Hey all - long time lurker here - but have finally popped my head above the parapet to say "hi"! I am the proud owner of Cornish Copen's former little red "Luigi", that I purchased in May 2020. It's our fourth convertible, having had, in order of appearance, a Mk1 MX-5 (2013-2015), a Vauxhall Astra G 1.8 Bertone Exclusive convertible (2015-2016), Peugeot 207 CC HDi GT (2016-2018) and the worst car I have ever had the displeasure to own, a Volvo C70, AKA "Volvomort" (2018). After the terrible time I had with the Volvo, I went and purchased a reliable daily driver, A Kia Sportage for the commute but mid last year, I was really missing the open top experience, so after chatting things through with my wife, I started looking for a small, fun convertible that wouldn't break the bank to buy and be suitably cheap to run. After some scouting about, I came across Cornish Copen's advert on this very forum - (being only about 10 miles away from me, it was too good an opportunity to miss). The advert though was about 6 months old. I then also found an expired ad for it on Gumtree, so I fired off a random text message to ask if, by any chance on this green earth, that it was still available... After a couple of days, I had a reply to say yes, it was still in his garage and available, so I didn't hesitate! We were there to see it the very next day, hugely impressed with it, drove it, paid a deposit there and then, then came back the next day to collect it! Since then, we've been out and about at weekends with it a fair amount when it's dry. Have to say, it is THE most perfect little car for exploring these narrow Cornish lanes, particularly far West around the St Just area. My wife loves driving it and we cannot wait for the weekends now that lockdowns have eased, to get out and go somewhere in it. For my money, it drives better than the MX-5 we had, it seems more chuckable into corners and hangs on better. Plus it feels even snugger in the cockpit, which I love! We had to have the radiator re-cored last Autumn, after it developed a post-service leak but other than that and a replacement battery (and isolator switch!) it's been great fun - and is still regularly polished to within an inch of it's life! I've even bought a new tailored car cover for it, as the old one I had (from Lidl's over 10 years ago) was really no good and kept blowing off whenever I opened the garage door. So, other than that, I have fitted a Pioneer double din stereo, a Viofo front and rear dashcam (I wouldn't be without a dashcam in the cars now!) and next, I want to get the wheels refurbed (they are a bit untidy and a little porous, so I have to top the tyres up regularly) and I am also thinking of fitting DRLs at some point, so I have a few minor projects to do with it!
Thanks! We’ve ‘sorta’ named it, our 2 other household vehicles’ number plates both end with “GAF”, so we did think of ‘Teeny Tiny GAF’ but we haven’t christened it with a new number plate as yet… we shall see…
