My X1/9 was booked in for its MOT this afternoon, so this morning as I had had an ignition problem on Monday I took it for a drive to make sure it still ran the brakes were properly free.

Fine so far, it ran perfectly until around a mile from home it misfired and cut out on the approach to a roundabout.

Fortunately a cop car was its way back to the nick a couple of minutes later and he stopped and helped me push it onto the pavement and waited, and waited as the breakdown company argued the toss about whether it had stopped within a mile of home.

The arseholes were insistent that it was 100 metres within the mile so refused to come out unless I paid them £90 to take the car home.
I turned down their kind offer and will not be renewing that particular cover again.

Fortunately my son is in the trade and has a recovery truck, so a quick text later he said he would stop what he was doing and came out and took the car home.

By this time it was 12:30 and the test was booked at 3:15 so having unloaded it, it was down to work, Adam from above and me through a 9" square hatch in the bulkhead behind the driver's seat.

We sorted the problem, a combination of points, condenser and a peculiar electronics box which enables either conventional or electronic ignition.

So that was it running again, reinstall hatch, sound deadening, spare wheel and all was well.

Off to the MOT test - result - a pass with no advisories.

I later called in at the nick, to leave my thanks to the cop who had helped in the morning and was told by the duty Sergeant that the tale of a near 40 year old Fiat breaking down was the talk of the canteen.

It's good to be able to say something positive about the local police.

The chequered gentlemen (or women) as they used to be called up here often get a grotty press so all the better when one shows a bit of decency - aptly rewarded by your thank-you trip, the sort of thing which I guess might make their day.

On the other hand the short-sighted approach by the breakdown company is a self-inflicted blow to both their income and recommendability

Glad it turned out ok Pete. Them there roads round your way are very busy to have a breakdown.
Good on plod for the help, see they ain't all like Stan!

Not saying this is a common thread Pete but the last time my X1/9 was on the road was on the way back home from Stanford Hall in 2014 - when a local officer of the law assisted my 1300 X in to the local BP station after it had decided to pause for a while on the A45 due to a nasty case of clutch slave failure................ Good result on the pass though

Am I the only one to remember driving around in an Uno with a spare clutch cable on the back seat, as they failed so often?