Your definition of cheap motoring?

[Cavcraft]

Any 1.9 diesel Vectra with tax and MOT for under £651 has to be a massive bargain.

[Taff]

my m plate Polo was cheap. £300-ish sheets off ebygumbay, I drove it like i stole it for two years as bit gradually gave up the ghost. But in two years it only needed a tyre for a MoT. I would change the oil and filter every 6000-ish miles using cheap as possible stuff and that was it

[robinmasters]

£472 to buy nearly four years ago, so if I were to bridge it now I'd have lost less than £100 a year. 

 

It's done nearly 40,000 miles with little more than servicing. It's needed the odd balljoint etc, but nothing major.

 

45mpg ish. 

 

That's cheap.

[DaveAspley]

I define cheap by referencing my wife's Vectra that she had. A 2002 "c" model, paid £425 for it after the garage gave us £500 for a shitbox s reg Golf that I openly told them was about to be scrapped. The Vectra needed a cambelt, full service, coolant, etc which cost me £150 and 2 tyres part worn at £60 the pair. 2 years use and sold it to one of my customers for £750. Still going strong now, I changed the front wheel bearing last week on it for him, cost him £130 fitted (complete hub) and that's the only cost he's had. We bought it at 130000, now on 153000 miles on a 1.8 petrol.

[RoadworkUK]

Truthfully; my A4 1.8T. Bought for a grand six years ago at 55k miles. In that time it has required servicing (done by myself using highly discounted premium oils when due), discs and pads, and a wheel bearing. Oh, and a cambelt, but that's DIY anyway. It's now on 125k.

 

Cheap motoring for me is all about avoiding depreciation. Say mine is worth £500, that means it stands me at £80 a year plus maintenance, fuel and insurance, which are all broadly similar across any comparable car anyway.

 

Millions of people spend more on fags than I do on motoring per year, and I can still drive like a dick in the way that drivers of £379 per month PCP financed 2014 Audis do if I so desire....

[DaveAspley]

A more recent effort, my Bmw 535 v8. Cost £600, I weighed the exhaust in for £15, replaced it with some 3" mild steel for the same price, serviced all the filters etc for £69, I drive it like I'm in the cannonball run everyday and I fully expect to get something like £200 when I sell it. But if it lasts me a year I'll be happy. (Chances of keeping a car more than 6 months, 0.00000000000001/1)

[New POD]

On my daily car, I worked on trying to predict the Cost per mile over the 1st 3 years of ownership, including unknowns of depreciation and repairs.  Thus I ended up spending £4600 on a Honda accord diesel, and now reckon that once I've had it 6 years (in 3 years time) it will be completely value less, having cost me an average of 21p a mile including all costs.  Given that the HMRC allow me to pay myself 45p a mile tax free, going down to 25p after 10K miles, I consider this to be a free car.

 

On my wife's car, I just bought the car she wanted (based on her liking the colour), and didn't give a shit that insurance for her and the kids would be £2K.  (a 2001 Cooper) ,  It's not cheap motoring, but my buying it and paying the insurance has resulted in lots of loving.

 

On the wife's other car, an MX5, a poverty spec mk1 Monza with just 88 bhp, I only work on the fact that if we don't use it, then it costs £10 a week, which is paid for by me not paying for costa coffee at work (they have an outlet in the entrance foyer).  Effectively I consider this to be a free car. 

[Vince70]

I class cheap motoring as under £500 a year in maintenance and work for the mot ..

 

My theory is if the cars reliable and rot free it's worth spending a few bob on it as any decent car with a ticket is worth that kind of money and better the devil you know if it's a goodun.

 

Normally I go for a N/A single cam petrol engine as there's less to go wrong.

 

My list for my winter hack car for this year is a bonnet repaint £250 due to the lacquer wearing through and a cambelt £200 and the service items I do myself each year for less than £50

 

I do mot the car first though (£20 pre booked) just to make sure the cars in good nick but the way I look at it I have a lovely old car which will still look and drive like new without the depreciation or have to worry about main dealer servicing costs.

 

I know in reality I should just drive it and any forget about any rattles and bangs etc but I just hate to let a decent car go to bridge for little work.

[forddeliveryboy]

PS:- 

 

Guilty plea.  I own a car made in 2001.  

 

Plea in mitigation:  It was designed in the 1990s and kinda comes from there.  Fuck, you can even see out of the fucker.

 

 

2000?  Dangerous modernist!  1990, shureley.

 

 

Plea accepted. Was trying to be reasonable with allowing 14 year old cars.

[Junkman]

I had a 1956 Mercedes 180 Diesel, ex Berlin taxi, with 780,000 km on the first engine and gearbox when I bought it.

I paid something like 500 D-Marks for it back in 1984, which in today's money would buy you a Velosolex "barn find".

It was the closest thing to being stationary, mind. I had the 'Slow Movement' invented right there and then.

It had the vertical speedometer, vulgo 'thermometer', which never went into the red of the scale, which started at 80 OMGKPH.

The perfect OMGDRFTWEPON, if there ever was one.

When I did an oil change, about a litre came out, the rest was tar.

 

4 friends and I went on a holiday trip to Corsica with it, a 2,000 mile round trip from Berlin, where I lived at the time. It returned 38 OMGMPG with an inflated dinghy on the roof, and didn't put a foot wrong.

 

The most EPIK line uttered on the trip (by me): Can you please take that guitar neck out of the steering wheel spokes? I can see a bend in the road approaching.

 

We then took it on a trip to Denmark, Roskilde, if you are old enough to know what that means. Coming off the ferry, the Danish customs officer lifted a floor mat, which covered a rust hole the size of Holland, and said: I can see the road down there!

I said: Yes, but it's he road to Roskilde, dig?

 

This was the car of the last worth living in century, if you ask me, which I'm sure you don't.

Any cheaper from of motoring would be walking, and that costs shoes.

[rml2345]

I'm rubbish at cheap motoring as, like Dolly and others I buy a cheap car and spend considerable amounts of time and money tidying it up before either crashing and putting everyone's insurance up or selling it for what I paid or less. Within reason, the actual costs don't bother me that much as I get to drive what I like and spend time tinkering with it.

[The Moog]

Just that lot saves £61 versus at the pump + £400 car..

 

Do that 7 times and you have free motoring.

[Rusty_Rocket]

This is my best bargain (and cheapest motoring) I've had in the last couple of years-.

 

1995 Astra 1.7TD.  This thing is so miserable, it failed to attract any interest on ebay whatsoever, so I grabbed it for £135.  It was taxed and had a long MoT.  It also had two inches of rainwater in the passenger footwell, an interior that looked and smelt like a tramp had been living in the car and was generally tatty and unloved.

 

However, it drove well, has the Isuzu engine and had 65k on the speedo.

 

As bought (from a very pleasant Bulgarian) in a rainy part of South London-

 

After a timing belt and service, set of trims (from my compulsive hoarding), a replacement aerial and a day's worth of cleaning to make it hospitable-

 

 

It has been totally dependable and is now 'er indoors' daily hack.  It loves bio diesel and scrapes 50mpg in daily use, all from a £135 car that was genuinely about to be scrapped if I hadn't 'saved' it.  There's no rust on the sills or rear arches which is very unusual but the interior is still unpleasant and I'm not convinced I've sorted the water ingress.. but who cares!!!

[Lukas]

I´ve never had cheap motoring. Oh wait...

 

My dad gave me his 8 year old Pajero in 2002 for 1 €.  Was a gift for the Matura. (Google it if you want to know what this is).

I drove it 3 years without any troubles with only with very few repairs needed and sold it in 2005 for 6500 €. But it wasnt my credit.

 

SInce then, I´ve always had expensive cars. Even the cheap ones. Because I bought them when they were in poor condition, repaired a lot for huge money and sold them in good condition for less money.  I´m stupid, but thankfully I´m not alone.