Hi I’m new on here, registered yesterday.
My father has a really tidy 1989 XR3i cabriolet in white with a black roof. It’s a 1989 Mk4 on an F plate, basic cloth spec interior and unmodified. He’s in the Bristol area.
I had a look over it at the weekend and chatted to him, he hardly drives it now but has a strong attachment to the car. It’s been cared for but has only ever had basic servicing. It gets stored inside though and covered with a soft cloth cover sheet. He’s only covered 6000 miles in it since 2006! Usually drove his van or a family car and used this for weekends and holidays.
It passed the MOT in June, just needing a couple of tyres. There are advisories for suspension mounts :
Suspension component mounting prescribed area is corroded but not considered excessive both sills (5.3.6 (a) (i))
The car seems sound enough then. He says it’s struggling a bit on acceleration (possibly an MFI issue?) and the gearchange linkage is badly worn as he finds the gear selection is very vague ( just worn-out bushes or a mount?)
i bought him a set of RS Turbo alloys years ago but they’ve never made it onto the car, it’s got original steels with white plastic covers. They look right on the car though, I think. The interior is okay, the drivers door card has a worn area and the passenger electric window switch is out of its fitting. A decent valet would bring up the cloth and carpets nicely I expect.
I'm looking forward to finding a few ways to subtly improve the car for him as he’s in his 80s now and I’d like him to really enjoy driving this car again.