Well don't know if I've done the right thing but after advertising the Coupe in Autotrader I've taken a deposit this morning from a very nice chap from Leeds who's upgrading from a 20v NA.

I had tried to sell my Coupe at the Tatton Park Classic Car show but despite chatting to lots and lots of people who loved the car, I got the impression that no-one was really there to buy. None of the other cars for sale at the show seemed to sell either.

It's been a good 6 1/2 years and in that time I've done 65k miles without anything major going wrong. Worked out the total servicing costs and over this time I've spent £8,300 in total (an awful lot of this at Motormech) including a couple of sets of tyres and a little bit of paintwork. So that works out at £1,275 per year. Not too bad really for a 155mph car. These costs exclude tax, fuel and insurance.

Will pop out for a quick final drive today and will be very sorry to see it go tomorrow afternoon when he comes back to collect. Fingers crossed he will look after it as well as I have and I'll try and encourage him to sign up on here.

At least I still have a Renaultsport Clio 197 to keep me entertained. It's a far better handler than the Coupe but I'll certainly miss the effortless performance and 5 cylinder warble of the Coupe - oh and those drop dead gorgeous looks.

Ah well, hopefully I'll get another one one day when we can afford a house with a garage but I'll be hard pressed to find one that's as original and pampered as mine's been.

Andy, good luck (and I'm sure you'll be back)!

Tim

We saw your car at the show and it looked in lovely condition, although a bit lonely being parked up all on it's own.

Good luck Andy and hope you'll be back one day soon

the guy who has left you the deposit was wanting to put his 20v na wheels on??

They probably won't fit mate, brembos will be in the way on the front.

Cheers Theresa, Coupe now gone as of about 1/2hr ago. Very sad to see it leave but it's gone to a good home.

Got up at 6am this morning to go for a final drive over snake pass towards Sheffield. Despite the terrible wet conditions, the Coupe performed well as always and seemed to be faster than ever. Ended up back in Glossop and turned around again to give the pass one more go.

In a way although very sorry to see the Coupe go, I do feel the weight of 'Coupe Paranoia' gradually lifting. The Clio 197 I still have is a great car but it's a car that I'll never care about as much as the Coupe. It's quite nice to be able to park it places and not worry about it too much.

Cheers to everyone on here for all your help over the years. Coupe ownership would not be half as easy without this forum

I'll look after her - promise :-)

Hoping weather stays good for weekend and will treat her to some of my favourite North Yorks roads. May even let the girlfriend have a go - if she's lucky ;-)

The shed went yesterday although I felt really bad about it driving her in as still drove beautifully despite her numerous "characteristics"

Pleasure doing business with such a nice bloke and someone so enthusiastic about the car :-)

Enjoy your car!!

Tim

As stated before, enjoy the break but you'll be back

Life continues on the other side Andy, fear not.

I suspect that now the cars are ageing and the general standard is getting lower there will be a lot fewer "return owners" than was once the case.