About a year ago I traded in my wee blue panda (see above) who had loyally served me for 10 years. It was a sad day, but the poor thing was rather unwell and required an owner with more car repair skills than I.
I knew things had reached a culmination the day I was filming a short film in Dumfries. I drove down in the morning and on the way, the engine started to smoke, then the exhaust began to start banging before just out and out roaring, like a trapped lion. By the time I reached the location I had also lost my radio, aerial and the windscreen wiper was malfunctioning. I drove into the quiet farm where we were filming with a RRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrr. The people I was there to film, the producer and all the crew were standing around in the yard. I pulled up and turn off the engine at which point, the car went pfffffff and billowed huge swathes of smoke. Everyone turned and stared at me. I just got out, closed the door and walked over as if everything was normal.
The nice RAC man got the car back to full working order again, though I did have to stop every 30miles or so to let the engine cool down. But it was the final straw and sadly I made the decision to trade it in and I am now the proud owner of an almost identical blue panda, with roof bars. Its a very nice car and very comfortable to drive, but it does lack some of the wonder features of the old model - no turbo boost and no "loud" button on the radio.
Anyway in honour of my old friend I attach below a print out, cut and build card model.
