Top Gear - Volvo 760 GLE

[ROB2828]

I've just been watching Top Gear on Dave with the £100 cheap cars challenge. At the end, Clarkson reveals that his Volvo 760 GLE cost him £1. Richards Rover cost £80 and James's Audi cost £70. How is it possible to buy a working car for £1? It's worth more than this in scrap metal! Does anyone else believe he bought this for such a small amount?

[Codswallop]

Times change, prices for scrap metal fluctuate. At the time of filming that episode of Top Gear, it cost more to dispose of a car in a environmentally safe way, hence bargain prices.

[v8will]

Yup, trade in car and dealer doesn't want the hassle or hasn't time to scrap it.

A few years back I could have bought one of those old boxy Protons for £5 (the value of petrol put in to shunt it round a yard, effectively a free car) Had MOT but no Tax, it was actually in really good nick and would've been a great winter beater. st car but I wonder why I didn't buy it.

[ROB2828]

My Dad used to have a Volvo 760 Turbo. He sold it for £550; No where near £1! How can a car with air con, leather heated seats and other extras cost £1????

[ROB2828]

v8will said:

Yup, trade in car and dealer doesn't want the hassle or hasn't time to scrap it.

A few years back I could have bought one of those old boxy Protons for £5 (the value of petrol put in to shunt it round a yard, effectively a free car) Had MOT but no Tax, it was actually in really good nick and would've been a great winter beater. st car but I wonder why I didn't buy it.

So where can you actually buy a car this cheap?

[ROB2828]

Anyone????

[CampDavid]

2004

[wackojacko]

It's obvious he bought it from a dealerhe knew or maybe signed a load of autographs for etc. Not rocket science to see that he didn't pay £1 and walk out...... he did various things so that he could have an invoice that says he paid a quid for it.

[ROB2828]

wackojacko said:

It's obvious he bought it from a dealerhe knew or maybe signed a load of autographs for etc. Not rocket science to see that he didn't pay £1 and walk out...... he did various things so that he could have an invoice that says he paid a quid for it.

Yes, I agree. I can't see any possible way he could have bought it for a quid otherwise.

[matt-ITR]

Several years ago it used to cost money to scrap a car, these days they pay you.

[ROB2828]

matt-ITR said:

Several years ago it used to cost money to scrap a car, these days they pay you.

That's what I mean. He would make a profit even if he had it scrapped!

[Mr Sparkle]

One of my friend used to buy cars for £50 all the time, haven't seen any recently though.

[CampDavid]

ROB2828 said:

wackojacko said:

It's obvious he bought it from a dealerhe knew or maybe signed a load of autographs for etc. Not rocket science to see that he didn't pay £1 and walk out...... he did various things so that he could have an invoice that says he paid a quid for it.

Yes, I agree. I can't see any possible way he could have bought it for a quid otherwise.

JESUS, just read the second post.

In the early 2000s it actually cost money to scrap a car. This was because the value of scrap metal @ £150 a ton outweighed the cost of processing the car and moving it on to a trader. As such cars were actually dumped on the side of the road in some cases and effectively fly tipped. Dealers stuck with sheds as PX cars didn't want them, it was hassle binning them.

As such, getting a scrapper for free wasn't as hard as you might think

[v8will]

Very difficult now after the scrappage scheme and even 5 or 6 years ago you had to know the right people in the trade (I found that anyway)

Franchise dealer has job lot of trade ins, offered to private dealers (say 5 or 6 'decent' cars with a few stters thrown in for a set price) or sent to the auctions.

I got offered the Proton as the private dealer I'm pals with had got it with a batch of motors he'd bought from a local franchise, he didn't want to retail it for obvious reasons. He did really well from ex franchise stuff and traded loads of it on, I bought quite a few job lots of cars off him in 2005/6 and did Ok as a home trader until it just became too much hassle to do (people wanting and expecting warranty on sub £1000 cars and people just not having the cash to buy at much over 3K)

It was good fun for a while but by the time all the bills were paid and the hours put in added up I decided the Motor trade wasn't for me.

[ROB2828]

So do you belive he bought it for a quid or do you think it was just made up for a laugh?

[CampDavid]

ROB2828 said:

So do you belive he bought it for a quid or do you think it was just made up for a laugh?

Back then it was entirely possible.

Have you actually grasped anything from this thread?

[EDLT]

Are you trolling now, or can you just not read? You've been told twice on the first page.

[ROB2828]

CampDavid said:

Back then it was entirely possible.

Have you actually grasped anything from this thread?

Yes, I was just summing it up and drawing it to a close.....

[Dave Hedgehog]

ROB2828 said:

So do you belive he bought it for a quid or do you think it was just made up for a laugh?

i believe he did buy it for a quid

at the time it cost something like £200 to scrap a car, cars where being dumped in the street, i remember driving through the rat runs in london seeing dozens of cars with the councils yellow stickers on

so if a car was fit for scrap or close a main dealer would be happy to get shot of it

[matthias73]

I like the idea of him throwing in some autographs or something. Photo with the seller.

Maybe the seller thought it would be a hoot to see his old car on top gear and so agreed to let it go for a quid?