Who Else ENJOYS Bangernomics?

[egor110]

spreadsheet monkey said:

plums said:

Picked this up a few months back, slightly more pricy than others at £650 but it's firmly in shed territory.

60 in 9 seconds and 42mpg. Not a speck of rust.

That's pretty decent performance. Don't know much about the C2 - is it a VTR?

a clio 182 would do that in under 7 seconds and still have high 30's mpg.

[battered]

moustache said:

battered said:

Bangernomics has been around as a word for more than any 20 years. I'm guessing that if you are of an age to be getting a 309 at 17 for £450 then you are under 40, because if you were any older then a 309 was too new a car when you were 17 to be popping up at £450. I'd therefore guess that the word predates your use of the practice.

Wasn't aware of the term when I was younger, would love to see some evidence for this. The term banger was used but bangernomics? I'd take an educated guess that the word has come about through Internet forums, so please enlighten me.

According to an article in Autocar it predates the Internet:
" In 1989 a feature entitled ‘Better than Walking’ appeared in Steve Cropley’s brilliant magazine Buying Cars, and the word ‘Bangernomics’ appeared in print for the first time. A book followed shortly after."

I remember the book.

[spreadsheet monkey]

egor110 said:

spreadsheet monkey said:

plums said:

Picked this up a few months back, slightly more pricy than others at £650 but it's firmly in shed territory.

60 in 9 seconds and 42mpg. Not a speck of rust.

That's pretty decent performance. Don't know much about the C2 - is it a VTR?

a clio 182 would do that in under 7 seconds and still have high 30's mpg.

And you'd get a decent one for £650?

[ian316]

I love it, I've done everything from little fiats to xj8s i'm now on my 3rd w124 diesel all bought for under 1k, after getting totally burned on a brand new scorpio and vowing never again

[egor110]

spreadsheet monkey said:

egor110 said:

spreadsheet monkey said:

plums said:

Picked this up a few months back, slightly more pricy than others at £650 but it's firmly in shed territory.

60 in 9 seconds and 42mpg. Not a speck of rust.

That's pretty decent performance. Don't know much about the C2 - is it a VTR?

a clio 182 would do that in under 7 seconds and still have high 30's mpg.

And you'd get a decent one for £650?

Where did this £650 come from?

Bangernomics is a grand or under and for a grand yes i could get a 182 like i said earlier might take a while to get the right one with recent cambelt change and fresh feeling clutch , anything else needs to doing is cheap.

[Jazoli]

I like bangernomics too, my most recent purchase is a lightly battered Alfa 147 2.0, almost every panel is dented but it drives spot on, everything works, the AC is ice cold and its a very nice place to sit.

It cost me £400 and I've spent £30 on a thermostat, £29 on a battery, £39 on an AC regas kit and £30 on tracking and wheel balancing, it averages 32mpg on my 20 mile commute on b roads and is quite pokey, the tax is £25/month, its the best 'banger' I have had so far.

I can park it anywhere and not care, I have no evidence that the cambelt has been changed in its 145k miles but I'm not getting it done either.





Previous cheapies include a Puma 1.7, a £200 Avensis, a £100 Corsa (that has been given to youngest to learn in) lots of Focus's and Mondeo's, a Megane Cabrio, a 528i, an 850 Volvo, Cit ZX,, Pug 306, Audi A4, Accord, Golf GTI and loads more I can't remember, none of them cost me more than £500.

I also have a decent bike and my wife has a 2 year old car but I never really use it, she has changed jobs recently so that will probably be going and something cheaper bought.

I'm a firm believer in cheap cars, I've never really bought a bad one, I do most of my own spannering but these days get a mate to do anything that requires working underneath as I can't be arsed crawling around on the floor any more.

Edited by Jazoli on Sunday 31st July 22:13

[ian316]

Jazoli said:

I like bangernomics too, my most recent purchase is a lightly battered Alfa 147 2.0, almost every panel is dented but it drives spot on, everything works, the AC is ice cold and its a very nice place to sit.

It cost me £400 and I've spent £30 on a thermostat, £29 on a battery, £39 on an AC regas kit and £30 on tracking and wheel balancing, it averages 32mpg on my 20 mile commute on b roads and is quite pokey, the tax is £25/month, its the best 'banger' I have had so far.

I can park it anywhere and not care, I have no evidence that the cambelt has been changed in its 145k miles but I'm not getting it done either.





Previous cheapies include a Puma 1.7, a £200 Avensis, a £100 Corsa (that has been given to youngest to learn in) lots of Focus's and Mondeo's, a Megane Cabrio, a 528i, an 850 Volvo, Cit ZX,, Pug 306, Audi A4, Accord, Golf GTI and loads more I can't remember, none of them cost me more than £500.

I also have a decent bike and my my wife has a 2 year old car but I never really use it, she has changed jobs really so that will probably be going and something cheaper bought.

I'm a firm believer in cheap cars, I've never really bought a bad one, I do most of my own spannering but these days get a mate to do anything that requires working underneath as I can't be arsed crawling around on the floor any more.

nice place to sit

[bodmino]

This is a subject very dear to my heart.

Several years ago I bought a Ford Fiesta Ghia from a scrapyard for £200. My criteria for a banger is that it must have at least one panel which is a completely different colour from the rest if the car. In my case the Ghia was metallic green, but it sported a beige tailgate from a Fiesta Popular. I had no intention of rectifying this, and wore it as a badge of honour.

It was one of those cars which matched perfectly the Kwik Fit ads - tyres from £14.99, exhausts from £21.99.

I never locked it. Very handy when I accidentally got locked out of the flat. Went for a snooze in the car while awaiting the wife to return home.

I left it in a car park one night and the hub caps got stolen. If the thief had asked me I would have given him/her the hub caps, and saved the bother of sneaking around a car park in the dark.

Dents and ding were of no consequence

Ran the car for 18 months, and then gave it back to the scrapie. We used to refer to it as the povertymobile!

I now run 2 aircooled Porsches, an X5, an E92 M3, and a 1M. Still remember my povertymobile fondly.

[DegsyE39]

I love it, I paid £3800 for my e39 in 2008 and always ran that (reliable pretty much all the time for 8 years)

So though i had something nice and higher value to smoke about in (back then at least!) i was beyond jealous of my mate who was doing 8 bangers a year, He would appear in e36's mx5's ratty e30's MR2's Mazda 323's i used to pore over them all when he pulled up and have a good nosey round.

I couldnt afford to insure two cars till i hit 25 so a couple of shed's was not an option.
Since my 25th ive been banger obsessed its not a poverty thing its a lifestyle choice

This is what im smoking about in at the minute cost me £600 ran it up cleethorpes last night and dumped it in the carpark, Its got a tapedeck so i got some bunnymen tapes to roll in it with.
Gave it a good 3am blast on the way home though

Just the giffery smell and the heady exhaust blow id pay £600 for one hit of that

[DegsyE39]

bodmino said:

I left it in a car park one night and the hub caps got stolen. If the thief had asked me I would have given him/her the hub caps, and saved the bother of sneaking around a car park in the dark.

[Olivera]

Bangernomics is certainly worth doing, but only in combination with some nicer sports cars or classics.

On its own it just strikes me as little miserly or poverty stricken.

[battered]

Olivera said:

Bangernomics is certainly worth doing, but only in combination with some nicer sports cars or classics.

On its own it just strikes me as little miserly or poverty stricken.

No, it's a laugh on its own. I love the freedom I get from a car that I don't give a flying rat's ass about.

[carinaman]

moustache said:

battered said:

Bangernomics has been around as a word for more than any 20 years. I'm guessing that if you are of an age to be getting a 309 at 17 for £450 then you are under 40, because if you were any older then a 309 was too new a car when you were 17 to be popping up at £450. I'd therefore guess that the word predates your use of the practice.

Wasn't aware of the term when I was younger, would love to see some evidence for this. The term banger was used but bangernomics? I'd take an educated guess that the word has come about through Internet forums, so please enlighten me.

I expect the book is older than you. I don't know if James Ruppert has any left he could sell you:

http://www.jamesruppert.com/bangernomics-bible.htm...

[HustleRussell]

Olivera said:

Bangernomics is certainly worth doing, but only in combination with some nicer sports cars or classics.

On its own it just strikes me as little miserly or poverty stricken.

Time was that my bangers would tow my Caterham race car, until one sad day when the Caterham had to go and I was by then attached to my current banger, the E34 525i. A £5k restoration ensued. Bad bangernomics. However I then needed another banger while my BMW was being restored

I do feel the need to park my £250 Saxo well out of the way turning up to HSCC meetings when the other competitors are turning up in Mclarens and Ferraris though...

[battered]

Alfa with leather for £400 looks great. Seriously, at that price it's sensational. Yes, one day it will bite you. It's an Alfa. But until then it's a fantastic car, the 147 is a pretty thing, the 2L Twinspark is a joy, certainly better than those bloody troublesome boxers, and it's got leather seats. £400. Seller must be mad.

[Jazoli]

battered said:

Alfa with leather for £400 looks great. Seriously, at that price it's sensational. Yes, one day it will bite you. It's an Alfa. But until then it's a fantastic car, the 147 is a pretty thing, the 2L Twinspark is a joy, certainly better than those bloody troublesome boxers, and it's got leather seats. £400. Seller must be mad.

The seller was quite sane, the nsf wing is knackered, as is the osr door, the ns sill is damaged and both ns doors have dents and scrapes, on a brighter note the bonnet/roof/drivers door/bumpers and tailgate are in fantastic shape as is the interior, I have spent a bit of time sorting out a few niggles but everything is spot on, there's no warning lights on the dash, no fault codes and everything works as it is supposed to, I was going to buy an Alfa GT but this popped up so I thought I'd give it a go, its all the same underneath anyway, I will probably buy a GT when this fails.

[DegsyE39]

Olivera said:

Bangernomics is certainly worth doing, but only in combination with some nicer sports cars or classics.

On its own it just strikes me as little miserly or poverty stricken.

I do agree in some ways which is why i keep a clean and well looked after e39 as my second car,
But ive had the readies to buy much flashier cars im just far too tight/miserly,

And think of all the £500 cars 30 bags gets you!

BTW Mate nice cossie!

[plums]

spreadsheet monkey said:

That's pretty decent performance. Don't know much about the C2 - is it a VTR?

It's a 1.6 GT, same engine as the Vtr (110 hp) but with a manual gearbox and slightly less weight. Was a homologation special for the super 1600 rally car

[fooby]

When the exhaust fell of my Outback, it cost £120 and a £50 weld job as it used standard flanges. Took 3 days in total from falling off to being fixed.

When the exhaust just fell of my 106, it cost me £15 and a £2 for a new clamp. Took 30 minutes. 20 to pick the parts up, 10 to fit the new part in torrential rain.

It is nice not to have to worry about these things.

[320touring]

I do a curious mix of bangernomics and shedding.

The 205 diesel I have just bought is definitely a Bangernomics special - it's currently running on 40% wvo despite being fitted with a Lucas Fuel pump.

At the same time I have an old Citroen CX bought for banger money that came with a load of spare panels- it is definitely a barge (and needs work!)

I like owning stuff outright and not having to worry about leaving it anywhere - my e30 320i touring is a prime example of that, having taken me to Odessa and back in 2 weeks, plus Prague and back in 8 days. You can abandon it anywhere.