Your Bangernomics successes

[Deleted User]

dipsomaniac said:

out of the country?

Possibly. Only paperwork I got was the book pack along with the service book with the one stamp in and MOT certs going back to 2015.

GunJack

Well, after 3.5 years sterling service, the £10 Fusion is biting the dust this week  
The clutch & DMF are biting the dust at a rapid rate now....in Oct/Nov I thought it would last a bit longer, but it's got so much worse in the last 4-6 weeks..quote is £700 all-in to do it, so I've booked it for collection this week to the great scrapyard in the sky. Scrap prices good, so I've agreed to £156 for it, and they collect for that much 3.5 years motoring for £745 all-in (buying, servicing & repairs and disposal).

I picked up it's replacement today, and it's......

Another Fusion !!!
Another 1.4 TDCi, but 2 yrs younger (2004) than it's predecessor with only 83k on the clock (half the last one's mileage), it's been well looked after and drives perfectly. It ticks all the boxes, and even had the cambelt changed 2 yrs ago   Price? £795, so I'm staying in the Bangernomics club for several more years to come!!

[Deleted User]

Wouldn't it be worthwhile to keep the old Fusion and pay the 700 quid to repair it rather than buy another car you don't know the history of?

CKhalvashi

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

noclaf said:

Deleted_User said:

Just picked up this 2004 Focus 1.6 Zetec for £430 with 11 month MOT. It's got moon mileage (145,000) and scratches just about everywhere but atleast it is clean which was a bonus! Came with no service history apart from one stamp in the book from 2005 but I've been lead to believe the recent owner who traded it in was a "technician" who serviced it himself throughout his ownership. 2 owners from new! Oh and it's got the worse steering wheel I've ever seen!

These are v underated cars IMO. I've owned my 1.8 over 10 years now, its driven hard and used for everything from shopping to tip runs and have used it for carrying heavy building materials...yet it keeps going, Ford smashed it out the park with this era of Foci. 
The handling is excellent and a lot of fun throwing them around twisty roads! Yet it's still a practical car, cheap to run and maintain.
Rust will eventually kill these as seems the case with many of the older Ford's but IMO they are one of the best all-rounder cars there is (I am biased!) especially considering when they were released in '99/2000. I think the 1.6 was the pick of the bunch too based on balance of economy and performande but I enjoy the extra 13 horses that comes with the 1.8
Hope it serves you well!
I will be finally moving mine on later this year but no idea what to replace it with...all the modern stuff is too complicated, high borkage factor (due to the complexity) and not as fun or practical.

You could replace it with a pre-facelift Mk2 Focus.  The chassis is the same, apparently, although I have heard the odd grumble about extra weight having a detrimental effect on the handling.  I can't comment on that as, having driven both extensively, I don't feel there's anything inferior about the second model's road holding.  It doesn't look as distinctive, inside or out, but the ergonomics are better.  The column stalks are less flimsy on the Mk2 and, joy of joys, the horrible fat rim steering wheel has been replaced by one with a normal rim.  The engines, particularly the Mazda partnership ones, are far superior.  In sum: less character but better on all fronts apart, allegedly, from driving experience.  The ST and RS Mk2s are fearsome, eclipsing any performance variants of the Mk1.  

Will they average 39mpg over 26000mi though?

I did this with a Mk1 Focus ST, before selling it for £650 more than was paid for it. That wasn't a bad deal, especially as it was only bought due to being cheaper than overshooting the lease mileage limit on my main car.

GunJack

Deleted_User said:

Wouldn't it be worthwhile to keep the old Fusion and pay the 700 quid to repair it rather than buy another car you don't know the history of?

no, as there are certain other things other than the clutch/dmf that would potentially cost, e.g I have no idea how long the cambelt has been on it and I had no intention of forking out to change it, the new one doesn't suffer from the broken air directing flap which makes the old one a pita to demist/defrost, etc...no, the old one has surpassed expectations and can be retired gracefully

thegentleway

I've had loads of bangers. Best one was a cavalier 1.7TD I got at auction for £50. It was a bit rough aroudn the edges:

I kept for a few years then I sold it for £200 when it got to around 150k miles so I made some money
Was my last banger. I graduated and bought a 320d for £4k. Kept it for 7 years and 110k miles. Only cost me 22p a mile (including everything, petrol, parts, insurance, MOT, depreciation, etc...) as I do all the work myself. Luxury motoring for banger money !

CKhalvashi

thegentleway said:

I've had loads of bangers. Best one was a cavalier 1.7TD I got at auction for £50. It was a bit rough aroudn the edges:

These are still quite common in my home country, especially with the bulletproof Isuzu 1.7 diesel, as they are in the country I'm in now (travelling for work where for legal reasons I am physically required to sign documents in country).

Not sure about the colour scheme, but for £50, a true bargain!

thegentleway

CKhalvashi said:

thegentleway said:

I've had loads of bangers. Best one was a cavalier 1.7TD I got at auction for £50. It was a bit rough aroudn the edges:

These are still quite common in my home country, especially with the bulletproof Isuzu 1.7 diesel, as they are in the country I'm in now (travelling for work where for legal reasons I am physically required to sign documents in country).

Not sure about the colour scheme, but for £50, a true bargain!

Those Isuzu engines are bulletproof indeed; this was my second one and never had any problems with either engines. First one was one colour (red, different shades of course ) but cost me £250 so wasn't as good a bargain

tommyedinburgh

Very much starting out on my 'Bangernomics' journey. I bought a three month old Seat Leon Cupra Lux, January 2020. When I was turning my attention to organising a service for it late December just past, I had only driven just under 1800 miles over the course of the year (obviously due to all things COVID). Factoring in that my work situation has changed and I will no longer have a fairly lengthy commute and the fact that my wife's commute is now 0.8 miles from home I made the decision to sell the car.

I was really surprised by how many phone calls I got via Autotrader, the phone literally never stopped ringing. The car was gone within two days, I was happy with what I sold it for. I then purchased a 2010 Toyota Yaris, 1.33 with 125,000 miles on the clock, same owner since 2012, full service history, really well looked after under the bonnet, but it came at a cost, the old couple that had it had scraped all four bumper corners, every single panel is dinged and dented, they clearly should have went to specsavers, however, its got that crucial FSH backed up with piles of receipts etc, perfect for me to drive my mile to the childminder then a further mile to work.

GunJack

tommyedinburgh said:

Very much starting out on my 'Bangernomics' journey. I bought a three month old Seat Leon Cupra Lux, January 2020. When I was turning my attention to organising a service for it late December just past, I had only driven just under 1800 miles over the course of the year (obviously due to all things COVID). Factoring in that my work situation has changed and I will no longer have a fairly lengthy commute and the fact that my wife's commute is now 0.8 miles from home I made the decision to sell the car.

I was really surprised by how many phone calls I got via Autotrader, the phone literally never stopped ringing. The car was gone within two days, I was happy with what I sold it for. I then purchased a 2010 Toyota Yaris, 1.33 with 125,000 miles on the clock, same owner since 2012, full service history, really well looked after under the bonnet, but it came at a cost, the old couple that had it had scraped all four bumper corners, every single panel is dinged and dented, they clearly should have went to specsavers, however, its got that crucial FSH backed up with piles of receipts etc, perfect for me to drive my mile to the childminder then a further mile to work.

You missed out the vital info.....what price did you pay???  It has to be under £1000 to really qualify as Bangernomics!!