Thanks for the info Rich, there has been a further development. Garage estimated repair at £1600 so that took care of the decision to repair or scrap off, especially as I looked on Auto Express website and found two for sale with less miles and less than £1200 each. I contacted garage and told them I would collect car for scrapping off. So, off I went with a neighbor who has a tow-bar fitted to tow vehicle back only to be told that as the garage was pushing the car back into the garage for safety overnight the front driver side coil spring broke on the suspension leg. can it get worse? It did. I decided to tow it home anyway (only 1 mile or so) but of course the broken spring was catching on the tyre (new tyre fitted 3 weeks before) and bang it went in a cloud of rubber smoke. managed to get it home though, took 5 neighbours to push it onto my drive. Next day (Saturday) I managed to get the scissor jack under the front jacking point by levering the car up enough to get the jack under when that collapsed. I gave up. I have now looked at the situation in a calm and logical way and have decided to re-fit the bits & bobs the garage removed, Coil, Plugs, inlet manifold Air filter box etc and see what happens. I might as well, thing cannot get worse Can they? Watch this space.
Dave Taylor
January 2008