To Hire or to Shed?

[QuickQuack]

Hiring would be money down the drain and very expensive.

A shed might be abit too tatty and need some work.

What you need then, is a barge

Plenty of inspiration, toys and speed here http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[white_goodman]

I would go down the shed route personally. When I emigrated to Canada a few years ago, I had found a buyer for my Impreza WRX but he didn't want to wait the 6 weeks until I moved. I bought myself 700 pounds worth of Mercedes Estate.



It was a C250TD with 218k but 12 months MOT. The picture is rather flattering! Pretty much every panel was corroded and the bonnet stood a bit proud of the bodywork for some reason but it was faultlessly reliable for 6 weeks, only burned through one tank of fuel and it turned out to be a really useful car for moving out junk and stuff from our old house. I wasn't specifically looking for a Mercedes (anything half decent with a full MOT would have done) but it worked really well and was actually very pleasant and comfortable to drive. I sold it to a trader for 350 notes the day before we flew out. I would have liked to have got my money back but ran out of time to sell it and so what, I only "lost" 350 pounds and you will have more time to move your shed on privately. Also quite liberating, not having to worry about damaging a hire car.

When we used to come back for 3 weeks at a time and hire a standard hatchback (Astra or similar) from Avis that would normally cost around 500 pounds with the standard 1000 pound excess and the Mercedes drove much nicer. Should have kept it!

Alternatively, I believe this company (started by a PHer) may do longer term rentals depending on what area you will be in.
http://drivesouthwest.co.uk/

but I would still go down the shed route.

Edited by white_goodman on Wednesday 13th April 17:10

[andoverben]

My In Laws retired to the Philippines and come back every other year for about 6 weeks to do the cycle visiting assorted relatives. I always buy a Shed of some kind and then sell it when they go back. I haven't yet not made on the process. I normally buy on Gumtree and Sell on Ebay last time it was a 94 Peugeot 405 Diesel Estate (ran on Chip fat) bought for £290 on Gumtree with 6 months MOT sold on Ebay 6 Weeks later for £550 covering the cost of the Insurance.

If there are two choices and one of them is going to be go and buy an old car then that has always got to be the answer

[helix402]

HustleRussell said:

Bispal said:

Rob175kks said:

Shed! E39 5 series! (528/530)

Too expensive to repair, you can easily throw away £5,000 into a bad one that needs repairs, £700 for a caliper, £2,500 for an engine management module, £800 for an auxiliary fan, £150 for each tyre, £160 for each maff sensor and so on... been there and done that

Those must be dealership prices / new parts?

They are imaginary prices. Or someone has done some spectacular overcharging.

[Digby]

Shed.

£850 to £1500

Volvo S70 / V70 T5 (manual or auto). Great fun and £300 (roughly) will give you near 300 bhp.

[GoneToLA]

Black_S3 said:

There are companies that do 6 month lease options... They are only used by other companies, not individuals, as they're a very expensive way of having a base model car for 6 months.

For example it would cost £5200 to lease a 2.0 diesel A3 for 7 months from these people:

https://www.carsondemand.co.uk/short-term-car-leas...

Yes, this was my point about not being ripped off - I just couldn't bear the thought of spending 5k and having nothing to show for it after 7 months, even if I could afford it!

[GoneToLA]

INWB said:

This although i don't think many decent ones are around.

I could potentially go for one of these, although a quick initial search doesn't show many that appear too decent. I understand I can't be too fussy, of course!

[GoneToLA]

E46Rob said:

Lexus GS300? Comfortable, ultra reliable, great stereo, and not particularly slow!

Can't disagree with anything you've said. Not the prettiest car IMHO, but certainly one for the list - thanks!

[GoneToLA]

Chris-182 said:

My company can supply 6 month leases which would be much cheaper than renting! PM me if you want some prices

Thanks Chris. This is likely to be too expensive, however I'd appreciate more details. Tried to PM you, however 'member does not accept emails' was as far as I could get.

[battered]

Shed. I run 2. A 2003 Mondeo 1.8, cost £300 and a knackered Saab 2 years ago, and a Mazda MX-5, cost much less than £1k in November. No horrors with either. A mate has 3, all bought for under £500. A Honda Prelude auto, a Suzuki Ignis sport and a Tigra. Great fun, and each one gets a test for £not much. With insurance/VED they are ~£1k pa each, and you can sell them when you get bored.

[JD2329]

£1500 -£2000?
A lot of sensible (ish) potential buys to consider:
Modern classic Beemers - E39, E46, E38. V8s or I6s.
Ford Mondeo V6/ST200 - reliable, quick, underrated though not 250 bhp.
LS400/430 as a wafter barge has a lot going for it as does Jag X300/308 if you can find a good one.
One factor might be the amount of time you have to spend looking at a fairly high ratio of duffers before hitting gold (well hopefully silver at least)

[Glutton]

GoneToLA said:

Black_S3 said:

Shed. You wont rent anything decent here for sensible money (assuming you mean rent, not HP/Lease).

Yes - car rental is what I meant. 2-3 months approx.

Nobody has suggested this would be a decent option yet, so I assume long-ish term rental isn't sought after business for the big UK companies.

I work for one of said big four and we won't continuously rent for more than 28 days. Our risk profile goes through the roof on long term private rentals. I'd shed it, done properly you'll make your money back!

[GoneToLA]

seefarr said:

I faced a similar situation in reverse - we went to Canada for 3 months and had to decide whether to rent or own something. I ended up owning an F-150 for 3 months:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

When it all came back to $$$'s we ended up spending more on buying the car and re-selling (dealer to dealer sales). But we formed an emotional bond and had way more fun because we had something more ludicrous than you would even hire or actually want to own full time.

Buy.

Wow - that's quite a write up, and far braver than I could ever be. Congrats, and hope you've managed to get used to 'normal' life again.

Buying a car in California was a bit more complicated. IIRC, I needed a Social Security number and relevant visa. Used cars with service history were hard to find. There are oil change [while you wait] centres on every corner, so more often than not people use these. No MOT system either, which is why it's a joy to see so many older cars [eg Nissan 300ZX, E36 M3s, etc] on the road. Sales tax is payable every time a used car is sold, which I found a bit irritating when trying to find an M3 for approx $65k back in 2011. $6k tax on top please sir! Still, I guess it balances out [almost] to UK prices. For used cars at least. New are obviously less expensive, even with tax. Leasing is most definitely cheaper. SWMBO currently pays $329 [approx 235 at today's awful exchange rate] for a fully loaded Hyundai Sonata Hybrid, with free servicing. I'd take that for a few months in UK!

[GoneToLA]

[quote=BrightonEd]For what it's worth, I've bought many sheds over the years; more recently for friends know I can spot a good ' un.

Part of my checklist is:
New MOT
Low owners (having been moved through a family is ideal)
At least some service history
Private sale
What's the state of the sellers home? People that don't look after houses don;t look after cars!

Ideally, from a reliability point of view, I'd generally always buy Japanese at the low end of the market. Honda, ideally. They just run & run, and if you get one that's been maintained, you can skimp on it off you wish.

The last find was this Civic. Family owned, £60k, Honda S/history, working aircon - £1050

Thanks for the checklist. I'll use this as criteria if I go the shed route. Keeping things simple works well for me!

[nonsense]

Why not hire a shed? Depending on where in the country you are you can hire an ~2001 Honda Accord, Lexus ls400, other reliable jap for ~£35-50 a week. Aimed at American servicemen so loads around bases. ~£600 no risk, no insurance to pay, well serviced, no huge damage issues as with other rentals... Just a thought!

[GoneToLA]

loudlashadjuster said:

I recall trying to convince Mrs LLA that a LS430, A8 or X300 Jag was 'just the thing', but realistically the effort to move something like that on would have been more than the Ka.

I imagine I may have to have a similar conversation in the near future!

[Slow]

GoneToLA said:

loudlashadjuster said:

I recall trying to convince Mrs LLA that a LS430, A8 or X300 Jag was 'just the thing', but realistically the effort to move something like that on would have been more than the Ka.

I imagine I may have to have a similar conversation in the near future!

A cheap barge is easy to shift on, just put it in the bargain basement thread

[GoneToLA]

[quote=Bispal]I even rocked up in the Micra to test drive my McLaren.

I imagine that was quite an event!

I've wondered how turning up in a shed would go down with potential test drives. Not that I'd be looking at anything exotic. So if a Micra worked for McLaren, I should be absolutely fine!

[bearman68]

Fancy a really good Rover 75 Tourer. I have a diesel one for shed money. been really well looked after, and is close to pristine.
It's got matching tyres and a good history. Would suit perfectly. (except for the 250 hp)

[GoneToLA]

brickwall said:

For 2-3 months, shed all the way. Check out the Bargain barges 1-5 thread for inspiration and moral support.

Ah - the Barge thread. I'm a huge fan, and follow it pretty much every day. I thought about posting there, but didn't think my situation quite met the Bargisters' criteria!