What is the strangest process that has led to you buying a car?

[Six-cylinder]

What is the strangest process that has led to you buying a car?

 

Bramz7 post in 24h about being too early to buy a car set me thinking, Here the old process of needing a car to get around, phoning at 7am and viewing a couple from Autotrader then buying one does not necessarily apply.

 

Here is one of mine to kick off, I was working with my boss and we were on the M40 in a hired Transit Luton van that had all the sparkle taken out of it, bored with the slow progress the conversation turned to cars. He told me he had been offered a Mk1 Fiesta for low money and was thinking about it. I said he should buy it and said I would, so he said I could have it then, we talked some more and he phoned the bloke and the deal was done including delivery to my house. That brightened the day, the half hour it took to hear about it and buy it took my mind of the tedious journey and I had something to look forward to.

 

[Tamworthbay]

The shared 924 I had for a while was bought after a pub discussion about how there was no way a £200 Porsche could be roadworthy and it would never run for ten minutes let alone enough to really drive anywhere. So my mate and I bought it the next morning and drove it 350 miles home. We did have the fun of finding a fan belt after the first one snapped a mile into the journey, which on a Sunday morning in an area you have never been to before was a laugh. Then we found out the fuel guage was stuck and the tank leaking when it ran out just as the M40 splits into the m42 north and south, that was fun to sort on the bit of tarmac in the middle of the two (we had two gallons in the boot of the other car). Other than that it made it back despite the bottom and top of the car hardly being attached and the wiring so bad stuff would smoke a bit if you tried to use the windscreen wipers. When we turned up at our mates house unannounced he was gobsmacked, he asked us what we going to do with it and we genuinely hadn’t thought any further than proving him wrong. My mate bought me out after a while and still has it.

[mk2_craig]

That Fiesta looks FLIPPING GRIM, 6C. Just how much cash actually changed hands? I'm presuming this was 1986 or something and the car was still worth a grand once tarted up a bit.

[Six-cylinder]

That Fiesta looks FLIPPING GRIM, 6C. Just how much cash actually changed hands? I'm presuming this was 1986 or something and the car was still worth a grand once tarted up a bit.

 

This was 1998 and I had it for 2 months and doubled my money, ok I paid £45 and put a card in a local supermarket and sold it for £70 to a New Zealander who wanted to tour Britain for a couple of months! 

[hairnet]

^^

 

not strange really

 

skipped college and went to friends house (had mk2 cav at the time)

 

i was looking to buy something and he mentioned mk1 fiesta ghia that hadnt moved for 6 months

 

parked under a tree covered in green - does it run yes is it rusty not really - this was 20 years ago

 

poked underneath it one small inch by inch and half patch to cover 10p size hole in footwell

 

how much - expecting £££

 

40 quid - bought and straight for mot same day - college meh

 

passed - smoked about in it untill was hit by a bus while i was waiting to turn left into a road - got 400 off the bus co and 400 off ins

[sierraman]

Once bought a Sierra whilst I was in holiday. As you do.

[Cavcraft]

Probably be stranger if I went to buy and didn't, to be honest.

 

The last Vespa was a good one, though. I'd sold a cycle to a smashing bloke. He came up to look at it, spotted another I had so I agreed to a deal and said I'd deliver it. Went to his house that evening and there's the scooter in his kitchen. Being one to never, ever miss a potential opportunity I asked him what he was doing with it and ended up buying it.

 

Aside from that have genuinely lost count how many times I've been to see something not motor related and come back with a car, van or motorbike. Three or four of those shonky Cheech & Chong Singing Wren Morning Ablutions Honourable Toilet Pot mopeds came from me doing rubbish removal jobs etc. 

[bezzabsa]

Conversation is Gents Loo's in late 80's had me collecting a FREE XS250 the next day...

He admired my BSA artwork on my leather, and asked if I was into Jap bikes too.....

Seemed perfectly reasonable at the time, few weeks later had to laugh about how absurd it seemed!!

 

Bike was in great condition, didn't run though..

clean of the carbs had it sorted, and I swapped it for a CG125 IIRC..

[catsinthewelder]

I went into a scrapyard to buy a casting that went on the end of the gearbox for a friends Fiat Uno as it was an engine mount and his had broken.  I somehow came out with a multicoloured F reg Fiat Panda as scrap was on it's arse so the part was £35 or the whole car was £30.

 

Typically the part didn't fit and it cost me £50 to get rid of the Panda but we had some fun in the meantime.  I would probably have a different view of this if my friend hadn't dived through the front window to apply the handbrake to stop it rolling down a hill to a blind corner that a police car was driving towards.  They still weren't best pleased but as we were a considerable distance from any real roads and it was stationary when they did find it we didn't get into any real trouble.

[Spottedlaurel]

In 2002 Mrs SL-to-be and I were getting married. As part of that process she wanted to buy a wedding dress (I know, pretty crazy, but there you go). Having dropped her off at a dress shop I needed something useful to do with my time so I went to a couple of local scrapyards. I was amazed to find this South African spec curiosity there and I ended up agreeing to buy it for £150:

 

1989 Nissan Skyline 3.0SGL (R31, SA) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

1989 Nissan Skyline 3.0SGL + Transit recovery truck by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

We're still married and the Skyline is in safe hands with a Datsun enthusiast in Holland, so all is well.

 

1972 Vauxhall Victor FE, Autobreak 2002 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

While I was there I got offered this Victor for £100. Tempting, but that might have been taking things a bit too far......

[Supernaut]

When I bought Mason, now of AS fame and in the hands of Dollywobbler, the previous owner was 12 hours away from getting on a one-way flight to Oregon.

 

He was about to scrap Mason! Even with 7 months MOT! So I offered him £200 while I was still in Preston, having just been to the classic car show in the NEC in November 2016.

I was only half-serious and half-joking, but he said OK, and the rest is history...

[Tamworthbay]

When I bought Mason, now of AS fame and in the hands of Dollywobbler, the previous owner was 12 hours away from getting on a one-way flight to Oregon.He was about to scrap Mason! Even with 7 months MOT! So I offered him £200 while I was still in Preston, having just been to the classic car show in the NEC in November 2016.I was only half-serious and half-joking, but he said OK, and the rest is history...

The S class Merc I had brief ownership was procured in a similar way, a neighbour was going overseas and could not sell the car. On the morning he was going I was walking past with the dog and got chatting. The car was up at £2500, cut a long story short but the most my wife and I could get out the cashpoint was £400 and a deal was done. I kept in for a year but need an estate so sold it on eBay and it made £2100. The guy and his missus split up, he hated Canada, she loved it and he is now back in the area driving another old Merc about, this time a nice SL.

[Ben_O]

When i did my training as a panel beater, I had to go from Kent to Nottingham every few months to the training centre.

 

I went the first time on a train which I vowed to never do again, the second in my first car (Citroen AX) and the third in my Rover Metro which replaced the written off AX.

 

I was due to make the journey again and didn't have a car to do it in or much money to buy anything so the Train was the only option. I was due to travel on Sunday and was dreading it.

Walking back from my Dad's house on the Friday evening, I walked past a driveway containing a red and rust coloured Lada Riva with a hand written for sale notice in the window.

 

That will be cheap thought I so I knocked the door, chatted to the elderly owner who insisted I took it out for a test drive. It drove better than I was expecting having never driven one before and had tax and test for several months.

I offered him £30 which he accepted, Insurance was arranged and off to Nottingham I went in it.

 

Not the most fashionable car for an 18 year old but it did the job and got me around for 2 months until the clutch slave popped and off it went for export. I made enough money selling it to the exporter to by a half decent car!

 

Would I do it again? Absolutely 

[Junkman]

When I was a young lad, so young in fact, that I lived in Berlin, I had some two legged business in Rendsburg,

hence drove there almost every weekend with an ex-Gatow Airfield serviceman's BMW 525.

 

On one of those trips, I experienced OMGHGF on the Autobahn a few kilometres into West Germany.

I nursed the car to a little village near Ratzeburg, pulled into a pub car park and went in to make a phone call

(this was them good old days before those mobile phones).

I told the bartender what had happened and asked whether I may leave the car until able to arrange recovery/repair.

He asked whether everything else is okay with the car. I said yes, it just got a new TÜV last Month.

So he offered me 1,500 Marks, which I accepted.

 

I then had to walk to the next village 3km away because railway station and on the way passed a house with

a Lloyd Alexander TS with a for sale sign on the drive. They wanted hundred Marks for it, which I assumed was

cheaper than the train tickets I needed to finish my trip. I was also not lookig forward to a ride on the

Interzonenzug to Berlin, so you all can guess what happened next.

[omegod]

My brother is a local vicar and did the funeral of a guy who'd died suddenly, he was the owner of a mk2 Scirocco that then sat on their drive for 6 months going mouldy. He mentioned to the widow that I played about with cars and she asked if I could value it for her, it wasn't in good shape at this point and was full of water, mould ,was  badly faded and also the keys were missing. I said if I was interested ( I wasn't)I'd offer 350 as it stood, she was happy as a neighbour had offered 500 . I got a call a few weeks later to say I could have it for 350 as the neighbour was being a twat 

 

I did get it and as I was about to snap the ignition she miraculously found the keys ! She thought it was a sign from her dead hubby that I should have the car 

[quicksilver]

The acquisition of Bob the Renault 6 has to be the strangest and most unexpected purchase. You all know the full story but in short I went to buy some model buses and came away with an old Renault that hadn't moved for two decades. We didn't even want another car.

[Rod/b]

When I was a young lad, so young in fact, that I lived in Berlin, I had some two legged business in Rendsburg,

hence drove there almost every weekend with an ex-Gatow Airfield serviceman's BMW 525.

 

On one of those trips, I experienced OMGHGF on the Autobahn a few kilometres into West Germany.

I nursed the car to a little village near Ratzeburg, pulled into a pub car park and went in to make a phone call

(this was them good old days before those mobile phones).

I told the bartender what had happened and asked whether I may leave the car until able to arrange recovery/repair.

He asked whether everything else is okay with the car. I said yes, it just got a new TÜV last Month.

So he offered me 1,500 Marks, which I accepted.

 

I then had to walk to the next village 3km away because railway station and on the way passed a house with

a Lloyd Alexander TS with a for sale sign on the drive. They wanted hundred Marks for it, which I assumed was

cheaper than the train tickets I needed to finish my trip. I was also not lookig forward to a ride on the

Interzonenzug to Berlin, so you all can guess what happened next.

Never heard of Lloyd Alexander, every day’s a school day! 0-100kmh in 56 seconds according to wikipedia - rapid!

[DVee8]

Yeah i had to google it too

 

[Timewaster]

I was regularly targeted by "mate" in the pub after a few beers.

 

The crap I ended up with led to me choosing my first user name Tontops as the chances were if it was less than £100 then I'd usually bite.

 

They were mostly mot fails that the customers left behind to cover the price of the test.

 

At least I always knew what they needed.

[eddyramrod]

In 2003 I was editing Rumble And Roar! for the American Auto Club North West, part of which involved laying out the small-ads.  One member based in Skelmersdale had been advertising his 1990 Chrysler leBaron convertible for ages, starting at £4k and slowly dropping.  It was a nice car, I'd seen it, but wasn't worth that.  We got past Christmas and New Year, by which time his price had halved (and a LOT of the MoT had passed by...), and he rang me again as I was working on the ads.

"Look mate, it's got to go, I'm bringing it down to £500."

I has about £600 saved up ready to change into foreign for my upcoming Lanzarote trip... you can guess what happened next.  And MrsR decided she liked the car enough to not kill me.

Bloody nice car that was.

[Junkman]

Never heard of Lloyd Alexander, every day’s a school day! 0-100kmh in 56 seconds according to wikipedia - rapid!

 

0-100 kph never happended with mine.

[chaseracer]

The 205 was parked outside a house on the A5 near Brownhills with '400' written on a piece of cardboard in the rear window.  No other information was offered.  Domestic Management passed it on her way to one of her schools and was reminded of the one her dad used to have.  

 

I was dispatched to take a look, with instructions to buy if it was any good.

 

Well, it was!  Even though it had sat under a tree for half a year, the bloke had done everything it needed for a fresh ticket.  I took it for a spin up the road, checked the boot floor was still there, and passed over the full asking without hesitation.

[The Moog]

Collected a BX from someone in here (forgotten who) and drove it to Kinross on behalf of Scooters.

 

Hadn't thought about getting home so gumtreed and found nearest car in walking distance that was cheap. Volvo V40.

 

Bloke answered phone and said come round. Walked round to find volvo full of rubbish and needed a jump start. Offered him £300 (was up at £600) and I would take the rubbish to the tip. Guy wouldn't have it so I walked away.

 

He ran after me and accepted it.

 

Fucking car honked. But everything else was fine till someone crashed into it and I got all my cash back

[Bucketeer]

The abridged version of how I bought a MK2 Golf diesel in France is that my tent was sniffed out in the woods by a dog walker, who I got chatting with, got drunk with, bought a golf from, and stayed with as a guest for a month. It later broke down in the Pyrenees, stranding me and my two Italian 'wives' up a mountain before we were rescued by a couple with an Iveco who we stayed with for a subsequent month camping in their ruined 17th century château.

[richardthestag]

I was regularly targeted by "mate" in the pub after a few beers.

 

 

I kind of promised to buy a non running Stag sight unseen for a lot of money from a mate while absolutely slaughtered in a pub.

 

kind of bolloxed my haggling technique.

 

still got it, the stag that is

[Cavcraft]

I bought a Citroen BX for £1.60, just because I could. I also once met a girl who I accidentally* shagged and ended up buying her neighbour's car. Which quite literally got me out of a bad situation.

[D Spares & Tyres]

My Xantia ( now owned by Arthur Foxake) got pulled by the fuzz in a sting. I have a traders policy but it wasn't yet on the MID, unbeknownst to me. It got seized and left me stranded. I went on eBay, found the nearest cheap car to me was a Fiat Siecento. I told the vendor I would pay his asking price if he brought the car to me.

 

It stunk of dogs but once cleaned up I made £150 on it. ( although it cost £200 to get the Xantia back)

[chodweaver]

 

 

The abridged version of how I bought a MK2 Golf diesel in France is that my tent was sniffed out in the woods by a dog walker, who I got chatting with, got drunk with, bought a golf from, and stayed with as a guest for a month. It later broke down in the Pyrenees, stranding me and my two Italian 'wives' up a mountain before we were rescued by a couple with an Iveco who we stayed with for a subsequent month camping in their ruined 17th century château.

There's a few points in this that, I feel, would stand being expanded upon...

 

Not least of which being 'two Italian wives'

 

Sent from my BV6000 using Tapatalk

[chodweaver]

I bought a Citroen BX for £1.60, just because I could. I also once met a girl who I accidentally* shagged and ended up buying her neighbour's car. Which quite literally got me out of a bad situation.

I knew it wouldn't be long...

 

I worked with a very portly gentleman who claimed to have reduced by several thousand pounds, the purchase price of the house he then lived in, by having sex with the woman who was selling it to him.

 

Unverified.

 

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[bigstraight6]

It was on here, some years ago that Cheggars of this Parish offered up a Triumph 2000 MK2 for sale and as I’d always really wanted one and my father had recently passed and left me some money I thought why not? I still own and love the car and it’s called Ronny after my Dad, I think he would well approve!