Autoshite lovelies slipping away everyweek

[Timewaster]

They must be paying the going rate else they wouldn't get the cars.

 

Plus most Brits wouldn't be seen dead in anything less than a financed Corsa.

[Brodders]

They must be paying the going rate else they wouldn't get the cars.

 

Plus most Brits wouldn't be seen dead in anything less than a financed Audi A3 in whale spunk white with 18 inch alloy wheels.

Edited for accuracy.

[Dave_Q]

I once sold an (insert name of car) to a person from (insert country or region) and they were (good/bad/indifferent) to deal with.

 

As such I feel confident I can categorise everyone from the same country, region or continent based on this one experience.

[Sloth in a bowl]

A Polish guy bought my Laguna auto. Maybe they don't know their stuff.

 

 

Or he knows something we don't.

 

 

He knows that there's going to be lots of Laguna's needing spare parts, you don't have to be Mystic Meg to see that one.

 

There are definitely Polish buyers at Cannock auctions and I suspect people from other eastern European countries as well.

[pshome]

Brexit will end all this!

[Junkman]

We can't have anyone beat us at travelling obscene distances for a used car.

 

Someone is going to have to buy one of those Chinese Austin Maestro/Montego mash ups and drive it all the way back here to ensure that we don't end up losing our crown in the future.

 

The benchmark is very high, mind.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Premier-Padnini-Deluxe-/162124469214

 

Vehicle driven from India in 2002

 

My hitherto personal record collection trip is merely half of that.

[lisbon_road]

I walked through a small housing estate near us yesterday, quite new houses, and thought how much it is like a German car dealer.  All these nearly new Mercs, Audis and others.  And lots in the press about how we buy a vast number of new German cars.  Beats me how our economy can work, but why shouldn't the Eastern Europeans try and balance things out a bit. 

[dollywobbler]

This is hardly a new thing. An awful lot of Ladas ended up going back to Russia to be converted/used for parts. Similarly, an awful lot of French cars have ended up in the UK and The Netherlands. British classics have also headed to many a European nation, and some American cars have made to Europe too. Truly, we live in a global economy. 

 

It's a fair and valid point about the state of our second-hand car market though. There really is no reason to spend more than £500 on a perfectly functioning car. You can't do that in countries where second-hand cars are still valued as a commodity.

[Tamworthbay]

This is hardly a new thing. An awful lot of Ladas ended up going back to Russia to be converted/used for parts. Similarly, an awful lot of French cars have ended up in the UK and The Netherlands. British classics have also headed to many a European nation, and some American cars have made to Europe too. Truly, we live in a global economy. 

 

It's a fair and valid point about the state of our second-hand car market though. There really is no reason to spend more than £500 on a perfectly functioning car. You can't do that in countries where second-hand cars are still valued as a commodity.

Very true, I have a reputation at work for sourcing good cars for staff on limited budgets. For less than a grand you can get a properly tidy car with no major issues whatsoever. In years of doing this I have never had anyone come back with any major issues, one early 90s Hyundai is still running strong over ten years later having cost a grand total of £200 when bought. It was bought as a stop gap car but the ladies husband was taken ill and had a few years in and out of employment as a result. Without that car they would have been stuffed. Apart from usual service/ wear items it hasn't needed anything. What I do find slightly frustrating is that a lot of them will have the car for a year or so then surrender it to gazillion pounds a month personal lease car, I can never understand why when you have a perfectly reliable car you know well.

[Richard]

What I do find slightly frustrating is that a lot of them will have the car for a year or so then surrender it to gazillion pounds a month personal lease car, I can never understand why when you have a perfectly reliable car you know well.

 

I can, to a certain extent. My 850 lit its ABS light yesterday. I read the code (probably £40 if you don't have your own code reader) and had a look on forums, it seems it's a common problem with dry joints on the ECU PCB. I have a spare ECU and am quite happy to do soldering, so should be able to sort it out for £0.00. Another owner in a link I found wasn't so lucky, he got a bill for £1200 and the light came on again http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=24094

 

My £500 850 works for me because I have some mechanical aptitude and don't mind getting my hands dirty. It's a good car but on top of servicing it's needed two wheel bearings, a CV boot, four brake discs, a radiator, a water pump (which I did farm out, and got new timing belts at the same time) and some drop links in the time I've had it. That's all fairly routine stuff for an old car but it would soon add up if I had to take it to a garage every time. It would still be cheaper than buying a new car of course, but some people just don't see it that way.

[Tamworthbay]

I can, to a certain extent. My 850 lit its ABS light yesterday. I read the code (probably £40 if you don't have your own code reader) and had a look on forums, it seems it's a common problem with dry joints on the ECU PCB. I have a spare ECU and am quite happy to do soldering, so should be able to sort it out for £0.00. Another owner in a link I found wasn't so lucky, he got a bill for £1200 and the light came on again http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=24094

 

My £500 850 works for me because I have some mechanical aptitude and don't mind getting my hands dirty. It's a good car but on top of servicing it's needed two wheel bearings, a CV boot, four brake discs, a radiator, a water pump (which I did farm out, and got new timing belts at the same time) and some drop links in the time I've had it. That's all fairly routine stuff for an old car but it would soon add up if I had to take it to a garage every time. It would still be cheaper than buying a new car of course, but some people just don't see it that way.

It's a bit different for the ones I know as any service jobs like you describe we will do at work for the cost of the parts and the cars are usually Ka's, focus's, corsa's or little fiats which are simple and cheap anyway. As long as they don't mind a bunch on teenage lads having a go (with supervision of course) there is no labour cost.