Bangernomics, the case for

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
I think home spannering still has a place with old bangers but it’s certainly becoming more limited. I’m afraid of nothing but gone are the days when I could whip the cylinder head off, decoke it, grind the valve seats and have it back in and running in the same day. Suspension, brakes and the like are still easy to tackle but when that ecu light starts to wink at me it’s off to expensive diagnostics we go. Bangernomics is still a viable option imo but you pays your money and takes your chance.
 
I don't think the bangernomics tactic of buy, scrap, repeat works. Finding a cheap replacement car which isn't a death trap is too time consuming and chances are the replacement might need even more cash spending than the car you've already got. I would rather find one well cared for car, look after it properly and take the odd uneconomical repair on the chin. Cheaper in the long run.
 
Doing that for my wife's car, she only wanted a RAV4 3 door version, which does every thing we need in a small package lengthwise. Found a very good 2004 petrol model auto with 70 k miles and two owners and full Toyota service history at a specialist RAV4 garage , top price paid 18 months ago. Runs like a watch, drivers airbag replaced 3 months ago by Toyota under a recall.
Only do 3/4000 miles a year but will put up with 30 mpg and £300 + Tax. Have already decided that if a big bill comes, most likely the gearbox, we would just go ahead stump up. Why have all the stress of finding another ( or another make model ) with all the risk of the unknown. Having agreed not to buy a new car are looking forwards to getting at least 10 years service from it.
 
I don't think the bangernomics tactic of buy, scrap, repeat works. Finding a cheap replacement car which isn't a death trap is too time consuming and chances are the replacement might need even more cash spending than the car you've already got. I would rather find one well cared for car, look after it properly and take the odd uneconomical repair on the chin. Cheaper in the long run.

Kind of depends on your contacts, if people KNOW you buy cheap cars you often get offered them. My mate runs an MOT place, he often gets cars through that fail on something that would cost the owner a fair bit because they'd have to pay someone else to fix it, he buys (often for scrap value) the ones he knows the parts to fix are cheap and then sells them of for a few hundred quid with a fresh MOT on, if you don't care about what you are driving a 20 year old Skoda estate car or old Fiesta with a years ticket for 400 quid is well worth it.
 
Ok so not a car, of which I only own one, but when I got divorced in 2011 I bought myself a 1999 Aprilia Leonardo 150 twist'n'go scooter for £600 to commute on, I just didn't want to put the wear on my car of the 10 mile round trip each day to work and back, or the hassle of spending up to 20 minutes searching for a parking space.
Costs so far after 7+ years,
2 sets of tyres - £240
New old stock seat (the old one gave up the ghost when the scooter was 17 years old) - £50
Oil (1100cc), filter & spark plug each year - £140
New air filter hose - £23
New rear light £25
New indicator lense - £6.99
So approximately £485 for over 7 years of commuting and generally running around it gets used sun, rain or snow and has never left me stranded, ok so insurance & tax is another £90 a year for the two but still cheap motoring, if it packed up tomorrow it wouldn't owe me anything. :)
 
^^I've never owned a scooter but those little tyres sound expensive at £60 a pop and does some oil, an oil filter and a single spark plug really come to £140 ?
 
Ok so not a car, of which I only own one, but when I got divorced in 2011 I bought myself a 1999 Aprilia Leonardo 150 twist'n'go scooter for £600 to commute on, I just didn't want to put the wear on my car of the 10 mile round trip each day to work and back, or the hassle of spending up to 20 minutes searching for a parking space.
Costs so far after 7+ years,
2 sets of tyres - £240
New old stock seat (the old one gave up the ghost when the scooter was 17 years old) - £50
Oil (1100cc), filter & spark plug each year - £140
New air filter hose - £23
New rear light £25
New indicator lense - £6.99
So approximately £485 for over 7 years of commuting and generally running around it gets used sun, rain or snow and has never left me stranded, ok so insurance & tax is another £90 a year for the two but still cheap motoring, if it packed up tomorrow it wouldn't owe me anything. :)

Scooters are cheap to run around on. I’ve had a few over the years, then a 125cc bike followed by a 600cc touring bike. My one observation is that while scooters are cheap to run, full sized bikes are as expensive as a car to run. I sold my Honda 600 a few years ago, which is when I bought my CLK as a weekend toy.
 
For the same reason as above i.e. not wanting to inflict short trips on the car, I've been commuting for 12 years on what is now a 40 year old BMW motorcycle. It's been, 100% reliable with only expenditure on consumables like tyres and oil. Average annual DIY maintenance is well under £50/year. Depreciation less than zero and from this year on no road fund tax or MOT. It's effectively free to run after talking into account the savings on fuel compared to using the car.
 
^^I've never owned a scooter but those little tyres sound expensive at £60 a pop and does some oil, an oil filter and a single spark plug really come to £140 ?

I thought that too, I guess the £140 includes the labour too?
 
It seems like several of us use a motorcycle or scooter as an alternate commuter machine, mine is a Yamaha x Max 125, great fun. Also sits alongside my 2 wheel pride and joy a 1996 Kawasaki Zephyr 1100 0wned it 20 years. These 2 pieces along with my W220 320CDI satisfy my interest in mechanical marvels although recently I've started looking to possibly add a classic bike from the year I was born (1957) not a 100% sure why but the thought of owning one seems to be filling more and more of my day dream :)
 
Kind of wishing I was still running bangers TBH and hadn't bought the new MB. I don't think I'm temperamentally suited to buying new cars - shan't do it again. Last banger was a 6 year old Alfa 166 that I paid £4k for and kept for 11 years. Excellent car. Still have the '56 plate Grand Cherokee as the skip on wheels, but that'll go soon as we hardly use it.
 
it's the end of year therefore reflection time, this got me pondering over the cars I have owned over the past decade and the cost of ownership. To add some background, I've been driving more than 40 years and originally through necessity then through interest I'm very happy to lift a spanner. (at least for a few more years)

so below is the summery- W220 is an estimate as I still run this car!

Car Paid £ Sold Repairs - Rep. cost - Months Owned
W220 320CDI £6,200 £5,000 - ABS sensor, thermostat, Airmatic comp £240 24
BMW X3 3.0 £4,200 £3,750 - ABS sensor, coil springs £120 32
Porche Boxster S £5,000 £3,800 - ABS sensor, ride height sensor, disk + pads £365 36
Mazda MX5 £2,200 £1,425 - Steering rack, pads £300 50

Total paid £17,600 sold for £13,975 Repair cost £1,025 142 Months
Cost per month £32.75
Excludes consumables tyres etc, ins, tax & fuel

Worth noting is that none of the cars have actually failed by the road side, I drive ~10K miles a year so have done over a 100K miles, and ABS sensor failure seem to be a reoccurring item!

So my conclusion, if you like back "street Mechanicing" as Fred Dibnah eloquently put it and you want to enjoy interesting cars for less than £50 a month then there is a good case For Bangernomics!
Is this not more a case of man maths rather than bangernomics?

You say that you've spent £17600 buying these cars and got £13975 back (including a guess for the value of the W220 if sold)? Thus, you conclude all this motoring has only cost £3625 over 142 months excluding all other costs?

But...following this to the logical conclusion, and having sold the W220...you now have no car. Or...do you take the £5000 from the sale of the W220 and put it into another car...thus, the cost of your motoring must include the £5000 you will not have in the bank...

Still, cheap motoring, I grant you...but not really bangernomics.
 
My current W203 has cost around £2k total including new brakes, tyres and service parts and a good few hours of my time getting it up to the current level.
16 years old with 81k miles and pretty much mechanically perfect now.
Only thing currently not working are the headlight washers that I will look at soon but TBH never really use them.
I'll be keeping an eye on local ads for something similar next year for something else to play with.

For bangernomics to work you do need to get hands on so you need to be competent 'spannering' and have the tools which could add to the cost.
You also can make life easier on the wallet by buying parts online when ECP or GSF have a good discount code.
 
Last edited:
Scooters are cheap to run around on. I’ve had a few over the years, then a 125cc bike followed by a 600cc touring bike. My one observation is that while scooters are cheap to run, full sized bikes are as expensive as a car to run. I sold my Honda 600 a few years ago, which is when I bought my CLK as a weekend toy.
I also have a Yamaha Fazer 1000 for Sunday morning lunacy when the roads are dry and whilst cheaper than my SL to run it's definitely more expensive than the trusty twist'n'go. :)
 
I thought that too, I guess the £140 includes the labour too?
I don't buy online, you never know when you're going to get old stock, but buy quality (Metzler) tyres at my local tyre and exhaust centre that I use for my car, that may seem over the top when there are cheap Chinese tyres out there but your life depends on tyres and brakes. The tyres are around £100 the pair plus fitting, valve and balancing on loose wheels, which I do as you have to remove the exhaust to get the back wheel out. Volumes on scooter tyres are small compared to car and motorcycle tyres so discount is minimal, but two sets in 7 seven years for something ridden like the pizza delivery kid pretty much everyday I think is pretty good value? :)
 
It seems like several of us use a motorcycle or scooter as an alternate commuter machine, mine is a Yamaha x Max 125, great fun. Also sits alongside my 2 wheel pride and joy a 1996 Kawasaki Zephyr 1100 0wned it 20 years. These 2 pieces along with my W220 320CDI satisfy my interest in mechanical marvels although recently I've started looking to possibly add a classic bike from the year I was born (1957) not a 100% sure why but the thought of owning one seems to be filling more and more of my day dream :)
If it's a bike you're going to keep you can justify whatever you put into a classic bike, sadly I have an affliction that means I like things to be right and then I get bored but I don't have the money or space to have a collection. So I ended selling something for peanuts that I've put a lot of time and money into and lose money every time, a case in point being a 1977 Laverda Jota I bought for £2750, spent £3500 on it and sold it for £3750. OK so it was Italian and typically brilliant when it was running right but despite the money I'd spent on it the bike still had a propensity to leave me stranded at the roadside with trivial things :(PICT0132.JPG
 
Is this not more a case of man maths rather than bangernomics?

You say that you've spent £17600 buying these cars and got £13975 back (including a guess for the value of the W220 if sold)? Thus, you conclude all this motoring has only cost £3625 over 142 months excluding all other costs?

But...following this to the logical conclusion, and having sold the W220...you now have no car. Or...do you take the £5000 from the sale of the W220 and put it into another car...thus, the cost of your motoring must include the £5000 you will not have in the bank...

Still, cheap motoring, I grant you...but not really bangernomics.

I agree, currently I would use the proceeds of the W220 sale and buy something else however at some point in the future, not too far ahead for me, I will end my driving and pocket the proceeds of selling my last car, just not yet please:)
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom