Would have had more chance driving that Mini Cooper bonnet to Italy...
It was purchased on eBay for the princely sum of £75 with 9 months MOT, and was located in West Wales. No worries, I (Rob) used to live in Aberystwyth and the seller had agreed to meet us there at the station. So, Cliff and I left home in Essex early and spent 5 hours on the train going to pick it up. We meet the seller in Aberystwyth station Car Park and jumped into the new transport. The engine purrs, the suspension pumps up and off we go. For 6 miles when the "STOP!" light comes up on the dashboard. Bugger. The car is nursed into Glan-yr-Afon industrial estate and up with the bonnet. The water pump belt had snapped and the car had overheated. No problems, we're ten yards from a motor factors so we get a new belt without any hassle. A mechanic from a local Iveco truck dealership fitted the belt and checked the coolant level for us and off we go again...
For 5 miles when the block cracked. Stranded. Cold have been worse, at least I knew the area
Including the purchase price, hotel bills, train fares, scrappy's fees (it wasn't getting fixed), beer and the fact that some thieving bastard broke in and nicked the new tax disc i'd put in it, this cost us over £500.
For the record, the Citroen BX's that actually made it onto S2N04 were the least reliable cars there.