Due to an impending house move I am now in the position of having to trim the size of my fleet substantially, from the current figure of 22 to something vaguely manageable. I have divided the fleet into "definite keepers", "definite sellers" and "not sure yets". Here, then, are the cars that fall into the second category.
Toyota Celsior. I know there have been a few of these for sale on here recently, and this one's in Auto Trader tomorrow so might sell through that channel, but I thought I'd put it on here anyway. It's done 120,000km, it's T&T'd till July, and all the gadgets work apart from the usual aircon display and the J market stereo which will need replacing with a UK-spec LS400 item. This one has air suspension with height adjustment and it really is an extraordinarily smooth ride. It's also very tidy for its age. Those marks on the front bumper and grille are dirt, not stonechips - they came off straight away in the carwash. I'm after about £850 for it.
Volvo 460 Turbo. I really do like this car, but I like my Saab 900 Turbo even more, and I can't keep both. This is a true Q-car - looks like any other Volvo 460 as seen trundling along at 43mph on an A-road near you, but floor the throttle and it goes like poo off a spade. This one was actually owned by an old boy, which means that the mileage is pretty low. It's in good nick for its age, although not immaculate. The tyres are nearly new. Only problems I've found are clicky CV joints on lock and the clutch is nearing the end of its useful life, although it can still handle full throttle acceleration for the moment. T&T are out but I can't see anything obvious apart from maybe CV joints and reattaching the passenger door mirror which was knocked off by kids. Gotta be worth £150?
No it's not a Kia Pride. It's a Mazda 121, and it's a chuffing brilliant little car, completely reliable, pretty economical and bloody quick. I (and drivers of vehicles such as BMW's 318i, Audi's A4 1.8 and Citroën's Saxo VTR) have been surprised on many an occasion by the acceleration of this little thing. And it will buzz along at the ton quite happily. It also turns on a sixpence. Unfortunately it needs a few jobs doing for its test (handbrake, exhaust downpipe blowing, and the windscreen is cracked down near the tax disc, although you might get away with this if you move the tax disc holder across to cover it) which I haven't got the time to do, and it's not really worth paying someone to do them on a car like this. So if anyone wants it for £75 they can come & drive it away.
Mazda MX3. This is a 1.8-litre V6 which I bought on a second chance offer last month just to see what MX3s are like. It drives nicely and the engine is sweet - it had a bit of a water leak when I bought it and needed topping up every 50 miles or so, but this seems to have been cured now. It's had a bit of heat damage to the nearside corner of the rear bumper which has been rather clumsily repaired, but other than that it's a tidy enough little car, and everything seems to work except the sunroof which appears to be stuck. It really is a fun little thing to drive and amazingly agile, but I can't see myself using it often enough to justify paying full whack road tax on it. The MoT is just out but it's taxed till the end of this month. £200 anyone?
This one's a bit of a wrench to part with. It's a 1979 900 Turbo - one of the very first. Externally there are a few bits that are incorrect for its year (the tailgate for one, the spoiler for another) but the blue interior is pure '70s, and being an early car it has windy windows and a 4-speed 'box. I like it a lot and would love to keep it if I had the space but the fact is that my G-reg T16S is a far more useable car so this one ends up just sitting around. Faults that I can think of are a noisy NSF wheel bearing and a bit of a leak from the sunroof when it rains hard. Bodywork is very good - there's a couple of scratches and a slight dent on the NSF door, but no rot that I've found. It's running on metric tyres, two of which are good, one is OK and one will need replacing fairly soon. The tax is out but it's still tested till August. This is a bit of a rare beast and I'd like to see £600 for it at least.
Don't know if this would be of any interest to people on here, but it's a bit unusual being an old shape 825D - there were very few diesels made before the facelift. This one's done 200K and is a bit rough round the edges but still does its thing and happily dragged my 1977 Alfasud (definitely in the "keepers" pile) back from Kent last month without breaking a sweat. These old VM diesels will supposedly run on veg oil quite happily too. Again, tax is out but it's tested till September. And it does have four alloys, it's running on the spare in the pic which is a steel but the other alloy is OK and is ready to be swapped over. I'm looking for offers around £200-ish.
There may be more coming up for sale in the next month or so, so watch this space...
Toyota Celsior. I know there have been a few of these for sale on here recently, and this one's in Auto Trader tomorrow so might sell through that channel, but I thought I'd put it on here anyway. It's done 120,000km, it's T&T'd till July, and all the gadgets work apart from the usual aircon display and the J market stereo which will need replacing with a UK-spec LS400 item. This one has air suspension with height adjustment and it really is an extraordinarily smooth ride. It's also very tidy for its age. Those marks on the front bumper and grille are dirt, not stonechips - they came off straight away in the carwash. I'm after about £850 for it.
Volvo 460 Turbo. I really do like this car, but I like my Saab 900 Turbo even more, and I can't keep both. This is a true Q-car - looks like any other Volvo 460 as seen trundling along at 43mph on an A-road near you, but floor the throttle and it goes like poo off a spade. This one was actually owned by an old boy, which means that the mileage is pretty low. It's in good nick for its age, although not immaculate. The tyres are nearly new. Only problems I've found are clicky CV joints on lock and the clutch is nearing the end of its useful life, although it can still handle full throttle acceleration for the moment. T&T are out but I can't see anything obvious apart from maybe CV joints and reattaching the passenger door mirror which was knocked off by kids. Gotta be worth £150?
No it's not a Kia Pride. It's a Mazda 121, and it's a chuffing brilliant little car, completely reliable, pretty economical and bloody quick. I (and drivers of vehicles such as BMW's 318i, Audi's A4 1.8 and Citroën's Saxo VTR) have been surprised on many an occasion by the acceleration of this little thing. And it will buzz along at the ton quite happily. It also turns on a sixpence. Unfortunately it needs a few jobs doing for its test (handbrake, exhaust downpipe blowing, and the windscreen is cracked down near the tax disc, although you might get away with this if you move the tax disc holder across to cover it) which I haven't got the time to do, and it's not really worth paying someone to do them on a car like this. So if anyone wants it for £75 they can come & drive it away.
Mazda MX3. This is a 1.8-litre V6 which I bought on a second chance offer last month just to see what MX3s are like. It drives nicely and the engine is sweet - it had a bit of a water leak when I bought it and needed topping up every 50 miles or so, but this seems to have been cured now. It's had a bit of heat damage to the nearside corner of the rear bumper which has been rather clumsily repaired, but other than that it's a tidy enough little car, and everything seems to work except the sunroof which appears to be stuck. It really is a fun little thing to drive and amazingly agile, but I can't see myself using it often enough to justify paying full whack road tax on it. The MoT is just out but it's taxed till the end of this month. £200 anyone?
This one's a bit of a wrench to part with. It's a 1979 900 Turbo - one of the very first. Externally there are a few bits that are incorrect for its year (the tailgate for one, the spoiler for another) but the blue interior is pure '70s, and being an early car it has windy windows and a 4-speed 'box. I like it a lot and would love to keep it if I had the space but the fact is that my G-reg T16S is a far more useable car so this one ends up just sitting around. Faults that I can think of are a noisy NSF wheel bearing and a bit of a leak from the sunroof when it rains hard. Bodywork is very good - there's a couple of scratches and a slight dent on the NSF door, but no rot that I've found. It's running on metric tyres, two of which are good, one is OK and one will need replacing fairly soon. The tax is out but it's still tested till August. This is a bit of a rare beast and I'd like to see £600 for it at least.
Don't know if this would be of any interest to people on here, but it's a bit unusual being an old shape 825D - there were very few diesels made before the facelift. This one's done 200K and is a bit rough round the edges but still does its thing and happily dragged my 1977 Alfasud (definitely in the "keepers" pile) back from Kent last month without breaking a sweat. These old VM diesels will supposedly run on veg oil quite happily too. Again, tax is out but it's tested till September. And it does have four alloys, it's running on the spare in the pic which is a steel but the other alloy is OK and is ready to be swapped over. I'm looking for offers around £200-ish.
There may be more coming up for sale in the next month or so, so watch this space...
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