Have the days of the bargain banger gone?

[Joseph]

For quite a while now, I've been wondering whether the good old days of the bargain banger have finally gone...

 

In days gone buy, it was possible to buy an old motor with maybe a month's ticket and rent for fifty quid, and you'd be spoilt for choice in doing so.

Fiestas, Maestros, Cavaliers, Escorts etc, even the odd Mini, but an old Focus or Vectra for beer money? Not really...

 

I know that the scrappage scheme and the high-ish price of scrap metal means that the truly cheap, truly shite bangers are being (and have been) weighed in rather than being sold, but I'm still wondering if it is still possible to buy a motor for next to nothing?

[cort16]

No! It's halcyon days for the shitest. Top quality tat can be sourced for less than 500 quid that's safe and reliable. It it all goes tits up you can weigh it in and get most of your money back.

 

Here's an example I posted on the ebay thread. £495 and mot'd until May.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201301034776044/sort/default/usedcars/seller-type/trade_adverts/price-to/1000/price-from/0/onesearchad/used/onesearchad/nearlynew/onesearchad/new/radius/100/postcode/ka107bd/page/2?logcode=p

[Albert Ross]

Is that Volvo wearing Skoda wheeltrims? My, how times have changed. 20 years ago, it would have been the other way around.

[Doctormop]

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=15746

[Split_Pin]

Nope, those are the base model trims.

 

That's cracking value. My dad had a 2.4 pez one of those on an 02 plate for a while. Dissapointingly, although it was fitted with Volvos 5-pot, it sounded shit and was pretty slow. Deffo in the land of WANT now though.

[cort16]

I think they are original volvo trims. Have you seen the seats? It was obviously a total povo spec car.

[wuvvum]

I have to say that the days of seeing cars advertised as "free to good home" in the local rag seem to be long gone. My best ever freebie was an E-plate AX 10E with just under three months' rent - it became my daily for those three months and then got flogged for £50.

 

There's still plenty of cheapies out there if you look though.

[cort16]

It wasn't that long ago that you had to pay to scrap your car. That was probably pre-china doing it's capitalist communist bit.

Back then you could hoover up decent stuff* for free or 200 quid or so.

[Junkman]

Currently there are over 1000 cars listed on Gumtree for up to 200 quid.

It gets better. The overwhelming majority of them are bona fide shite.

[Spiny Norman]

I've never bought, or even seen a legal, driveable car with any t&t for £50......

I am amazed at what £3-400 buys you these days though.

[autofive]

I think its only the small cheap bangers that have gone, lots of cheapo barges still around

[CortinaDave]

I tend to find £500 is still the benchmark for something halfway decent. A grand gets you something that should last a couple of years easy. At the couple of hundred pound mark its bloody hard, but not impossible to get something almost reasonable.

[Junkman]

Buy a Pug 405. You get a really good one for 400 and the ruddy thing will unfortunately last til you die unless cold deformation happens.

[Leyland Lawrence]

Just bought a Honda civic

 

1998, 12 months MOT, 36,000m 1 owner from new with FHSH, higher spec with sunroof etc. Absolutely immaculate interior and green paintwork save for laquer peel on one of the wings.

 

Reckon I have 3 years motoring out of it and then will still be able to sell it for £475!

 

£475

[Negative Creep]

A few years ago I bought a Clio for £50 with tax and test, and the Corolla only cost me £250. Admittedly that is the exception to the rule. With the amount of idiot buyers you get at that price range, lack of interest in anything that doesn't do 100mpg and the Continuous Insurance legislation,it's no wonder people scrap perfectly usable cars

[Lankytim]

If you factor in the price of scrap then I think the price of old bangers is about the same as it was years ago. Buy an old snotter fir £200 quid drive it round for a bit and weigh it in for £150.

[Cavcraft]

There are loads about, you just have to look. This time of year is usually fab for bargains too, as sellers need money after Chrimbo, and not many people have the dosh to buy. The KIA I got the other day was stupidly cheap for what it was, I reckon come summertime* it'd have been treble what we paid for it.

 

 

*Because people like big cars for holidays and towing caravans etc.

[155V6]

I paid £250 for the Xantia back in June.It had a couple of months tax,& the MOT runs out in a couple of days but It went through another one last week with just one advisory.All I've spent on it was about £7.00 on wiper blades when they froze to the screen .Plus about 5 times the value of the car in fuel

[cort16]

There are loads about, you just have to look. This time of year is usually fab for bargains too, as sellers need money after Chrimbo, and not many people have the dosh to buy. The KIA I got the other day was stupidly cheap for what it was, I reckon come summertime* it'd have been treble what we paid for it.

 

 

*Because people like big cars for holidays and towing caravans etc.

 

What's the Kia Kerry Sedona like Billy? I imagine it goes along alright with that massive diesel engine in it?

[Cavcraft]

Yes Glenn, certainly seems to pull ok. MPG figures seem to vary according to who you talk to, most say driven sensibly it's GR8 on fuel as obviously you don't really need to welly it to make it move, but if hammered the economy is a bit scary apparently.

It's actually attracting a fair old bit of interest on BumTree, so all being well it won't be here much longer.

[eddyramrod]

If you factor in the price of scrap then I think the price of old bangers is about the same as it was years ago. Buy an old snotter fir £200 quid drive it round for a bit and weigh it in for £150.

 

As above. Haven't I posted an entire thread about just this? In urgent need, I picked up the cheapest old shed I could get with t&t on, for £300. That got me MoT till September, tax till(end of) May, and a Peugeot 406 2.0 GLX (with towbar and aftermarket CD player) attached to all of the above! I've now been driving it three weeks, so if I scrapped it this afternoon I've had more use than that £300 would buy from a rental, and I'd still get half my money back. But obviously, I'll be keeping it as long as I need it, and because I find I like it, probably a whole lot longer yet!

 

Having said all that, yes, I do mourn the days of the £50 banger. I've had loads, and mostly enjoyed them. And they were all younger than the Peugeot, which is 17.....

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Don't forget that, according to the BoE inflation calculator, £50 in 1988 was worth the equivalent of £110 in 2011 money.

[Lukas]

... and don´t forget used cars are only that cheap in the UK, so don´t complain, enjoy!

[ProgRocker]

My former car was this Escort diesel, bought for £250 (+ £112.50 road fund licence).

 

1994 Ford Escort 1.8 LD diesel by ProgRocker77, on Flickr

 

Other than diesel, I spent no other money on the car in the 6 months I ran it. Very economical too - the needle took forever to work it's way to 'empty'.

[Spiny Norman]

I got this Ronda 600 (with the nice watertight Honda engine) a couple of years back for £350 including a few months rent and nearly a full years MOT on it. It was a damn good car and needed nothing doing to it in the 6 months or so I had it. Icing on the cake was selling it for £450!

 

[HMC]

I think we're placed better than ever in the world of bargain bangers, as in many ways the cars at their cheapest now come from a great period for shite motoring. By the early 90s most manufacturers had the corrosion issue under control, plus drivetrains were fairly well developed for longevity without the creeping in of overly complex electronica and dmfs etc. The advent of the internet also makes it much easier than it used to be to find a market for spares both to buy but also to sell should you find the worst happens and you decide to break it.

 

My personal fave bangers of recent years all cost me no more than 500 notes, all with at least some Tax and ticket.

 

ex martin buckley merc 200

 

merc 500sel

 

Daimler 4.0

[michael1703]

I think £350 is the new £50 nowadays, plenty of bargains in the sub £500 mark, the last 3 I've bought in that price range have been mk3 mong deo with a years ticket, fiat UNO with a years ticket,jaguar 4.0 x300 with tax and test for just over £500 and a merc Cosworth which once taxed will owe me about £600, scrap money has been shit for the last 4 months and everyone is post Christmas skint so if you have money in your pocket now, this is the time to buy

[Bren]

£350 is indeed the new £50, nobody would in all honesty bother selling a car for £150 when they could send it over the bridge with no comebacks.

 

When I sold my wife's galant last year it went for £375 on ebay, it was a good low mileage car. The guy who bought it pulled a face because the exhaust developed a slight blow while it had been sat - he commented "my £375 car is now a £475 car". This was a car with hardly any rust and air con that still worked, with tax and mot.A trader offered me £175, when I pointed out I could scrap it and cash the tax in for more he slammed the phone down on me - arsehole.

 

Lots of useable £500 cars out there, however people expect too much (is there a warranty? Will you take £250 and a spin dryer?) and are completely unrealistic, however I can never recall a time when people have struggled so badly financially, a £500 car for these people really is out of reach.

 

I originally advertised the galant on gumtree, I had a bizarre text asking if the car was still for sale, and if it had any petrol in it.

 

A sign of the times methinks.

[scaryoldcortina]

My next door neighbour just bought himself a MGZR (53, 5 door) with tax and test (and suspected OMGHGF) for £100. He's driving a 3 door that cost him £150.

[Des]

I remember £50 bangers were fairly plentiful 20 or so years ago, not sure how many were bargains though, usually a certain amount of welding needed, patches upon patches, then the random stuff, knackered racks, bushes, joints, brake pipes, oh my fucking god the brake pipes, why was it that 'back in the day' every car from outside London over a month old had 20 odd yards of rotted out piping with every single seized union hex rounded off, loose your last remnant of sanity changing them all, but before you reach out to shear off those rusty bleed nipples, there'll be at least a couple of wheel cylinders dribbling away. So, even trying to keep costs down by trying to souce near useless parts from rip off breakers, the £50 banger often became a £300 to £500 banger, and still it would remain a banger with a £50 value. Today you can find plenty of cars for £300 to £500, good to go and not really fair to call them bangers, they're unfashionable rather than shagged, enjoy.