

During those 4 and 3/4 years Polly and I went all over the place and it was a sad day when I took her to the recycling center and sold her for £18.85. I couldn't bear to see her go in the crusher and so turned away with a tear in my eye. It was some 6 months later that I could bear to get another car, Beryl the Beamer, but that is another story.