My girlfriend potential owner Puma 1.6

Hi guys. I bet someone s talked about this in the past but i really need 2020 opinions of the car. I ll go tommorrow in Bucharest ( Romanian Capital city) to see a Ford Puma 1.6 from 2001. It costs around 900€. And i want to make the price lower for her because when i had my Puma, 6 months ago, it was full of rust in the sills and on the wings. And it still is until i have around 700€ to repair it fully. And i don t want for her this kind of trouble. I want a nice sport car not with too many HP and 1.6 103 HP is prefect for her. I ll attach some photos with the car so if you could tell me how much should i invest on exterior restoration and how much should i offer, in no time, but until then, can you tell me what to look for tommorrow ? Like engine problems or smth? I know that Puma's mechanics are pretty good bcs it s a Yamaha colaboration here. But idk much about tech problems, on mine i ve changed my braking system, my suspensions and 1 calliper and i don t want her to invest as much as me bcs i m passionate about my car but she just want a Puma for a beginner driver. To drive and just like that. I ll take care of her car but i need some opinions so if you could tell me pls ill be greatful thanks a lot.

So here they are

Looks to me like it has some pretty bad rust on the rear arches, and looks like its been repaired, maybe with filler, which could be hiding a lot of rust. Its not so easy to see in photos, but that is the area I would concentrate on when looking at it.

What you can do is, pull back the rear wheel arch liner and see if there are any holes in the metal, it can hide them. If there are holes there, then it can cause more rust inside, and spread all the way down the inner sills, also feel behind the sills for any holes.

Other than that I think it looks fairly clean.

I wouldn't pay €900 for it, no way, more like €300, but IF the rust isn't too bad, and its running well, has low miles, service history etc, then maybe €500. But I don't know, maybe Puma's are more expensive in Romania than in the UK.

Also it looks like its on winter wheels/tyres, so I would want to make sure to get the summer wheels/tyres, if it doesn't have them then its not good, it should come with alloy wheels, as far as I know its standard for all pumas.

Thanks a lot, i saw it, i didn t buy it. It had holes in the sills and rusty jointings in engine support. Beside of all of the scratches. Yeah, well in Germany and Romania, a rusty Puma is around 800-1500 Euro. Below 500, i can find only damaged ones. In UK it s more cheaper, we have people that bring monthly from your country BMW, Audi and Ford with right side steering wheel, and they make conversions to left side you know. Thanks a lot, it helped me a lot.

:grin: good luck with the search, it sounds like you made the right choice.

Also to add the 1.6 is not the collaboration with Yamaha, that was only the 1.7 unit, the 1.6 is the same unit as in other Fords of the time and should be a reliable engine still if it has been properly maintained.

Oh ok sorry and thanks a lot