Your best shite buy!

[dollywobbler]

We've got rather too many hate threads at the moment. I almost replied to the 'Worst car you've ever owned' thread, but then realised that the car I was lining up to slate was actually quite good in many ways. That got me realised that really, no car I've owned in the last ten years could be called a disaster. No car has left me repeatedly calling the AA or desperately tinkering roadside in the rain. Yes, they might require the odd bit of fettling but I can't actually remember the last time I had to call the breakdown service out. Oh hold on, I did when I bought the Bond Equipe back in 2009...

 

Therefore, Shite = WIN!

 

I find this even more incredible given that in the past three years, I've owned a Citroen CX automatic, an Alfa Romeo 164, a Range Rover and many, many others. All of which owe me less than £1400 - often much, much less.

 

Let's review what should have been the biggest disasters!

I'll start with the Alfa.

 

£375 saw me signing the V5 for one of the most attractive saloons of all time. Think about it. Legendary Pininfarina styling and a screaming V6 of such wonderful aural quality that it could render a few sopranos redundant. In other words, the same basic facts that make the Ferrari Dino legendary. For less than £400.

 

Amazingly, the electrics generally worked - including the digital climate control with freezing cold air if you wanted it. Most of the seat motors still worked and the automatic gearbox (ZF 4-speed) was one of the best I've ever encountered.

 

Downsides? The usual modern car issue of rear arch corrosion, the front suspension looked like it had collapsed and occasionally, the RH front brake would bind horribly for no apparent reason. I sold it for £300 a few months later, with the brake issue stated and considered myself very lucky. Other than buying a replacement interior door handle (they're a crap design) for a few quid, I spent nothing on it.

 

Moving on to the CX.

Now if ever there was a recipe for disaster, this was is. I foolishly swapped my Renault 21 Monaco and a heap of cash for this CX after doing a deal with a chap on Retro-Rides. I didn't get to test drive it before the deal was done and the chap claimed that I shouldn't leave it ticking over for too long (I wanted to check the cooling fan worked) because it was so low on fuel it might not make it to a station. A thoroughly decent sort then! I left over quarter of a tank in the Renault because I don't think low fuel lights should ever be seen.

 

Anyhow, I drove off to the petrol station, filled the enormous tank (almost £90 early last year) and then noticed that petrol was POURING out from underneath. A very quick glance made me think there was an issue either on the top of the tank or with the filler neck. Decided there was nothing I could do but put my foot down! Hell, it was only a 100 mile drive home...

 

Cruising along the M6 gave me time to get a feel for the CX - very smooth, but steering takes a bit of getting used to and those brakes are fierce! Coming to a half for the inevitable queue at the A14/M1 interchange, I watched as the digital temperature gauge kept creeping up. 90 degrees. 100 degrees. Eventually 109 degrees! The coolant fan didn't bloody work then. To make sure I was entirely helpless, the heater blower - which had worked when I checked over the car - now decided not to function. I could see the end of the queue, and there was no steam, so I decided to push on. Eventually, the traffic started moving again, but the temperature wouldn't drop below 95 degrees. Decided to just floor it and that did the trick. Ram air effect at 70mph was much more effective!

 

It also turned out that the air intake hose was split, and the mixture massively richened to compensate. Got that sorted easily enough and to be fair, the car became almost reliable. It would occasionally refuse to start - but never left me stranded anywhere, only at home where I had other cars. I used it to help a friend move house from Birmingham to Kent, used it to help us move house from Cambridgeshire to Wales and eventually sold it on ebay for £565. The new owner had it despite the heater matrix failing on the drive home. I delivered it for him and the entire car was steamed up like a sauna by the time I got to him! That owner sold it having fixed the heater for only £310...

 

So, despite its issues, I can't call the CX a failure either - just different and a definite experience!

 

So, what have been your 'top shite' moments?

[garethj]

I loved my Ginetta G26 because of the way it drove, there’s no way something based on a Cortina should handle as good as it did. Unfortunately a previous owner or two had been less than careful with maintenance so it was a bit needy of my time, but without wishing to bang on, the way it drove was just brilliant. With its worn 185 tyres it was a doddle to drift, at very modest speeds and in complete control. I could also fit 3 child seats in the back and the kids loved the popup headlights.

 

It cost me £350 including being transported 100 miles to my house and the Ford mechanicals were quite easy to work on. If it wasn’t for the constant fixing I’d probably still have it now.

 

Before

 

After

 

 

The Tatra 613 was another epic driver’s car. The semi-mid V8 meant that it really gripped around corners, I think it’s the only car I’ve ever owned that would virtually never slide. It was used as my wedding car in northern France, then zoomed down to Chamonix for honeymoon and back to England a couple of weeks later. A big, strong powerful car that had 2 petrol heaters, a massive boot and was incredibly comfortable. Sadly I could only get it serviced at one place, so not especially convenient to get mended.

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

I love the Tatra. I saw one once and was amazed at how big it was. It must have been worth a fair few quid?

[Shep Shepherd]

The Volvo, which I bought for £805 in December 2003 and has turned out to be the best car I have ever owned:

 

Then:

 

Now:

 

[dollywobbler]

I've realised that I didn't actually post up a best shite buy myself. Perhaps I should have called "Success in the face of shite!"

 

My best shite buy is probably my BX estate - not the one I have now.

 

Picture the scene. I've had BXs before and am quite interested in taking part in BXagon 2009 - a drive right around the perimeter of France in a BX. All summer, people have been preparing their BXs. I don't actually own one. A mate, who was foolishly interested in joining me on my quest, pointed out that there was a white BX estate for sale in the next village. It would have been foolish not to go and have a look, so I did. Didn't do a deal at the time but bid knowing that it wasn't blind!

 

£266 and it was mine. This is how it looked at the time.

 

To summarise, it had clocked up 142k but felt really tight. Turns out that it actually had lived in my village since 1993 and was looked after by the local garage. I turned up there to ask them and they were able to give me a print out of the entire service history from 1993 to 2009! The history prior to that - when it was a Cowie Interleasing car - came with the BX so I now had full service history from new. Crikey. It still had MOT too - about six months I think - and a little tax.

 

I collected it in September and set about preparing it for the rally. This mainly involved a service and covering it in Green stripes. I'm still not sure why.

 

It was superb on the trip, eating up over 3000 miles with no serious problem at all. The anti-roll bar link did chew through the bottom coolant pipe at one stage, but we were able to bodge it, which lasted about 400 miles and allowed us to climb a 2000m tall mountain. In the snow. The low coolant light came on at the summit in horizontal snow!

 

When we got back, I decided to keep the car. It would have been foolish to sell it. I kept it for over a year, which is exceedingly rare for me. I treated it to a cambelt and it had a hydraulic flush after the steering started getting intermittently heavy. Filled it with flushing fluid and then drove it up to Scotland and back, five months after the France trip. Again, no problems and it proved very handy in snow. Then we used it to find our home in Wales. That involved a few 450 mile weekends. I love the way the BX eats up miles, proving that really, 71bhp is enough! It'd barrel along at an indicated 75mph all day, and return better than 48mpg.

 

Last winter, it did suffer a bit. The doors kept freezing shut and at one point, the heater matrix froze up completely! It somehow survived that but by April this year, boredom was stupidly setting in. I sold the car to a friend for £295 with a few months tax and test. He's put almost 10,000 miles on it since then and the poor car hasn't been serviced at all. It's only seen a garage once, and that was when a rear suspension unit sprung a leak so needed replacing. I regret selling it, even though I now have my dream Mk1 BX.

[maxpower]

i agree with shep.... the best car/cars i have ever owned have been volvos

[Pete-M]

One of the best cars Ive ever owned was my Scorpio Ultima 24v.

 

 

Cost me £250 with 8 months mot and a month or so of tax. Needed a couple of tyres and a radiator, which came to about £90 all in. Brilliant car, and being a late one had the black lights. It went well, handled well, rode well, was well equipped and I liked it's slightly oddball looks. Got very tiring when everyone insisted that it was "ugly" but I quite liked it.

 

I'd have another like a shot, but I'd want an estate next time.

[scooters]

Always regret not buying that CX Estate off you Ian!

 

Anyway, best shite -

 

940 Sport Estate - 160k on the clock - paid £800 for it travelled to Cornwall to collect it. Used it for 18 months including 2 European trips - car was tight and in excellent nick - sold it for £800 with 210k on the clock to a VOC member - huge regrets for doing so the chap will never sell it again and won't part for any offer

 

CX22 TRS - this rare non Gti CX was bought in February 2010 for £800 - I subjected it to scooters motoring hell - 1k + per week and it never let me down and never bit me other than tipping a gallon of icy water down my neck from a blocked sunroof drain. Sold it in July of that year and really regret it.

 

BX Meteor - mnde's old car - cracking machine this BX - really like it, a testament to Mark's care for it over the years - yes it needs some paint but it all works and is in daily use despite the occasional fault (hey - it's a Citroen)

 

BMW 535i E34 - an automatic but top spec - I really liked this car bought for £800 with 12 months MOT and a new top end rebuild and exhaust- very fast and a joy to drive the only problem was getting stopped by the filth all the time as a 'suspect' vehicle -they thought I was a drugs dealer

 

I need to buy another long haul daily sometime soon and was considering a Rover 75 - however, I might see if I can find a BX17 TZD Turbo....failing that there is always kinkersaab's 940 Sport Estate!

[Lord Sterling]

Mk1 Rover 827 Sterling

 

 

Bought for £100 about 4 years ago, gearbox was borked and exhaust needed replacing. Stored away until earlier this year when I recieved a tax rebate and decided to use all of it to put this car back on the road. It cost me about £400/500 to put it back on the road and it did go wrong a couple of times but so far it has proved to be one of the most comfortable and pleasing car I've ever owned.

 

Its needed a few things replacing such as the heater blower motor, servicing parts, sensors etc... and no doubt it'll need a few more things replacing but it is an old car and I have to expect this.

 

95' Mk2 Sterling

 

Another one of the most pleasing cars I've had:

 

 

Originally this car was borrowed to me when my 827Si was taken off the road. It was the first automatic mk2 827 I drove, it was quiet, refined, luxurious and still pretty modern looking, everybody liked it and I fell for this car. I knew I had to buy it. As I already agreed to buy the above Mk1 Sterling, I asked my mate if he'd sell this mk2 to me. A price was agreed and £400 was handed over for both cars (£300 for the mk2, £400 for the mk1)

 

I used the car for about a year until I went to Kuwait. A week or so before I went to Kuwait a bus had cut the corner and hit the car, it damaged the wing, indicator lense, front bumper and scraped the wing mirror. The driver admitted liability and I left it to the company to sort out my car. Despite the Bus company informing the repair shop what jobs needed doing they kept on doing half-arsed jobs. When I came back from Kuwait having been there for about 4 months I came back to find the front bumper had been completely resprayed incorrectly and a flat battery. I sent the car back to the company another 4 times before the repairs were actually done correctly and battery was recharged.

 

As I'd been in Kuwait for so long I'd run out of money to keep the car going, so another mate helped me tow it to my rented garage were its been ever since.

 

Rover 825 Sterling

 

Bought this for £300 after winning it on ebay. This was a pre-827 Honda-engined 825, one of the most rarest of 800s having only come with that engine from 1986-1988 and the holy grail of 800s. After 1988 the Honda V6 2.5 underwent a refurb and came back as an 2.7. This car was also almost identical to the car my Dad had (His was an 87' D-reg) which was the car that got me into Rover 800s.

 

Intially I won this car for £360, but after travelling up to Nottingham with a mate to fetch it I found the garage had changed location. I tried to phone through to the number but it was offline. I really thought I'd lost this car before I even had a chance to own it. Thankfully when I arroved home I found the garage had sent a message saying they'd changed location, so off upto Nottingham I went with my mate again to get the car. As a goodwill gesture the garage had knocked off £60 off the winning price.

 

It was amazing, this was to be my first working/driving mk1 Sterling, I loved it and set about cleaning it/servicing it and generally bringing it back to life as it seemingly wasnt looked after.

 

The day it arrived home:

 

After a good clean and service + better wheels etc.......

 

Sadly after serving well for a year including during the OMG SNO KAOS it started to suffer headgasket problems, this was due to the fact that the coolent system had been fucked about with and most of the pipes were bodged. I hadnt realised this until too late. Eventually it just sat outside my house looking sorry for itself. A mate offered me a place to keep it as I'd run out of tax/insurance etc...

 

It didnt get any better and nor did my situation. I had dreams of restoring it but that never happend. Eventually my mate wanted to make some space at his house and made me an offer I couldnt refuse. He had an identical car, he offered to swap cars and I take as many parts as I can off the my old car and he scrap the shell, therefore he gets £200 in his sky-rocket plus some space, and I get a working White 825 Sterling.

 

This is my new one:

 

 

Need a good T-cut, some general bodywork doing and a full service to see it good again. At least its tucked up safely in my garage for now.

[Cavcraft]

Sorry to bore you all again, but....

 

D178 OTX. Cavalier Mk2 1.8 SRi 'facelift' saloon in pale gold. Had belonged to a mte who got bored of cars after about 200 miles/one week and he was trying to sell it just as 'hot hatch* insurance was going through the roof. I seem to recall he lost about £1,200 on the car in a very short space of time and think I paid £800 for it.

The cam belt snapped 23 miles into my ownership but non-interference engine meant it was the cost of a belt and a tenner to a mate to fit it. Despite the first outing blues it proved to be a brilliant car.

 

I hammered it every single day without fail, raced every other car I could in it, thrashed it, abused it and drove it like I stole it and it never, ever failed me. Hell, I even crashed it twice and it just would not die.

Fond memories of this car for more than the above though, I picked our first born up from hospital in it and it's the one car I would have back before all others. Alas it's probably long since disappeared off DVLA's radar

[freebird]

My best shite buy was actually a shite van

Nothing i have ever bought before or since or will ever buy will come close to this bargain.

It was identical to the pic but a IIRC a T1400D on a J plate. I bought it nearly 10 years ago to take a load of stuff to Mallorca.

It was bought from a Farm shop,I gave a whole £500 for it, it had 150,000 on the clock but had been looked after. After removing 2 ton of Earth from the back and getting it smelling nice, i fitted a Fiesta Ghia seat in place of the borked drivers seat, a ply bulkhead and bog all else, not even a service.

3 up and loaded to the point you couldnt get a fag paper in the load area, we set off.....gingerly.

Well it got us to Portsmouth and onto the ferry and, once in France, i drove her with care never doing more than 50MPH. Eventually it dawned on me that the Port of Barcelona was a bloody long way so i made the decision to drive it with a foot to the floor.It never missed a beat.

Sure it was sluggish, 75MPH was as fast as it went and it was geared as such that 1st was just a crawler gear but what a van. I did hundreds of miles with the accelerator nailed to the floor and it inspired confidence that it wasnt going to break, ever. It eventually got us to the Island where a month later some twat T boned us on a junction and wrote her off. Luckily the missus only had a bit of bruising on her thigh but the van was totalled. In fairness it still started and i managed to drive it to park it up but that was the end.

Thing is you get attatched to things, dont you and, that van we were all very attached to, my young daughter was absolutely gutted.

I actually got weighed out by the insurer to the tune of £1400 so i did get a result but, to be honest, Id rather have had that van, i loved it.

[barrett]

I loved my Ginetta G26

 

Seeing those photos just reminded me how much I liked that car. I reckon when you sold it it must've been one of the nicest examples left. The black bumpers, stripes (subtle but brilliant) and decently spaced wheels improved the looks by 10000% Any idea where it went when you got shot of it, and if it's being looked after in the manner it deserves?

[AlsoMike]

My best, or luckiest, buy was the Peugeot 205 Auto I had last year. It looked like this in the rubbish ebay listing;

 

 

And I bid on it blind, but bid low, so it wouldn't matter if it turned out to be a minger. But when I went to pick it up, it actually looked like this:

 

 

Well, it did after a quick wash anyway. It had only done 50,000 miles and was pretty much spotless. I put 8,000 miles on it in about 7 months and didn't have to fix a thing, the only downside was the piss-poor mpg it did. I sold it 8 months after buying it for £10 less than I paid for it. I'd have another in flash though, they can be picked up for pennies and go really well.

[cort16]

My 3dr xr4i. I got it for £450 quid and it was totally rust free. It drove shite until I got a set of pepperpots for it and figured out 2 of the old wheels where really buckled. Somone made me a daft offer on it and like a wanker I sold it. I wish I still had it. I also can't find any pics of it.

[eddyramrod]

Of the many candidates, I think these are the top three...

 

The red one, my 1990 Chrysler leBaron convertible. As editor of the club mag (American Auto Club North West) I'd been watching the price of this coming down for month after month; obviously it was my job to compile the ads. February 2004 the owner phoned to say he was reducing it again, it absolutely had to go. OK, I said, how much? 500. OK, reduce by 500, that'll be 2750... No, I'll take 500 for it.

Obviously I took the bait. We were booked for Lanzarote in March, and I'd been saving up for some spending money. I certainly spent it! Mrs didn't mind when she saw the car, and after a few trips declared she loved being driven in it. It's also the only one of my American cars that she ever drove. Just the once. She couldn't get used to driving from the "wrong" side of the car. Anyway: fully loaded, Mitsubishi 3.0V6, auto, and even a nice colour.

I sold it on ebay after two and a half years, for 1300, having taken off the private plate. Which I later sold for 500.

 

June 2003, I'd been rear-ended and was off work with severe whiplash. I was in a whole world of pain, not helped by driving the insurance-provided rental Corsa. The day they phoned asking for it back at the end of the week, I drove past this, parked on the pavement with a little board up against the wheel: For Sale. Hmm, thinks I, old blue Maestro, that'll do for when I can go back to work, and it'll be cheap. So I parked up and had a look round it. Bear in mind I could hardly walk, so getting down to look at the floor was out of the question, but it was at this point that I realised it was the MG, 2.0i. OK, so the insurance goes up, but it should be fun. Then I spotted the mileage. 27,000. On a 15-year-old car. Suddenly maybe I can't afford it, maybe it's going to be too dear. But I knocked and asked anyway. How much? I'll take 300. (You could have knocked me down with a feather, but I like to think I kept a poker face.) Can I take a drive? Sure. I drove about half a mile, during which I goosed it in second. That told me all I needed to know. I got it for 280. It served me well for nearly 3 years, including trips to Scotland and being used as a van when I was clearing-out my parents' house. However, I decided during that process that I needed a bigger van, so I sold it to a mate for 500.

 

The blue one, my 1987 Volvo 740 GLE estate. This is the "bigger van" that replaced the MG in Feb 2006. An ebay purchase from Preston, it promptly spent 18 months commuting between there and Southport, and indeed across both towns. Trust me to live and work on the wrong side of each place... 2.3 injection, automatic, 7 seats and a towbar. Everything after that was just gravy, but it came with a good serving! Electric windows, plush heated seats, sunroof, and even a nice colour. Tidy from across the road too, with just enough battlescars to ensure I kept my place in Preston rush-hour traffic. I gave it away when we left the country 3 years later, to the owner of the grey car in the above pic.

 

I loved all three of these cars, for different reasons, or perhaps for the same one: they made me smile. I did have to spend out on them, but so what? You could count the total costs of all three, even including petrol, and they'd still be cheaper than signing on the line for a new Fiesta. I don't regret a penny I spent on them.

[garethj]

I loved my Ginetta G26

 

Seeing those photos just reminded me how much I liked that car. I reckon when you sold it it must've been one of the nicest examples left. The black bumpers, stripes (subtle but brilliant) and decently spaced wheels improved the looks by 10000% Any idea where it went when you got shot of it, and if it's being looked after in the manner it deserves?

It was bought by a bloke who crashed it into a bridge

[wuvvum]

This is always an awkward one for me, but I think the Rover of Doom has to be fairly well up there - good around town, brilliant on the motorway, handles OK, comfy, does 50 mpg and has the ability to make VAG TDI drivers look like the twunts they usually are. The fact that it looks like a complete bag of shite is an added bonus, partly because it makes it all the more amusing when I leave expensive moderns for dead, and partly because it means I don't have to wash it or worry about denting it. And all for £300.

 

The red 406 saloon was bloody good too - nowhere near as fast as the Rover, but I paid £185 for it and used it as my daily for six months, and it cost me a total of £3.78 in maintenance in that time. That did 50mpg too.

 

Innocenti was another one that I've never regretted buying. I paid a lot more for it than I usually would have for a car with no T&T, but it passed the MoT easily and racked up 12,000 miles in 18 months, averaging nearly 60mpg into the bargain. Yes it's slow, and I don't use it in the winter because it will dissolve if I do, but it's just such a sweet little thing to drive, and has never left me stranded - the only two things that have gone wrong with it (broken fanbelt and snapped wheel stud) were both due to me being a twat, and it still got me home on both occasions.

 

My last 2CV was a good buy too - it was a Plums'n'Custard Dolly advertised in my local freeads for £175 with loads of T&T. I rang the seller as soon as I got the paper and to my amazement it was still for sale - I did the 8 miles across Norwich in 12 minutes and ripped the bloke's arm off as soon as I got there. It came with a shedload of spares, too, including a good set of chrome headlights and bumpers from a Charleston. I puttered around in it for a couple of months, then bunged it on the Bay and tripled my money. Now if only they could all be like that...

[barrett]

It was bought by a bloke who crashed it into a bridge

But I thought....

the way it drove was just brilliant.

 

Seriously though, that's a right bugger.

[retrogeezer]

I loved my Ginetta G26

 

Seeing those photos just reminded me how much I liked that car. I reckon when you sold it it must've been one of the nicest examples left. The black bumpers, stripes (subtle but brilliant) and decently spaced wheels improved the looks by 10000% Any idea where it went when you got shot of it, and if it's being looked after in the manner it deserves?

It was bought by a bloke who crashed it into a bridge

 

 

I didn't even know you had sold that, what a pisser.

[garethj]

It was bought by a bloke who crashed it into a bridge

But I thought....

the way it drove was just brilliant.

 

Seriously though, that's a right bugger.

I don't know what happened in the accident but I think the bloke was taking avoiding action so it might have happened even if he was in a Quattro with suckers instead of tyres.

 

They come up on ebay every so often and I still think they look good, with the galvanised chassis it's a good long-term prospect too. Futuramic on here had one that he was impressed with, in fact it was his write-up here that first got me interested.

 

My other fine shite purchase was a 1964 Renault 8.

At the time I was restoring a '73 MG Midget which needed everything.

I bought this R8 which was 10 years older and it needed almost nothing. My daily driver was a 1964 Tatra 603 (seen here with a Whizzkid I had later)

so I borrowed a trailer and drove up to the farm where this R8 was advertised. It was sitting in a ditch so the Tatra towed it out, then onto the trailer and I brought it home through some proper twisty roads through the Welsh valleys, villages with pit cottages perched on the hillside, hairpin bends and narrow streets everywhere. The Tatra towed very well indeed and the Renault was a gem; an oil change, brake fluid change and it sailed through an MoT. The complete opposite to the MG which took 2 years of my spare time to get like the photo above.

 

The 1108cc engine was pretty strong, I think top speed was 84mph or something and that's the speed I did everywhere in it. After driving lots of Beetles I was prepared for some iffy handling with its swing axle suspension but this Renault was very forgiving. Somewhere on youtube there's some film of an R8 going around some cones, followed by a Renault 5 Turbo, that shows how it handled.

 

There was no radio and no seatbelts, I didn't feel the need to lock it so it was quite nice to open the door, flick the ignition key (auto choke so it always started) and just set off. One of the few cars I sold for a profit, I'd have another if I thought I'd use it.

[ProgRocker]

Not sure if it counts as a shite buy but my best car so far is the 1999 SEAT Ibiza 1.4 S I bought in 2002 for £4,699. Had it for over 7 years, ended up writing off the poor car in heavy snow in December 2009 and still got £1,700 from the insurance company. Did everything I needed it too very well. Very minimal expense to get throught each MOT, nothing much more than replacement tyres, an exhaust and an electric window motor in the driver's door.

 

I went without a car for a few months in early 2010 but then I had the opportunity to buy a Ford Escort 1.8 n/a diesel as a stop gap car. It belonged to an old guy who lived nearby who drinks in the same pub as my dad and my uncle. This was the most surprisingly good shite purchase ever...

 

He had to give up driving for a few months on medical grounds so it sat in his rented garage and now it had a flat battery. In the interim, his offspring has given him a mark 4 Astra to use once he is fit enough to drive. He allowed me to take the battery home to charge it up and a day or two later reattached it to the car and it came alive. Agreed to pick it up on April 1st when I could tax it for a full 6 months. It was MOT'd 3 months previously but it went straight back into the rented garage, which the mileage indicated. Bought for £250 + £112.50 road tax, plus it had nearly half a tank of diesel.

 

In running the car, all I had to pay for was the diesel. Other than the choppy ride (rear passengers complained of) and the rubbish performance, it was a bloody good car for the nearly 6 months I had it. Pretty much got my money back on it when I traded it in for my current Nissan Almera.

[dollywobbler]

That Tatra/Whizzkid pic should be a calender contender! Looks like the 'zuki would fit inside the Tatra...

 

Two of my all-time favourite motors, though I've not driven a Whizzkid yet, so maybe it would disappoint...

[garethj]

The Whizzkid was a right hoot, another car that could be driven absolutely flat out and it would really hang on around corners. I was using it to get to work for a while, 70+ miles a day down the M4 and back and when I was in a miserly mood it would regularly beat 50mpg.

 

I think the red line was at about 7000rpm, and with the dashboard full of gauges and the low sitting position it really felt sporty. Of course the engine was the Jeep / Bedford Rascal thing so maximum power was barely at 5000rpm…

[Josh_Cohen]

my best shite buy was this

 

 

 

bought it for £165 it was cutting out filter in the fuel tank was blocked it had 1 owner and 56k on it

 

or this

 

 

£350 bargain ran it for 6 months then sold it for £350

 

or this

 

£150 quid £30 to put it through the MOT all thanks to Mr Bickle

 

then there was this my most favorite car ever

 

 

 

sadly now a cube as the engine let go and i couldn't afford to fix it at the time so it was stripped