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Author Topic: Long live the 454!  (Read 4363 times)

cheapshots

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Long live the 454!
« on: January 09, 2020, 09:41:43 PM »

The headlight bulb on my Pulse 1.3 454 died about four months ago - not sure how many of you have had to change it but it's not the most straight forward of jobs - I ended up removing the wheel so I could access the service hatch. Anyway, I was moaning and cursing about it all day (which took me little over 30 mins to do).

HOWEVER, more recently my wife's car (mercedes e-class 2013) which has those LED daylight running lights (DRLs) and an 'Intelligent Light System' headlight - well the DRLs stopped working and guess what, it took me over 3 months and over £600 to sort out with great great difficulty.

It would have cost a lot more if I hadn't done so much of the legwork myself (Indie merc specialist wanted close to 2k)

Back to my point - my beloved smart, I will never curse at her again!

« Last Edit: January 09, 2020, 09:43:47 PM by cheapshots »
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1.3 Pulse

CrazyG

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Re: Long live the 454!
« Reply #1 on: January 09, 2020, 10:06:48 PM »

I can't help but agree with you about the 454...
I've had plenty of cars in my many years of motoring, and
none have 'held' my interest or been in my hands for as
long as my 454's.  And as you can atest to, by today's
standards they are easy to work on, cheap to run, and
are far from dated in their exterior design.
Ok...so they have a few 'foilbles' and things that could've
been a lot better (headlights to name one), but they don't
rust like the rest of the mass produced 'clonemobiles',
and they're more or less 'bullet proof'.

Long live the 454 indeed.
« Last Edit: January 09, 2020, 10:08:01 PM by CrazyG »
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454 - Brabus (mapped, Willwood brakes, coilovers etc etc)
454 - Passion CDi 95hp (manual, full Brab body kit, coilovers etc)
454 - Passion 1.3 (manual, Brab body kit, lowered etc) [SORN'd]
451 - Pulse Turbo [my daily drive] (mapped, coilovers etc)
450 - 'Widestar' Passion 700cc [SORN'd]

BlackCDI

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Re: Long live the 454!
« Reply #2 on: January 10, 2020, 12:21:28 PM »

I can't help but agree with you about the 454...
I've had plenty of cars in my many years of motoring, and
none have 'held' my interest or been in my hands for as
long as my 454's.  And as you can atest to, by today's
standards they are easy to work on, cheap to run, and
are far from dated in their exterior design.
Ok...so they have a few 'foilbles' and things that could've
been a lot better (headlights to name one), but they don't
rust like the rest of the mass produced 'clonemobiles',
and they're more or less 'bullet proof'.

Long live the 454 indeed.


I second that. Still prefer it as a daily driver and I think it will never be sold
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2006 Passion 95hp CDi Black Edition

Brabs

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Re: Long live the 454!
« Reply #3 on: January 10, 2020, 10:59:25 PM »

Well, regulars to this site will know that I’ve had my 1.1 Passion since 2006 and driven it for over 90,000 miles. I can honestly say that it has been one of THE most trouble free cars which I have ever owned! It just goes on and on with just regular maintenance.
My Fantastic Brabus forfour isn’t far behind either. Over 70,000 miles with very little to do apart from regular maintenance. They are very well built and underrated cars.  ;)
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Open Your Mind... to a smart.
I did, to a generation 1 forfour 1.1 with 'Passion', a Silver generation 1 forfour 'Brabus' Xclusive and a fortwo 451 'night orange' edition ;~)

Fritz

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Re: Long live the 454!
« Reply #4 on: January 11, 2020, 01:56:53 AM »

agreed 😊 Im going to be buried in mine 🤣
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G'Day from the land of floods, Fires, things that bite & very happy people.

mr singh

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Re: Long live the 454!
« Reply #5 on: January 11, 2020, 08:44:21 PM »

for a 2016 MY XJ it would cost you over £3600 for a pair of headlights fitting

for an F-Pace with LED headlights it would be closer to £4500 for a pair of headlights.
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Fortwo MK3 (2007-2010) Top speed 85 MPH. maxed* 98 MPH
Forfour 1.1 (2010-2015) Top speed 103 MPH. maxed* 110 MPH
Forfour 1.5 SB3 (2015>) Top speed 118 MPH. maxed* 122 MPH
Jaguar XF S 3.0TDV6 (11/21-06/22) never to be maxed
Jaguar XF S 3.0TDV6 (07/22>) Top speed 155MPH

*maxed in Germany

snookey

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Re: Long live the 454!
« Reply #6 on: January 18, 2020, 03:00:50 PM »

The best car I ever owned for changing headlight bulbs was the worst car I ever owned.  A Ford Mondeo.  To change bulbs one would pull the wiring connector off the back of the light unit, pull up two sliding bars, then slide the whole unit forwards and out.  In literally ten to fifteen seconds one would have the headlight unit in hand and could go sit in the car with it in one's lap to change either headlight, sidelight or indicator bulbs.  Which was great if one failed in typical highlands winter weather.  I'm amazed that all cars aren't designed that way by now, it was absolute simplicity.  Overall, though, it was the only car I've ever regretted buying, and the only other thing about it I miss was the heated windscreen.
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2006 forfour Brabus