Thanks for all views, it's made me think.

I've got a used rear light to replace the taped-up one, the gas struts on order (my wife wouldn't manage with a broom), will get the aircon done then stop and drive it for a while. Since my Maserati sold yesterday I'll use the Jeep through the winter and if I still like it I may do the suspension overhaul then.

Still will look for cheap wheels/tyres and do a bit of paint tarting up, but that's because I enjoy it.

My rules with shedding is that the car can't cost more than £100 a month (including tax but excluding insurance and fuel) over the time I have it, once it is sold on, so a £1200 total spend over 10 months is fine if the car ends up scrapped for £200.

My reasoning for this is that £100 is generally the lowest monthly figure I think I could lease a boring but reliable eurobox for.

By paying £500 and spending £250 you're making the car better and therefore more likely to be still worth that £500 when you come to move it on.

Pics please !

Ok, pics at the weekend.

As I said, ARB bushes "while I'm in there", not an advisory. Tyres are fine, a little worn on one outer edge on one side but legal and not a concern. I'd like some better winter tyres when the time comes. Shocks were an advisory on "surface rust on body", so again not a concern but if I'm buying from Rock Auto they have a special on some Gabriel ones at very good prices. The front bushes were "slight play" so will be done soon, but the thing drives straight, stops straight and doesn't tramline so I'm happy to drive locally while I see if I need to order anything else.

My wife has a new C4 Picasso, so has the driving position she likes, she just couldn't drive my GranSport. She won't be driving it for a while I'm sure, but it wouldn't be a problem anyway.

Aircon got sorted as I had a day off, called a local chap to book it in and he happened to be free that afternoon. He fixed it on my drive while I ran errands, so saved me a weekend job. It wasn't a priority, just a happy coincidence.

In fairness it can be hard to resist the temptation of "Just one more item to fix..."

I've got a 28 year old BMW E30 323i which I'm running as my daily driver here in Malaysia (which is only slightly more insane than it sounds...). I wanted something I'd enjoy driving and which I could tinker with to keep it running well.

So far I've replaced tyres (cheap !!), brakes, various suspension bushes (cheap) and the prop-shaft centre-bearing (cheapish...) so the thing drives much better now, and I got the cambelt changed when the local mechanic (really cheap !!!) serviced the car and fitted the new air con compressor (not so cheap...).

I've probably done about 70% of the work, and only used the mechanic when I didn't have the tools or time to do the job myself.

Back of the envelope calcs show I'm in for about 2k for the car and maybe 800 quid on parts and labour over the course of a year. Which is substantially cheaper than leasing or renting a car here.

I do, however, have to stop myself from doing some of the jobs which would be considered non-essential - the rear sub-frame bushes are showing signs of wear, and the diff is a bit noisy, but neither of those stop the car running. I could convince myself that they would help me to sell the car later, but that would be a bit of a fib as it would be more about wanting to make the car better than when I bought it.

I reckon I could sell it tomorrow for what I paid for it, hopefully a bit more, so as bangernomics go it's probably working out well, but I just need to avoid spending any more money on it. If something catastrophic happens then it's not getting repaired, and will be sold as a parts car.