Your Bangernomics successes

Stoke

Picking the Demio up next week. I'll put some decent photos up when I've got it. Viewed it again yesterday. Was surprised to see it had both driver and passenger airbags, nice little extra.

I think the only issue with this car is parts. I very much doubt spares are readily available.

BeenThroughItAll

Stoke wrote: »

Picking the Demio up next week. I'll put some decent photos up when I've got it. Viewed it again yesterday. Was surprised to see it had both driver and passenger airbags, nice little extra.

I think the only issue with this car is parts. I very much doubt spares are readily available.

Nah, parts are no problem. It's a standard UK car, they just didn't sell that well, but most parts are shared with other Mazda models. MIL had one for a short while before it got written off, and any bits I needed I got off the shelf from ECP.

Stoke

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

Nah, parts are no problem. It's a standard UK car, they just didn't sell that well, but most parts are shared with other Mazda models. MIL had one for a short while before it got written off, and any bits I needed I got off the shelf from ECP.

Sounds good. If there was a single negative about the car, it's that it's single Din. I much prefer double Din radio slots as I tend to fit aftermarket double din radios with sat nav, but i'll live

Stoke

Picked up the banger on Friday. It's definitely unspectacular but it does run good and has got me to work today nice and safe so can't complain too much at that I'll try get some photos asap.

Need to install some reversing sensors I think. Demio is a fair bit bigger than I thought it was lol.

Stoke

Couple of photos of it here. Having owned it for a week I've found a few little niggles and quirks that I need to sort.

Firstly, it's pulling, ever so slightly to the left. Now I know cars should pull to the left a bit anyway, but this feels a little bit too much. Checked the tyres, all fine, so perhaps just a wheel alignment issue.

Got a set of black matt reversing sensors from eBay. Can't see fitting them being too hard. I've done it before on the A4, the only thing is I don't have any wiring diagrams so it'll be back to busting out the old multimeter. Although it's not a huge car, it's not small either and the visibility at the back isn't great.

The radio..... is junk and located way way too low for me. I know none of us on MSE forums would dare touch a radio while operating a moving vehicle, but even at lights I don't like touching it because it's so low, you almost lean down. On the European and Australian models, the head unit is located where the switch panel is, so I know it's possible to swap them. You can see in the photo, I'm already part way through this job. Old radio out, nice Kenwood DAB jobby second hand off eBay for £40 half installed. Didn't come with the DAB aerial, but I'm banking on one of those Kinetic splitters working. Hope so.... yikes.

I've had my head under the dash though and it looks relatively straightforward. I can probably drop the switch wiring down, it's more getting the radio wiring up, however I'm thinking with a bit of hand contortionism that won't be hard either.

Finally, I've ordered a Universal Steering wheel control from eBay, that operates via Bluetooth. Will hopefully work, although I'm not actually holding my breath

[Deleted User]

Looks good, if a little primitive!

Stoke

Deleted_User wrote: »

Looks good, if a little primitive!

Oh it's primitive..... and I'm pretty sure nobody at Mazda thought about sound insulation. A lot of road noise....

But it has remote central locking, airbags, and even the electric sunroof works pretty well. So i'll use it until it dies or I see something I prefer. For getting my to work though, it's been ideal so far.

GunJack

OMG!!! Can't believe I haven't seen this thread before....right up my street

Just as background, my last few cars (fuel for 9,000 miles p.a.):-

1. (from Sep 17) ford fusion 2 1.4 TDCi, so 60+mpg
£30p.a. tax
net purchase cost - £10 (paid £290, sold rover for £280)
annual running cost - £1,072 inc. tax and £310 ins

2. (Apr 15 - Sep 17) rover 45 1.4 petrol, 38mpg
£150 p.a. tax
net purchase cost - £100 (sold vectra for£150, plus rover had full fuel tank (£50+) when bought, paid £300 inc the fuel for rover)
annual running cost - £1,600 inc tax and £240 ins.
put it through 2 MOTs for 2 tyres, 1 wiper and 2 bulbs

3. (dec 12 - apr 15) vectra 1.7td, 50mpg
£230p.a. tax
net purchase cost - £270 (£400 - £130 scrapping previous car)
annual running cost - £1,400 inc tax & ins.
2xMOT for 1 coil spring and 1 bulb


been doing this for many years now, saved a packet and driven a wider variety of cars than I would have done otherwise...long may it continue

Stoke

GunJack wrote: »

OMG!!! Can't believe I haven't seen this thread before....right up my street

Just as background, my last few cars (fuel for 9,000 miles p.a.):-

1. (from Sep 17) ford fusion 2 1.4 TDCi, so 60+mpg
£30p.a. tax
net purchase cost - £10 (paid £290, sold rover for £280)
annual running cost - £1,072 inc. tax and £310 ins

2. (Apr 15 - Sep 17) rover 45 1.4 petrol, 38mpg
£150 p.a. tax
net purchase cost - £100 (sold vectra for£150, plus rover had full fuel tank (£50+) when bought, paid £300 inc the fuel for rover)
annual running cost - £1,600 inc tax and £240 ins.
put it through 2 MOTs for 2 tyres, 1 wiper and 2 bulbs

3. (dec 12 - apr 15) vectra 1.7td, 50mpg
£230p.a. tax
net purchase cost - £270 (£400 - £130 scrapping previous car)
annual running cost - £1,400 inc tax & ins.
2xMOT for 1 coil spring and 1 bulb


been doing this for many years now, saved a packet and driven a wider variety of cars than I would have done otherwise...long may it continue

Wow, I'm amazed you got £280 for the Rover. That's brilliant work. I sold the Lupo (with a decent dent in the wing) for £350. Bargain motoring!!

Wonder how much this Demio is worth with less than 80k miles on the clock, and is actually running pretty well?

GunJack

Stoke wrote: »

Wow, I'm amazed you got £280 for the Rover. That's brilliant work. I sold the Lupo (with a decent dent in the wing) for £350. Bargain motoring!!

Wonder how much this Demio is worth with less than 80k miles on the clock, and is actually running pretty well?

The rover was x reg, just before emissions-based tax It had a few scratches/dents but nothing major - interior was tidy and it ran well...advertised for 325ono, took 280 at first viewing...

Autotrader have 4 Demios up, from £299, £350, £550 and £689. Looks similar size to my fusion