Your Bangernomics successes

GunJack

ididgetwhereiamtoday said:

Anything under 3K is now easily bangernomics I reckon. Probably higher than that in reality.

Nah, that's deffo too much....according to the BoE calculator, £1k in 2012 is worth £1448.10 today, so maybe that's a better staring point??  

Herzlos

I think you'd struggle to get anything under £1448 today that would pass an MOT. 

£3k does seem high though but not outlandish. 

ididgetwhereiamtoday

GunJack said:

ididgetwhereiamtoday said:

Anything under 3K is now easily bangernomics I reckon. Probably higher than that in reality.

Nah, that's deffo too much....according to the BoE calculator, £1k in 2012 is worth £1448.10 today, so maybe that's a better staring point??  

Inflation has been horrendous, especially in the used car world. I know £3k is a lot of money but it doesnt really get you much nowadays and with the tech that's in them, I'd worry about extremely big bills to do with electrics, sensors and infotainment systems.
I have a newish car and thankfully has a manufacturer warranty, when that runs out I would be quite nervous as one potential bill could write the car off.

Ditzy_Mitzy

Herzlos said:

I think you'd struggle to get anything under £1448 today that would pass an MOT. 

£3k does seem high though but not outlandish. 

I don't know.  My car's passed loads of MOTs and it cost £0.00.  Sometimes it's who you know, though...

Herzlos

Sure there's outliers and lucky finds. I was thinking in terms of Autotrader, Facebook, etc without any special connections. 

Farzackerly

The 2008 Pensioner's Car (VW Fox) just had a pair of front struts fitted. Since I don't possess a decent modern set of spring compressors, I entrusted it to the garage up around the corner, and he only charged me a hundred to install them. I got Biltsteins, with new top bearings and new gaiters with bump stops. 

The Bilsteins are just std grade, not enhanced, but I already feel a major difference in front handling and responsiveness, so with any luck that will last a couple of years.

This all started because a pothole or a kerbing had bent the nearside / front alloy which then despatched the strut, as it was an old one, probably the original and caused it to start leaking.

I replaced the two front alloys with steels and fitted 14" tyres with slightly larger aspect ratios to give the tyres a bit more bounce on the road and absorb some shocks better.

It was a silly idea, fitting 15" wheels with skinny rubber to be used on backroads riddled with potholes.

The replacement wheels and tyres are exactly the same rolling radius as the previous ones.

Rundown of cost - 

Set of steels from breakers (annoyingly mostly with very good tyres but useless to me) €40

Pair of Kumhos €120

Parts from Autodoc €170

Labour - €100

Total - €430

I reckon I'll just spring for a pair of rear shocks soon to get the best out of it.

I'm keeping the rear alloys on for the moment, as their tyres are almost new so may as well get what I can out of them.

GDB2222

My car is just over 19 years old, so I don’t want to spend money on it. On the other hand it’s still basically pretty sound - a Volvo C70 with 65k miles on it, and we do 2000 to 3000 a year. It’s probably worth £2k, but it needs new brake discs all round. The steering seems a bit vague, so there’s probably something wrong with the suspension. It leaks into the rear passenger footwell and the boot. I can see myself spending £1-2k to sort it all out properly, but ending up with a car that is still worth £2k. 

Do I just sell it? And, selling it, do I describe all the faults, or is that just caveat emptor. 

fatbelly

Does it need to be sorted out 'properly'? I just acquired (free) a 20-y-o Focus with multiple issues. Put it in for an mot even though it wasn't due. All 4 tyres were faulted incl one 'dangerous - do not drive' There were three mechanical faults that it failed on. A new set of tyres (reasonable quality Falkens) cost £240 and the mechanicals £610. I expect the advisories to be still advisories in 12 months. I or someone I pass it to will probably get 2/3 more years from it.