Your Bangernomics successes

split_second

well i'll share my story, I owned a fiat stilo for years but it gave my a huge bill for its mot.
so in December I part exchanged it with my mechanic, he had a 2001 ford focus 1.4, he wanted £895, and agreed my car in p/x would bring it down to £650

mot till end of july and as i remember the tax at the end of june was the first one i put on myself, clutch had been replaced, and new cambelt as well, mileage was 83k.

since then it got a bad puncture (58 for a new tyre which will be relegated to spare as spare is bald, got chinese ditch finders on and they wont be staying, one has knackered sidewalls).
electric window motor packed in so a new one was £52.

and yesterday it went for an mot, and it failed- it needed new drop links on the back, £35 supplied and fitted.

its doing well so far and its a really nice car to drive, work is 14 miles away and it just about squeezes in to the very small spaces

Wongsky

split_second wrote: »

well i'll share my story, I owned a fiat stilo for years but it gave my a huge bill for its mot.
so in December I part exchanged it with my mechanic, he had a 2001 ford focus 1.4, he wanted £895, and agreed my car in p/x would bring it down to £650

mot till end of july and as i remember the tax at the end of june was the first one i put on myself, clutch had been replaced, and new cambelt as well, mileage was 83k.

since then it got a bad puncture (58 for a new tyre which will be relegated to spare as spare is bald, got chinese ditch finders on and they wont be staying, one has knackered sidewalls).
electric window motor packed in so a new one was £52.

and yesterday it went for an mot, and it failed- it needed new drop links on the back, £35 supplied and fitted.

its doing well so far and its a really nice car to drive, work is 14 miles away and it just about squeezes in to the very small spaces

There's a 2000 (X reg) 1.6 Focus Zetec in the household, bought in 2004, so owned for a little over 9 years. And it's been excellent. Air-con still blows frosty air, it's had servicing, and never missed out on anything, but it's never broken down, and has only had two (that I can think of) minor faults.

First one being the known issue with the gearbox speed sensor causing the speedo and dials to drop, momentarily (think it cost around the £100 mark for the dealer to do it - I'd heard the sensor could be awkward to remove from the gearbox housing, and access wasn't the easiest thing). Only other issue was a dodgy ignition lead / coil lead causing a misfire - but even then it didn't break down, just went into limp mode.

Maybe we've been lucky with it, but I have to say, the damn thing has been brilliant - and great to drive, engine is adequately powered, economy quite good. It owes us nothing, and will be worth keeping 'til it properly dies.

Paradigm

Just bought this for my boy......



1.2 sxi, 02 plate, 85000 miles with 10 months mot & tax, part service history.

Not a mark on it & very clean inside plus all it's "gadgets" work....£650. Ok for his 1st car.

Wonder how long it will be before he prangs it

Mk1MR2

What are the VW/Audi 1.9 TDi engines like since there's a few high mileage cars with it fitted near me at a good price.

OddballJamie

Paradigm wrote: »

Just bought this for my boy......



1.2 sxi, 02 plate, 85000 miles with 10 months mot & tax, part service history.

Not a mark on it & very clean inside plus all it's "gadgets" work....£650. Ok for his 1st car.

Wonder how long it will be before he prangs it

As long as the other side looks the same, then you've got a bargain there.

westwood68

VW 1.9TDI generally very good and capable of 300,000+ with regular servicing. Pre PD engines are more robust (90 or 110hp) as they have less to go wrong but the PD engines (105 or 115hp) are still good.

I'd personally stick with the 90 or 110hp engines and get a car that has a good history and in good nick with the same owner having kept it for a long time before selling.

Engines generally don't get to high mileages unless they've been looked after

[Deleted User]

I look on Gumtree and Ebay for bangernomic contenders but there is hardly ever anything going cheap. And the stuff that are cheap, are cheap for a reason.

Paradigm

OddballJamie wrote: »

As long as the other side looks the same, then you've got a bargain there.

it does. Time will tell if it's a bargain I always feel that buying a cheap, oldish car is a bit of a risk but for £650 it's a risk worth taking.

Wongsky

Paradigm wrote: »

it does. Time will tell if it's a bargain I always feel that buying a cheap, oldish car is a bit of a risk but for £650 it's a risk worth taking.

A while back, I bought a Mondeo at that price, and it was OK - never truly stung me, although there was more to do at the first MOT I put it through, than I would have hoped. Nothing too horrendous or pricey, just several itty bitty jobs, really.

Some years prior, I also bought and early 90s Polo at that price range. And a few years later, got rid of it for peanuts, because I didn't want to continue paying out for it to be a "spare" car. There are times I regret that, because it was a solid, if scruffy, little thing, that would have soldiered on with a little maintenance.

myhooose

westwood68 wrote: »

VW 1.9TDI generally very good and capable of 300,000+ with regular servicing. Pre PD engines are more robust (90 or 110hp) as they have less to go wrong but the PD engines (105 or 115hp) are still good.

I'd personally stick with the 90 or 110hp engines and get a car that has a good history and in good nick with the same owner having kept it for a long time before selling.

Engines generally don't get to high mileages unless they've been looked after

How reliable are the 130hp engines? I'm looking at these view a view to towing a caravan.