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Your least expensive car?


Dyslexic Viking

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An AX that I bought from my pal that he took in swap that he just wanted rid of. £5, found £3.91 un change when i pulled it to bits to clean it. It absolutely pissed oil out whatever I did and this repeatedly soaked the front offside disc brake. 

Terrible car. I sold it for £99

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I have had cheapo stuff for fuck all, however cheapest what you'd call a car is the mighty 406, as my profile name, paid 95 quid for it at Newark car auctions, apart from oil  and filter changes,  and a pair of front tyres (which I don't account for as consumable) that had nothing spent on it for the 50k miles in 2 years I had it

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My first Cinquecento. £200.

7 months MOT.

Ran great. Aside from the fact it'd jump out of 3rd gear (you could get around it by double declutcing down into it and blipping the throttle going up into it).

Would also routinely snap its clutch cable and the plastic quadrant due to a knackered thrust bearing.

And the handbrake was jammed off.

And the cooling fan was siezed.

And the fuel gauge didn't work.

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Back in 1983 I bought an H reg Morris 1300  4 door for £130. I owned it for just over a year until it was stolen while I was at work. I got £100 from the insurance which wasn't bad as the MOT was up in few weeks and it would have needed some welding. A couple of months later it was replaced by a 1965 A35 van that I bought for £150. 

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My second cavalier 1.8 ls. Bought with a broken rack for the total of one shirt and a CD. Genuinely. Really clean, no rot and already had a rack to go on out of my broken red cav. Gave really good service as well. I could wax lyrical about the early 2000s for a while from a motoring point of view. Still though a functional car for an old Ben sherman I didn't wear anymore and a copy of the presidents of the united States of America. Can't wack that

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Free cars are very broken with little if any life left in them!

WRONG! 

In May 2014 @Mr Livered of this parish offered a 1990 Mercedes 200TE in good working order with a short MOT for FREE. I was first to put my hand up 

Just a new wiper blade got it its next MOT a month later. Yes I have maintained it and done a few repairs but it has been a loyal and busy servant. We have toured Scotland with it and it is still in regular service today.

Petrol pump shot 2014 and on the drive this evening.

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£50 from a scrapyard in 1991 , craned a car off the roof , changed the busted engine and clutch plus new brakes - all from other Imps in the yard , I still have it and Its still on the road . I bought a spares car for 20 Marlboro which kept the scrap bits theme going 

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I've had several freebies over the years.  From memory, Bedford HA van, Citroën AX 10E (which still had several months' tax on it at the time), Rover 216 Vanden Plas auto, Talbot Samba LE, Rover 2200SC auto, and an utterly shagged doom blue Maestro.  All were runners apart from the HA, although the Maestro had a broken engine mount.

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Since I broke even or even made a profit with most cars I have sold all of them were somewhat dirt cheap. I think I bought the Galant liftback for about £290 though, which not only made it the cheapest car I bought (Corona EXiV was 300 I believe) but also one of the best condition cars Ive ever owned.

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My Vauxhall Agila, purchased new by me in 2005 for £3700 (there was a GM credit card that used to give you cashback towards a new car).

140,000 miles. No breakdowns, just servicing. Still being driven round by an old boy in Basingstoke. He goes to his allotment in it.

I miss that car. So practical yet so good.

There was also my Maestro which cost £125. It needed a new alternator (I ended up getting an old ACR from a scrappers for £5). It turned up just when I needed a car.

Cars are really cheap.

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6 hours ago, GeordieInExile said:

£300 for a spider-ridden Puma 1.7 off a farmer (it was his daughter's and she moved away). Full ticket, one owner. Such a great little car.

 

I paid £800 for my Puma 1.7, four years ago - still got it and love it but might need to change it for something bigger soon.

 

My cheapest car was a free Ford Ka 1.3 that was otherwise going to be scrapped. I did have to scrap it a few years later, due to rust, but it was surprisingly good fun to drive in the meantime. 

 

 

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5 hours ago, Rusty Pelican said:

£50 from a scrapyard in 1991 , craned a car off the roof , changed the busted engine and clutch plus new brakes - all from other Imps in the yard , I still have it and Its still on the road . I bought a spares car for 20 Marlboro which kept the scrap bits theme going 

 

That is a fantastic looking thing! I believe my MIL used to work in the factory where they made them 🙂

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A mk2 cavalier 1.8e CDi auto hatch with 3 months tax, 6 months MOT for free. I gave the owner a bottle of scotch.  Kept it for 7 months, sold it on with full MOT to a rasta from Toxteth

A mk2 cavalier 1.8e SRi saloon, for £40.  With a dent, in a door, and unknown to me, early onset of head gasket failure. Kept it 4 years and did 65k in it. Sold it with head gasket failure to someone in the owners club.  

Also, father in law gave my wife a 1.8L mk3 cavalier with 28k on the clock. She had it for 13 years, until it had 130k on the clock.  

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Ax for 150 quid, six months ticket had a hole in the exhaust. Owner had been quoted crazy money at main dealer for a full exhaust, decided to just get a new car. 

Exhaust bandage and it went through its next mot fine. 18 months motoring with nothing but petrol and two tyres that cost next to nothing. My mum then got it passed on and she ran it for another two years until something catastrophic / expensive killed it. 

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Ive been given several cars over the years but a particular bargain that sticks in my head was a Chevette that was traded in at the Honda dealer I worked at.

Paid the £5 admin fee for it and drove it away . I had two months tax and test on it and 3/4 tank of fuel. The clutch slipped a bit but was useable.

A mate of mine borrowed it for a month while he fettled his Reliant kitten , then I used it until the TnT expired. 

Took the radio and battery off it and weighed it in for 50 quid .

Clutch never got any worse and my mate did a couple thousand miles in it in the month he had it. Winning

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I've had a couple of free cars. Both french. Both got broken by me 😂

Citroen ZX 1.9tdi I owned for a grand total of about 5 weeks before I very abruptly learnt what snap oversteer is on a front wheel drive car and threw it into a tree. Scrapyard collected it while I was in hospital and I never saw it again. Picture for your viewing pleasure.

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Also was given a Peugeot 406 estate 2.0 hdi which had 160k on the clock. Lasted about 15k before the turbo went pop and I scrapped it for £100.

EDIT: I forgot about the free Ford Ka I got too! A 2000 model which I had glued together for a friend through several MoTs. I eventually said I can't keep patching on top of patches and she gave it to me when she got a new car. It had only done 47k but was a total rotter. It did the NC500 then was sold and I believe now scrapped. It's the one with the purple bumpers below.

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I remembered another car. My wife went away for a few days and told me in no uncertain terms not to buy anymore cars. I bid £66 on ebay and win a Citroën ZX 1.4 reflex. The guy was a joiner and had used it as a work car. He was a bit miffed it only went for £66 but his advert and photos were a bit crap. A bit tatty but solid and drove it for a year or so. The engine was getting tired so I sold it for £400. The next owner put oil in the coolant reservoir and that was that, scrapped.

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Whilst a student, I set out one morning to buy a loaf of bread and happened across a former flatmate pushing a mk2 Cavalier out of a garage ready for the scrap man. 

I paid him £20 and after a bit of fettling it lasted 40000 more miles and went all over the country before finally dropping a valve near the Surrey Docks in South London (but still completing the remaining 30 miles of the journey).

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On 9/26/2021 at 6:21 PM, MJK 24 said:

Alfa Romeo Alfasud 1.5 Gold Cloverleaf.  £60

I had one of those back in 1991.  Ran as a reliable daily for five years, only need one sill and both rear jacking points in all that time.  Did the clutch myself at 70k.  It got tired in the end and I wanted a 33 1.7 so sold it for £200 to Alfa breaker

Today saw this and wept: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174921716305

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£16,995, Chertsey

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2 hours ago, stripped fred said:

I remembered another car. My wife went away for a few days and told me in no uncertain terms not to buy anymore cars. I bid £66 on ebay and win a Citroën ZX 1.4 reflex. The guy was a joiner and had used it as a work car. He was a bit miffed it only went for £66 but his advert and photos were a bit crap. A bit tatty but solid and drove it for a year or so. The engine was getting tired so I sold it for £400. The next owner put oil in the coolant reservoir and that was that, scrapped.

She told you not to buy any more but she never said anything about winning them, I think you're in the clear there.

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