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

[Sloth in a bowl]

Shitefest 2014 was approaching and I had no suitable car to turn up in. So I put a thread on Autoshite giving 3 options, car A, car B or buy something shite.

 

Buy something shite was the response, so I bought a £300 Kia Pride. Filled it with fuel, picked up FPB7 and drove to Wales.

[bramz7]

I declared on facebook that I had bought a MK1 Clio, got talking about how I would love to cram a Baccara interior in it.

 

Somehow now own a Baccara Clio offered to me that same night. Was going to buy to break it. Realised how rare it is and that changed....

 

It was cheap too. Well, cheap enough.

[loserone]

I was bored at a conference and wanted to find a better way home than the train, and Bramz had a 405 for sale.

[Craig the Princess]

When we moved to Norfolk from Kent we had previously had problems with a neighbour complaining about how many cars we had etc.

 

After moving in it took a few months to move the cars up, one morning or new neighbours knocked on the door and said we obviously like old cars, there's an Ambassador for sale in the village just about to be turned into a block to prevent ram-raiders breaking into their stock room.

 

Twenty minutes later we had it bought and being solid barred back behind a mk3 Transit.

 

[chaseracer]

Shitefest 2014 was approaching and I had no suitable car to turn up in. So I put a thread on Autoshite giving 3 options, car A, car B or buy something shite.

 

Buy something shite was the response, so I bought a £300 Kia Pride. Filled it with fuel, picked up FPB7 and drove to Wales.

 

And the rest is AS folklore! 

[xtriple]

Went to a scrappy in Newton Abbot to get a towbar for my series three XJ, came home with a Rover SD1 2600 that had a towbar and no roof and three of the four doors welded shut! It had been an in house project for the lads and was a great car and we had a silly summer cruising around with it and the boat on the back (the reason for the towbar), filled it full of water more than once, sometimes rain, sometimes salt... When it rained, my son used to flop down the rear seat back and get into the (non opening) boot to keep dry! 

 

Had gone to the bank to get the wages for the lads one friday and met a guy I vaguely knew, he had an old Datsun Skyline (one of the really early ones) that was a 2 litre (might have been a 2.4, can't remember) auto GT and he wanted a few hundred quid for it. I had to make excuses to the lads for their wages being late! They did get them the next day... honest!

 

Went to a house on behalf of my employer and came home with a free Fiat 126 that was mint! Really sad as their daughter had owned it and had just died suddenly and they wanted it gone sharpish.  

[Exiled_Tat_Gatherer]

1.   Just landed from working away and the car had been stolen...... a mate picked me up and we headed for the train station so I could go home. £600 Mk1 MR2 (early with pointless towbar fitted) as at the side of the road for sale. We pulled over, I pitched the sob story to the lady seller and she gave me a lift to the cash machine to withdraw my daily limit. I delivered the rest of the price agreed when I came back down to work a week later.......... loved that little rust bucket.

 

2.   Mate giving me a lift from UK to Brussels called morning of departure day to tell me his Brooklands Capri had OMGHGF #shitthebedwearefucked - 30mins of ebay foolery and I had a £300 2500S with full ticket. We jumped in and drove back..... still got that one sitting in the corner.

 

3.   Family holiday in France - took the Celsior with then GF and munckin. All went to an amusement park that appeared closed - but we were the only people showing up that day! Wandering around - only other car in the car park was a DS (total horror show) for €1600. Talking bad french with the personal guide wh owas turning on the attractions we wanted to use - I ended up buying it. Rolled home behind pee'd off GF back to Brussels. Kept the car longer than her in the end.........

[Vince70]

Not me but my father was sitting in the car waiting in the co op car park for my mother to finish shopping and a lady was trying to park a Peugeot 405 estate next to his car and was having trouble doing so.

So he asked if she fancied selling it as he liked a Peugeot and she said yes so he bought it.

[mercrocker]

I used to get loads of stuff from newsagent's windows when I wasn't even looking for a car.    Usually, I was after furniture or a lawn-mower or something.     

 

I have come home with Fiat 500, Mk3 Zodiac and Mercedes W116 before.   Not one of those was over £200 but it was a long time ago!  

[John F]

Back in the 1990s I went to a beer festival in southern Germany in a town I used to live in.

 

I'd travelled over with this lass I knew in her Polo Fox. She turned out to be a right nightmare on the trip, so I sent her home & stayed another week. Trouble is, I'd already bought several crates of beer to bring back with me.

 

Then I had a "eureka" moment... if I bought a cheap car on the Friday evening it would be legal on the previous owner's registration & insurance until the Verkehrsamt opened again on Monday morning. Which would get me to the party in Brussels I'd been invited to on the Saturday night, then onwards to the UK.

 

A 1979 Audi 80 was found locally with 6 months' TÜV and a noisy wheel bearing for £20.

 

Me & a mate bunged in a new wheel bearing, and off I went.

 

8 months later I sold the car to a breakers in the UK for £35

[Talbot]

I always find cars are plentiful when you don't need one and impossible to find when you desperately need one.

 

In the late 90's I was in a local breakers yard trying to find random bits of vehicle to continue attaching them to the Kit car Nova I had at the time, when someone *Drove* a 1979 Talbot Horizon into the yard.  Before they had a chance to even speak to the yard owner, I nipped over and asked if they were scrapping it.  He said he was, and had been offered £40 by the yard.  I offered the same £40, and I'd take it away right now.  Blokey jumped straight out, handed me the V5 (when you could do that sort of thing) and (amazingly) the current valid MOT cert. I gave him two crisp twenties and jumped in, engine still running.  You don't *drive* a car into a breakers yard!!

 

Went to shove it in reverse, only to find an automatic gearbox.  Wasn't expecting that.  Shoved it in reverse to get out of the way ASAP and hopefully avoid the yard owner who was now walking over to see what was going on.  Tried to steer in reverse, only to find it's got power steering too, wasn't expecting that either, and I nearly put it through a fence.  Got out to the car park to find my slightly bemused Father watching with amusement.  He just looked slightly resigned to it all and said "I'll see you at home then".

 

Drove it home and then looked at what I had just bought.  Largeish hole in the driver's floorpan, just where your heels sit, but other than that, minimal rust.  Runs well, drives OK, good tyres and a couple of days MOT.  Walloped a patch in the driver's footwell, straight through the MOT.  Used it for 6 months and then sold it for £200 with 6 months ticket on it.

 

Being the first Auto I had driven in well over a decade, I *kept* reaching for the gearstick, so I put a monkey hand puppet on the gear selector to remind me that Mr. Monkey deals with the gear selection, and I just steer the car and prod the pedals.  The car of course is long gone, but I still have the monkey puppet.  He now sits on the automatic gear selector for my current Merc, for the exact same function.

[busmansholiday]

Had a phone call at work one Friday in the very early 80's from my mum. Sister's Mini Countryman had started smoking under the bonnet, could I go and sort it. I lived in Scunthorpe then, she lived in Beckles if I remember correctly. Drove down Saturday morning in my Holbay engined Rapier (built from various parts and a new shell during a thee day week period). Opened bonnet and went with her husband to local scrappie. Bought the bits and a Hunter GLS that was about to be chopped in for £50 quid. Parked it outside her house having fixed the mini. Parents took me down following week, changed head gasket in well under an hour (I'd had loads of practice by then) and drove it back. Fortunately parents insisted on following me back. Ran out of fuel in Lincoln on the Sunday night, twat finding a petrol station open, but otherwise served me well. Posted a pic of it off to the scrappie in another thread.

[meggersdog]

A few years ago I was working as a service mechanic/ general dogsbody at a used vehicle emporium when a mate phoned and offered me an r3 rover 216 vanden plas for not a lot.I asked him to pick me up at lunch time and I'd bring it to work and leave it there.

Collected and left in the corner of the workshop then back to work after lunch.One of the salesmen came in the workshop asking where I'd been." just been out to buy a  leather three piece  suite for 30 quid" says I.This was around 2001 so a long time before top gear got the idea for Rover seats.No I wasn't hipster enough to do that just fixed the car in my spare time and sold on for a profit.

[Datsuncog]

A few years back, I made a terrible mistake in buying an eight-year old Alfa Romeo 156 JTD Veloce. A good friend had bought it as a keeper and spent a fortune on it, but due to declining health had to get rid in favour of something with an autobox.

 

So, with my exceedingly ratty Volvo 240 looking unlikely to scrape another MOT, I agreed to take it on - fancying a bit of flash for a change, rather than my usual scabby estates. And it did have a bit of flash, for sure.

 

 

But I soon regretted it, as it turned into a slow-motion disaster epic with one thing after another breaking, until a shocker of a trip to Dublin where the rad blew on the way down and a brake pipe ruptured on the way home. In attempting to fix the leaking pipe, I uncovered enough corrosion to make me think the damn thing was parked in the tide every night. In horror and despair, I dumped it down the side of the house and it lived down there for a year, turning green, because the gearbox selector went and I couldn't even drive it out again.

 

In hindsight, I should have kept the damn Volvo, which did in fact amaze me by passing its MOT with a bunch of advisories for corrosion but I'd already agreed to sell it back to its previous owner at that point.

 

Enter the errant R9UKE of this parish, posting up an absolute heap of a pov-spec '96 Laguna which he had literally bought only because he liked the wheeltrims.

 

 

It was horribly battered, having suffered the tender mercies of a learner driver who had bought it but "couldn't afford the insurance" (yet still clearly drove it around for long enough to crease every panel), with an exhaust centre section partially torn away BUT still had four months MOT.

 

R9UKE was joking when he asked who wanted it. He fully expected to strip off any other parts for his Renner hoard and then weigh it in.

 

I was joking when I asked if he'd swap it for a dead Alfa.

 

 

We basically called each other's bluff, neither of us blinked, and I ended up with this on the driveway.

 

 

Mr UKE gets a special heroism mention for actually driving the Alfa away (I didn't dispute his airy claim that he'd "driven worse"). He managed to pass it on to a madman of an enthusiast who must have spent a bomb on fixing it up again. I used the RN for over three years without a murmur, providing comfortable and spacious (if somewhat basic) transport - after a good clean it actually looked alright...

 

 

Maybe not the strangest of processes, but one of those rare transactions where both parties shook hands feeling that they'd got the better part of the deal. Also my first (and not the last) car purchases via the AutoShite community...

 

[Talbot]

Another cheap-car-when-I-didn't-need-one story: A BX, DTR turbo with tax and ticket, advertised on bxclub.co.uk for £25, + the tax on it. A car with rent and ticket on it for under £100? Contacted the seller, and there was a good reason it was cheap: A leaking coolant pump (and a fairly serious leak at that), which of course means that it needs a timing belt as well. Also the car was a bit rough around the edges (literally: the paint was flaking off the bumpers) and the sunroof had been taped up. Still a cheap car, so the deal was done for £60 and it was towed home on my A-frame.

First things first. Timing belt & coolant pump. £45 to buy, 2-3 hrs to fit. That done, the first thing I managed to do was smash the passenger-side door-mirror off on the garage door. Bollocks! Still, I had a spare, so 20 mins later it was back together again. £105 spent, and I had a car with about 6 months ticket and 2.5 months rent. Not bad. I even managed to find the time to remove all the gaffer-tape from the roof and unblock the sunroof drain tubes.

Except, I didn't actually need a car at this point. I already had a perfectly good 405 TD estate,  So what am I going to do with this super-cheap BX?  Within a couple of days, my landlord had sold his somewhat-knackered 306 and was looking for a replacement. I offered him the loan of the BX while he looked for a replacement car, which he was most appreciative of. He ended up keeping it for most of the 2.5 months that was left on the tax, and as thanks put another 6 months on it when he gave it back. Bonus.

Within 2 weeks of this I got a phone call from a friend: "have you got a car I can borrow while mine is at the garage?" Yes, actually. Very handy.  2 days of borrowing the car, and it comes back having been thoroughly washed and vacuumed out.  Ta!

Another week later I get another call from someone who needs a car for a couple of months. Cue the BX. I offered it for rent at £1 per day, not including insurance. They jump at that, and the BX is away again for 3 months, netting me the best part of £100. Comments were made such as: "The most comfortable car I've driven" and "It goes really well for how little fuel it uses" I think those two comments sum up a BX TD quite well!

At this point the MOT was due, so it was shoved in to my local MOT blokey. I didn't really have time to look over it, so I just presented it as it was. Straight through, no work needed at all. Unbelievable. At that point I had a car that owed me nothing at all, with 12 months ticket and 3 months tax on it. The most obvious thing to do would have been to sell the car then, but I didn't.  Kept it and used it for most of the 12 months of MOT on it, and then swapped it for a CX.

[lisbon_road]

Easy.  Bought a car unseen of a person I'd never met on a motoring forum.

 

Rob T, Astra, £175 and now 10K miles and increasing.  Very sound car, uses no oil, economical.  Just rebuilt front suspension, serviced and fixed the huge petrol tank fuel leak.  

 

Very happy with it.

[hairnet]

very similar to lisbon

 

asked a strange man from the home counties id met only once to help me buy a foreign car from a foreign country

 

and it wasnt scotland or a volvo

[Zantimisfit]

Got a Metro GTI instead of a lawn mower. Also got a dog from Asda but thats another story. Dog was much, much better than the Metro

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Saabnut]

About 4 years ago, visiting a friend near Sheffield area. Friday night routine, visit the chippy for a decent fish, chips and mushy peas, then pub for a few beers. Bought the tea, and it started raining, so decided to shelter in the car auctions that was then next door to the chippy to eat before going to the pub. I definitely did not need another car, I was in my daily and 400 miles from home. Came home with this (not stickered at the time)

 

 

[loserone]

Easy.  Bought a car unseen of a person I'd never met on a motoring forum.

 

That's not very strange, just try to count up how many times that's happened on here.  

 

Just me: Kia Pride (D Spares and Tyres, 460 miles round trip, sold to ScaryOldCortina, who sold it to John K a day later), Seat Toledo (Trigger, 542 miles, swapped with WW, who sold it to John K), swapped for the Suzuki Alto (WilsonWilson - who bought it from Overrun - 40 miles, cheating because I'd already sold him a 323F GTI) Lexus LS400 (OK, I won that on a roffle, from WW again, ex- John K and Spotted Laurel and gifted -broken- to Conor / ScaryOldCortina), Pug 405 (Bramz7, 555 miles -half of which I did on a train, which is cheating).  

 

Hey SheeFag, you wanting rid of that H6 yet?

[dome]

I broke my collarbone a few years ago so couldn't change gear in a manual car.

 

Naturally the solution was to buy an XJ40.

[omegod]

Stuck a thread up here asking what was about as I had the shiters itch, cue a message from Eddyramrod who I'd never met/spoke to offering me the legendary Rover 220 sli that had been roffled by HillmanImp. Cue a train journey to meet another stranger in the train station in Leeds...I'm almost afraid to ask where the Rver is now  

[purplebargeken]

Must be about 22 years ago now. Went to the local Harvesters for Sunday lunch. Spotted a sorry looking A reg Toyota Corolla hatchback in the car park. Turns out it belonged to the chef and he wanted rid. Paid £75 for it. Welded one of the sills up and smoked around in it for a while until one of the valves went.

[Six-cylinder]

 the legendary Rover 220 sli that had been roffled by HillmanImp. Cue a train journey to meet another stranger in the train station in Leeds...I'm almost afraid to ask where the Rver is now  

 

The first AS car I bought Feb 2013!

[eddyramrod]

In 2002 I took MrsR to one of my favourite restaurants for my birthday, only to find it was closing down at the end of that very week, so I'd timed it just right!  Sitting across the aisle was a friend of hers from work, with boyfriend, who also knew this restaurant as a favourite.  So come dessert time we all assembled onto one table and the ladies started talking shop.

Now that left two blokes who didn't know each other from a hole in the ground.  What do they talk about?  Yep, cars.  I mentioned that I'd recently sold my first Cadillac, or at least, swopped it for two other cars.

"Oh... would you like a Daimler?"

Er, excuse me?

"I've got this old Daimler at work, haven't used it for months, come and have a look.  Hundred quid and it's yours."

Well obviously I did.1978 Sovereign 4.2 LWB in Squadron Blue.  I had it most of a year.  Gorgeous old thing.  I could fling it about like a rally car on my early-morning country-lane commute.  And yet it was two tons of limousine!  But bloody hell was it thirsty!  Those XK engines knew how to drink!

[Six-cylinder]

Set me thinking again, over the last 5 years I have bought 13 AS cars!

 

Now the real trouble is I still own 8 of them.

[Six-cylinder]

Oh and there is the matter of 4 Mopeds/Scooters that were all Autoshite sourced! 

[New POD]

I go for the slow burn

 

In spring 2003 I saw a mk2 Cavalier Sri130 for sale in the autotrader.  Spent 2 weeks persuading my wife this was a great idea. It was obviously sold. Over the next 6 months I then went to view every Calbre, Convertible and Sri130 that was for sale in the North West. in November 2003 I followed a bloke in a C reg Sri 1.8 into an industrial estate and gave him my business card.

 

I also emailed a guy on fish4cars who was selling a C reg CDI auto, telling him I'd put a link on mk2cav.com (who wants an auto?)

 

In Jan he emailed me back saying he'd put it in the Manchester evening news over Christmas and nothing, so he was probably going to scrap it. I gave him a bottle of cheap scotch for it. - it had 2 months tax an 6 months MOT.  A phone call made me sell it: - A few months later in mid 2004 the other bloke phones me, says he's been offered £35 scrap for the SRi so I gave him £40. It had 8 months MOT, a months tax and a dented door. It was also using water - the head gasket was blown.  

 

I ran it until the head gasket went again in 2007. when I sold it.

 

SHOULD have kept them both.

[John F]

 

SHOULD have kept them both.

 

YES, you should. Really

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I've related this tale before on here but here's the concise version.

1983, Broken down R16, Brackley 04.00am, outside the flat of pregnant lesbian( well, technically bi as it turned out...) almost caught by GI Military Police girlfriend, hid in bathroom, handed keys and logbook for financed Fiesta 1.3 GL as excuse for being in flat at 6 am! They were returning to US at end of scary MP's tour at RAF Crichton , drove it round for a couple of months before settling HP and getting cash bonus.

 

The long version has more sordid details ( of the Renault 16 not the girl!)