Wanted : Cheap winter runabout

[AnilS]

Criteria is;
No more than £500 ideally

1.0 - 1.6 engine preferred

Manual

Good MOT

Plenty of life left in it.

Something along the lines of a Lupo/Arosa/Swift/Polo/Ibiza/Focus ........................... You get the picture.

Prefer something no more than 30 miles from B61 and happy to pay cash on collection.

Thanks

 

[AnilS]

Budget upped to £1K but prefer less

 

[IanA2]

Budget upped to £1K but prefer less

Serious question: Can you actually buy a car for sub £1K that's not going to be very expensive?

 

[TrickyTrev]

I looked at this a lot over the years and have done it too. My motivation for doing this was Having had various m5/m3 and the e55 and liking all of these cars very much, I didn't want to drive these to the railway station each day, getting dents and shortening the service cycles due to short runs.. Also, it's 1200 a year to park at my commuting station. But I can park on a busy road near the station for free.....

The tricky bit is this - as a petrol head, you won't want to buy what can be bought for the budget so you'll tend to buy something with a bit of soul instead of being hard nosed and buying a shed.

Of course you can get a car for 500 or less. But you need to be realistic. It's going to be a nail. Good breaks, tyres, engine and working lights and a few months mot. That's all you need, recognizing that you scrap it when it breaks and get some of your 500 back at that point. You're better off buying something that is deeply unloved and was considered to be crap at the time it was launched - like a matiz, or a Suzuki swift. The alternative is a late ford escort.

For a grand you can buy all sorts of VW and seats, bmw and merc etc, but I always went for Saab 9-3s. They are quirky, have got big batteries and heaters and are pretty well screwed together. Not the last word in refinement but if you can find one with heated seats, you'll be very happy. If you have kids, they all seem to have isofix seats too.

Here's an alternative....

Having done this for a few years, I waited until there was a Christmas special offer on, and got a 4.5yr old skoda fabia on HP for 90 quid a month with 2 years free servicing and 12 month warranty. Sticker price was 4500 on the car, 0% apr on the finance too...(Boggo entry level car with a/c). Having had it for a few years now, the car is used for station runs, the tip and for crappy winter weather too..HP is almost paid off - I reckon the car is still worth 3-3500 on a good day as a trade in. Insurance is cheap as chips. So each month I have the car, I am saving 100 on parking which is being spent on the monthly payment and insurance, but the skoda is still worth something. And my nice car is not being drive in short bursts and leading to more frequent services

It's man maths, but it works....good luck! Trevor

 

[IanA2]

I think your alternative sounds sensible. At least you know it'll start when you needed

 

[AnilS]

Serious question: Can you actually buy a car for sub £1K that's not going to be very expensive?

Yes Ian. Done it a few times and sold the car (after use) for a small profit or broken even.

Last car was a POLO (6N2). Bought for £550 and had cambelt done and minor service (£220) all in.

Sold after son passed test (he now has a corsa) for £1050, 4 months later.

Maybe some bargains to be had after Christmas?

 

[Scott_F]

If you are going to practice the art (or is it a science ?) of Bangernomics you should be prepared to do basic jobs (oil, filters, plugs, brake pads etc.) yourself.

Otherwise, in a relatively short period of time, you risk spending more on simple servicing and repairs than the car is worth.

 

[AMGeed]

I too was in desperate need of another car back in April and had to get one quickly.

I looked on Gumtree in my area and found a cracking Ford Focus 51 plate with a new MOT and 10 months tax for £750. Went through it's MOT with no advisories and hasn't failed to start. What a bargain.
Now I've finished work, the wife is using it and her A160 will be for sale soon.

 

[AnilS]

If you are going to practice the art (or is it a science ?) of Bangernomics you should be prepared to do basic jobs (oil, filters, plugs, brake pads etc.) yourself.

Otherwise, in a relatively short period of time, you risk spending more on simple servicing and repairs than the car is worth.

Agreed and Yes. I do the simple stuff myself.

I too was in desperate need of another car back in April and had to get one quickly.

I looked on Gumtree in my area and found a cracking Ford Focus 51 plate with a new MOT and 10 months tax for £750. Went through it's MOT with no advisories and hasn't failed to start. What a bargain.
Now I've finished work, the wife is using it and her A160 will be for sale soon.

Gumtree was where I bought the last 3 cars and proper nice bargains too. However, there now seems to lots of private sellers that are actually traders.

Will look at Ebay also, but would your A160 fall into my budget?

Regards

 

[developer]

Yes Ian. Done it a few times and sold the car (after use) for a small profit or broken even.

Last car was a POLO (6N2). Bought for £550 and had cambelt done and minor service (£220) all in.

Sold after son passed test (he now has a corsa) for £1050, 4 months later.

Maybe some bargains to be had after Christmas?

My neighbour has just bought his son a Ford Puma, 70K miles, for £250.

After they fixed the split air intake pipe and gave it a quick polish, it seems half decent.

I paid that for a tyre recently .

 

[AnilS]

Cheers John.

Looked at Pumas as don't need alot of space and all had rotten rear wheel arches.

Focus look best bet at this price or something low on image like Nissans

 

[dozypillock]

My neighbour has just bought his son a Ford Puma, 70K miles, for £250.

After they fixed the split air intake pipe and gave it a quick polish, it seems half decent.

I paid that for a tyre recently .

Just bought a Daewoo Matiz SE for £25. Needs new brake pipes front, so failed MOT. 53K from new, fully loaded...lol...Has aircon, electric windows, stereo, and er..er....I forget all the other luxuries.
Nearly full tank of petrol though. Should be ideal for my sub 2 mile runs to work in the cold, snow etc
Surprisingly nippy as well, for a 3 cylinder 800?cc engine. I even managed a burnout, much to the amazement of the misses....so handbrake works fine.
Just ordered complete copper brake pipe kit for it. Another £25. Probably still in profit with the amount of petrol in it.
Looking forward to taking it to work (same colour...ish as my CLK and when people say anything, going to say I put the Merc through a car wash, and it shrunk!....
It will be used as a shopping cart, dump run vehicle etc. It is only about 2'6" wide, it feels, so will fit in anywhere. Will be nice to not worry where its parked, or what might leak in it. Thinking about running it as an emergency spare vehicle as well. Should be cheaper than getting the odd taxi.

Neil

 

[AMGeed]

Agreed and Yes. I do the simple stuff myself.



Gumtree was where I bought the last 3 cars and proper nice bargains too. However, there now seems to lots of private sellers that are actually traders.

Will look at Ebay also, but would your A160 fall into my budget?

Regards

The A160 needs a service Anil, but yes it would easily fall in your budget.
It's a '98 1.6 petrol, manual, half leather, MOT until April (possibly May) Jasper Blue around 102k miles without looking. Around £500 as it stands, around £600 if serviced first. PM me if interested.

 

[sallison1504]

Just bought a Daewoo Matiz SE for £25. Needs new brake pipes front, so failed MOT. 53K from new, fully loaded...lol...Has aircon, electric windows, stereo, and er..er....I forget all the other luxuries. Nearly full tank of petrol though. Should be ideal for my sub 2 mile runs to work in the cold, snow etc Surprisingly nippy as well, for a 3 cylinder 800?cc engine. I even managed a burnout, much to the amazement of the misses....so handbrake works fine. Just ordered complete copper brake pipe kit for it. Another £25. Probably still in profit with the amount of petrol in it. Looking forward to taking it to work (same colour...ish as my CLK and when people say anything, going to say I put the Merc through a car wash, and it shrunk!.... It will be used as a shopping cart, dump run vehicle etc. It is only about 2'6" wide, it feels, so will fit in anywhere. Will be nice to not worry where its parked, or what might leak in it. Thinking about running it as an emergency spare vehicle as well. Should be cheaper than getting the odd taxi. Neil

My first car was a Daewoo Matiz. Definitely an exciting drive. Mine was a V reg with just 28k on it. Never missed a beat at all! Bit scary at motorway speeds especially. I did manage to hit the Rev limiter in every gear apart from 4th.

Oh, the listed top speed is very wrong. I managed 103mph, which was the Rev limiter!

Enjoy! Very special car and easy to park and bump up kerbs and the like!

 

[AnilS]

The A160 needs a service Anil, but yes it would easily fall in your budget.
It's a '98 1.6 petrol, manual, half leather, MOT until April (possibly May) Jasper Blue around 102k miles without looking. Around £500 as it stands, around £600 if serviced first. PM me if interested.

Thanks for that.

I'm checking out a Focus in the next few days so will let you know but the distance between us might be a bit too much

 

[AMGeed]

Thanks for that.

I'm checking out a Focus in the next few days so will let you know but the distance between us might be a bit too much

Fair enough. To be honest, the Focus is a better car Good Luck!

 

[John]

but the distance between us might be a bit too much

You guys should sit down and talk it through first before throwing in the towel.

I'm sure you can work things out.

 

[AnilS]

you guys should sit down and talk it through first before throwing in the towel.

I'm sure you can work things out.

:d

:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d

 

[bolide]

Fair enough. To be honest, the Focus is a better car Good Luck!

I was thinking that. Not for nothing was the Focus voted by Autocar as the "Best Used Car"

My local breakers yard has a line of about 70 Focuses so parts won't be a problem. Have a look at the next half-dozen Mk I Focuses you see - any rust on them?

Thought not!

Nick Froome

 

[AnilS]

Owned a 1.8 Zetec (V Reg) and it never missed a beat, bonus was it was a peach to drive and much better than my wife's Golf GT Mk4 of the time.