Budget cars that fool people into thinking you have "wealth and taste"?

[Alan_Green]

Inspired by the mint Omega for sale thread, what could you buy for "not much" that would fool the general public into thinking you were a man/woman of wealth and taste? Not pimped X5s on after-market alloys and N.I. plates usually found in council estate gardens obviously, but the kind of thing you kind of thing you could take to meet a client...or on a date...or to meet her parents...and give entirely the wrong first impression?  A few spring to mind around the sub £1k mark:

 

 

 

[Supernaut]

You missed out the Lexus LS400. Leggy ones are under a grand.

[Guest Hooli]

Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag.

 

Virtually no-one believed my XJ40 was a £500 snotter.

[Supernaut]

The price of Laguna 2's astounds me. I think they're one of the best looking cars going and I think most people would be very surprised at the sort of car you can pick up for £500.

How long it runs for is another matter.

For fuck's sake!

 

3rd reply to the thread and it's already infected by bloody Goonas!

 

*slams door on the way out*

[TRW]

I would have nominated the 75, but that's already gone.

 

So, this has to be a choice -

[Rocket88]

The price of Laguna 2's astounds me. I think they're one of the best looking cars going and I think most people would be very surprised at the sort of car you can pick up for £500.

How long it runs for is another matter.

Not long enough to meet her parents....................

[Sigmund Fraud]

I was talking to my multi-millionaire landlord the other day - he was telling me about a £100 Kia Pride that he bought off one of his farm workers and used as his daily for three consecutive years.

 

So if you really want people to know you're a man of wealth and taste, you must drive around in a proper knackered old shitter !

[dugong]

75s scream 'champagne taste, lemonade money' to me. Sorry.

[Cheggers]

Some £1000 5 series BMW's still look very respectable.

[Lord Sterling]

Perhaps some bog-standard 2005 BMW 318i.

Yep. No one believes me when I say I got mine for £Nowt.

[Felly Magic]

SAAB 9-5 ?

[inconsistant]

I drive a FUCKING PORSCHE you know.

 

 

 

(its a 924)

[eddyramrod]

Seconded, Felly.  My 9-5 estate must scream "old money."  It's 15 years old, scuffed and dirty but otherwise sound, has nearly 200k on the clock and a towbar.  Tidy old Volvos must score pretty highly too.  Otherwise, a proper Land Rover on steels, S3 station wagon probably.

[Alan_Green]

Couple of others. S60 & Camry:

[jonny69]

Looks like you can pick up a late 90s XK8 in really nice condition for less than £3500. I had a feeling they weren't worth much, but that's an actual bargain for V8, 290hp, 0-60 in 6 seconds, 155mph and Jaguar.

[Felly Magic]

Subaru Legacy estates wiff of the old country set too

[forddeliveryboy]

Alfa 166.

[17-Coffees]

As SuperNaut said, Lexus LS400...

 

A few of the later Mk4 models are popping up for the £1,000 - £1,500 mark, albeit high mileage. And can get a mid 90's one for a grand or under. 

Good condition, low mileage ones are keeping there price though! 

 

Most people think I've paid upwards of £5,000 for it! 

I also find alot of people see Lexus in the same prestige as Merc. So maybe helps with the over-estimating the price. 

[rantingYoof]

When I had the 825 I got respectful looks off certain folk, and nobody could believe it cost me £700, although when it went off on a flat-bed I could have probably convinced them.

 

Honda Legends are pretty good at looking completely boring and uninteresting until you get into one, at which point it's completely boring and uninteresting but you realise it's a serious limo and not just another Japanese saloon of some description.

[John F]

Wealth & taste... Rovers? French cars?

 

 

I suggest Subaru Forester (not the uncouth Impreza, obviously), Land Rover Series / Defender, early Range Rover, Merc S Class, BMW 7 Series. Although the Land Rovers & Range Rovers will be fairly doggy for less than £1500-ish.

[Aston Martin]

I keep looking at late 90s xj's... Less than a grand for a v8 sometimes.

 

The neighbours would think I'm a drug dealer.

[spartacus]

I think your average non car loving type is impressed by one thing above all else, newness. Anything over 5 years old is generally regarded as old and only fit for scrap by most people.

Edit. Although this doesn't really answer the original question.

[SiC]

I know one exactly that fits that!

 

http://www2.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201604163047045

 

I bet you thought I was going to paste a image to a £520 Goooner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well you were right.

[SiC]

This is just about in the grand class if you're prepared for one that is a bit fecked.

http://www2.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201604142981907

[Noel Tidybeard]

little bit of polish...

 

 

[warninglight]

My 1997 Volvo C70 seemed to confuse folk. The weekend the 14 plates came out, neighbours picked up their brand new 120d MSport thing. I had been driving the wife of the couple to work for a while at that stage, over some pretty horrendous roads, and she said the new BMW just seemed a bit cheap and wasn't as comfy as my Volvo.

 

Her and her husband had a good look at it when I asked them to guess what it was worth, and they agreed on £8000.

 

Not that it was bought to impress anybody else, but I was quite pleased with my £850 car.

 

She's still paying off her 120d as well.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Country Estate

 

Council Estate

[dave21478]

People with genuine wealth dont flaunt it at all. I work for some properly wealthy people...like jets and yachts kind of wealth. 

One runs a beat up Mini One in JRG with the sunroof gaffa taped shut, one drives a new Sandero Stepway and the last doesnt even own a car and just hires whatever is available from Hertz when he needs one. He was in a C4 Cactus last time I saw him as he left for the airport to go playing golf somewhere tropical doing important business.

 

 

IMO a non-monged P38 in a dark colour cant be beaten for looking the part.

[John F]

Really??

 

They scream "DHSS" at me.

[Richard]

People with genuine wealth dont flaunt it at all.

That's why Land Rover have moved into the chav market.