Bangernomics- the game's moved on

[datman]

Berlingo 1.4 petrols are pretty good (but bizarrely the tax is higher than the 1.6) Just watch rear axle bearings (whole exchange axle £320) and the heater cores are very prone to leaking and an absolute P.I.T.A to change, so check for coolant smell in vents. I bought this 2005 the other day for about 900, needs clutch, heater core , rear silencer and also has an oil leak. Will be a good car when done, and i have no trouble selling them. this one will be about 2k i expect.


1.6hdi is good to drive and has cheaper tax but not ulez.

[Brian Damaged]

Nowhere near big enough for you (though I can fit my bass/bass rig/leads case/pedalboard in this with ease), but in May I paid £700 for this two-owner FSH Korean beauty(haha) with just over 100k on the clock and 10 months' MOT.


110bhp/145lbft of torque from the 1.5 litre turbodiesel sat in the front, enough to surprise many people on the road...it's indecently swift for such a lowly little thing...plus you can drive it like you stole it and it'll STILL do 55mpg. Drive it like a grandad and you'll get over 65 miles on every gallon of diesel.

Yes, it handles like a greased pig on ice thanks to ridiculous Chinese ditchfinder tyres. And yes, judicious use of the throttle on wet roads sees it spinning the front wheels in a comedy manner in the first two gears. And yes, it's almost totally bereft of creature comforts (no central locking, keep-fit windows, hard grey plastic everywhere inside)....though the stereo is brilliant.

I bought it on a whim from a family round the corner who had owned it for four years, but have bought a new car. I half expected to hate it within a week but 4 months and 3000 miles later, I bloody well LOVE the pig-ugly wee beastie.

[The Jackeria]

Totally agree, so many cars with no MOT at seemingly extortionate prices though if you have the tools and know how, as always there's money to be made, just not as much.

Cheap retro-ish car, W202. Picked the closer one up for £1000 a few months ago, the other one was a bit more expensive but not by far, no faults other than being too high off the ground. The more expensive one had an issue which made it unuseable for a while but i'm cheap/stubborn and could have just taken it to a garage to be fixed rather than doing it myself. I have definitely seen similarly aged and slightly newer estate C classes and E classes for cheap.



I've got my nose into Audi 100s at the minute, seen a good few V6's in saloon and estate form, I'd call them cars that have been used for walking the dogs. But that doesnt and has never bothered me. 700-1500 fairly easily.

Cheap not so retro car, VW fox - they're £500-700 all day, I got this 1.8t converted one for £1500 in march off my brother who owned it for all of 2 weeks. I paid what he did.

Something about needing to fit larger loads? I fit a vespa in it already, despite not being able to see the wheels and suspension, rest assured they're on there.



If you're feeling particularly brave, discovery 3's are cheap atm - 2004-2008

[pauly22]

I’ve not long bought this.

Pan roof, sat nav, heated seats, xenon lights, switchable 4x4

£1250.

I had the more basic one before. I bought for £800

[datman]

what is it? i didn't know Renault even made anything 4x4

[ChasR]

Foxes are a great buy, but some parts are hard to get quickly for them. I know my mate, who is a mechanic, struggled like hell to get a clutch for the Fox, and the person was without a car for a while. I think in the end, he went to Autodoc for one, but that added over a week onto the car getting ready. No motor factors locally had the clutch.

The fact that VAG culled support quite hard for anything 10 years and older doesn't help.

I suspect it's why some of them are cheap TBH.

[skinnylew]

datman

Renault Kaleos I believe. Couldn't tell you a thing about them it seems to have bypassed me somewhat that generation of faux by four

Appear to be only available with 2.0 dci engine so early ones will be non ulez compliant hence the are completely off my radar 🙄😐

[pauly22]

Sept 27, 2024 20:53:52 GMT datman said:

what is it? i didn't know Renault even made anything 4x4

Renault koleos.

It’s a Nissan x trail or Nissan quasqai, in a Renault body. Nobody liked them and Renault only had 2600 before stopping. Not bad at all though tbf to it.

[mk2cossie]

Sept 28, 2024 17:43:51 GMT pauly22 said:

Sept 27, 2024 20:53:52 GMT datman said:

what is it? i didn't know Renault even made anything 4x4

Renault koleos.

It’s a Nissan x trail or Nissan quasqai, in a Renault body. Nobody liked them and Renault only had 2600 before stopping. Not bad at all though tbf to it.

I believe it was a joint venture with Samsung! And not Nissan at all underneath

[fordperv]

My purchase back in Feb for a sniff over £1000 lots of m.o.t and absolutely fantastic underneath

[crockpot]

My 2005 Sorento was £1200 three years ago with a new MOT., recent clutch and flywheel and recent new brakes. I didn't really want it but needed something after my Jumbuck died.
Three years later I've still got it and love it. It's an absolute unit, I can leave it anywhere and not worry, it does tip runs, hauls project parts and id comfy on long runs.
Unfortunately this year is decision time as last MOT I was told not to take the curse word with the sills again!! Then last week one of the top radius arm brackets broke off the axle.
As I can't find anything that comes close for the money I'm going to sort it all.
I must be mad.

[stealthstylz]

It's a odd situation where "cheap" car prices are high but scrap value is very low. When bangernomics became a bit fashionable you could pick up something with test for £4-500, run it till the test ran out/it broke then chop the cat and alloys (if it had them) off and easily break even sending them over the bridge, and even turn a profit if you managed to sell a few other bits. It made sense because there was that safety net. Now the basic cars are £1000-1500 and you might get £150 maybe for weighing it in you've got to take a chance that you might be £850-1350 in the hole if it breaks within a few months. It's still much cheaper than PCP and all that curse word over a period of time, but nowhere near what it once was.

[datman]

i still get bargains knocking on doors. Bought a 57 plate Fabia Automatic the other day for 250, didn't take too much to get it back on the road. I bought a pretty decent 08 Ibiza for 400 needing rear brakes and front wishbone bushes. Car bodywork lasts better than it did in the old days.

[pauly22]

Sept 29, 2024 7:45:34 GMT mk2cossie said:

Sept 28, 2024 17:43:51 GMT pauly22 said:

Renault koleos.

It’s a Nissan x trail or Nissan quasqai, in a Renault body. Nobody liked them and Renault only had 2600 before stopping. Not bad at all though tbf to it.

I believe it was a joint venture with Samsung! And not Nissan at all underneath

I don’t know. That’s what I was told. Everything I’ve bought for it so far has said Nissan on the box

[ChasR]

Sept 30, 2024 8:52:56 GMT stealthstylz said:

It's a odd situation where "cheap" car prices are high but scrap value is very low. When bangernomics became a bit fashionable you could pick up something with test for £4-500, run it till the test ran out/it broke then chop the cat and alloys (if it had them) off and easily break even sending them over the bridge, and even turn a profit if you managed to sell a few other bits. It made sense because there was that safety net. Now the basic cars are £1000-1500 and you might get £150 maybe for weighing it in you've got to take a chance that you might be £850-1350 in the hole if it breaks within a few months. It's still much cheaper than PCP and all that curse word over a period of time, but nowhere near what it once was.

I think the floor of new cars getting pricier hasn't helped, as well as the price of 5 year old cars, or we are just getting old.

5 or 6 years ago, Dacias were sub £10k, meaning a warrantied non-hassle car car was sensible cash. They are now practically double what they were. Other cheap new cars have either gone (like the C1 based cars) or are on their way out.

Naturally, this makes folks look secondhand. But they have rocketed up in price over 2 decades. If I remember what my parents and I paid for cars.

-'89 Ford Escort in 1997 : £1.8k
-'00 Focus 1.6 Zetec w/Climate Pack in 2005, albeit with 123k : £1.8k
-'00 Pug 306 GTi-6 in 2007 : £2.3k
-'05 Mondeo Ghia X V6 in 2011 : £3.5k
-'58 Mondeo Ghia 2.5T in 2014 : £3.5k : A nice diesel was £6k then.

For a 5-7 year old car now, which you'd actually want to trust, it more like £12k+. That inevitably will make the 'next best' thing pricier as a domino effect.

My brother wanted a ULEZ compliant Derv. Since Covid, and the car shortage, they have been pricey!

Cars breaking well due to spares prices doesn't help either. Stuff for older cars just isn't made anymore, helping the secondhand market.

[skinnylew]

Oct 3, 2024 18:17:18 GMT ChasR said:

Sept 30, 2024 8:52:56 GMT stealthstylz said:

It's a odd situation where "cheap" car prices are high but scrap value is very low. When bangernomics became a bit fashionable you could pick up something with test for £4-500, run it till the test ran out/it broke then chop the cat and alloys (if it had them) off and easily break even sending them over the bridge, and even turn a profit if you managed to sell a few other bits. It made sense because there was that safety net. Now the basic cars are £1000-1500 and you might get £150 maybe for weighing it in you've got to take a chance that you might be £850-1350 in the hole if it breaks within a few months. It's still much cheaper than PCP and all that curse word over a period of time, but nowhere near what it once was.

I think the floor of new cars getting pricier hasn't helped, as well as the price of 5 year old cars, or we are just getting old.

5 or 6 years ago, Dacias were sub £10k, meaning a warrantied non-hassle car car was sensible cash. They are now practically double what they were. Other cheap new cars have either gone (like the C1 based cars) or are on their way out.

Naturally, this makes folks look secondhand. But they have rocketed up in price over 2 decades. If I remember what my parents and I paid for cars.

-'89 Ford Escort in 1997 : £1.8k
-'00 Focus 1.6 Zetec w/Climate Pack in 2005, albeit with 123k : £1.8k
-'00 Pug 306 GTi-6 in 2007 : £2.3k
-'05 Mondeo Ghia X V6 in 2011 : £3.5k
-'58 Mondeo Ghia 2.5T in 2014 : £3.5k : A nice diesel was £6k then.

For a 5-7 year old car now, which you'd actually want to trust, it more like £12k+. That inevitably will make the 'next best' thing pricier as a domino effect.

My brother wanted a ULEZ compliant Derv. Since Covid, and the car shortage, they have been pricey!

Cars breaking well due to spares prices doesn't help either. Stuff for older cars just isn't made anymore, helping the secondhand market.

Interesting prices, the 2.5t especially. I paid £4k for my 2.5t Titanium Estate 5 years ago and it would probably sell for decent money now judging by used prices.

Cars have definitely held their value or increased over the past couple of years. As Datman says Berlingos are seemingly holding good value compared to their age or mileage surprisingly. ULEZ and CAZ have boosted the petrol values comparatively to the diesel versions I think.

[jayj83]

I have to say I dropped lucky with my avensis, Its a 2.0 diesel, no cruise control but has sat nav!, does about 60 mpg on a run, I put £35.00 in it in southend, drove back to leicestershire, drove to work and back for a week, Drove to skegness and all around there and to mabblethorpe and put more fuel in half the way back to leicestershire, Its a boring car don't get me wrong, But it does the job

[tubthumper]

Funnily enough, and as an update,I too have just bought a D4-d Avensis estate for £650 locally as I was getting a tad desperate.

It has almost moon mileage and isn't Ulez, but drives really well and had a new engine fitted by Toyota at 76k.

The downside for me is having to continue to pay the Ulez charge a few times a week, but as the car was cheap, it was worth buying.

I was also getting fed up of viewing cars that had been hugely over hyped in their adverts, with one stating" full history" which turned out not to have been serviced since 2008! The seller, when I pointed this out, just said " well, it's clearly been serviced,I just can't prove it" !!
I also viewed a Ford C-max that had absolutely no oil registering on the dip stick, and the seller said he'd never checks it between services.

[bstardchild]

Oct 4, 2024 16:49:46 GMT tubthumper said:

Funnily enough, and as an update,I too have just bought a D4-d Avensis estate for £650 locally as I was getting a tad desperate.

It has almost moon mileage and isn't Ulez, but drives really well and had a new engine fitted by Toyota at 76k.

The downside for me is having to continue to pay the Ulez charge a few times a week, but as the car was cheap, it was worth buying.

I was also getting fed up of viewing cars that had been hugely over hyped in their adverts, with one stating" full history" which turned out not to have been serviced since 2008! The seller, when I pointed this out, just said " well, it's clearly been serviced,I just can't prove it" !!
I also viewed a Ford C-max that had absolutely no oil registering on the dip stick, and the seller said he'd never checks it between services.

Mrs BC had an Avensis at work as a pool car (purchased brand new by the company) anyone and everyone drove it - it had parking scrapes on every corner - dents in every panel (even the roof) it stank inside because milk or yoghurt had been spilt years ago but every year mot was either tyres or brakes - it had massive mileage - no-one ever checked any of the fluids until a light told them to do it and even then it was often ignored and often only corrected at the annual service (which was often 20,000 miles since the last one)

It was affectionately called the cockroach because it seemed like it was impossible to kill

[hopeso]

Try selling a car these days. I have a 2004 car with a good service history,front and rear bumpers have parking marks, 6 months MOT, 76,000 miles and can't even get an enquiry at £1250.
Too old to trade in and too good to scrap.
Yet when I go looking for one all I can find are pure rubbish, run on a shoestring and filthy too.