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Interesting Smol tax free car, sub grand ish?


cobblers

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I'm flogging my new abarth so I quite fancy a motor to kick about in as a spare to increase the chances of having one working motor., I've made a couple of derisory offers on Beetles on ebay and been knocked back etc.

Won't need to do many miles in it - occasional 8 mile commute when it's raining and I don't fancy cycling, use for a few weeks when the T25 is getting painted towards the end of the year.

I only want to spend about a grand but the budget is a bit flexible so long as I can get my money back out of it at the other end. 

 

I need something that's MOTd or needs minimal work for MOT - I've no time for a project and no welder at the moment.

 

I'd rather something rough but usable, Small and ideally 3 door.

 

Any suggestions? I've seen a few Minors on ebay but they scared the shit out of me as they were so thick with plod they needed caravan mirrors.

Would I get a Herald or a shitty Imp for this much?

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I suppose a lot of them aren't tax exempt either. I wouldn't mind paying a couple of grand for something if I was happy that it wouldn't need a lot of bits soon - It doesn't take long to sink another grand into a car with the odd £150 here, £100 there etc etc (My T25 for example!)

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I think you'll struggle to find any roadworthy 1970s stuff for under £1K. Double that budget, and you'll still be in "running restoration" territory.

 

I'd also avoid mainstream "classics", as they're far more likely to have been professionally* restored* or incompetently fettled by nostalgic ignorami than the more obscure stuff (like DAFs).

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They do on ebay, but not for me though! I want something metal bumper era - I've nowt against new beetles but if I was buying owt that new I'd just buy a polo for £350 or something.

 

I reckon a trabant might be doable but parts supply scares me a bit. I'm gonna keep an eye on Minors and A35s etc because they're hovering round that kind of money, I could drop on one perhaps - The fact that I don't mind if it looks total shit swings in my favour I suppose.

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Triumph Toledo?

Not sure if it's still available, but Classic Car Buyer was flogging off the Toledo that's been a bit of a magazine hack for a few years now.  Think they were asking 2K-ish.  That was a 1973, so fits your tax-free stipulation.

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DAF is a 66.  It's the white ex-Stondon estate.  Going in for its test on Monday and will be for sale thereafter (assuming it passes).  Drives well enough but there's a vacuum issue somewhere in the transmission so the "overdrive" function doesn't work, which means the engine is revving higher than it ought to when cruising.  Still buzzes along at 60 happily enough though.  Silly low mileage (35K or so), one old biddy from new until 2000 when Stondon bought it.

 

post-190-0-60196300-1495314044_thumb.jpg

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ran this plan past the mrs earlier and got an incredibly salty reaction, which is actually quite out of character for her, but she's got her eyes on my savings at the moment cos we really do need it for a dipper on another house,

With that in mind, I'm going to look at a £350 Smart Car with "engine light on" tomorrow if the seller gets back to me.

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ran this plan past the mrs earlier and got an incredibly salty reaction, which is actually quite out of character for her, but she's got her eyes on my savings at the moment cos we really do need it for a dipper on another house,

With that in mind, I'm going to look at a £350 Smart Car with "engine light on" tomorrow if the seller gets back to me.

If the Smart has a misfire or consuming any oil, walk away. Unless you want to do another engine removal, rebuild and replacement job. Oil control rings fail, leaking oil into combustion chamber. Ends up burning valves, bad cases scoring the liners and other things, requiring a rebuild b

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cheers SiC, I'm aware they're not great engines and it's done a lot more than the "they're shagged after 60k" that I hear so it's either megaknackered or already been rebuilt, probably.

I was gonna go down and read the fault codes off it - if they point out something intake side then I'm happy enough to risk fixing it, but if it's something past the inlet manifold (emissions or misfire) then I'd probably give it a miss.

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What about the autoshite smart its worth asking about as isn't that up for sale again.

It's got a great engine plus good gearbox with a recent clutch and upgraded sump and it's a rarity as its the earliest in the country.post-9282-0-47632900-1495317378_thumb.jpegpost-9282-0-57211100-1495317446_thumb.jpeg

I think it's grey now.

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Cheers lads, yeah I've eyed up that one of stations but it's a fair old trek, plus LHD which is no good for my drive thru coffee collection on the way to work

(first world problems eh? "My second car is LHD so I have to actually get out of the car to buy overpriced milky beverages)

 

Anyway I'm gonna have a run down and look at this local shonky smart and see if it's worth a punt or not and take it from there.

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Well I scanned it for fault codes and it came up with "misfire cylinder 3". It ran OK though, but I'm not getting involved with owt like that!

As a car it definitely amused me though so I reckon this is the route I'll go, especially seeing as I need to keep the spend low and there's no chance of me getting anything properly old my new budget.

 

There's plenty of electrical fiddling about I can do and I can even remap them yourself for a bit more power, I think it would keep me amused enough and I'm deffo all about the autos nowadays.

 

One's just popped up on gumtree about a mile away with lowish miles, up at £750 but I can always bid them I suppose. I'm gonna go and have a look at that after my dinner.

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Cheers lads, yeah I've eyed up that one of stations but it's a fair old trek, plus LHD which is no good for my drive thru coffee collection on the way to work

(first world problems eh? "My second car is LHD so I have to actually get out of the car to buy overpriced milky beverages)

 

Anyway I'm gonna have a run down and look at this local shonky smart and see if it's worth a punt or not and take it from there.

Reverse around.

 

Hopefully it's like the Costa near ours where you have to drive around all 4 sides of the building. This will allow you to 'reverse like a Dad' - putting one hand behind the passenger seat and tearing your neck around 180 degrees.

 

Eleventy style points available. I'll even buy your coffee for a week if you can get CCTV footage of the manoeuvre.

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