Use public transport?
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2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS
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Take out insurance and cancel before 14 days?
Some more tips on saving money.
Give a false name & address when you buy, and don't tell the DVLA you have bought the car. Then you can speed through cameras and never get fined.
Don't pay for your petrol. Just fill up and drive away. While in the petrol station, pocket a few bars of chocolate. No one will know. There are many more things you can do to cheat society but we don't want to publicise them to all the toerags on the internet, do we? Just use your imagination.
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JBIF - I like your thinking :-)
No seriously, I don't think I can be on with the hassle of buying an old death trap, the best place that I've found for rent-a-banger want £95 for a week in a Micra fully insured, which to be honest, is a lot better than Enterprises offering of a "Ford Ka or similar" for £180.
I'm getting the Mondog towed away this afternoon, I've been persuaded that I may be best off waiting to see if the garage can give me a verdict today before going to hire a car.
Public transport is a no no I'm afraid, I just simply haven't sunk far enough yet, I can still go way lower. ;-)
Blue
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Blue, the public transport wasn't totally t-i-c. No idea where you live or your journeys but have a look, you may be surprised. Also remember taxis and private hires.
How much running about would you do? Would the £95 cover you for taxis for the week?
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2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS
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I cover about 250 miles in an average week, so I highly doubt that the £95 would cover it from a taxi point of view, granted not all of the mileage is essential, but living out in a suburb of Sunderland I don't fancy sitting in the house all night with only Sky Plus for company! :-) My car is basically one of my main means of unwinding and not having it is slightly akin to having a limb removed imo!
Buses are available but to be honest I genuinely do try to avoid them at all costs, they're just too much hassle and as long as there is money in my bank account I will always seek an alternative!
Blue
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There is a despicable habit among those of a dishonest disposition of asking for 48 hr test drives with no intention of actually making a purchase. I am quite sure that you are not the sort of young man who would do such a thing and I certainly could not condone such underhand behaviour !!!!!!.......???? ;-)
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Erm, I may have already been on the Vauxhall website checking what offers they were currently running *cough* but sadly they don't have anything on the go at the moment that I may consider buysing *cough cough*
I haven't got the front to go and ask for one that long if there is no recognised offer on from the manufacturer!
Blue
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Try Toyota or Renault (new Laguna!).
BTW I hope when a bangernomics thread appears again (this is not intended to start one!) you relate your tale of woe and and advise others that bangernomics is not all a bed of roses :-)
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To cries of "oh not again" from everyone else, perhaps I should point out that Lexus are douing a "drive anything you want on extended test" at the minute.
I took an LS460 out last weekend (and highly spiffy it was, if incredibly confusing. They were right on Top Gear about that self parking you know. It really is a billion pages in the manual).
So with that, a Renault, maybe a couple of others, you got it sorted.
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daveyjp - since when was a 2005 V6 Mondeo a banger????
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Its a 2000 V6, the thread in Tech is wrongly titled.
Not that a 2000 V6 is a banger either.
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I'm sure Blue will advise the 2005 thread is wrong - it's actually 2000.
If it was 2005 it would be a warranty job, down at the dealer, courtesy car provided no issue over hire car.
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2 day test drive
Peugeot 307 **cough**
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Dahonist
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Surely that should be 308?
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2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS
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308...{shuffles, looking at feet}
You might have a point there
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Dahonist
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Pay the increased hire rate and think yourself lucky that you are under 25, I wish I was.
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I didn't own a car from age 20 to age 26 - but I always had a girlfriend who owned/had access to one ;-)
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Hertz quoted £88 for a Focus 1.6 from Edinburgh airport for 5 days when I checked yesterday via Ryanair's website. Check the T&Cs - there don't seem to be many restrictions on the deals quoted from what I can see.
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Buy a shed, use it and sell it on. You may even make a profit !
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Age limit changes from area to area. E.g. Heathrow I could rent a c-max tdci no problem. North east? Barely get a corsa(!!!).
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Barely get a corsa(!!!).
That explains an awful lot!
I managed to get rent-a-banger for £95 for a week, I'm getting what is described as "a used Nissan Micra" It is however from a reputable small company so should at least be clean, tidy and reliable.
Unfortunately I've been at work since my last post so haven't had a chance to check the progress of this thread, wish I had now as I may have been able to get a Pug! :-)
I didn't notice that I'd mis-titled my other thread, you guys are right, it is indeed a 2000 model, although believe me, in my perception the car is hovering dangerously close to banger territory. We'll see what Hawk Tune's verdict is some time next week, right now I'm just glad it's off my hands!
Blue
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Well I managed to get a rent-a-banger.
It's an ex-SOM Nissan Micra with 131,000 miles on the clock. I can't tell precisely how old it is as it has a private plate on but from looking at the model I suspect it's a 2000 or 2001 model.
Paid £95 for 1 week and it actually isn't as worn out as I expected, everything still seems to work and the only sign of wear is the drivers seat which is a little saggy.
It's very flat though, I'm really struggling to adjust to not having any power at all! Public transport getting to the rental office wasn't bad at first, I almost found myself thinking that it wasn't as bad as I thought, until we got past the first couple of stops, the Metro filled to standing room only, someone fell into my lap, someone nearby trumped and then a load of chavs got on. Nice.
Blue
{I'll leave your imagination to guess which word I edited that got caught in the naughty filter}
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 09/12/2007 at 14:42
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I also had a reminder of the "thrills" of driving an underpowered small hire car in Italy the other week. Having booked "the cheapest one you do please" ( was cheap actually, about £50 for three days ) I was duly issued with a diesel Fiesta. I think it was a 1.3 ? Nice little car.
Anyway...off I go down the autostrada and being mindful of my lack of oomph I waited until it seemed absolutely safe to overtake a convoy of trucks. I accelerate, pull out and attempt to accelerate a bit more. Unfortunately, at that point, the road started to climb a bit and despite trying various gear / rev combinations the wee motor just wasn't up to it. It got variously louder and more anguished but no real speed difference was achieved. Well by this time my mirror was full of a black 5 series which had a pilot seemingly intent on getting into my boot ! Discretion / Valour equation was run and the decision to return pronto to the inside lane was reached. Unfortunately in the meanwhile, the trucks had now bunched up to form a sort of latin road train the ends of which were not within the range of normal human eyesight. I waved, what I thought was an apology, at the BMW in the hope that he would be sympathetic to my predicament. Well..... maybe he misunderstood the gesture, because he then proceeded to push my car along with his front bumper until we had cleared the head of the queue ! Now....I don't scare easily....but I'll tell you what !.....
To borrow from the Backroom - I was thinking that maybe next trip I should attach a sign to the back of the car with "Mimsero" on it !
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It's very flat though I'm really struggling to adjust to not having any power at all!
Ahh yes. Takes me back to the time we rented a 1 litre Micra for the day. Fond memories of chugging along the M4 at 60 or 65 mph. But it was cheap, and everything worked.
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The TF won't cost £95 to tax for a month - nearer £15 I imagine. Isn't the answer sitting unused in front of you?
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Unfortunately the TF would ned insuring as well in order to get the tax disc.
This means that I either pay an admin fee to change mu existing insurance, then wait for the documents to arrive, then change it all back again in a few days, or, I fork out £1500 for another insurance policy and then cancel it within the 14 days. I don't particularly fancy either option, too much hassle, I'm happy to pay for a minimum of fuss!
Besides, the TF is currently around about as clean as the day she was made, if I take her out on the roads then I don't have the time to clean her again before xmas!
Blue
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Blue, you saying that your MG isn't insured?
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2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS
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Yep.
I do have a laid up polcy that only cost £50 and protects the car itself against fire, theft and accidental damage, but it specifically excludes any use on public roads, it's only covered as long as it is kept in my locked garage.
Looks like I'll have the Mondeo back soon anyway, I just took her for a test smoke and she's pulling like a train again after new sparks, a thorough cleanout of the manifold and a fix to the IMRC. Happy days. :-)
Blue
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Thats what I was getting at - just last week a garage along the road from me went up in flames and the 2 cars inside it were burnt out. Turned out the teenager of the family was helping fill a quad bike with petrol and it spilt near a heater.
Sometimes you put the car in the garage and think nothing will happen there!
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2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS
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