Potential pickup owner, few questions...

[FredtheLlama]

Evening chaps,

I've seen a nice little Felicia pickup that I'm very tempted to buy for some summer fun.

It's only got the little 1.3 engine in though, and even though I'm not going to be using it for any work, how are these small engines? Any common problems? I'm assuming they are spi or mpi? And not carb'd?

Are they good for high miles? I know the diesels are fairly bullet proof.

Any advise is very much appreciated, and anything to look out for would be great too

Cheers all.

[robk1]

Hi & welcome. Going back a few years I did a shed load of miles with relatively few problems in my 1.3mpi Felly estate. Very similar set up to the pick up so can't imagine you'd go too far wrong providing it's been looked after and reasonably well maintained. As you say you wouldn't be typically using it for heavy conveyance work so the lower power shouldn't compromise your use. I've had my 1.6mpi Fun for 4 years, covering just over 50k miles in that time. I honestly can't fault it in respect of reliability, winter and summer. In short one of the best all round vehicles I've owned but would add that the main driver behind buying it in the first place was a well established history and care of previous ownership. However one last word of caution, they can be very prone to rust in key areas so check sills, arches + inner, tailgate, front wing seams and rear bed area, especially around the suspention/damper mountings.

Having not owned a diesel I can't comment in any great detail, suffice to say having spoken to few owners they appear to be generally reliable but can be frustratingly slow. Try ebay as an option to view various pick ups for sale and I believe another member (jcb) still has a Fun for sale, last priced just under 2k. Good luck & happy hunting

[FredtheLlama]

Hi Rob, thanks for the welcome, and a good detailed reply.

Yes I know very well just how badly they rust (who's idea was it to not fit arch liners?).

The one I'm going to view is admittedly cheap, but looks very very tidy compared to most. It's got 70odd k on the clock with fsh. I've been told the rear arches have been 'tidied up'. I've no idea what that means, but it has had a load liner fitted for its whole life. It even has factory fitted fog lights.

What are they like on fuel? I'm assuming not too bad because they are only a small truck.

[robk1]

Hi, my 1.3mpi Felly was ok'ish fuel wise but probably suffered slightly from being an estate, at times loaded up. To my surprise the 1.6mpi has been really good on the old mpg front, helped by the fact that my boy racer days are about 25 to 30 years behind me! What you're describing sounds ok and mileage wise with due care and attention 150k + is quite achievable. Check the timing belt status and investigate that tidying up issue a little further, as have seen a few examples more relating to covering up!

If you get a good one you won't regret it. All the best

[FredtheLlama]

Thanks again bud, appreciate it.

Is there an easy way to tell which version of the 1.3 engine it has? I really don't want a carb model.

Cheers

[robk1]

The Fellys I've owned tended to date around the late 1990's, so by comparison I guess anything around that age band & newer is unlikely to be carb'd. If you know the reg I think there are sites on line that allow you to check out the relevant spec but may not give sufficiently in depth information? You can tell by inspection but that may need a little bit of poking around and not all owners are happy with that.

Add to the post if you need any specific information and I'm sure myself or other members will be able to help further

[J242]

im sure i read somewhere on this forum that no carbed felly's were sold in UK, not sure how accurate this is but ive not seen one