RE: Shed Of The ... Year!
Friday 26th December 2014
Test your b*lls on buys of folly
Tra la la la la, la la la la
What, it's seizing? Put more oil in
Tra la la la la, la la la la etc
Bringing up the foot of the table. Looks sadIt's traditional for end of year reports like this to say 'what a year', 'best one ever', and 'so difficult to pick winners'. Shed's not into that sort of nonsense. He's a take me as you find me type of guy. Unfortunately, Mrs Shed is a nothing's ever good enough type of gal, but it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good. At least the long separations caused by the Sheds' marital incompatibility do at least allow Mr Shed the quiet time he needs to scour the PH classifieds in search of suitable £1K chariots with tax and test, and to produce the 2014 round-up you are now reading.
10 - BMW 740i
This 4.4 litre V8 Bondmobile in Calypso Red and black leather had a few PHers looking hard at their powerfully-built piggybanks until someone on the thread posted a shot of the vendor ragging it mightily on some open ground. The drift-related nature of the vendor's PH handle and the fact that the 740 needed two new rear tyres didn't really help his cause. Sawn-off backboxes probably wouldn't have been high up on a prospective buyer's wishlist either. "I feel sorry for the guy who has paid to advertise his car on PistonHeads, only to have it 'dissed' here by the armchair mafia," said BlimeyCharlie. In the owner's defence he was quite open about everything, it was only £750, and the car did have a nice LPG system to help keep the fuel costs down.
9 - Renaultsport Clio 172
£600 for a running and MOT'd Clio 172 sounded like a cruel April Fool's joke, but that's what we had in November 2013. Two months later, this rather less scabby example came along. Like the £600 car, it really needed the dreaded belt/dephaser job doing for ultimate peace of mind, but apart from that it was chalk and cheese. Most consumable items on the January car had been replaced or renewed, and it looked a picture in silver. Even the notorious 172 Jelly Tots steering wheel was notable by its absence. Knock the vendor down a bit, add £400 or so for the belts and you'd have a low-mileage 172 worth rather more than the sum of its parts. "UK is spoiled with regard to car prices," said rassi. "In Belgium the cheapest 172s start at 4000 euro." Well, that'll teach you for living in Belgium.
8 - Mazda RX-8
Rarely does a vehicle as recent as an '05 plate appear in SOTW. Given its reputation for engine failure, the rotary Mazda was always going to have a chance, but then again it wouldn't because we wouldn't be featuring non-runners. This lovely red one with a genuine factory bodykit did run: it just didn't like hot-starting. Helpfully, Shed suggested two options - simply leave the thing running, or, based on the vendor's promise that it cold-started no problem, buy it as a high-thrills commuter vehicle. Though there was plenty of reassurance on the thread from experienced owners, most seemed to agree with Shed's assessment of RX-8s as lovely cars that nobody would touch with a bargepole while wearing an ebola suit in the near-perfect vacuum of outer space.
7 - Vauxhall Omega V6
An unlikely top 10 candidate you might think, but then again this was a very nice example of the big Vaux loafer, as popularised (sic) by UK traffic police in the 1990s. A refreshing alternative to the usual German suspects, albeit one built in Germany rather than Luton, our low-mileage and apparently rust-free MV6 got forumsters thinking about the idea of shoving an LS1 V8 in there to create a faux-Monaro. Essel remembered his boss's 2.5: "Leaving it in sport mode, hitting resume on cruise at about 30 and having the engine redline through the gears - lovely sound. Could never get the instant fuel consumption below 7mpg though." Hand in your PH papers on the way out please.
6 - Volvo S40 T4
The owner of this banana-yellow hot Volvo (sounds funny) reckoned it left Civic Type Rs for dead. Shed's research indicated a different reality, though it was closer than you'd think: Gothenburg's VVT engine turned out the same 200hp as the CTR, and despite appearances, the Swedish package didn't weigh that much more than the Honda. With plenty of cred courtesy of Rickard Rydell's exploits in the '98 S40 Touring Car, this lowered street sleeper offered exclusivity - with only eight Panama Yellow T4s on UK roads at the time of sale - and speed, albeit with the potential for backache. "Fast Volvos have a charm all of their own," said kapiteinlangzaam. "A very good shed."
5 - Ford Escort XR3i Convertible
There's big interest in old Fords. Even prosaic models like the Mk3 Escort are feeling the warm benefit of the crazy prices being asked for sporting variants of the Mk1 and 2. This baboon's-bum red Mk 3/4 XR3i Convertible promised the vintage pleasures of scuttle shake and aftermarket wheels, but on the plus side it was clean and relatively rot-free. The vendor sounded slightly desperate to get rid, having only owned it for two months, splitting the forum into two camps: old-school fans who quite fancied it, and the rest who 'wouldn't touch it with yours'. "The advert just screams 'run away!!!!'" said AdeV. Mrs Shed liked it though.
4 - Nissan Primera GT
Produced in 1998 to celebrate Nissan's two BTCC victories, the Primera 2.0 GT Special Edition Mystic came in highly distinctive (if an expensive nightmare to colour-match) two-tone 'flip' green paint. The specialist owner had meticulously looked after the car and was offering a spares package as part of the deal, including a tin of the elusive chromoflair paint. The forum wasn't sure about some of his tweaks ("Nice shed, bar the mods", said Barchettaman) but generally approved of this tough, capable and rare five-seater hatch.
3 - Mitsubishi GTO
The third most-read Shed of the year, and coincidentally the third most powerful car we featured in 2014, this Mitsubishi uber-coupe was gagging for a tin or two of T-Cut. Underneath the rough charm of its black(ish) bodywork lurked an old-school twin-turbocharged big six with the potential to deliver up to 700hp. Besides plenty of cash to splash on go-faster bits, a buyer would also need a barrowload of blind faith: the GTO motor may be simple, but the Amstrad-era electronics controlling about a thousand traction control and steering systems aren't. "A brave buy," noted soad.
2 - BMW 328i
BMW's 2.8 six is one of the all-time great car engines. Mounted in a E46 3 Series Coupé like this clean, green family-owned specimen making light of its 146,000 miles, it becomes a luscious temptress capable of turning many a head beyond the usual throng of Munchen munchkins. With fresh rubber on minty M-Tech alloys and a full MOT, it looked good value. "Can't argue with that for a grand," said J4CKO. Which made the actual asking price of £950 even more tempting.
1 - Mercedes 500SEC
Proving that there is no substitute for quality, power, and the future classic status of a small-volume de luxe motor that was only available in UK showrooms for one year, this W140 500SEC was snapped up just before it went live on SOTW. We left it on anyway. Shed described it as 'the cruise liner of the W140 range, a boulevardier par excellence aimed at older, Hamlet-smoking men with pink trousers, platinum quiffs and a Thai bride in the boot, alongside the gold-plated 3 iron.' Irocfan pithily summed up the Merc's gargantuan appeal and its potential to bring on financial meltdown: "You'd have to have bigger balls than me to get that... it is suitably epic though." At 316hp, easily the biggest bang for the PHer's buck this year.
A contender with more time perhaps?At the bottom of the 2014 SOTW popularity list, based on them being perceived as too niche, too dull or too scary, were a Mazda MX-5, an MG TF and, scoring two out of three on the 'thanks but no thanks' scale to take our overall Raspberry of 2014, this Alfa 145 Cloverleaf.
Shed Of The ... Year!
Shed sits back in his armchair and reflects on his favourite sub-grand car of 2014
Tra la la la la, la la la la
What, it's seizing? Put more oil in
Tra la la la la, la la la la etc
Yes, poetry is hard. And yes, it's that time of year, the season of peace on Earth and goodwill to all men, apart from the total bounders who try to stitch you up with a right stinker at one grand or less, irrespective of religious or other festivals.
Bringing up the foot of the table. Looks sad
The simple rules of the SOTW game have been made even simpler this year with the Government's decision to scrap tax discs, and with it the transferability of unused tax-dosh to a car's new owner. So now, all a car needs to attract Shed's attention is a valid MoT and of course some degree of desirability.
This year, 25 different marques have been represented in the 51 Sheds featured. Contrary to popular myth, only eight of them were German. We've had four Alfas, three BMWs, a Fiat, two Fords, a Ginetta, a Honda, three Jags, one Lexus, two Land Rovers, three Mazdas, four Mercs, two MGs, two Mitsubishis, one Mitsuoka (sort of), two Nissans, a Peugeot, two Renaults, two Rovers, two Saabs, a Subaru, a Suzuki, three Toyotas, one Vauxhall, four Volvos and a Volkswagen in a pear tree.
We've had a few high-horse Sheds this year, including a 275hp Mercedes E430, a 280hp Mitsubishi GTO, a 280hp Lexus LS400, and a 286hp BMW 740 - plus one more that would blow them all out of the water.
So let's see what 2014 brought to the world of Shedonism, with the top 10 most visited Shed forums. As per tradition, we will be going in reverse order. When you've read one, please make sure you insert a huge dramatic pause before looking at the next one. Thank you.
This 4.4 litre V8 Bondmobile in Calypso Red and black leather had a few PHers looking hard at their powerfully-built piggybanks until someone on the thread posted a shot of the vendor ragging it mightily on some open ground. The drift-related nature of the vendor's PH handle and the fact that the 740 needed two new rear tyres didn't really help his cause. Sawn-off backboxes probably wouldn't have been high up on a prospective buyer's wishlist either. "I feel sorry for the guy who has paid to advertise his car on PistonHeads, only to have it 'dissed' here by the armchair mafia," said BlimeyCharlie. In the owner's defence he was quite open about everything, it was only £750, and the car did have a nice LPG system to help keep the fuel costs down.
£600 for a running and MOT'd Clio 172 sounded like a cruel April Fool's joke, but that's what we had in November 2013. Two months later, this rather less scabby example came along. Like the £600 car, it really needed the dreaded belt/dephaser job doing for ultimate peace of mind, but apart from that it was chalk and cheese. Most consumable items on the January car had been replaced or renewed, and it looked a picture in silver. Even the notorious 172 Jelly Tots steering wheel was notable by its absence. Knock the vendor down a bit, add £400 or so for the belts and you'd have a low-mileage 172 worth rather more than the sum of its parts. "UK is spoiled with regard to car prices," said rassi. "In Belgium the cheapest 172s start at 4000 euro." Well, that'll teach you for living in Belgium.
Rarely does a vehicle as recent as an '05 plate appear in SOTW. Given its reputation for engine failure, the rotary Mazda was always going to have a chance, but then again it wouldn't because we wouldn't be featuring non-runners. This lovely red one with a genuine factory bodykit did run: it just didn't like hot-starting. Helpfully, Shed suggested two options - simply leave the thing running, or, based on the vendor's promise that it cold-started no problem, buy it as a high-thrills commuter vehicle. Though there was plenty of reassurance on the thread from experienced owners, most seemed to agree with Shed's assessment of RX-8s as lovely cars that nobody would touch with a bargepole while wearing an ebola suit in the near-perfect vacuum of outer space.
An unlikely top 10 candidate you might think, but then again this was a very nice example of the big Vaux loafer, as popularised (sic) by UK traffic police in the 1990s. A refreshing alternative to the usual German suspects, albeit one built in Germany rather than Luton, our low-mileage and apparently rust-free MV6 got forumsters thinking about the idea of shoving an LS1 V8 in there to create a faux-Monaro. Essel remembered his boss's 2.5: "Leaving it in sport mode, hitting resume on cruise at about 30 and having the engine redline through the gears - lovely sound. Could never get the instant fuel consumption below 7mpg though." Hand in your PH papers on the way out please.
The owner of this banana-yellow hot Volvo (sounds funny) reckoned it left Civic Type Rs for dead. Shed's research indicated a different reality, though it was closer than you'd think: Gothenburg's VVT engine turned out the same 200hp as the CTR, and despite appearances, the Swedish package didn't weigh that much more than the Honda. With plenty of cred courtesy of Rickard Rydell's exploits in the '98 S40 Touring Car, this lowered street sleeper offered exclusivity - with only eight Panama Yellow T4s on UK roads at the time of sale - and speed, albeit with the potential for backache. "Fast Volvos have a charm all of their own," said kapiteinlangzaam. "A very good shed."
There's big interest in old Fords. Even prosaic models like the Mk3 Escort are feeling the warm benefit of the crazy prices being asked for sporting variants of the Mk1 and 2. This baboon's-bum red Mk 3/4 XR3i Convertible promised the vintage pleasures of scuttle shake and aftermarket wheels, but on the plus side it was clean and relatively rot-free. The vendor sounded slightly desperate to get rid, having only owned it for two months, splitting the forum into two camps: old-school fans who quite fancied it, and the rest who 'wouldn't touch it with yours'. "The advert just screams 'run away!!!!'" said AdeV. Mrs Shed liked it though.
Produced in 1998 to celebrate Nissan's two BTCC victories, the Primera 2.0 GT Special Edition Mystic came in highly distinctive (if an expensive nightmare to colour-match) two-tone 'flip' green paint. The specialist owner had meticulously looked after the car and was offering a spares package as part of the deal, including a tin of the elusive chromoflair paint. The forum wasn't sure about some of his tweaks ("Nice shed, bar the mods", said Barchettaman) but generally approved of this tough, capable and rare five-seater hatch.
The third most-read Shed of the year, and coincidentally the third most powerful car we featured in 2014, this Mitsubishi uber-coupe was gagging for a tin or two of T-Cut. Underneath the rough charm of its black(ish) bodywork lurked an old-school twin-turbocharged big six with the potential to deliver up to 700hp. Besides plenty of cash to splash on go-faster bits, a buyer would also need a barrowload of blind faith: the GTO motor may be simple, but the Amstrad-era electronics controlling about a thousand traction control and steering systems aren't. "A brave buy," noted soad.
BMW's 2.8 six is one of the all-time great car engines. Mounted in a E46 3 Series Coupé like this clean, green family-owned specimen making light of its 146,000 miles, it becomes a luscious temptress capable of turning many a head beyond the usual throng of Munchen munchkins. With fresh rubber on minty M-Tech alloys and a full MOT, it looked good value. "Can't argue with that for a grand," said J4CKO. Which made the actual asking price of £950 even more tempting.
Proving that there is no substitute for quality, power, and the future classic status of a small-volume de luxe motor that was only available in UK showrooms for one year, this W140 500SEC was snapped up just before it went live on SOTW. We left it on anyway. Shed described it as 'the cruise liner of the W140 range, a boulevardier par excellence aimed at older, Hamlet-smoking men with pink trousers, platinum quiffs and a Thai bride in the boot, alongside the gold-plated 3 iron.' Irocfan pithily summed up the Merc's gargantuan appeal and its potential to bring on financial meltdown: "You'd have to have bigger balls than me to get that... it is suitably epic though." At 316hp, easily the biggest bang for the PHer's buck this year.
A contender with more time perhaps?
Honourable mention must surely be made of the Renault 5 Monaco. Quantifying forum love is never easy but our gut feeling is that this Piz Buin-bronzed, leathered-up cutie received more of it than any other SOTW. Funny that.
Discussion
Here's to another year of shedding to all those bargain basement wafters, plodders rattlers and zingers out there.
I hope your rear demister is still functioning this morning ( because you'd never keep a shed in the garage- that would be weird)
Every week a great read, especially the article but including the forum posts.
Id guess one in four weeks has me looking at the classifieds for a car I don't need. But that's the point for some, it might be a necessity for others.
Loved the primera - the 'most likely to give years of service' award and the 5 Monaco for the 'My mum had one of these, but the s
t cheap version' award
I hope your rear demister is still functioning this morning ( because you'd never keep a shed in the garage- that would be weird)
Every week a great read, especially the article but including the forum posts.
Id guess one in four weeks has me looking at the classifieds for a car I don't need. But that's the point for some, it might be a necessity for others.
Loved the primera - the 'most likely to give years of service' award and the 5 Monaco for the 'My mum had one of these, but the s
t cheap version' awardThe Mercedes is a good shout. I'm surprised the X308 XJ8 didn't make it in there. One day, we will look back with rose tinted glasses to these days when you could buy the last of the last 'classically styled' Jaguars for pocket money. X350 not withstanding because it's a bit bulky to be considered truly as beautiful as it's predecessor.
I'm a bit disappointed that none of my favourite three Sheds of the week made it into the top ten. Surprised too, given that all three of them received a considerably higher score on the PH-ometer than the winning Mercedes.
My top three would be:
1: Jaguar XJ6 on 14th February
2: Mercedes 300CE Friday 22nd August
3: Jaguar XJ8 5th December
Is the PH-ometer completelyirrelevant then?
Winning Mercedes (7.28)
Jaguar XJ6 (8.32)
Mercedes 320CE (7.79)
Jaguar XJ8 (8.09)
My top three would be:
1: Jaguar XJ6 on 14th February
2: Mercedes 300CE Friday 22nd August
3: Jaguar XJ8 5th December
Is the PH-ometer completelyirrelevant then?
Winning Mercedes (7.28)
Jaguar XJ6 (8.32)
Mercedes 320CE (7.79)
Jaguar XJ8 (8.09)
-crookedtail- said:
SOTW is what brought me to pistonheads initially, before I later joined the forums. Still look forward to reading it every Friday as the official start of the weekend.
Great effort guys, here's to another year of sheds!
SOTW is what motivated me to join Piston Heads too; its still my favourite thread.Great effort guys, here's to another year of sheds!
)Baryonyx said:
The Mercedes is a good shout. I'm surprised the X308 XJ8 didn't make it in there. One day, we will look back with rose tinted glasses to these days when you could buy the last of the last 'classically styled' Jaguars for pocket money. X350 not withstanding because it's a bit bulky to be considered truly as beautiful as it's predecessor.
The x308 is a lovely car (I miss ours and agree with the x350 comment as we have one as a daily) it should have been on there instead of the 740. Not only was the 740 trashed by the owner, he also stole wholesale another PHr's advert to sell it. Bad form to not even mention that was a big reason he was being slated on the forum Mr Middlehurst.
dbdb said:
-crookedtail- said:
SOTW is what brought me to pistonheads initially, before I later joined the forums. Still look forward to reading it every Friday as the official start of the weekend.
Great effort guys, here's to another year of sheds!
SOTW is what motivated me to join Piston Heads too; its still my favourite thread.Great effort guys, here's to another year of sheds!
The Omegas were good cars ,the 2.0 too underpowered really. but anyone who has not driven one they are really well built and very comfy ,I had 2 around 15 years ago, a 1995 M reg with 155,000 on clock when I bought it ,(£1,500 from auctions )and a blue 2.5 CDX ,N reg (127,000 miles ) that I paid £1,250 , for from the auctions , they would have been 5/6 years old at time ,
The Omegas were great cars. I always wanted a manual V6 but I think their time has passed and the good ones will be few and far between. The 740i on show here deserves to be in the sin bin. Shameless ripped off advert, knackered wreck of a once great car and a seller using the PH boards to try and flog it without even acknowledging the PH'er whose advert he ripped off!
Troubleatmill said:
The Lexus LS400 is running perfectly. Added 10,000 miles in 7 months. Nothing to report.
Great to hear that 
Ironically the "economical" replacement has run me over £1500 in repairs since I sold the Lexus to get it. Ahhhh hindsight's a wonderful thing. I'm sure it will even out over the next year but right now it stings a bit.
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