Best of the Bargain Basement Vol. 2

[TwistingMyMelon]

dooosuk said:

Emeye said:

Last week I pretty much guaranteed myself a life of bangernomics after putting a strong offer in on a project house that will hopefully become our family home forever.

I've been struggling to find a daily 4x4 in thread budget, so I've started looking at estates but decent ones of them seem in short supply.

I need a decent sized load-lugger to help while I'm doing up this house, but which will also get me 7 miles to and from the office in the week and cope with the odd long journey to customer meetings in comfort, all the time without looking too much like a shed!

I've even upped the searching budget - I was gutted to miss out on what looked like a mint Audi A6 Avant 1.9TDi manual with 120k on the clock for £1750.

Am I being unrealistic? If I stuck to saloons like the S60 2.4 posted earlier I reckon it would be much easier - I've done well out of the unpopular large engined saloons in the past - bargain 4x4s and estates are a whole new ball game!

Edited by Emeye on Monday 4th May 22:06

Edited by Emeye on Monday 4th May 23:17

Petrol Mazda 6 Estate. Sure, it's not interesting but mine has been reliable and an invaluable tip car whilst doing work on my house and garden. Chain driven too.

Had the hatchback for a while, great car, felt a bit flimsy (door trim) but was a solid good drive. Great value, but watch out for rust as the arches go bad! Also with mine, some parts were quite pricey, I had two suspension arms done for £500! I trust the garage as well. Looking at the history, it needed nothing bar oil and coolant changes until 80k when some suspension bits needed doing . So the first 80k miles were dirt cheap!

[Buff Mchugelarge]

jogger1976 said:

34k miler, mint Saab 9-5 for 900 notes http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...

That is an utter bargain, If I had the money I'd have that over an Aero 2.3t, shame it doesn't have cow though, but for the money?.. amazing amount of car
It'll remap to 220Bhp easily too..

[Emeye]

Buff Mchugelarge said:

That is an utter bargain, If I had the money I'd have that over an Aero 2.3t, shame it doesn't have cow though, but for the money?.. amazing amount of car
It'll remap to 220Bhp easily too..

Shame it's not an estate, or even a hatch!

That Mondeo S looks OK too, but my thinking is I might as well get a 1.8 or 2.0 petrol for better economy - I wonder if it needs a cambelt change - who is the pistonheader selling it?

Saying that, the last cheap estate I got when I did up a house was a £1000 automatic E34 Touring 525i - not economical at all! lol But it wasn't my daily driver so I didn't care.

[BorkFactor]

Emeye said:

That Mondeo S looks OK too, but my thinking is I might as well get a 1.8 or 2.0 petrol for better economy - I wonder if it needs a cambelt change - who is the pistonheader selling it?

The 2.0 is the best compromise between performance and economy, pretty much the same as the 1.8 but with more go I believe. I had a 1.8 hatch and it was perfectly acceptable. Fairly sure they are all chain driven engines, the V6 in my mk2 certainly was. It wasn't that thirsty, and made a great noise!

No idea who it is, sorry!

[TheJimi]

Emeye said:

Last week I pretty much guaranteed myself a life of bangernomics after putting a strong offer in on a project house...

Will this house purchase / renovation actually permanently reduce your ability to buy / do anything fun?

If so, why would you do that?!

[Emeye]

TheJimi said:

Emeye said:

Last week I pretty much guaranteed myself a life of bangernomics after putting a strong offer in on a project house...

Will this house purchase / renovation actually permanently reduce your ability to buy / do anything fun?

If so, why would you do that?!

I may have been exaggerating slightly. But for the time being a decent car is the least of my worries - and I love messing around with old bargain cars - the new house has a garage and plenty of room to park a couple of spares, so I will be able to indulge my passion after I've done the house up - something I quite enjoyed the last time!

[deeen]

TheJimi said:

Will this house purchase / renovation actually permanently reduce your ability to buy / do anything fun?

If so, why would you do that?!

Are you suggesting bargeonomics isn't fun?

[W00DY]

All being well I'll collect a new bargain motor at the weekend. Pretty excited.

[GeordieInExile]

deeen said:

Are you suggesting bargeonomics isn't fun?

It definitely is. Spent a little time yesterday evening loosening the bolts on the inside of my offside front wing, levering the wing out and bolting it back into place after a van sideswiped me at a roundabout and bent the wing over the bonnet slightly. In a nice, expensive car I'd have been absolutely seething; in my sheddy sub-£1000 Rover I shook it off, was thankful I wasn't injured, and got to work bodging a fix. Sorted out a clogged plenum drainage pipe while I was there into the bargain.

The dent, the scrape (from a slight parking mishap, my fault), the filthy exterior, the Shed sticker, the weird aura of dead old man on the inside... all part of the fun.

[trooperiziz]

Emeye said:

Last week I pretty much guaranteed myself a life of bangernomics after putting a strong offer in on a project house that will hopefully become our family home forever.

I've been struggling to find a daily 4x4 in thread budget, so I've started looking at estates but decent ones of them seem in short supply.

I need a decent sized load-lugger to help while I'm doing up this house, but which will also get me 7 miles to and from the office in the week and cope with the odd long journey to customer meetings in comfort, all the time without looking too much like a shed!

I've even upped the searching budget - I was gutted to miss out on what looked like a mint Audi A6 Avant 1.9TDi manual with 120k on the clock for £1750.

Am I being unrealistic? If I stuck to saloons like the S60 2.4 posted earlier I reckon it would be much easier - I've done well out of the unpopular large engined saloons in the past - bargain 4x4s and estates are a whole new ball game!

Edited by Emeye on Monday 4th May 22:06

Edited by Emeye on Monday 4th May 23:17

I bought my Subaru Outback 3.0Rn for £1500, which seems like it would fit the bill for your needs, if you can find one.

[S3_Graham]

trooperiziz said:

Emeye said:

Last week I pretty much guaranteed myself a life of bangernomics after putting a strong offer in on a project house that will hopefully become our family home forever.

I've been struggling to find a daily 4x4 in thread budget, so I've started looking at estates but decent ones of them seem in short supply.

I need a decent sized load-lugger to help while I'm doing up this house, but which will also get me 7 miles to and from the office in the week and cope with the odd long journey to customer meetings in comfort, all the time without looking too much like a shed!

I've even upped the searching budget - I was gutted to miss out on what looked like a mint Audi A6 Avant 1.9TDi manual with 120k on the clock for £1750.

Am I being unrealistic? If I stuck to saloons like the S60 2.4 posted earlier I reckon it would be much easier - I've done well out of the unpopular large engined saloons in the past - bargain 4x4s and estates are a whole new ball game!

Edited by Emeye on Monday 4th May 22:06

Edited by Emeye on Monday 4th May 23:17

I bought my Subaru Outback 3.0Rn for £1500, which seems like it would fit the bill for your needs, if you can find one.

Sounds like you need a W(s)124 Mercedes. Plenty of estates around for under £1000. Giant boot, brilliant build quality, bags of character and dare I say it, you may even make some money on it in the long term?

[GeordieInExile]

Big, classy, load lugging estate, eh... how about a V70?

[idiotgap]

AMG estate in bargain budget!
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/spotted-ebay/190846...

[TonyRPH]

idiotgap said:

AMG estate in bargain budget!
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/spotted-ebay/190846...

lol the dirty great LPG tank in the back reduces it's versatility somewhat.

Quite horrendous actually.

[Usget]

idiotgap said:

AMG estate in bargain budget!
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/spotted-ebay/190846...

I need a fast barge for a mate's stag do.
That's going to be very, very hard to resist.

[31mph]

Usget said:

I need a fast barge for a mate's stag do.

I'm intrigued....

[Emeye]

TonyRPH said:

idiotgap said:

AMG estate in bargain budget!
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/spotted-ebay/190846...

lol the dirty great LPG tank in the back reduces it's versatility somewhat.

Quite horrendous actually.

Shame - I'd be on that otherwise

[Usget]

31mph said:

Usget said:

I need a fast barge for a mate's stag do.

I'm intrigued....

Four blokes, one barge, the Northern Lights.

That's as far as the plan goes at the moment. I know someone on here has done a similar trip and was planning on lifting their itinerary.

Genuinely want this and am trying to persuade other parties at present. I know the old joke about "worth more in parts" is normally just that - a joke - but this one genuinely must be, no?

[W00DY]

Usget said:

31mph said:

Usget said:

I need a fast barge for a mate's stag do.

I'm intrigued....

Four blokes, one barge, the Northern Lights.

That's as far as the plan goes at the moment. I know someone on here has done a similar trip and was planning on lifting their itinerary.

Genuinely want this and am trying to persuade other parties at present. I know the old joke about "worth more in parts" is normally just that - a joke - but this one genuinely must be, no?

It depends on how many parts survive the catastrophic failure! Being serious it's a steal and you really can't go wrong.

[jogger1976]

2 days left on this and up for spares or repair. Worth a punt?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1993-MERCEDES-E250-D-WHI...