£2k, interesting, reliable, depreciation free for six months

[raf_gti]

Following on from my S2K thread..

I'm looking to replace the Puma soon and I have the choice of buying something very nice like the S2K for £10k+ but on finance or sticking to a budget of £2k, which would give a varied selection to choose from but somewhat leggy..

Which got me thinking. If I were to keep a car for 6 month's top over an 18 month period that would let me 'try out' 3 different cars, giving me plenty time to try something different and hopefully keep enjoy a good selection of cars.

My criteria has to be that they return ~30mpg on an A/B road commute, they have some level of driver involvment and that they are suitably PH

It would also be preferrable if they would lose no real value after 6 months and another 6k miles added on.

So far I've seen the following for £2k.

Alfa 166 V6.
MX-5 (obviously)
BMW 328
BMW 528
Merc S-Class V12s!!
Honda Prelude
Impreza Turbo
Legacy Turbo

[LuS1fer]

Even if you sold the cars for the same money, you risk losing an arm and a leg on maintenance and things that go wrong. If you go straight for the Honda, it will be reliable and probably cost less in finance charges than you spend running the shed.

[youngsyr]

You need to be careful about seasonality too - especially if buying a convertible. Buying in the summer and selling in the winter could easily cost you 15% of the value of the car.

[raf_gti]

LuS1fer said:

Even if you sold the cars for the same money, you risk losing an arm and a leg on maintenance and things that go wrong. If you go straight for the Honda, it will be reliable and probably cost less in finance charges than you spend running the shed.

I'm sure I could easily lose a LOT of money on fixing the Honda if things were to go wrong, at my budget I'm looking at 8 year, 50-60k examples, well with-in reach of big bill territory.

But I do take your point and there is a lot of luck involved, with owing the car for six months though surely the chances of a big bill are smaller than owning a car for three years?

[mrmr96]

LuS1fer said:

Even if you sold the cars for the same money, you risk losing an arm and a leg on maintenance and things that go wrong. If you go straight for the Honda, it will be reliable and probably cost less in finance charges than you spend running the shed.

Agreed.

You're wanting 'free' motoring for a bit. Great idea and if there's no hang ups it will be a lot of fun. However, there's always a risk that if you have bad luck then one of these:

raf_gti said:

So far I've seen the following for £2k.
Alfa 166 V6.
MX-5 (obviously)
BMW 328
BMW 528
Merc S-Class V12s!!
Honda Prelude
Impreza Turbo
Legacy Turbo

Will go wrong and you'll either had to pay to fix it, or scrap it thereby losing your £2k. Hopefully it won't happen, but some of the cars you're looking at getting for £2k could have some serious issues. If you accidently buy a dog then you'll have a hard time shifting it at the end of 6 months. People will also be asking you "why have you owned this high milage (intersting!) car for only 6 months... what's wrong with it?!".

Nothing in life is free. This looks free but carries a risk, and therefore the "expected value" cost is not £nil.

Best of luck, but do go into it with your eyes open.

[LuS1fer]

Come on, 50-60k is nothing and Hondas are very reliable. I bought a cheap shed - a Golf GTI and I've had 4 tyres, a clutch cable, had to change the oil and filters, had to fix the gear linkage, had to replace the rear discs and pads and fronts are imminent, a headlamp, front spring broke and I had to replace it then get the tracking and castor done for £80, new brake pipe front to rear all in the space of a year. No way would I get my money back and I only paid £750 for the car.

I find that more specialist cars tend to have been looked after better and maintained to a much higher standard.

You only have to look at Hammond's M3 on TG to see how an old car can bite you. Old sheds are usually being sold cheap for a reason and something like an Alfa V6 exhaust alone would be pricey, I'll wager. A friend had a Merc A-Class where a broken headlight was quoted to be something like £900 (the Golf was £30)so choose carefully.

[raf_gti]

LuS1fer said:

Come on, 50-60k is nothing and Hondas are very reliable. I bought a cheap shed - a Golf GTI and I've had 4 tyres, a clutch cable, had to change the oil and filters, had to fix the gear linkage, had to replace the rear discs and pads and fronts are imminent, a headlamp, front spring broke and I had to replace it then get the tracking and castor done for £80, new brake pipe front to rear all in the space of a year. No way would I get my money back and I only paid £750 for the car.

I find that more specialist cars tend to have been looked after better and maintained to a much higher standard.

You only have to look at Hammond's M3 on TG to see how an old car can bite you. Old sheds are usually being sold cheap for a reason and something like an Alfa V6 exhaust alone would be pricey, I'll wager. A friend had a Merc A-Class where a broken headlight was quoted to be something like £900 (the Golf was £30)so choose carefully.

I do agree with you, Honda's are very reliable BUT a 10k s2k will be at least 6 years old, well out from manufacturers warranty and be just hitting the mileage where BIG services are due.

TBH I can convince myself either way on this one!

And as a few people have aluded to, it's all about buying the right car in the first place and perhaps a little bit of luck.

[richardxjr]

I'd be quite happy to spend 2k on an MX5 or 328 and absolutely would in your position. Buy one, when bored sell it, Buy the other, if still dissatisfied then get loan and the S2K. In the winter

[300bhp/ton]

raf_gti said:

Following on from my S2K thread..

I'm looking to replace the Puma soon and I have the choice of buying something very nice like the S2K for £10k+ but on finance or sticking to a budget of £2k, which would give a varied selection to choose from but somewhat leggy..

Which got me thinking. If I were to keep a car for 6 month's top over an 18 month period that would let me 'try out' 3 different cars, giving me plenty time to try something different and hopefully keep enjoy a good selection of cars.

My criteria has to be that they return ~30mpg on an A/B road commute, they have some level of driver involvment and that they are suitably PH

It would also be preferrable if they would lose no real value after 6 months and another 6k miles added on.

So far I've seen the following for £2k.

Alfa 166 V6.
MX-5 (obviously)
BMW 328
BMW 528
Merc S-Class V12s!!
Honda Prelude
Impreza Turbo
Legacy Turbo

MG ZS180, nice V6 and a good drivers car for a FWD.

[carter711]

Corrado VR6

[raf_gti]

richardxjr said:

I'd be quite happy to spend 2k on an MX5 or 328 and absolutely would in your position. Buy one, when bored sell it, Buy the other, if still dissatisfied then get loan and the S2K. In the winter

I was actually thinking Alfa 166 for winter, MX-5 come March time then something else for next winter!

Finding a good 328 appears to be a tricky proposition, especially with-in my budget

[RobM77]

Toyota MR2 mk1. I lost about £100 on mine I think after three years and 20k miles.

Peugeot 205 GTi. Like the MR2, values have stabilised for these now.

[alfa pint]

Well sorted Mk1 MR2 ticks a lot of those boxes. Check for rusty wheel arches, that the cooling system is all intact and watch out for the gearstick jumping out of 5th when you lift off the throttle. You could get a good t bar for that sort of cash too.

Otherwise the 166 with sorted cambelts should be a sound bet. And there's a wealth of MX5s out there for that sort of cash and they're generally pretty reliable.