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Buy a banger for around £100, don't bother with registration, tax or insurance and leave it by the side of the road when it blows. Optional extra is a pair of false plates to facilitate petrol station drive offs.
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Honestly, Tom, you're a minor player.
Get hold of a free, MOT failure. You might even be able to be paid for taking it away.
Make sure it's a diesel. Then run it on red diesel or chipshop surplus. (Petrol station drive offs are just too risky, I find - don't you? If you insist on petrol station drive offs, then either get hold of a pair of numberplates from a scrap yard (or better still, nick them from a car parked in the street), or failing that, from eBay where you don't need a V5).
The last time we had a thread like this, it was allowed to run for a few hours, and then it disappeared.
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Nah, you don't use red diesel. You siphon it out of other cars while they're stopped at traffic lights.
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Motoring the bangernomic way can be very cheap, but I notice that most people who ask about cheap motoring are not really prepared to make the jump into the world of tatty and unfashionable cars.
Buy a big old car that has reached rock-bottom price but with a long MOT. Do an oil change and service the obvious and cheap things - plugs, hoses, HT leads etc. Join a recovery scheme. When the MOT comes round, if it passes, there's a bonus year of free motoring. If it fails, make a hard assessment but don't spend real money - scrap the car and get another.
Have another one, ideally the same model, as a spare, ready to go when the first one stops.
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As above spend no more than £500.00 o something with a new ticket. Follow the above, get it MoT'd a month before the ticket runs out so that in the event of an expensive faliure you'll have a month to look for a replacement and still get £50.00 from the scrappie and cash in any tax remaining, sort of a proleteriatian part-ex....don't forget to run the tank dry and e-bay the radio and handbooks !
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>>e-bay the radio and handbooks !
and headlights, bumper bars, tail lights, rubber mats, keep your new battery (don't need a battery to get to the scrap yard), starter motor (tow start it on the way there), dash, seats, boot cover etc. etc. etc. - be imginative.
Cannot wait to get hold of my £155 full loaded 2.9 Scorpio...
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Hey, what's the Ford equivalent of German & Swedish?
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Hey, what's the Ford equivalent of German & Swedish?
Dagenham & dustbin maybe?
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I depends on what you mean by inexpensive, of course. I wouldn't want to run a car that was unreliable, no matter how inexpensive it may have been to acquire it. Usually, the biggest expense with a car is depreciation, so the longer you keep a car, the less the effect of depreciation, as cars generally lose most of their value in, say, the first three years of their life. One advantage of buying a car from new is that you know how it has been treated. If kept for a long time and maintained properly, one can get relatively inexpensive motoring over a period of time.
In order to cut down the depreciation factor even further, purchase a car at about 3 years old. Hopefully, it will have been maintained properly whilst under warranty and, again, plan to keep it for a long time.
As regards which car, you take your choice. Ours has been a Xantia 1.9 TD, which we have had from new for 11 years. It has been the most reliable car I have ever owned. Maintenance has never been scrimped but, at the same time, it hasn't been serviced by a main dealer for over seven years. It is very important, however, that a car is maintained properly. It has paid off with ours, as very little has ever gone wrong with it, or been replaced on it.
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You said you needed 2 cars.
Simply buy 2 cheap cars that of the same model/colour. (e) 2 black Mk2 Golfs. Have a duplicate pair of number plates made up and run one car as a clone of the other! So only pay for one insurance, one MOT, one Road Tax (simply use a colouir photocopy machine or your home scanner/computer/printer to replicate the tax disc).Oh and try not to park them next to each other or the neighbours may notice.
Of course I'm joking - it's highly illegal.
........but the thought came to me rembering a guy I used to work with who used to do up and run old classic cars and when I vistied his place once I noticed he had 2 Vauxhall Victor FE's and both had the same number plates!
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I would agree with Machita. Buy a good car 2 year old and you will still have a year of the three year manufacturers warranty. Keep it well serviced and look after it. You should get at least ten years of reliable motoring and still be driving something respectable. If petrol cost is a problem then look at LPG. Much cheaper than diesel. Just make sure you can get it somewhere convenient to you.
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I wonder what kind of driver gets rid of a car after 2 years of ownership? And why? Presumably some will come from fleets and these might have been thrashed as business drivers won't care about a car that they know will soon be sold on. Presumably some others are lemons that are being dumped after a year or two by disgruntled owners. That said, a colleague bought a 1 year old Mondeo at a good price at auction (Blackbush) and it's performed very well for many years.
One issue that would concern me about bangernomics is safety. It seems to be well established that new cars are much safer than old ones partly because of improvements in the design, but also because the components are newer and less likely to be weakened with rust etc.
Leif
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I wonder what kind of driver gets rid of a car after 2 years of ownership? And why?
Maybe they get bored with their current car??
Maybe their circumstances change and they need more/less seats??
Maybe they don't give a XXXX about depreciation and just fancy a new model??
I've never kept a car for more than two years, and none of the cars I've owned have been duffers. I haven't neglected these cars or skimped on maintenance - I just like to change cars quite regularly, that's all. I think there's a guy on this forum who's had 11 cars in the past year... maybe you should ask him the same question??
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Andyconda: Out of curisosity, are these new cars that you get rid of after 2 years? Presumably they are not budget vehicles?
I guess in the case of a budget car - e.g. Ford Ka - the cost to change is relatively minor, as they seem to depreciate relatively modestly, and selling before hitting big repairs such as the clutch might make sense. I seem to recall Quentin Wilson saying that he did just that with Ford Ka's.
Leif
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VTiredEyes has run over 11 cars in the last year I think and I change cars on average every 18 months max. Why - because I get bored with cars quickly and I can afford to change.
I only do 12,000 miles pa, have cars serviced at the main dealer and generally look after them as best I can. So I usually suffer depreciation that is reasonable, not appalling.
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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I change cars on average every 18 months max. I only do 12,000 miles pa, have cars serviced at the main dealer and generally look after them as best I can.
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Espada, can you message me when you're ready to change your next lot of cars? I might be interested.
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Im not plain stupid, just a special kind of stoopid.
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No, I typically buy my cars at around three years old. All kinds of cars, but nothing really flash or expensive. I have a Fiesta at the moment, had an MX5 before that (kept almost for two years), and a Golf GTI before that. I try to stick to cars that hold their value well and are easy to sell privately, and this has kept costs reasonable. For instance, I bought the MX5 privately in 2002 for £8.5k and sold it two years later for £6k. Twelve hundred quid a year in depreciation is not too much of a disaster, and I probably could have done even better if I'd taken advantage of seasonal fluctuations in supply/demand and bought the MX5 in September rather than April.
My parents keep their cars for much longer (typically 6-7yrs), and I appreciate that this is the best way to keep costs down in the long run (as many people in this thread have suggested). As well as allowing the depreciation curve to flatten out, it also saves transaction costs, as dealers take their margin every time you change cars.
My current Fiesta has served me well, but this autumn/winter, I'm hoping to change it for an A3 or maybe a Merc SLK if I'm feeling flush. Even though I don't plan to change for a few months, I'm keeping an eye on the Autotrader website already. Some people hate it, but I quite enjoy the process of selling my car and then hunting around for a good deal on the next one. No doubt my car-changing habit will slow down eventually - but for now, I'm sure I'm not the only twentysomething who doesn't have a house or kids to spend his/her money on, and enjoys trying out a wide variety of cars!
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I guess in the case of a budget car - e.g. Ford Ka - the cost to change is relatively minor, as they seem to depreciate relatively modestly, and selling before hitting big repairs such as the clutch might make sense. I seem to recall Quentin Wilson saying that he did just that with Ford Ka's. Leif
I remember this too, I think he bought brand new Kas from Trade-Sales in Slough at a good price, then sold them after 6 months for a similar amount to what he paid and bought a new one. Quite a good plan really, and one that would only work on a budget vehicle like Ka1.
Blue
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Buy a banger for around £100, don't bother with registration, tax or insurance and leave it by the side of the road when it blows. Optional extra is a pair of false plates to facilitate petrol station drive offs.
*ROTFL*
Sorry...but reading this and a couple of posts after this had me in absolute stitches :)
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Im not plain stupid, just a special kind of stoopid.
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Leif wrote: 'One issue that would concern me about bangernomics is safety. It seems to be well established that new cars are much safer than old ones partly because of improvements in the design, but also because the components are newer and less likely to be weakened with rust etc. '
Oh, in the nicest possible way, nonsense!
If you're really telling me that my 1993 Scorpio is going to be less safe than a brand new Smart car, well, I know which will be cheaper to run (excluding petrol) and I know which I'd rather be driving in a motorway pile up.
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Perhaps he's really telling you that your 1993 Scorpio is less safe than a 2005 Mondeo or BMW 5 Series.
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Perhaps a bad example, because brand new Smart car is in fact safer than 1993 Scorpio. Smart's tridion safety cage is guaranteed to remain intact even in 70 mph head-on crash. The impact might shake all the panels and those little wheels off it like a Xmas tree in June but passenger compartment within cell should remain unpenetrated. Should you have similar encounter in 1993 Scorpio you would most likely end up with engine compartment on your lap...
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As I said earlier, "inexpensive" means different things to different people. There is the top-end inexpensive, for those who follow the theory of buying at 2-3 years old, major depreciation out of the way, etc, but still relying on nothing major going wrong.
And there is the "real" inexpensive, the world of cars costing only a few hundred pounds. They are different worlds, and those who move in the first category wouldn't be seen dead in the second. So the questioner has to ask to start with, what do I really want? Do I care about my image, or do I want the cheapest possible motoring?
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>>Perhaps a bad example, because brand new Smart car
Just goes to show how perception and reality can be miles apart. I think that (sort of) proves my point.
I once drove an A class at 70mph all the way up the M11. Never felt so insecure in my life. I doubt that a Smart car would feel better!
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I think it's only fair to compare safety factors within similar categories of car, I'm sure that if I had a choice between a crash in my rapidly dying E36 3series, or the same crash in one of the new 3's, I know which one I would rather be in.
I agree with you in a way though Mapmaker, it's amazing how much safer a large expanse of metal can make you feel, and yet sometimes it's meaningless, despite feeling safe(ish) in my 3 series, I would still rather crash in an A-class simply because I've seen pictures of a 3 series with a collapsed passneger compartment, the A-class was fine after the same impact.
Blue
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Wasn?t it this season?s Fifth Gear where they crashed a Smart into concrete at very high speed. It just bounced around like a rubber ball and landed on its wheels again completely intact.
Even so, intact or not, such massive de-celleration won?t do you any good. Big crumple zones slow you down gradually.
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"And there is the "real" inexpensive, the world of cars costing only a few hundred pounds. They are different worlds, and those who move in the first category wouldn't be seen dead in the second. So the questioner has to ask to start with, what do I really want? Do I care about my image, or do I want the cheapest possible motoring?"
I'm the orig. questioner -
At the moment it's a £150 Uno - good mpg, but nil image you'd agree! Was thinking about a manual Saab 9000/9-5 - some are very well kept by long-term owners - so £1000 can buy a stout, comfortable carriage, with the risk that one expensive item could write it off. For £3-500 ish there's still some tidy Cavaliers around - had a 2.0 which gave 40 mpg when driven well - and plenty of bits for them in the scrappy - image also suspect ... same applies to Mondeos of the same vintage.
My gut feel is that it's either sub £1000 on a car I keep for two years and then expect to scrap, or about £4,000 on something that lasts longer, like a Yaris. If I spend that money then I've also got to take into account the cost of the capital - I calculate that at 10%, so I've then got to add £400 pa to the depreciation, which will be about £500 or slightly I'd guess. The Yaris should be more reliable than a 10 y/o banger, of course.
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It also depends on how confident you are with DIY maintenance. Running a 10 year old car makes a lot of sense if you know your way around an engine and can make regular repairs using parts from a breakers yard.
I'm not particularly handy with the spanners, so running an older car is not a viable option for me. Sometimes I do look upon people running around in old Omegas/Grannies with a certain envy, as it must be quite satisfying to have all that big-car comfort for relatively little outlay. But I have to be realistic about the limits of my engineering nous!
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If - and only if- you are mechanically competent, there is one obvious way for cheap motoring.
1. low depreciation
2. good reliability record
3. low spares cost - you will neeed some
4. simple mechanics
are musts.
On that basis buy a Ford Fiesta or Escort in good bodily and mechanical condition for under £1500 and plan to run for 3 years or more.
Anything that was unreliable new/has expensive spares/costly servicing required is a no go area. That rules out all French built cars, all Rovers, any Audis/Mercedes/Jaguars. But includes all Japanese cars to 1500cc.
madf
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No, it doesn't rule out all French built cars. They are not all unreliable by any means. Nor are all Fords reliable.
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Agreed not all Fords are reliable, but spares are usually cheap and they are easily worked on by most DIY mechanics or backstreet garages.
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"That rules out all French built cars... Jaguars"
I?ve owed three of the much unloved Peugeot 605s for the last 11 years and they?ve never needed anything other than bits n bobs - oil, lamps, tyres, batteries and have never left me stranded. Had an old XJS that needed only a boot lock in two years, I hit a newly installed, unmarked, unpainted speed hump in the dark so hard it shattered the lock.
I had to force my old man to sell his 1999 Omega last month because the abysmal unreliabilty was making him ill. So much of it has needed replacing, I doubt you could call it the same car he paid for. The last time I rode in it, I had to climb out through the window, the central locking trapped me inside.
Sweeping generalisations don?t hold water.
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What about an old Landrover, maybe a Series 2 or 3. Basic engineering that any back street garage can fix. Loads of cheap spares via a huge number of owners' clubs etc. They hold their value as well. Biggest issue is corrosion but find a good one and get the waxoyl in there.
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" What about an old Landrover, maybe a Series 2 or 3."
I've thought about it before now - but the older ones do seem to require quite a lot of ongoing tinkering. I could then sell the horse lorry and buy a horse trailer which would very happily tow behind a LR.
Good idea, so I'll put it into the computer and see what it says. We don't use the lorry so much any more, and it's not cheap to keep on the road.
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I'll put it into the computer and see what it says.
Computer Says No.
Sorry I couldn't resist :^D
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>>>What about an old Landrover, maybe a Series 2 or 3. Basic engineering that any back street garage can fix. Loads of cheap spares via a huge number of owners' clubs etc. They hold their value as well. Biggest issue is corrosion but find a good one and get the waxoyl in there.
But 2286cc 4 cyl petrol versions don't get much more than 20 mpg, diesels maybe 30, but very slow (non turbo) and incurably smoky. Early coil sprung (90/110) are pretty cheap now and better all round than the old leaf-sprung series 2 and 3. Earliest 90/110 models had the same engines as the series 3.
cheers, SS
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If you're reasonably handy with a spanner and the waxoyl can and don't do much motorway driving, then you won't get cheaper than a Moggy Minor. Insurance will be under £100, no road fund licence, cheaper bits than any other car, no depreciation and classless. I've ran them for years and they cost buttons to keep going. Reliable too if you service them regularly, so simple to fix.
Or a Triumph Toledo or Dolomite 1300. I couldn't sell one a few years ago and gave it to a mate as a second car. It cost him under £100 in repairs over 4 years until it finally rotted away and never left him stuck anywhere. He liked it so much, he bought another.
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