Bangernomics top 10

[stripped fred]

I found this when trawling the internet. Not strictly British cars but all have a British connection. I found it quite interesting and thought you lot might if you've not already read it...

 

http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/facts-and-figures/top-10s/essay-top-10-bangernomics-choices-for-family-guys/

[Station]

Complains about 'Vauxhall badge'.

Then lists five Rovers! Okaaay.

[DodgyBastard]

Bangernomics doesn't really work for me, I buy shit cars, grow attached and waste money on them instead of binning them and buying something else when they are fucked.

[Sealtainn]

Yeah ^^^^ this lol

[stripped fred]

I think that's the hardest bit, cutting your losses and getting rid rather than getting attached to it and spending time/money fixing it. I'd like to think I could do it but so far I haven't been able to. I think the secret is not spending much on it to start with. Like with my Alfa it is worth say £1.5k so when the clutch and dmf went I felt I had to spend £800 sorting it. Will be looking for cheaper cars next. If you've only spent a few hundred I think it will be easier to move on when a big bill comes along.

[Timewaster]

Family commitments and the resultant lack of time and cash mean I haven't bought any shite for ages, but when I did I tried to live up to my user name and always made a few quid when it was time for them to go.

As my dad once told me, you can't lose what you haven't spent.

[dollywobbler]

I subscribe to the same alternate view to FOAD. It's still cheaper to buy an old snotter and actually look after it than buy new or nearly new. I think the XM still owes me less than a grand all in, and the Nippa less than £400. Two cars for a few months worth of finance payments. That's bangernomics.

[John F]

That article is not well researched... chassis rot is actually quite rare on a Discovery 300 TDi, it's the body that rots. The Discovery TD5 was the one that had the chassis rot.

[sloth]

id do this here but it costs about 900 bux every time you buy a car, just in a roadworthy and your rego for a year. my cuirrent ford falcon ef wagon is a 500 dollar snotter with 430,000kms on it. its hanging. but it refuses to die

[Taff]

I thought about this (a bit) before winning the F. At sub £300 with 8 weeks MoT, it was theoretically disposable when it failed the MoT.

 

Trouble is, it didn't fail, thus leaving me with a £300 car with 12 months ticket. Since then it's had tyres, cambelts and an oil change. Next on the list of money to spaff is the suspension and then a new rear window.

 

I need a cheap, disposable four-door to dislike...

[PiperCub]

My rules when buying any hack are to always know when to bale without any feelings and by definition, don't get attached to the heap so you wind up spending large sums of cash on it.

 

 

I found one remark they made interesting, for some reason (maybe it's just me) I think of any car with a -51 onwards plate as a 'new car' despite the blindingly obvious fact that this isn't true. I have a kind of mental block on this.

[sierraman]

Just depends, you've got to be not blind to what problems are coming up. Might sound daft putting a new clutch in a £500 car but if the rest of the car is good and a £300 job gets another 12 months out of it better the devil you know. You just have to know when to bail out if there's expense on the horizon that's going to be more than it would cost to buy an unknown new car. Example with the Fiesta we had, the floor had gone in several places including the bulkhead meaning it pissed water in. Cost to put this right would have been more than to replace the car, coupled with it needing 2 tyres and a few other odds and ends meant I sacked it off.

[beko1987]

I fail at bangernomics too

 

When the paperwork comes through from the permium bond people I'm going to splaff £250 on the ZX to get it up to scratch. It only cost me £350 but I like it, so it shall be spent upon!

 

Hopefully, once all is sorted it will run for another year with minimal work required. Hopefully the engine wont grenade itself and itll pass the emissions on the MOT next year. If it doesn't, then I'll have to fix it as it'll be a £500 car by then...

[Junkman]

If you've only spent a few hundred I think it will be easier to move on when a big bill comes along.

 

I wish this were the case...

 

I think the real secret to bangernomics is to buy just "a car", simply based on - well - bangernomics.

What most of us do, though, is to buy a car we actually like and therein lies the fundamental mistake.

Then again, even if I bought a VW Golf, I bet I'd become attached to it after a while.

This not becoming attached hitherto only worked with Japanese cars for me, but they are unsuitable

for bangernomics on the grounds that they are incredibly rubbish and even the most basic spares

being not available.

 

However, one can always buy a Peugeot 405, which just work requiring no repairs or maintenance whatsoever,

except for window lifters. The only money I have spent on my current one so far is the usual £30 for a

nearside window lifter and £10 for a set of used rear headrests.

[Tetleysmooth]

Not a Volvo in sight. Pah!!

[DodgyBastard]

For bangernomics to work I'd have to buy something I fucking hated, something like an astra or corsa. Then again it probably wouldn't work because I'd grudge spending any money on it meaning it probably wouldn't last very long. The most important thing to do when buying old cars is don't buy shit fucked ones...

 

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[Mr A Lawrence]

I had a 99 T reg jaguar S type, bought for £300 with 11 months mot, we have free tax and my insurance was cheap enough.

 

Had it for 6 months, put 2 tyres on it, fixed a clunk on the suspension with a couple of £7.50 drop links.

 

Faults were, aircon inop, no heat into cabin due to failed blend valve, rear windows wedged shut due to broken regulators, temperamental central locking (unlock with fob/lock with key), noisy catalytic converter.

 

Sold it on gumtree for £325.

 

Bought an 06 S type diesel. Top car!!

[PiperCub]

^^ Don't know if this helps but I've had hacks I've hated and the best way to view them is as a tool, a bit of kit that does the job of getting you around. A bit like a washing machine, you don't have to like it but it does the job of washing clothes.

Also, just look at it as a temporary thing you are using on your way to something better!

 

Well, it works for me.

[scdan4]

Best bangernomics thingy I've learnt is to spend a little bit more and NEVER buy a car when you actually need to.

 

When you need to buy a car there is guaranteed to be a woeful, meagre selection of gash, all located awkward ally and it will generally be dark and raining.

 

Last 2 cars have cost a grand each - a touch more than pure banger money. But both have had low owners, awesome histories and clearly been cosseted.

 

Saab is new to us but is looking like a goodun. 80k, lots of documents and history, clearly loved. bereavement sale, including the all important cheap, non relevant [strikethrough]wanker[/strikethrough] private plate.

 

Camry was a 1 previous owner, fully documented posh giffer giving up driving sale. It had lived inside, under a cover (I kid you not) and had had the leather treated twice a month all its life. 6 years later it has cost us tyres, brakes and one exhaust. That's it. It even came with the cheap all important non relevant [strikethrough]wanker[/strikethrough] private plate.

 

Include the cost to change (insurance, tax, etc) I believe it's way cheaper to do it this way.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I do bangernomics by buying several cheap cars, keeping them all MOT'd and useable and keeping stocks of spares.

 

Last week i found an old 316i in the breakers with front discs and pads that were literally days old. The discs still had the grey paint on the inner bit and the outer edges were shiny. I had those monkeys off and in the barrow, and fitted them to one of the fleet the day after. I think I gave a tenner the lot.

I stock up on nearly new looking radiators, shocks, tyres, calipers etc. It all gets used eventually, and with it comes a warm glow that I paid next to fuck all for it. Just put a new exhaust on the H reg 318i. The 'virtually new still with labels on'  rear box was six or seven quid from U Pull It and the equally minty fresh front catalyst section was a tenner from a BMW breaker because it was one of those nasty Euro cats that are worthless as scrap - but it's a 1991 so doesn't actually need a cat or cat test.

 

Complete new exhaust, £17 fitted. That's sort of why I view anyone who pays £300+ a month for a car as a bit strange.

[gordonbennet]

bangernomics don't work for me either, i'm OCD about maintenance, if the engine oil's dirty i can stand it, nor the thought that the poor gearbox has the same oil inside at ten or more years, spend far too much on my cars.

 

The reason we don't buy new or newish is not purely economics, we just don't like the bloody boring things.

[HH-R]

For bangernomics to work I'd have to buy something I fucking hated, something like an astra or corsa. Then again it probably wouldn't work because I'd grudge spending any money on it meaning it probably wouldn't last very long. The most important thing to do when buying old cars is don't buy shit fucked ones...

 

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I nearly did this for my work hack, since it gets whacked over speed bumps/crap roads and scratched to bits with putting stuff in the boot. Just couldn't stomach having my name on the V5 of one.

[beko1987]

I do bangernomics by buying several cheap cars, keeping them all MOT'd and useable and keeping stocks of spares.

 

Last week i found an old 316i in the breakers with front discs and pads that were literally days old. The discs still had the grey paint on the inner bit and the outer edges were shiny. I had those monkeys off and in the barrow, and fitted them to one of the fleet the day after. I think I gave a tenner the lot.

I stock up on nearly new looking radiators, shocks, tyres, calipers etc. It all gets used eventually, and with it comes a warm glow that I paid next to fuck all for it. Just put a new exhaust on the H reg 318i. The 'virtually new still with labels on'  rear box was six or seven quid from U Pull It and the equally minty fresh front catalyst section was a tenner from a BMW breaker because it was one of those nasty Euro cats that are worthless as scrap - but it's a 1991 so doesn't actually need a cat or cat test.

 

Complete new exhaust, £17 fitted. That's sort of why I view anyone who pays £300+ a month for a car as a bit strange.

Excellent analogy, why scrap a perfectly good £400 car for the sake of £17!

 

It's why I'm not too unhappy to replace bits on the ZX, new exhaust (assuming the current one is the original at 270k), rear calipers, discs and pads (just a service surely), work out what the noise is coming from the engine (just for peice of mind) and tyres (because the ones on it atm are fucked and I don't trust them at all)

 

I've always said to SWMBO that the moment her/my car starts needing £250 a month spent on it we can consider a new car on tick, but until then...(she goes on every now and again about wanting a 'new car', but when pushed as to what she wants can come up with nothing better than the Meriva she already has, so pipes down for a few months...)

[Lacquer Peel]

AROnline is up there with the "top 10" of car churnalism websites.

 

I fail at bangernomics. Badly. I'm not sure you can run an old car as a daily driver on rough roads and not spend a fair bit maintaining it, but like Beko says it's still a lot cheaper than buying a car on tick.

[beko1987]

There's bangernomics, then there's not being able to get to work!

 

I carry my daughter about too, if nothing else being at the side of the road because something I could have fixed for £10 and some info on here was left because it's a banger would be annoying enough...

[gordonbennet]

Oh and i forgot another reason why we won't buy newer cars, its the tossers who either open their doors onto yours denting the sides, or the useless twats who shouldn't be allowed to drive a wheelbarrow who can't help but hit your wing/bumper/door/wheelarch or a combination of all whilst attempting and failing miserably to park their too-big-for-them-to-cope-with heap in the space next to you, thats just before they open the door onto yours.

 

We've had the Subaru since last March, its hers really, its been hit three times since then and thats not counting the door strikes, she absolutely forbids me to get our handy bodychap to put it right, and how do you put a dent/scrape in the drivers door of my effin Landcruiser just below the door handle which is near enough at elbow height without touching anything else, cnuts.

 

We're turning into worse recluses than ever, people get on our tits...my mrs calls our home her sanctuary, i've come to the conclusion she's right, be electrified fences before we're done.

[beko1987]

There may be a 2009 punto with a dent in the drivers door after they pulled up next to me, and without noticing me in the car opened their door into me, then lent on it whilst unstrapping a child from the back.

 

Mine will polish out, theirs may not... I also had the benefit of waiting for them to not be there before i happened to need to get something from the passenger seat and whoops...

[richardmorris]

Revenge is a dish best served cold ( old Klingon proverb).

[sierraman]

Said this the other day, wife's Focus had the mirror twatted clean off by passing 'motorist'. On a new car this would have been an abject disaster. Superglued the mirror back on then need to get a £3 mirror glass to stick on.

[DodgyBastard]

I suppose I've been successful with bangernomics lately having sold just about every car I didn't like for around the same as what I paid for them and didn't spend anything on them, these include the saab 900, Peugeot 309 and the starlet, I wasted quite a lot of money on the jumbuck which was not only the newest car I've owned but also the worst for trivial things breaking constantly. The current collection of cars on my driveway are pretty worthless, cheapest costing £100 and the dearest £450 but I'm too attached to part with any of them so if anything breaks I'll either fix it or leave it at the back of the driveway for another day...

 

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