Just found this lovely site today. My name is John and I live in the state of Connecticut in the northeast of the USA; have lived in this country since coming here as a teenager in 1981.
My Mum had a white RHD 126 DeVille bought new in 1977 and immediately driven by Dad (with Granny as his passenger) to Munich, where we lived from 1976 to 1980. The 126 was driven in all seasons and by the time we'd returned to Bristol and were preparing to move again in 1981, it was very rusty. I'm sure it would deemed fixable now (hypothetically...I imagine it got crushed years ago), but remember the family being disaappointed that it had decayed so quickly.
Three memories:
1. Being passenger (age 14) to my Dad as we drove it back to Blighty from Germany. It had blue corduroy seats and the sunroof, a comfortable and pleasing cabin. We pottered along the Autobahns and Autoroutes (not so congested then) without any bothers.
2. riding with my older borther as his driving commitment exceeded his skills, spinning it on a crowded road in Bristol's Cotham area and ending up hitting a tree backwards. If we'd struck it front-wise, I imagine we'd have bothe broken our knees. A guy popped out of his house to see what had happened, helped us pick the car up and make it look like it was parked, to avoid any attention of the local police. He then took us into his home, gave us tea and biscuits and encouraged my brother to call our Mum (Dad was always away when bad stuff happened). The car got towed to the garage my parents had always used and they sorted out the damage but declined touching the now-ragged sill and front wheel arches. As a budding future enthusiast, I kept loading the arches up with Plastic Padding and painting them with aerosol enamel, not quite understanding why the repairs didn't last.
3. Just the general memory of my Mum driving the car with brio and gusto, picking us up from,school, going to the dentist, etc. The fact it was RHD in a LHD environment wasn't a problem because the car was so small. It had a big GB sticker onthe engine lid.
126's are almost nonexistent here, but I did see a rather ratty 126p for sale in New York a couple of months ago at a garage run, unsurprisingly, by a Polish mechanic.
I'd like to have one now; would want it to be LHD. Funnily there's another 126p for sale on eBay, 60 miles from me. It's a hideous yellow. Maybe seeing two in two months means a olan could be viable.
Question for anyone who reads this: what is the spare parts availability like? Are body panels, or decent repair sections available? Also, if one had a choice, is the water cooled version more or less preferable? Kind regards, John