Bangernomics- the game's moved on

Totally agree, so many cars with no MOT at seemingly extortionate prices though if you have the tools and know how, as always there's money to be made, just not as much.

Cheap retro-ish car, W202. Picked the closer one up for £1000 a few months ago, the other one was a bit more expensive but not by far, no faults other than being too high off the ground. The more expensive one had an issue which made it unuseable for a while but i'm cheap/stubborn and could have just taken it to a garage to be fixed rather than doing it myself. I have definitely seen similarly aged and slightly newer estate C classes and E classes for cheap.



I've got my nose into Audi 100s at the minute, seen a good few V6's in saloon and estate form, I'd call them cars that have been used for walking the dogs. But that doesnt and has never bothered me. 700-1500 fairly easily.

Cheap not so retro car, VW fox - they're £500-700 all day, I got this 1.8t converted one for £1500 in march off my brother who owned it for all of 2 weeks. I paid what he did.

Something about needing to fit larger loads? I fit a vespa in it already, despite not being able to see the wheels and suspension, rest assured they're on there.



If you're feeling particularly brave, discovery 3's are cheap atm - 2004-2008

what is it? i didn't know Renault even made anything 4x4

datman

Renault Kaleos I believe. Couldn't tell you a thing about them it seems to have bypassed me somewhat that generation of faux by four

Appear to be only available with 2.0 dci engine so early ones will be non ulez compliant hence the are completely off my radar 🙄😐

I believe it was a joint venture with Samsung! And not Nissan at all underneath

My 2005 Sorento was £1200 three years ago with a new MOT., recent clutch and flywheel and recent new brakes. I didn't really want it but needed something after my Jumbuck died.
Three years later I've still got it and love it. It's an absolute unit, I can leave it anywhere and not worry, it does tip runs, hauls project parts and id comfy on long runs.
Unfortunately this year is decision time as last MOT I was told not to take the curse word with the sills again!! Then last week one of the top radius arm brackets broke off the axle.
As I can't find anything that comes close for the money I'm going to sort it all.
I must be mad.

i still get bargains knocking on doors. Bought a 57 plate Fabia Automatic the other day for 250, didn't take too much to get it back on the road. I bought a pretty decent 08 Ibiza for 400 needing rear brakes and front wishbone bushes. Car bodywork lasts better than it did in the old days.

I think the floor of new cars getting pricier hasn't helped, as well as the price of 5 year old cars, or we are just getting old.

5 or 6 years ago, Dacias were sub £10k, meaning a warrantied non-hassle car car was sensible cash. They are now practically double what they were. Other cheap new cars have either gone (like the C1 based cars) or are on their way out.

Naturally, this makes folks look secondhand. But they have rocketed up in price over 2 decades. If I remember what my parents and I paid for cars.

-'89 Ford Escort in 1997 : £1.8k
-'00 Focus 1.6 Zetec w/Climate Pack in 2005, albeit with 123k : £1.8k
-'00 Pug 306 GTi-6 in 2007 : £2.3k
-'05 Mondeo Ghia X V6 in 2011 : £3.5k
-'58 Mondeo Ghia 2.5T in 2014 : £3.5k : A nice diesel was £6k then.

For a 5-7 year old car now, which you'd actually want to trust, it more like £12k+. That inevitably will make the 'next best' thing pricier as a domino effect.

My brother wanted a ULEZ compliant Derv. Since Covid, and the car shortage, they have been pricey!

Cars breaking well due to spares prices doesn't help either. Stuff for older cars just isn't made anymore, helping the secondhand market.

I have to say I dropped lucky with my avensis, Its a 2.0 diesel, no cruise control but has sat nav!, does about 60 mpg on a run, I put £35.00 in it in southend, drove back to leicestershire, drove to work and back for a week, Drove to skegness and all around there and to mabblethorpe and put more fuel in half the way back to leicestershire, Its a boring car don't get me wrong, But it does the job

Mrs BC had an Avensis at work as a pool car (purchased brand new by the company) anyone and everyone drove it - it had parking scrapes on every corner - dents in every panel (even the roof) it stank inside because milk or yoghurt had been spilt years ago but every year mot was either tyres or brakes - it had massive mileage - no-one ever checked any of the fluids until a light told them to do it and even then it was often ignored and often only corrected at the annual service (which was often 20,000 miles since the last one)

It was affectionately called the cockroach because it seemed like it was impossible to kill