Ok, both my ladas are off the road and in need of serious amount of time. i havnt got time at the moment and i need to get to work, my third option (mk1 fiesta) is also proving to be time consuming so in the meantime ive seen a sportrak for sale nearby for £850. looks tidy with receipts,service work, and a ticket. for now it will have to do i think. any warnings before i take the plunge. what should i pay close attention to. what tends to fail on them....this needs to be a hassle free motor for at least a few months.
Your thoughts gentleman, as always much appreciated....
dihatsu sportrak.....o dear has it come to this....
dihatsu sportrak.....o dear has it come to this....
where we're going....we dont need roads!
1700 tbi niva
1600 carb niva ragtop x2
1700 tbi niva
1600 carb niva ragtop x2
-
GadgetBoy
We had a few of them through at the garage.
Drove not too bad actually from what I remember, bit prone to massive wheelspin in the wet if you came off the clutch too fast from a standing start, especially in the wet, not as bad as their big brothers the Fourtrack though.
Offroad I can't comment as I've never taken one down anything more strenuous than a gravel driveway.
Mechanically we never had any trouble with 'em save for periodic flat batteries (the battery is tiny from memory) if they were left sitting for any real length of time. The only downside is that they're old enough now that they're no longer a common sight in the breakers (well, up here at least) so getting spares probably means digging around a bit more than might be the case of some cars.
Interior is typical of any Daihatsu or Suzuki of the period...everything will probably work, but if you look at it wrong it will fall off.
As others have said, rust is their worst enemy. They're made out of what seemed very thin metal, and the rustproofing on all of those I saw was somewhere in between poor and non-existent. This isn't helped by a tendency for the doors to leak, so keep an eye out for floorpans rusting from the inside out if the carpets are even slightly damp or if the interior smells musty.
They also seemed to have a taste for exhausts from what I recall - that may just have been bad luck on our part though
Basically...look for rust well...everywhere. Other than that, just normal routine for any used car.
Drove not too bad actually from what I remember, bit prone to massive wheelspin in the wet if you came off the clutch too fast from a standing start, especially in the wet, not as bad as their big brothers the Fourtrack though.
Offroad I can't comment as I've never taken one down anything more strenuous than a gravel driveway.
Mechanically we never had any trouble with 'em save for periodic flat batteries (the battery is tiny from memory) if they were left sitting for any real length of time. The only downside is that they're old enough now that they're no longer a common sight in the breakers (well, up here at least) so getting spares probably means digging around a bit more than might be the case of some cars.
Interior is typical of any Daihatsu or Suzuki of the period...everything will probably work, but if you look at it wrong it will fall off.
As others have said, rust is their worst enemy. They're made out of what seemed very thin metal, and the rustproofing on all of those I saw was somewhere in between poor and non-existent. This isn't helped by a tendency for the doors to leak, so keep an eye out for floorpans rusting from the inside out if the carpets are even slightly damp or if the interior smells musty.
They also seemed to have a taste for exhausts from what I recall - that may just have been bad luck on our part though
Basically...look for rust well...everywhere. Other than that, just normal routine for any used car.
LOZ: Oddball cars, lighting information, and anything else I remember to upload!
Current fleet: 02 VW Caddy 1.9SDI, 90 Mercedes 208D Autotrail Navajo, 85 Sinclair C5, 78 Vauxhall Cavalier 1.6GL, 73 AC Model-70.
Current fleet: 02 VW Caddy 1.9SDI, 90 Mercedes 208D Autotrail Navajo, 85 Sinclair C5, 78 Vauxhall Cavalier 1.6GL, 73 AC Model-70.
