Your Bangernomics successes

[Deleted User]

Farzackerly wrote: »

I'm getting harder pushed to tell one car from another these days - what is it?

406 estate with some weird after market wheels..?

CKhalvashi

Deleted_User wrote: »

406 estate with some weird after market wheels..?

Saab 9-5.

CK

[Deleted User]

I thought it was Pug 406 too!

Wongsky

CKhalvashi wrote: »

'T' reg VW Passat 1.8 Auto estate. Paid £75, with 4 months tax and 2 months test.

76000mi, everything worked except the rear passenger window/electric sunroof. Put 4500mi on it in 2 weeks, gave to young family who couldn't afford a car with full test (passed with flying colours)

This was 2 months ago, and as far as I'm aware, it's still going. Tell me that wasn't cheaper than a rental for the time!

CK

Oddly enough, I had two Passats of that era, back in the day. Both were my own cars, not company cars or anything like that.

The first one, a 98 (R reg) model I bought at a year old - and I sold / part-ex'd it too early - wish I'd kept that. The second one I bought after having a different car in between - and it was stolen, then recovered. It had apparently been stolen for the interior and wheels, since they had actually swapped out the seats and door cards (quite specifically, too) - I always thought something dodgy was going on over that car, somebody knew where to find it, because it looked like it was stolen with a key.

That was written off as an uneconomic repair, which at the time, I rather passively and naively accepted. True enough, all the seats and door cards, plus all the alloys (and it actually had 5 alloys - the spare was a pukka alloy too), plus all the keys / immobileser.

So I've always had two regrets, really: firstly that I got rid of my first one too soon, and secondly that I didn't fight hard enough to keep my second when my insurer just wanted to do an economic write-off of it in settlement. I suppose in fairness (I'd only had it a matter of weeks) they did pay out exactly what I paid for it - but on reflection, that didn't really help.

scaredofdebt

Flying-High wrote: »

Been following this thread... Some cracking posts some not.....

Surely true Bangernomics success is where youre able to do all the maintenance yourself.? Or at least the great bulk of it with ideally pittance costing used parts or elcheapo and/or decent OE parts in areas where it matters...

Buying an elcheapo car then being quoted more than you paid for it for a job a Chimp with an argos tool set could do is surely not by any means a bangernomic success?.....

I thought the definition of "bangernomics" was running old cars cheaply and saving money compared to running something newer.

If you can maintain your own car then that would be the case if it's old or new, although it does seem harder to repair some of the newer cars nowadays.

sabretoothtigger

Old cars are cheapest when they dont have gadgets to fix. If you got an old 7 series BMW then you are in a world of pain.
Im hoping to get my old car mobile again if only because it lacks ABS or power steering so I figure it'll avoid terminal large cost fixes

CKhalvashi wrote: »

Saab 9-5.

CK

I knew it was a Saab, unmistakable

I was going to buy a Saab years ago as they allegedly classic salesman cars, subject to cheap off loading at auction but I could never find it.

Nice to hear they are still ok even a 2000 model. I think GM were owners by then. I suspect the turbo would be a bigger cost (ie. way too much) but changing the oil helps that I guess and I think the tip for turbos is always run it slow and cool before parking up

[Deleted User]

What's going to happen in 10-15 years time when all our current easy to repair bangers are gone and we are left with the cars from today that are not easily fixed?

Will there be a decline in back street indie garages and more people taking 10 year old cars to main dealers for basic repairs?

colino

Lee, all my life people have been saying DIYing is dying off for cars. Electronic ignition meant you didn't have all those bits to renew and maintain every five minutes, fuel injection meant you didn't have the joy of blowing out the jets on the side of the motorway. On the big stuff, while it hasn't been initially engineered properly (by even the "best" manufacturers) failing abs, once a £2500 dealer only fix is being got round, £1000 MAFs are £30 off of ebay and the code readers now available are beginning to make "dealer only" warnings laughable once more.
Keep the faith, we will all adapt to new technology, quasi special tools will trickle down and I personally think we are all the better for the (majority) of cars being faster, more economical and safer than even ten years ago.

Paradigm

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

I knew it was a Saab, unmistakable

I was going to buy a Saab years ago as they allegedly classic salesman cars, subject to cheap off loading at auction but I could never find it.

Nice to hear they are still ok even a 2000 model. I think GM were owners by then. I suspect the turbo would be a bigger cost (ie. way too much) but changing the oil helps that I guess and I think the tip for turbos is always run it slow and cool before parking up

Lots about in good nick & if looked after they are well worth a look. I had a 900 turbo years ago & now this one, never had any major problems.

With the petrol models GM ownership isn't really any issue as the only things GM were the (highly modified) floorpan & some of the switchgear/ancilleries... the engines were pure Saab

The diesels used a GM derived engine which had "variable" ;)reliability.

Changing the oil with a good quality synthetic every 6000 miles is a must on the petrols, these are notorious for sludging which blocks the sump oil strainer leading to premature turbo & engine death.

Parts prices are pretty average I've found overall, even a recon turbo can be picked up for £300 or so.

They are not cheap to run (ask Worried Jim) but the 9-3/9-5 Aero models are a buzz to drive, I love mine but any major bill makes it an uneconomical repair....possibly

worried_jim

Paradigm wrote: »

They are not cheap to run (ask Worried Jim)

18 mpg!!!!!!!!!!:(

Still love it though. Have finally got the locking wheel nuts off and replaced with new nuts that I have a key for. I need disks and pads on the front and that will be the next job. Planning on taking it on the motorway for the first time end of October, hopefully mpg should improve.