Hello all, I recently bought a 2009 1.3 Copen with 61k miles on the clock from auction for... wait for it... £425. It isn't in pristine condition, that's for sure, but it could be an awful lot worse. No dash lights, steering feels light and nimble (from driving it around the yard) and there's minimal rust. It's my first sports car and my first proper 'project car', so I'm very excited to start working on it. It does have a couple of issues, the rear has been hit quite heavily by something, so I'll need to replace the rear bumper and the lights that go on it in order for it to be road legal at a minimum. It seems that the Copen is a relatively easy car to work on in the main, but I haven't got a manual and I'm not sure how exactly to approach the removal of it alongside the lights (though I do intend to access the resources on this site once I've passed the 7 day registration cool down). I think perhaps the more serious problem, though it doesn't render the car completely unusable, is a very heavy clutch pedal. I'm talking, almost half my weight to just actuate the thing. I have read that it might just be a matter of adjusting the cable on the engine side, but mine feels like it's on the way out in all honesty. It has a reasonably heavy travel up until just before the biting point, and then it gets an awful lot worse. I have ordered a number of other items to service the Copen with, including a new battery; new spark plugs; oil, coolant, brake fluid, filters, brake pads etc.. I'm wondering if there's anything else I'm missing, or if there's any other advice or any potentially useful resources I could access in respect of the problems. I'm so excited to begin working on and driving this little car, for the money I spent on it and the potential it has as a fun little weekend car I think it was definitely the right choice, even seeing the problems it has at the moment. Thanks for reading.
Hi David, welcome and well done on the recovery of a Copen that could have ended up in a scrap yard. Try and find out why it was auctioned it may have been an MOT failure prior to accident damage so check out the chassis as the repair work to this can be prohibitively expensive unless you know someone or you yourself are capable of doing metalwork to the body to MOT standard. The other items needing work on are easier to achieve as long as your outlay doesn’t overtake the valuable parts within the car. Welcome to the club we are here to help you keep one of these rare little cars on British roads.
