CZ1 1.1

Further update...

A further update on this "little big car".

Car is now approaching 80000 miles, and continues to run well. A severe pothole encountered on a dark rainy night broke the drop link from the ant-roll bar, just £6 via the internet.
Can't really blame the car for that.

If your considering one of these, be assured that the basic 1.1 3cyl engine is well up to everything you throw at it - it will trundle round the town, then zoom straight onto the motorway without problem, having enough zip to hold 70 easily.
The engine in fact is something of a gem - it's hard not to be charmed by its off beat warble and reliability. Starting is instant cold or hot, and it's always willing. Vibration is minimal.
I run mine on fully synthetic oil, and always use good quality fuel, avoiding supermarkets.

Motorway travel is fairly noisy, with road and wind noise prevalent. But it's not desperate, and in fact soon you don't notice.

Fuel economy? City bound, it's about 38mpg. That sounds poor, but stop/start is bad in any car. On the motorway, 65-70mph will yield 50mpg on average, and a nice feature is the surprisingly accurate mpg display on the dash. Overall my average is 45mpg, meaning in real life this is a cheap car to run on a daily basis.

Anything to watch for? Well a rather surprising design flaw means that the coolant cap doesn't always quite seal properly when hot, so an eye needs to be kept on the coolant level. But in 2 years, I've only had to top it up once. The engine uses no oil. And the seat height adjustment can gradually drop down, but I have it at the lowest level anyway. Lastly, reverse has no synchromesh, so owners often crunch it in, but a little care avoids this. I had the gearbox oil changed which improved the gear change.

So I continue to recommend this car, especially since being overlooked it's often cheap, so bargains can be had. The Mirage that replaced it is a real step back, which seems strange.

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