Under £800 quid motoring

[Voltastic]

Talking to a old friend today we got onto the topic of cheap and cheerful motoring

What is the best car you ve had the pleasure of owning for £800 quid or under .

Ave had a couple

1. Peugeot 406 coupe had the 2ltr petrol in it and 155000 when I got her best 2 years of care free motoring I have had and in my opinion one of the most stunning cars ever made .

2. Vauxhall nova 1.4 sr bought when I was 17 for 100 notes drove it till the engine blew 5 weeks later oops.

3. Renault megane rt auto with the 1.6 16v . 500 quid when my big pug broke only had 27000 on the clock one old person owner from new

Auto box was awful but fun with its sports button

[DVee8]

K reg Vauxhall Cav 1.6 expression it was around £220 from my FIL next door neighbour ran it for around 10 months sold for about £300.

[Jim Bell]

Every car I have ever had has cost less than £500, never mind £800. And they have mostly all been amazing.

Apart from a free but fatally haunted 406, a 205 XS that objected to an oil change and a cheap and subderminally rottern k11.

 

I don't think any car should cost more than £400.

I keep trying to explain this to Autoshiters selling £600 cars but they rarely relent and submit to my point of view.

[Bucketeer]

800 WHOLE POUNDS. Check out Mr Fancy Pants.

Of my 50 or so motors, the most expensive has been £600.

 

My top three faves is full* of variety.

1 - Sierra 2.9 GLSi 4x4 estate

2 - Sierra 2.9 GLSi 4x4 (on steels with 1.6 badges)

3 - Sierra XR4x4

 

The beige BX19RD estate would have been up there too, but I didn't appreciate it enough as a teenager.

[scruff]

C15 van

Pug 205 turbo diesel

RR Classic V8 on gas

Series 2a Landy 3.5 V8

 

All sub £700 and GR8 

[Bren]

Ford Sierra twink.

 

Bought for £125 with good bodywork and noisy timing chain - even had mot.

 

£250 on parts including petrol tank and radiator.

 

Written off when transit used it to stop.

 

Insurance gave me £975. I made money on a Sierra which means they are brill.

[mercrocker]

Best buy was my 280E W123 - £400 from a local dealer's backyard.  A whirlwind time in my life, it outlived 2 house moves and 3 female companions, got me out of some real scrapes (and into one) and it  felt like a worn out shoe just before it goes in the bin.  Took it everywhere, slept in it, went to Le Mans in it and  got the present Mrs Rocker to work for weeks whilst her Microbe fucked us about.  She knew what she was in for when she saw the Merc.  It  took her son to church on his wedding day and put her in Badermatic mode for life and confirmed me as Autoshiter.   The car deserved a hell a lot better than being cast aside for a W116.  It sent me a final message some weeks later - a speeding ticket 105MPH in Barnet, even after I told DIVLA it  was sold....Gone but never forgotten.

[Guest Breadvan72]

Series 3 Landy bought from a bloke in a pub for £600.

[dollywobbler]

Land Rover Discovery £450. Probably owes me about £800 by now.

 

Citroen BX diesel estate. £266. Just wish I'd looked after it a bit more.

 

Citroen BX TXD Turbo. £575. Probably the best car I've ever owned really. Quick, economical, great to drive. Sold because I wanted something with a towbar. My next BX was less successful.

 

My best score though must be the Saab 9000i 2.3. Lovely condition, one-owner from new, 124k with full main dealer service history. Yet the £595 I paid for it was probably too much. I sold it for a fair chunk less. I didn't care much for the cornering experience, but it was a magnificent mile muncher.

[Junkman]

I haven't spent 800£ on a car in ages. Usually less than half that.

All of them were excellent.

[wackywacerwill]

Most expensive car I ever bought was in fact a van. Smiley transit DI which I kept for 4 years then sold and ended up buying back and kept again for another few years till a combo of chronic rot and looming LEZ bollocks killed it off.

 

Well that and the fact I stuffed it into the back of some twonk in sierra twink.

 

 

 

 

Nah, honest guv it weren't me 

 

Great and sorely missed that van, wish I'd kept hold of it and stuffed my DI donkey in the tranny twink I have now (as the actress said to the bishop).

[fordperv]

Bought a tidy Sierra gls hatch for £60 with 3 days m.o.t left off a chap who we know because kwik stitch had done a pre m.o.t and told him that it would cost £500 in parts and Labour to get through its test, he only popped in to get a quote on some discs and pads as the discs were warped. I looked round it there was nothing up with it except the warped discs so I put some replacement discs on popped it for a test it went straight through no advisories, i gave that to my dad to drive around because he loved his old one, he drove it round for 3 years without fault the only money it cost was routine servicing

[skattrd]

£650 mk2 Scirocco that I put 80k miles on in 2 years replacing only service parts. 1.8 k-jet engine that never put a foot wrong and returned 40+mpg, stupidly I replaced the original engine for a tuned one. I still have the car and it will be returned to former glory one day.

Volvo S80 with the Audi 5-pot tdi engine, bought at auction for about £700. I fixed a few things, put 24k miles on it in 6 months and sold for £900.

£650 Subaru SVX .... ran for a few months, fixed/replaced nothing, sold for £650.

£600 Lancia Thema 16v LS turbo. Non-standard turbo fitted, the car went like a rocket. Ran for a few months without anything breaking, then sold for £600 before something did break.

 

There's probably others I've forgotten about

[Spiny Norman]

These days I rarely spend much more than that on a car, though my own budget limit tends to be nearer the grand mark. Quite a few of the cars I've had recently have been £900 or so, if that counts?
Tasha the sexy Volvo 240 was under £800, and a few years ago I got a surprisingly fit and healthy Rover 618i for just £350.

 

The one expense in motoring I hate paying is depreciation. I understand I need tax and at my age/NCB insurance for anything I'm likely to drive is under £300 so that doesn't break the bank either, but I just can't cope with the idea of buying a nearly new something for five grand and watch it lose a grand a year for a few years, so I buy my motors ready devalued.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

My last Discovery, bought in 2006 for £800. Then neglected and abused until a few weeks ago . Driven by all my kids off road including some pretty wet green lanes not far from Mr DW that the One Life,Snorkel and winch brigade make a fuss about, even though it only ever had standard suspension and road tyres. It's towed,recovered and unstuck more times than I can remember, been used for camping trips all over the country and as a winter everyday car by my wife up until last year.

In all that time it had a couple of sets of front pads, a glow plug( the other 3 are still in the packet,it fired up in -12 after fitting 1) 2 or 3 tyres and one oil change.

This years MOT was too much for even the most understanding * tester so it had to go .

Sold it for £500 to a guy who intends to bobtail it. So it lost £300 in 8 years.

 

 

Pictured after my 13 year old ripped off the tow bar in Tixover Quarry being taught* by an expert*. When I got there later that day, not only the towbar but a bumper end and an indicator had gone- fuckin 'experts'

[MrDuke]

£350 Volvo 740 2.3 GLE manual saloon, in pale metallic blue with leather inside. I've owned several cars that were either faster, better handling, smoother, more economical or more practical (sometimes all at once) but I've never ever owned a car that just felt so perfectly suited to ME, for reasons that I can't quite put my finger on. Sadly, I didn't really appreciate how awesome it was at the time, but I miss it bitterly now. Sale was forced by finances, and I'd have it back in a heartbeat.

[cort16]

There's a smorgis board of decent cars out there for 800 quid. I always seemed to spent 600 quid on cars back when I was changing them more than my underpants. I have to say it was with varying results.

[skattrd]

£350 Volvo 740 2.3 GLE manual saloon, in pale metallic blue with leather inside. I've owned several cars that were either faster, better handling, smoother, more economical or more practical (sometimes all at once) but I've never ever owned a car that just felt so perfectly suited to ME, for reasons that I can't quite put my finger on. Sadly, I didn't really appreciate how awesome it was at the time, but I miss it bitterly now. Sale was forced by finances, and I'd have it back in a heartbeat.

 

That was exactly how I felt about the mk2 Scirocco, and why I still have it. The driving position was just right for me, I could do 500 miles in a day in it without feeling a wreck, it had a huge boot (for a sports car) and was fun when you wanted it to be. The fact it had no PAS, no ABS etc was a major plus for me .... Right, that's it, I need to get that car on the road again.

[phil_lihp]

The £100 Rover 220SLi of course.  Yes, it's cost more than that to get through its MOT but even with that and a couple of other jobs it still owes me less than £800, looks like crap but goes like stink and works hard when its asked to.

[Lord Sterling]

The most I've ever spent buying a car was around £730. That was my first Rover 800 too, a 1989 F-reg 827Si which I later crashed, got £750 off third parties insurance and sold for £100 or something so I actually (and rather unintentionally) made profit

 

Then came 2 cars, the Mk2 N-reg 827 Sterling and the Mk1 G-reg Sterling, both bought for £400 (Mk2 Sterling @ £300 and Mk1 @ £100) both are still under my ownership.

 

After that came a Mk1 E-reg Sterling bought for £300, drove for a year, blew its engine then got swapped for an identical car + parts off my old one. Swapped car is still under my ownership.

 

Lastly are what was, up until a few days ago, my daily driver, the Mk2 825 KV6 Sterling that I got for £free and a Mk1 D-reg 820E bought for £250.

 

So yeah, if the ceiling is the dizzy heights of £800 then you've really got quite a choice.

[Vince70]

£281 on a low mileage A4 four years ago.. I did have a new clutch fitted as it didn't like 2nd and reverse gears.. But thinking about it I don't really think it needed one as the car had been sitting for a long time so I think I would of got away with just changing the gearbox oil...

 

The car was only a stopgap but I've got quite attached to the old girl...And can't get rid of it now and every year it goes through the ticket ok and the only advisory this year was the rear pads getting low.

 

I've got so attached to it that I damaged the bumper the other week and even paid out and had it repaired professionally and while at it I even had the doors resprayed to repair where it at been keyed previously.

 

I don't know why I got it repaired as it will be taken off the road at the end of the month when the tax expires so I can use my cabriolet.

[eddyramrod]

Three contenders, I think...

£280 MG Maestro 2.0i with a couple of weeks' MoT, but only 27,000 on the clock at 15 years old.  Bloody lovely that was, I can't think of a better-accelerating car I've owned.  Sold for £500 after almost three years.

£450 ebay Volvo 740 GLE estate that I bought to replace the above.  Had it over three years and gave it away when we went to Cyprus.  That's not bad as depreciation goes!  Like MrDuke, it was a car that just "fitted" me perfectly.  (And it was the same pale blue!)

£500 Chrysler leBaron convertible, bought almost on impulse, almost exactly ten years ago and sold on ebay for £1300 after two-and-a-half years, after selling the private plate for £500.  Yes, I was running this at the same time as the MG, alternating them for daily-duties.  Oh not forgetting the third string: £300 1980 Buick Century (which I sold after a couple of years for £795).  So call it three and a half contenders.

2003-6 was a bit of a golden time, as all these cars overlapped each other during these years.

[Junkman]

I might spend 800 quid on an LS 400.

That princely sum should secure an absolute minter at the moment.

I expect new car quality.

[Honey Badger]

£250 on a F plate P100 with a months ticket, company mechanic swore blind it needed a grands worth of welding, 2 6" squares in the back body saw it through the mot. Ran it for 2 years and only replaced the broken bumper and spent ages respraying the body in fords finest diamond white rattle cans. Cab and frame were in fine nick, pick up bed was made from steel that Alfa Romeo rejected for the sud as it rusted too much...

 

She got stuffed into the side of a Transit van that pulled out in front of me while I was doing 60, still not sure how I walked away from that one, but I probably owe it to the BFO ladder frame chassis that run under the cab.

 

Current Accord Coupe with the slightly* shonky auto box, it's just a very pleasant place to be as I waft about. Cost bang on £800 with years test and 6 months tax.

[Tetleysmooth]

 

My most expensive car was an Opel Senator - W reg - 1981 model, bought in 1986 for £1250.

 

Excellent car.

 

The cheapest car I ever got, was a free Vauxhall Senator 3.0 12 valve.

Had to get the National Express coach to Preston to collect it though.

It was an auto with a strange electrical glitch. It would only start with the selector IN gear. That was interesting. Soon sorted though and was a fine vehicle after that.

[CortinaDave]

hmmm - A Y reg Sierra Ghia for 500 quid that was comfy as hell and unbreakable, a £150 G reg Mk3 Cavalier 1600L that did 45 plus to the gallon and looked like crap but never broke down, and a £450 T reg Cortina L which was mint!

 

Gold with a brown vinyl roof. Wish I'd kept it.

[Rocket88]

In 1984 bought a 101 Estate for a princely £15. It had a cracked sump, which I repaired with Araldite and a prayer. Ran it for 18 months without any dramas, until the clutch went..............Faithful old thing, with the most commodious seating arrangements.........

[srad34]

A £500 Mercedes C180, more holes than a cheese grater, nowt went wrong, the drive wss snooooze, but I could not kill it, I ended up selling to an old chap in the next town, that was 2006 and he still has it!   

[laser wheels]

"A Y reg Sierra Ghia for 500 quid that was comfy as hell and unbreakable"

 

I agree! Strangely though, I never really bonded with my MK2 in the way I have with the Ghia, despite being a more modern feeling car. I think it's just the fact that the 1.8 CVH felt so much more gutless than the 2.0 Pinto and that the MK2 definitely seemed to have been built down to a cost compared to the MK1. Also my big bumper Jetta TX - brilliant rock solid handling and accelerated much quicker than a 75bhp saloon had any right too.

[mouseflakes]

Renault 10 - £50, ran it for 8 years as a daily.