A 1971 Fiat 500F, affectionately known as Freddie, is looking for a new home in the Charterhouse auction of classic and vintage cars on Thursday, June 8.

Charterhouse's Richard Bromell said: "At 52-years-old, Freddie is looking particularly fine.

“However, this is due to the love, care and attention to detail the owner lavished on his restoration as many Fiats from the 1970s were eaten by the tin worm, which is another saying for rust.”

While there are many classic Fiat 500s about, most do not have the pedigree of Freddie.

Registered new in 1971 by a New Forest Fiat dealership to a lady in Ringwood, she would keep Freddie for the next 10 years, after which she sold him back to the Fiat dealer.

The Fiat dealer put Freddie into the back of a store where he eventually was forgotten about, with old cardboard boxes and other rubbish being piled on top of him over the decades.

He was then, rather bizarrely as you generally do not lose a car, in 2015 discovered by the garage owner.

At this point, the garage was no longer a Fiat dealer, although it continued to look after client's Fiats, and a nut and bolt restoration was undertaken to put Freddie back on the road.

The restoration took six years and included a bare metal respray in his original colour of blue Turchese.

Since then Freddie has covered a handful of test miles.

A rare survivor, this original right hand drive UK Fiat 500F with just a couple of owners and 21,669 miles from new, most of which were recorded just driving around the New Forest, is estimated at between £10,000 and £12,000 in the Charterhouse specialist classic car auction on Thursday, June 8

Charterhouse are now accepting further entries for this specialist sale being held at the prestigious Haynes International Motor Museum, Sparkford.

Richard Bromell and the team at Charterhouse Auctioneers can be contacted on 01935 812277 or email cars@charterhouse-auction.com