Bangernomics, when to give it up and what to buy?

[reanimation-films]

I've only had shite cars really, except for the Sapphire I foolishly sold, which is shite or arguably shite now anyway.

 

When is enough enough? You're always one step away from the scrapper with one fatal cost/fault, been here before and kept em going till the end, till something better found me usually....

 

I've had my Xantia phase one 1.9d 5 years or so now. It's been really good to us with a very little TLC. I've just had expensive fuel pump reconditioned and other bits n pieces to do and the last few months have been annoying, nearly 3 weeks on the bus and I'm losing confidence in this as a daily. Great for a mechanic type, enthusiast or weekend shite but as a bashed 20year old car for a young family I want something safer and more reliable...

 

I did fancy a lesser shite VAG product like a Jetta, maybe a diesel, whats a good reliable bargain now?

[panhard65]

If you want reliability and still a bit shite you won't go far wrong with a Honda or Toyota. The mainstream ones are pretty boring but far better than any VAG shite

[Sigmund Fraud]

Running an old shitter as a daily is perfectly feasible, as long as you have some DIY skills and a backup car.

 

An "Honest John"-spec used modern will cost you far more to buy and run, and can still go wrong in pretty unpredictable and expensive ways.

[hairnet]

japanese petrol

 

or if dizzle buy a xsara

 

newer vag will blow up in ya face

[reanimation-films]

Thought you might say that, It's the risk of a gamble to buy at serveral £k and then risk of what it is or what might go wrong Did wonder about a tidy 3 or even 4 figure giffer spec Honda or Volvo or something, might see what comes up. Anything in particular?

[hairnet]

speak to svm about volvos - but sipping the juice they wont be

 

j tin - as long as its not an accord or an avensis (taxi - spesh round here)

 

itll be fine

 

civic apart from two tyres and some servicing - you wouldnt know its running when idling

 

in 18 months and that was well under 500 quid

[castros_bro]

*

 

 

+

 

 

 

 

*Pub lunch thinking

 

 

 

[Richard]

An 850 or early S/V70 with the 5 pot VAG TDi will be at least as good as the Xantia on fuel and a good bit quicker.

[cort16]

Just keep away from Modern diesels. If you want something reliable go for an NA Petrol engined car (preferably Japanese) with a manual gearbox.

[Junkman]

If your 20 year old car gives you trouble, trade it in for a 30 year old car.

[RoadworkUK]

Sixteen year old Audi A4 petrols are reasonably fuel efficient, have a decent turn of speed, seem to be indestructible but are also undismantleable. Highly recommended. Unless you want something interesting.

[The Moog]

Just bought the missus a civic. Bit thirsty and underpowered but everything works, high spec and a joy to work on. All for £400.

 

I reckon with cambelt and oil changes it will be attending the last cockroaches funeral after they drop the bomb

 

But dulllllllllllll

[Honey Badger]

6th Gen accords are like cockroaches, just keep going on and on as long as you service them, though that's pretty much true for any Toyota/Honda petrol car from the late 90s early 00's

[cort16]

I recon a good bet would be one of these Avensisisises. They're large, safe, okay on fuel, have nice interiors and are pretty conventional.

This one's a 54 plate for 1500  quid.

 

http://www.gumtree.com/p/toyota/2004-54-toyota-avensis-1.8-vvt-i-t3-x-high-spec-/1092334072

[r.welfare]

^ Early (up to 2005 I think) 1.8 Avensises can burn oil through piston rings.  Go for a 2-litre instead, we got 206k out of an old shape one with minimal bother.  Petrol ones are surprisingly economical, my wife used to average 35mpg and you get could get low 40s on the motorway.  Camchain is a benefit on these.

 

6th gen Accords are good and Tetleysmooth is selling my old one for £300.  Not very economical though, about 28mpg round the doors from a 1.8 auto but it doesn't matter if you go for 1.8, 2.0 or 2.3, manual or auto, you'll struggle to get more than about 35mpg in daily use.  Cambelt interval is 72k.

 

How about a 406 HDI 90bhp if you want economy, space, comfort and rust resistance?

[oman5]

Petrol Mondeo? worthless because everyone wants the diesel, because OMGMPG, but Petrol is the superior car for mega mileage reliability, they are not bad on fuel and a decent drive too.

[steve_earwig]

Just keep away from Modern diesels. If you want something reliable go for an NA Petrol engined car (preferably Japanese) with a manual gearbox.

I have a 2004 RAV4, it's petrol and manual and, now that I've blanked out all the warning lights with insulating tape, it doesn't give me any problems (all together now, 3 lambda sensors, 2 catalytic converters and a partridge in a pear tree).

 

Modern, shmodern, I'm convinced that the more modern it is the more likely it is to go expensively wrong at some point and then you're over a barrel because it's still worth a lot of cash if you fork out for the repairs. And then you have to keep it because you just paid all that money to have it repaired, meanwhile keeping an eye on the instruments for another warning light of doom. On the other foot, if you run shite you always have the option of kicking it to the kerb if it costs too much to fix.

 

That is, if your wife will let you and you're fit enough to clamber about under cars in all weathers...

[phil_lihp]

Late-nineties Honda Accords are ridiculously cheap (I think tetleysmooth is selling his) and should be extremely reliable.  Anything Japanese from the 1990s will probably meet this requirement though, Civics, Mazda 323/626, Toyota Corolla/Avensis, Nissan Almera/Primera.  Nothing very exciting in that list but they'll all get you to work in the morning and aren't likely to need big expenses at MOT time.

 

I used to be of the mindset that to get anything 'decent' I had to spent upwards of £3000 - it took me a long time and several bad experiences before I realised that it was getting the worst of both worlds - not enough money for a nearly-new example, too much for an older, simpler car.  What this range of money actually gets you most times, now, is a car around 7 - 9 years old which will be just getting to the stage of its life where things start wearing out and going wrong, it's had a few careless owners, skipped a few services and it's got complicated electronics which require dealer visits and expensive parts.  I've been much happier going back to older cars, spending a LOT less and treating it as semi-disposable if a major fault occurs, rather than knowing there's substantial amounts of money tied up in it.

[reanimation-films]

Great replies. Just spoke to my partner in crime, she's had a 2003 Renault Clio 1.2 petrol show up on work intranet. Full MOT, 16000 genuine miles. Now my sister had one and apart from being gutless it was alright and nippy. they want £1500 and it's a 3 door which looks good but pants for baby seat!

 

equally her collegue has a similar age 1.2 Polo 3dr

 

Mondeo I did have a mk1 si some of you may remember but it was busting it's HG the whole time I had it, and MPG was a bit rubbish great car otherwise, had to sell when it gave in!

 

Out of teh jap stuff, uninspiring and want to avoid Taxis quite rightly do fancy an HRV though for my sins, I promise to lower my cortina if I buy an HRV!

 

Neighbour has an 850 I think or and S70/50 thing, would be ok with one but don't want to turn into my dad who is a volvo fanboi!

[derskine]

Always have at least two shite cars, then if one breaks you can use the other whilst you fix it.

[reanimation-films]

Always have at least two shite cars, then if one breaks you can use the other whilst you fix it.

I've tried this a few times. great idea but does backfire at times

-Sapphire/MR2 - MR2 busted a few times fair enough it was a budget resto - Sapphire CVH was ace just dull should have kept it!

 

-Fiesta mk3 Van/Xantia when newer - Great till OH stopped insuring the Van!

 

-Xantia/Mondeo Si - both kept breaking for extended time, spent money getting Mondeo straight, and Xantia clutch cable went, then Mondeo HG died! nothing!

 

Now

-Xantia 1.9d/Cortina 1.6GL Cortina just resto'd - missed summer so minor niggles to work on and salt to avoid!

[HH-R]

My 'rents have a 06 Mitsubishi Colt (petrol, manual) and it never gives any bother. Biggest issue has been the glovebox falling to bits, cured by some Wilko plastic glue.

 

It's the only positive experience I've had of anything made after the year 2000 (I grudgingly admit my 2005 Panda wasn't too bad, though it had some stupid electrical faults that were a pain to fix). Every other car we've had between us has been a DISASTER.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

This year I have only bought 2 cars

1. 1998 Rover 620 -165,000 miles £150.

2. 2009 BMW 530d-110,000 miles £8500.

One of these cars has a slightly noisy self levelling pump which,when it gives up is going to cost double what the other one cost for the whole car. The stupid thing is I'm quite happy it's only £300 a genuine pump and Independant fitting it would be over a grand- that would buy the best Rover 600 on the planet.

Both start every day, both will cruise down the motorway at 80 all day,but only one will break even if I had to scrap it.

The moral of this story is buy a 90's Repmobile with a petrol engine . It doesn't matter if Ford,Vauxhall,Honda,Toyota,Nissan,Peugeot,Rover or whatever. Hell,even a petrol Laguna wouldn't be the end of the world.

I have to have a newer car for work,but if I didn't there is no way I would buy anything newer than 2000 and certainly not a diesel.

[reanimation-films]

Not just me then, My newest modernest car was that 1995 Mondeo or this 1994 Xantia and going over the 2000 barrier is an odd thing for me. I quite fancy a Rover 75, OH isn't so keen. or an actual BMW

[Noel Tidybeard]

Great replies. Just spoke to my partner in crime, she's had a 2003 Renault Clio 1.2 petrol show up on work intranet. Full MOT, 16000 genuine miles. Now my sister had one and apart from being gutless it was alright and nippy. they want £1500 and it's a 3 door which looks good but pants for baby seat!

 

not necessarily- had a 3dr 106 which because the seats fold and slide meant putting childseat in was just a matter of sitting on the back of front seat which means you are square on to seat/child

its much more awkward being side on thru a back door

 

TRY IT BEFORE YOU SAY NO OUTRIGHT

[sporty-shite]

Got to agree with phil_lihp about 7-9 year old stuff. I'm of the mindset t hat if a car owes me sub £500band something fairly big goes wrong, then either scrap it or sell spares or repairs and start again. If you get a ton to scrap, then the very most it can cost you is £400. That won't get you much in the way of repairs on a car that you feel compelled to fix because you've got a couple of grand in it.

 

There's loads of cheap chod around at the moment that you could own for a few hundred quid. Apparently, someone's selling a semi sporty 306 fairly cheaply, too. Wonder who that is?

[sporty-shite]

Also, Frank is right about two doors. When ours were tiny, I had a Celica, 635, Volvo 480 and Alfa 145 to name but a few.

[New POD]

6th Gen accords are like cockroaches, just keep going on and on as long as you service them, though that's pretty much true for any Toyota/Honda petrol car from the late 90s early 00's

 

 

7th Generation petrol as good. I have a diesel one and regret not buying a petrol one.

[dollywobbler]

Not just me then, My newest modernest car was that 1995 Mondeo or this 1994 Xantia and going over the 2000 barrier is an odd thing for me. I quite fancy a Rover 75, OH isn't so keen. or an actual BMW

 

You see, I reckon a Rover 75 is bad bangers. They're far too complicated with too much potential for disaster. I know the same is true of my XM, but that does have a cable-operated clutch and a mechanical fuel pump at least. It's simple if you ignore the complicated bits... My point is that the 75 requires a fair bit of dedication to keep going. I don't think you'd gain much by swapping your Xant for one.

 

Rover 600 is a very good shout. No reason why one wouldn't be reliable and they're much more simple than the 75. 

[phil_lihp]

... a car that you feel compelled to fix because you've got a couple of grand in it.

 

^^This.  A 7-9 year old car car worth £3000-£4000 puts you in an awkward situation if/when something expensive goes wrong, either you sell it with the problem and take a massive loss on the chin or repair it and take a big bill on the chin - either way, you're down several hundred/thousand pounds and best-case scenario you've still got the same car you started with.  Plus then, if you kept it, when the next thing goes wrong, you feel compelled to fix that issue too, because otherwise the money you spent the first time was for nothing.  That was my experience, anyway.  I'm content in the knowledge that £650 of Volvo isn't likely to throw massive bills at me, I can fix a lot of it myself and if something huge goes wrong, I'll sell it to someone in Scotland break and scrap it, get a good chunk of my money back and then get another one, having had at least most of my money's worth out of it.