The Poverty Spec Enthusiasts' Thread

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I've always had a thing for lowly specced versions of nice cars and having recently bought a Merc without such fripperies as rear headrests or an armrest, I'm rather enjoying the simplicity.

Discuss the greatest mingebag cars and their lack of standard equipment, post examples and laugh at the people who choose to spend a decent holiday's worth of money on additional trinkets.

Here's the option list for when my 230E was ordered



£989 is an awful lot of 1986 money for an Airbag.

And here's a beauty of a Range Rover without such "must haves" as a leather steering wheel or a box to change gears for you. Lovely.




http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1998-LAND-ROVER-RANGEROV...

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Just me then?

S280 ewith wheel-trims and cloth




http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1997-Mercedes-Benz-S-Cla...

Or this unusual X5 sporting a manual box, cloth and some rather understated alloys.




http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...

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jas xjr said:

I had a mk1 fiesta that had rubber mats instead of carpets and only 1 sunvisor,
Think it was a 950 popular

One sunvisor is properly mean, but rubber mats sounds ace.



I like a car with a massive clock where a rev-counter ought to be, just ticking away and forcing you to confront how cheap you were when you decided to get that base model.

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Max M4X WW said:

Hmm, not sure on this one.

At least it makes the car simple, for maintenance etc in the future but when I ordered my Leased M135i I just couldn't spec a 30k car without sat-nav. If only for the next owner..

M135is have quite a bit as standard, don't they?


And I'm sure your lease cost will have gone up showing you that the next owner won't value those options quite as much as BMW ask for them.

cptsideways said:

My Lupo 3L is void of all luxuries, clockwork windows, no PAS, no a/c, no rear headrests, it also only weighs 780kg.

However it does have four "Jesus Christ" handles which seems A utterly pointless & B an oversight on the extraordinary weight saving details they went to, to get the thing to do 100mpg.

It's currently my fave car to drive, though I do have & itch & hankering for a 760iL to make up for the lack of gadgets

A car and nothing more. The purity is very appealing to my minimalist tendencies. I do love a fully laden Barge too so I reckon that'd make a fantastic combo.

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http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MERCEDES-BENZ-COUPE-CLAS...

Cloth and wheel-trims somehow make it classier. Air-con shows a discerning first owner rather than one who was simply cheap.

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Toaster Pilot said:

My base model Kia Picanto went one better than that - MASSIVE fuel gauge where the rev counter should be!

I wonder how much they can actually save, by designing and tooling up for a large fuel gauge over fitting everything with a rev counter. Must be worthwhile.

mickyveloce said:

I currently own (although it's for sale) a deliciously low spec W124 E280 with cloth and wheeltrims; it affords less distractions to allow the owner to concentrate on the quality of the engineering.

Indeed, despite my car's lowly spec, it never feels anything other than absolutely lovely and like it's missing out.

wildcat45 said:

I used to love the steel wheel base spec Discos.

I'd love a 3-door, manual, steel wheeled, V8 Disco in that flat blue colour. Yum.

That TVR price list is amazing. £8.67 for a door mirror sounds good to me.

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kapiteinlangzaam said:

Did you see the one I linked to in the 1-5 thread a while ago? Twas a Japanese import, looked spiffy.

Our neighbour is serious old money and rattles around in a very early MK1 Disco in dark green (albeit with a diesel engine). Its a rumbly old Hector, but a great old thing. Most of the exterior paint burned off years ago and you can hear it start on a cold morning from about 10km away

Yeh, that one looked like a peach and a lot tidier than most of the UK ones you see. Must've been rare over there given that Honda sold that rebadged Crossroads job.

NNH said:

I might be missing the point of this thread, but when I got my Cayman I went for the little 2.7 engine and full poverty spec except for the stuff that made it faster: 6-speed box, active dampers, and Xenon headlights. It's even got the super-base (definitely not super-bass) 2-speaker stereo system. I've still got it seven years later so I guess the resale value isn't so crucial now.

Sounds perfect to me. All about the driving, without added weight or distraction.

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Erudite geezer said:

That's a beauty! (perhaps beauty is the wrong word)

Erudite geezer said:

My parents had a T4 based camper with a blanking plate instead of a stereo, but worse was the fact it lacked PAS. Swivelling velour captains chairs though!


Like that Polo N. Bet it shaved a few kg off the better appointed models!



The hero of the poverty spec enthusiast:


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RARE-1996-PEUGEOT-106-RA...

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Loving the DC5 and Integrale. Proper driving machines.

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Dapster said:

DoctorX said:

The MK1 base (E?) had a crappy round headlight in the square hole.

My sister's driving instructor had one of those back in the 80's!

Quite a sporty look.



The Sanderos are great; You just go in and buy a new car with a warranty for peanuts and don't even have to worry about the colour.


Were I forced to buy new, I'd take a Duster Access 4x4



and a Caterham Seven 160

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chrisb92 said:

Taz1383 said:

So basically you're lazy?

Nope. Just miffed at getting that piece of crap. Even the staff were laughing at me

Probably not because you traded one anonymous hatchback for another smaller one though.

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http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1986-MERCEDES-200t-w124-...

A revival of the thread for this stunner.

Fuel Injection? No
Auto box? No
Electric Windows? None
Stereo? No
Metallic Paint? No


The list goes on (or perhaps doesn't)


I love it.

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chris333 said:

none of those things, but a specific slab of wood to match the exact switches fitted rather than the horror of blank bits of plastic. The brilliance and madness of the old-school Mercedes.

It shows how Merc used to build cars by making them as good as they could be.

It's a cliche, but nowadays the marketing and sales people would hate the idea and insist blank switches sell options, I'm sure.


I bet my current car had a list price around 3 times that of the red one which seems crazy.