CHEAPEST CAR YOU HAVE EVER OWNED

[overrun]

£80 for a G reg 1800 CVH Saph

£95 for a mk1 Mondeo, 1600 Zetec

£95 for a mk2 Orion Ghia (struggled to insure)

£110 for a mk2 Nova SR

£120 for a P10 1600 Primera

 

I drove around in all of these. The Mondeo was my first ever shit, second car.

 

Have had a few freebies and other cheapies, too.

These have been donor cars, though.

[Pete-M]

I've had a few freebies. One was a Pug 405 GED that I ran for a few weeks until I was offered £600 for it. Another was an Escort 55D van, that cost about £100 to keep Road legal but wouldn't die. Another was a Mk2 1.8 Golf 5 Dr with aftermarket aircon. The car was tired but it had lots of rare bits so my local VW breaker was moist for it.

[Matt]

I even lose a fortune when cars are given to me!

 

Well at the end of the day costing their owners money is all cars are guaranteed to do.

 

Got the Sera from kinkersaab for the princely sum of £0.

 

That's probably the coolest free car ever, I would love to own one.

[sloth]

bought a pug 106 ph1 1.5d for 500, spunked 500 into it and then sold it for 50.  hang on thats not quite right...

 

 

 

spent 45 on a mint nova 4dr saloon, years t+t, full tank of pez. sailed thru the mot the next year and sold for 450.

 

bluebird zxturbo, bought for 100, gearbox laughing. fitted a 50 quid box and sold it for 500. next day get a call that it had been knicked and found dumped. gave the cops the new owners address only to find it was fake. got the car back, fitted new locks and sold for 400.

[twosmoke300]

Well at the end of the day costing their owners money is all cars are guaranteed to do.

 

 

That's probably the coolest free car ever, I would love to own one.

 

I was always told that if it's got tits or tyres its gonna cost you

[Vince70]

I think my best buys would have been my one owner 1968 1300 gt Mk1 escort with 6 months tax and test for £50.. But this was back in the 80s so I guess it doesn't count really.

 

But I also had a lovely little poo brown Allegro which was absolutely immaculate with about 20 odd thousand on the clock which I bought off my auntie, even the local mot tester wanted it as he thought it should be in a museum as he had never seen another one like it.

 

It's amazing how good the allegro really is to drive though after all the negative press the car gets and a good one is a far better car to drive than the comparative Escort at the time and BL products also seemed that bit more economical than their Ford counterparts.

[panhard65]

A few years ago when scrap was worthless I got a few off freecycle. A Rover 214 with the usual headgasket it was only about 5 years old at the time. An air cooled twin Citroen Visa, Rover P6 3500S, Mazda RX7 were the freebie highlights. Sold them all on at a small profit after getting them running.

 

[dollywobbler]

I was always told that if it's got tits or tyres its gonna cost you

Ah. Seeing as my wife costs sod all to run and is quite marvellous, I shall remain happy to lose money on cars.

[doobietoo]

No pics unfortunately but was given a Datsun 180B by a bloke who had it up for sale and nobody wanted it. It had £30 of returnable bottles in the boot, yes that long ago, and a full tank of petrol. I put it through an mot after 6 months and sold it for £60 after a year and a half with the total cost of tax and an mot.

[Mr Lobster]

Had a few freebies over the years and loads that were sub £100, one that I remember though was a Mk1 Renault 5 Le Car 2. It had been sat in a bodyshop in Accrington with a blown headgasket and covered in loads of dust. 

 

Gave them £50, dragged it home, washed it and sold the next day to someone who wanted to fix it for £150. 

 

Could do with more like that.

[lisbon_road]

Paid £60 for the Vauxhall Viva in 1984.  Man said 'that's £20 for the car and £40 for the tyres'.

 

When I insure it, I often get asked 'when did you buy the car'.  They then say, 'I'm sorry, seems to be a bad line, I thought you said 1984'.

 

Then I got one who asked how much I paid and totally lost the plot and could not stop laughing.

 

I think I have had my moneys worth out of it.  Actually I have had a free one once or twice too, used for spares. 

[Rusty Pelican]

Bought this in 1991 for 50 notes from a local scrapyard , cobbled it together with S/H bits and ive been driving it ever since 

 

[RoadworkUK]

My first car, the Acclaim, was free; given to my mum when it was twelve years old by our next door neighbour when her husband died. I'm actually sitting here looking at her 1966 Blaupunkt Stockholm valve table radio which I got when her house was cleared.

 

2nd car, Rover 820e Manual Fastback, Given to me when It was twelve years old by my grandfather who had been offered £100 px by Lancaster Rover, against a 1997 825 Si Manual Fastback, which he later gave me for free when he gave up driving.

 

I've only ever actually paid money for three cars, Saab 9000, Alfa 156 and Audi A4. Zillions of company cars, though, which cost me shitloads in tax.

[ruffgeezer]

I built this for £80 including the original purchase price;

 

 

1.6 Vtr, saxo/106 brakes & suspension and a terrible paint job.

[barefoot]

In the mid eighties I bought a 72 Beetle for £95 inc 4 months t&t.

Sold it with a days worth of each left for £55.

Then I bought a 63 Beetle for £35 and it cost me a bloody fortune before being sold for £80

[Jim Bell]

 

 

I don't think I will ever do better than the ex-loserone 323fgt.

Sub £100 outlay if you include delivery cost.

I spent some money on it, but not a great deal.

If parts were easier to come by and circumstances had not conspired against me, I think I would have kept it for ever.

[purplebargeken]

BCA bargain Fiat Uno Mk1 shape. A tenner, no auction fees. Have had freebies before too.

[theorganist]

Volvo 440 GLE 1989 G reg, this was ;ate 2004 and I owned it till middle 2006. It was in gunmetal grey and cost £175 so not as cheap as some but still cheap. It had MOT and some tax. When I took it for its first MOT all it failed on was a CV boot and one of the headlights had to be cleaned on the inside! It was well equipped with central locking, heated seats, electric front windows (although only the drivers side worked) and PAS.

 

In all the time I owned it I think I only ever had the front pads and discs replaced and a relay.

 

I did keep having to top up the PAS fluid and this was its downfall as one day the pump seized up and went bang so I traded it in for an early Fiat Punto.

 

If I had known what I know now I would have got it fixed as it was a very comfortable and enjoyable car to own. Early ones with the cheesegrater grill I believe are pretty rare now.

[RayMK]

Sold my Citroen CX GTI Turbo 2 in a hurry after the clutch slipped and I discovered it was a 13.5hrs job+parts to fix.  Needed replacement transport to get to work.  Bought a Fiesta MK1 with a full MOT in the dark without a test drive for £180.  Stopped for petrol and noticed that the brakes had failed (2 miles from pick-up). Got home (further 9 miles) using handbrake, gears and curbs to slow down from 30mph (its top speed).  In the light of the next day, fortunately a Saturday, noticed that the front offside wing was parting company because the bluetac was giving up. Rebuilt the master cylinder, adjusted the handbrake, cleaned the ignition bits and re-gapped them and pop-rivetted the wing back on.  Amazingly, the damned thing then worked fine for about 18 months, then the clutch cable broke. I fixed it, but driving a very tatty biscuit tin which also happened to be a Ford (don't really like them) was too much. I sold it to a colleague at work who ran it for a further 2 years.  The best part of the Fiesta experience was finding a Phil Collins cassette under the seat.  Not keen on him, but he was much better than the Fiesta.

 

Edit: Forgot to mention - I sold it for £50.  My business acumen does not return a profit, ever.

[danthecapriman]

Cheapest I've ever bought was £100 for my 74 mk2 Capri. Still got it now so it turned out to be a good buy!

 

Also bought a 94 Volvo 850 for £150. Kept it for less than 24 hours though as a mate was desperate for some wheels, so I let him have it for what it owed me (cos I'm nice like that!) all it needed was one steering rack gaiter for a new mot! An easy years motoring for less than £250!

 

Also got a 91 BMW 316 (e36 shape) for £300, changed the radiator, one front lower arm and a pair of rear brake pipes. Got a new mot and sold it on for £650 to some chavs! I could of sold this several times over given the amount of calls I got, maybe I priced it too low in the first place.

[Six-cylinder]

This is the cheapest car I have ever had - Free

 

That was May this year, since I have spent £532.00 having it serviced twice including brake pads etc, repairs to the self levelling rear suspension, MOT and four tyres. That sounds quite a lot but but I have done over 8,000 miles and now it has excellent tyres and a long way to the next service.

 

The photo is today after I had it cleaned.

 

[PiperCub]

No pics but 89 Metro Shitty sorry, City (1 litre of raw power), white, 5-dr giffer special, had comedy gearbox, jumped out of 2nd if you lifted the throttle. Paid £50 (could have had it for free but was from a mate who was not too flush). MoT'd it, quick service, used for 6Kmiles, sold to another mate for £100, he got another three years out of it & spent little on it too.

 

Also had the same blue (proper) Mini 850 three times, paid £250, £150 (IIRC) & £85, resold it each time after a quick tidy & fix-up for about £5-600.

 

Never had a free car but had a free bike once, well, I say bike, it was an orange Tomos moped (the one they sold in Woolies?) that had lounged in the bike shed at my dad's work for a couple of years. Owner gave it to me, shipped it home (had a van at time), got it running and cleaned/MoT'd, sold it for £100.

 

 

6-Cyl - That's a nice Benz! Hold on, you get a dead smart Merc for free and I pay £50 for a poxy Metro?    Whoever said life's fair............ ?

[Noel Tidybeard]

I think my best buys would have been my one owner 1968 1300 gt Mk1 escort with 6 months tax and test for £50.. But this was back in the 80s so I guess it doesn't count really.

 

But I also had a lovely little poo brown Allegro which was absolutely immaculate with about 20 odd thousand on the clock which I bought off my auntie, even the local mot tester wanted it as he thought it should be in a museum as he had never seen another one like it.

 

It's amazing how good the allegro really is to drive though after all the negative press the car gets and a good one is a far better car to drive than the comparative Escort at the time and BL products also seemed that bit more economical than their Ford counterparts.

changing the gear knob to something with a bit of girth and more weight works wonders as well

[Vince70]

I guess my A4 has been one of my best buys in awhile as it still drives like a new car and the interior is immaculate I even gave it a wash today.

 

I bought it a few months back now as a spares or repair with 50 odd thousand on the clock with about 5 months tax and test for £221 with a nearly a full tank of juice and drove it straight home.

 

One new second hand air mass meter for £14 and a 5 minute job to fix it and the old girl has been as good as gold and doesn't use any oil or water..

It's a very late A4 b5 as well being built in October 2000 so it comes with all the bells and whistles .

[Noel Tidybeard]

Bought this in 1991 for 50 notes from a local scrapyard , cobbled it together with S/H bits and ive been driving it ever since 

 

looks more mean & moody with the quad lights

[fordperv]

my cheapest car was an x reg 1275 metro that was given to me because i lent the owner my playstation for the day when his broke, sold it on as i was 16 and already had 2 cars

 

the second cheapest was a mk1 sierra 2.0 ghia auto with 80,000 miles which i paid £50 for with 11 month m.o.t and some tax, i reckon stevie wonder did the test while wearing welding gauntlets, the thing was rotten and was just about safe, i sold it with a few weeks m.o.t for £80 then the guy who bought it bumped it and sold it me back for £5 then i stripped it for parts

[burraston2006]

Best for me was a Scab 900se. It was one of the old built like a tank models. It was about 10 years ago won it off of evil bay for £120 and the giffer I bought off put twelve months test on it. Body work was frillier than a housemaids knickers and the radiator pissed water out like a stallion. Kept it 3 months then bridged it for £130. One of the only cars I've made money on!

[trigger]

My cheapest car was this Sierra 1.6 GL back in 2002, I crashed my Escort and needed a cheap car quick, a garage i knew well had this come in for banger racing but as there was nothing wrong with it they stuck a mot on it and sold it to me for £100. It done me well for a year and i had some great laughs whilst owning it.

 

 

[Rusty Pelican]

looks more mean & moody with the quad lights

Thanks , its a S/H front off a Stiletto i cut up for bits

 

[Rustycarlover]

Some great stuff on here