[everwax]

Fair enough, th... , I know you're talking sense to me - as are other contributors - I didn't want to listen to bad news last night.

However, best foot forward: I'm going to purge the coolant system and start from scratch because I have no idea when the problem started and therefore it may already have been evident when I purchased the car. (No admonishing me for being a pleb and not checking oil and water before I drove away, please.)

I hadn't driven the car for 2 days so the puff of smoke may have been due to inactivity pooling.

Nevertheless, I will heed comments and do local journeys only - like today, 2 miles for Tesco food hunt.

I'm going to get to the bottom of this but slowly and as funds permit. I don't want to junk her as a roller.