Bangernomics: Is this the cheapest possible motoring?

I think you are on the right direction,

1. You don't care which car you drive - correct?
2. It got to have 4 wheels - correct?
3. It needs to take you from A2B and that's all -correct?

Ok, I don't think you can do much better than this, £600+fuel is bril!:T

What u can do IMHO (so you will not be on first name terms with the AA man) is to sit a bit on the net and do some research on ' Which Banger' :rotfl: As a starting point :In general cars from the mid 90's are better all round for reliability and now falls into bangernomics territory, another point is to look for anything made by japanese or German makers, they use to make solid cars in the 90's early 00.

By reading drivers reviews on Parkers you can get a good feeling of what to look for and what to leave. As I am in the same boat as you I found out these cars especially good value in the £200 to 900:

1. Diesel Rovers (or anything with the Rover L type engine) . These cars have old but proven technology in them. (but stay away of petrol Rovers)
2. Nissans like the Almera and the Primera are good but it looks like they start to rust now
3. Honda Civic and Accord from 1995 and on, should be mostly solid and easy to sort out.
4. The ugly Proton Mpi , it's an old Mitubishi underneath
5. Old VW polo (pre 1995)

Tha'ts about it from what I can recall but others will probably can add to this list.

One of my little hobbies is examining what the real cost of any given car as an average monthly expense over the period I have the use of it in great detail. Sometimes doing this tells me to sell on a car just before it gets out of manufacturers warranty for a nearly new one under warranty, because for certain cars holding their value well (e.g. BMW, Mini, Audi, Skoda) in the long run it using it 6 to 36 months old is cheaper on average per month than keeping it in year 4. This is down to year 4 depreciation not being that different from average of months 6 to 36, but in year 4 you have MOT, breakdown cover, extended warranty (or take the risk), later more expensive services, you don't start out with nearly new tyres, older potentially less economical engine - to pay out for. Anyone keeping a Mini from month 37 onwards is not doing their sums properly, it's cheaper to sell it privately and buy a brand new one, they hold their value so well (69% residual after 3 years!!!). What this really means is they are not actually worth what people will pay at 3 years old.

I also use the same technique for looking at older and invariably less economical cars, because sometimes you can find an old interesting but very low mileage car for not too much money that does not have too much to loose in depreciation.

All this leads me to a conclusion - if you can deal with the potential unreliability of a car costing £200 to buy which you toss in the bin if it breaks, it is the absolute cheapest way to have the use of a car because of nearly zero depreciation.

I cannot do this myself because visits to the garage or not getting to work due to breakdown looses me enough money (self employed) to make it worth paying the depreciation costs of younger cars, plus I don;t have time to shop for a car every 6 months.

Looks like £200 cars work for you, so stick with it.

I would recommend older VW Golf or polo... they seem to go on forever and don't rust a lot. The Mk2 Golf will do 200k+ miles easily (mines on 231k), or the polo estate/coupe will cost even less due to smaller engines.

If you go for a Golf between 1988-1992 then the only small engine option is a 1.3 which is sluggish, and I dont think as reliable as the bigger engines. So I'd pay the extra in tax and get a 1.6 or 1.8i GTI. Surprisingly the GTi 8v is no worse on fuel than a 1.6 due to being injection. 40mpg is easily possible on motorways/a-roads. You could go for a Mk3 Golf where there is a 1.4i engine as they have come down in price.

The polos were a bit boxy before 1991 but you can get a 1.0 engine which is great on fuel, or a 1.3 with a bit more power. The look improved a bit between '91 and '94 and the coupe version is quite good looking. Again you could get a newer one 94 onwards in a 1.0 engine which still looks modern and can be had quite cheap now (around £5-600)

I agree with your way of doing things... while you have a big mortgage to try and reduce how can you be happy wasting money on a car you dont need? I'm going to do the same as you and buy sub-£500 cars off ebay whenever my current car becomes uneconomical to repair..

I have done the same for the last few years, I have my weekend toy that sits in the garage during the week, but for a general weekly/work runabout I get a banger from the auctions/ebay, First off I bought a pug 205 for £250 run around for 14 months, Had one MOT early on, which it went straight through, aprt from that spent nothing else on it, sold it for £250, Now I have a mk6 1995 Escort 1.8 TD LX picked up for £500 with 1 years MOT, lost of service history, good tyres, I have had that 15 months so far, it has gone through one MOT which needed 2x bushes and 2x typre which i got really cheap, when she finally breaks she will be scraped and I will pick up another off ebay..