Buying a banger, what should I be looking at?

alastairq

than a car known for lots and lots of niggling daft problems that don't cost much on their own, but before you know it you've blown another £500 keeping it on the road.

This can affect any car of any age......

nothing more annoying than to buy a new car, only to have it spend more time back at the dealers fixing niggling faults than one has driven it?

Any price-range car can have faults which aren't necessarily to do with the car itself....if you see what I mean?

For example, alternators, starter motors, odd electrical components, brakes wheels tyres, steering bits and other sundry items are all essentially consumables....they wear out...sometimes quicker than we'd like?

As an example, my old Volvo740 had an engine that would go on for hundreds of thousands of miles.....the alternator wouldn't, though!

On my £300 felly, it's had a 'new' starter motor, and the alternator has needed a new brush pack,amongst other annoying things, over the two years or so I've had it...bits and bats do add up...and this sort of expenditure, which can add up, is , in my view, to be accepted as part of running a car...any car....however new or old.

But it hasn't needed major items replacing...hasn't needed a 'new' engine!

Hence I proferred the view that the costs of consumable spares for a car should be taken into account regarding choices.

[nowt worse than finding,12 months down the line, it needs a new rear wheel bearing. [a consumable]..... a few quid on some cars.....a small fortune on others where the bearing is a fixed part of the whole hub.]

We're not just talking about buying cheap motors here....we're talking about cheap motoring full stop!

rodenal

I spent all day yesterday looking for a £500 car - both at auction and privately - I do mean all day btw and found nothing that wasn't a ticking timebomb.

There are definately cars out there for that kind of cash (i've bought them before) but your options open up so much more if you can even spend £800 instead of £500 - this wasn't for me so I couldn't make that call. Went to see 6 different private sales and viewed about another 10 in theory suitable cars at auction. Not a single one did not give me at least one major worry.

I could have spent 2 hours at auction with £800 and found something with a dry sump, nearly a years ticket maybe even some tax that I would have been comfortable that it would run for a year.

With regards to the cars to look at - you really cant be picky but the things you're most likely to get in decent condition will be small, old jap motors or big, older jap motors.

Think micra / primera / 323 / 626 etc and don't dismiss the mondeo either. Think you'll really struggle for a reasonable focus without upping the budget a couple of hundred quid. If you could do that then focus / mondeo would be my choice.

jase1

I totally agree re adding some more to the budget.

We bought a 2003 Mitsubishi, nearly two years ago now, for £1000. It has given no trouble, and I fully expect another 5 years out of this car. That I consider a good deal.

Yes, Mitsubishi parts can be a bit more expensive than some others but the only expenses on it have been a sticky caliper (£50 part), a lambda sensor (£30, fitted myself) and the cambelt (which was relatively expensive at £240 fitted but that included the water pump and tensioner and will likely see the car out now).

This is the reason I keep mentioning Korean. They're just as reliable as the mainstream cars and cost less to buy. This means you get a newer car -- and, generally speaking, the older a car gets the more problematic it becomes to get it through MOT. The Mitsubishi is still passing MOTs generally without issue -- because it isn't all that old.

The aforementioned Lanos is the current extreme example of a cheap small Korean box. Small-engined Hyundai Accents and Kia Rios provide more of the same, although the latter was hideously unrefined when it was new so gawd knows what they'll be like now.

The comments about the Micra gearbox were only meant to say that you shouldn't dismiss any make of car at this age just because of a potential terminal fault that probably won't happen when you have the car anyway.

jaydeeuk1

I had a daewoo lanos 1.6 before I scrappage schemed it. Incredibly reliable, despite 3 years of hard driving. Only scrapped because the heater matrix went, and it was winter, and its a b!tch of a job to do.

Not the most economical car you can get - I struggled to get 300 miles a tank, but cheap to insure as no one wants to steal it, and engines are bullet proof.