How cheap do cars get today?

[Shotgun Rider]

Sorry, boring thread.

A mate told me today that he might be changing his 100k+ mile, 13 year old car and reckoned he'd be lucky to get £200. I told him nonsense, he'd get not far off that if he scrapped it.

So, how cheap do cars get today? What's the minimum I'd have to pay for a boring run of the mill hatch with a decent amount of MOT? There's must always be a market for cheap to buy & run cars at the lower end of the market, anything less than £500 would be hard to find?

Edited by Shotgun Rider on Thursday 19th April 21:58

[mrdelmonti]

£600-£700 seems to be about the cheapest something with tax and test gets apart from the odd one or two.

[andy-xr]

My little sister went looking for a runaround last month. Only condition was it had to be an automatic - couldn't find anything under £1000 locally to her no matter what size the car was

[Andyjc86]

Just had to change the wife's car, with no budget available we needed a cheap one, anything less then £600 was just plain crap. Ended up spending £800 on a ZS

[P I Staker]

As an example, 2 Years ago I bought a Suzuki Vitara with tax and MOT for £200.



Looked all right but it was a fking death trap, rotten sills, rotten inner arches, rotten body mounts, rot around the rear seatbelt mounts, rotten floor, the brakes where shocking.

I would agree with you, around £500 and over will get you a st but safe and MOTed car.

[Six Fiend]

This:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ford-Mondeo-2-5-V6-Ghia-...

Or supersize but tidy:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1997-VOLVO-960-24V-AUTO-...

Or spotless at SOTW money:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1998-S-FORD-MONDEO-2-5-V...

[redgriff500]

Gumtree / Ebay hold the answer.

IMO some real crap at the bottom of the market (as you'd expect) but some little gems in there too.

Price of scrap has removed a lot of cars from the market a few years ago cars with MOT were available for £40

[anonymous-user]

When I scrapped my Ford Cougar I got £160 for it. I think anything useable with a reasonable amount of MOT has to be worth £600.

I think £1000 can get you a fairly decent car these days (assuming it is petrol).

What is your friends car?

[Merry]

My Punto was £250, didn't have tax or mot though. Went straight through mind...

[mackie1]

I narrowly missed out on a 76k mile year 2000 MK4 LS400 for £1500.

[carmadgaz]

It's easy enough to get a car under £500. Last time I was looking was around Xmas (as a car while I fixed my Focus). I found (and friends found me) at least 6 potential <£500 cars (Inc a Pug 306, Citroen Xsara and a Volvo V40). My history personal history includes

£80 1985 Volvo 340
£350 1997 Ford Escrot Estate
£300 1993 Pug 106
£350 1999 Ford Escrot

Mum also had a Citroen ZX a few years back (£250) and a 1988 BMW 525 for £400 (we had that car for about 4 years until the rust claimed it in 2008 )

All except the Volvo came taxed and tested (and the Volvo went straight through it's MOT)

Edit to add mate has just picked up a quite tidy Vitara for under £500

Edited by carmadgaz on Thursday 19th April 23:00

[chris watton]

It seems that small and small engine cars are now more of a premium than they used to be, presumably due to low tax/insurance?

[Six Fiend]

chris watton said:

It seems that small and small engine cars are now more of a premium than they used to be, presumably due to low tax/insurance?

And fuel costs.

Ka's seem to fetch reasonable money no matter how rusted out and falling aprt they are! I've seen some horrors fetch over £600. I've looked at a couple and figured £300-£350 plus a fair old bit of welding and general tidying (pull it aprt to clean the crap out of it) only to see them sell at double that price and more.

[Shotgun Rider]

Joey Deacon said:

When I scrapped my Ford Cougar I got £160 for it. I think anything useable with a reasonable amount of MOT has to be worth £600.

I think £1000 can get you a fairly decent car these days (assuming it is petrol).

What is your friends car?

It's a 1.4 Almera with just over 100k, T reg.

[martin mrt]

I just got rid of my V5 Bora, had a full years MOT, 17" Santa Monica wheels, sports seats, climate control etc, very nicely specced car, and it had been looked after with no expense spared, I only got £600 for it asit had done 160k

However it was a perfectly useable car with many years left in it, it went through its MOT needing nothing.

[davepoth]

Looks like £200 is about the floor for a running car with a month's tax and test on it, going by auto trader. Seems about right with shells going for £150.

[Bebop Beru]

On the LS400 theme, my Mk3 cost me £500 last year with nearly a year's MOT.

It's still going.

[Chrisw666]

Shotgun Rider said:

It's a 1.4 Almera with just over 100k, T reg.

If it gets through an MOT and is reasonably tidy then it will fetch £4-500 without any hassle.

[Justayellowbadge]

martin mrt said:

I just got rid of my V5 Bora, had a full years MOT, 17" Santa Monica wheels, sports seats, climate control etc, very nicely specced car, and it had been looked after with no expense spared, I only got £600 for it asit had done 160k

However it was a perfectly useable car with many years left in it, it went through its MOT needing nothing.

[NiceCupOfTea]

IMHO the way ahead is large thirsty cars. £500 is the starting point for something useable with an MOT IMHO. Still chuffed with my Saab 9000 for £750 - no synchro on 2nd but apart from that everything works and it has leather, climate, heated seats, and 200bhp.

The problem, when I come to sell it, will be getting rid for any price at all IMHO. Most people want 60mpg in a supermini package.

I'm a real convert to sub £1500 motoring these days - buy sensibly and you can get a lot of car.