£600 MGF, fun or folly ?

[J4CKO]

Was at my local friendly garage this morning, father/son outfit and they always have a car to sell, this time it was a very tidy 96 MGF, decent tyres (tread wise, but budget, could be fun in the wet ), good condition save for a small ding or two, new brakes, full mot, Green with red leather, no sign of HGF and he wanted the princely sum of £600 for some open top motoring, sounds to me like a good deal for sub SOTW money.

So, hateful shed or some open, mid engined, Metro based fun for summer then sell potentially without losing any money ?

[J4CKO]

The Crack Fox said:

Get 'em to stick 6 months ticket on it and go for it. I'm no fan of these, but for some cheapo summer fun, it will be perfect

Do you mean VED/Road Tax or MOT as it already has the MOT, or it will do by the end of the day, dont think he will have room to offer six months tax as well at that price, it had a load of work for the last mot like suspension stuff so should be, assuming the HG holds out, not need much, he did say the remote locking was a bit iffy but as I dont really bother locking cars I wouldnt worry unduly about that.

Though the wife has declared it girly, the sexist pig

[J4CKO]

Spanna said:

If its the VVC engine then go for it. 145bhp on that era VVC iirc, sounds like fun to me.

Nah, just the boggo spec 1.8, still does sixty in 8.5, or it did once !

[J4CKO]

EDLT said:

Just be prepared to throw it away when a big bill comes along.

Also, INB4 MGJohn claims they are perfect and nothing ever goes wrong with them ever its all Clarkson's fault.

It is convincing the wife thats the problem, she is asking whether I would get my £600 back but we have spent that on her Fiat 500 (again) this year, running now at getting on for four grand, 2 to buy it and pretty much the same again to get it roadworthy with me doing most of the work inc an engine rebuild !

Would just stick my Saab to one side for a while, transfer the ins and tax and see how I get on.

Assuing the Head Gasket doesnt die, cant see much else to go wrong and I am fairly handy hough my last Rover HGF repair didnt go well it worked but the liners had sunk so it just pressurised the cooling system.

interesting that you say its more fun than an MX5.

[J4CKO]

Justayellowbadge said:

Tell ya what, op, if you decide not to, can you pm me the details of the garage?

Will do, have arranged to go and see it tonight as I owe the garage owner a few quid for some wheel bolts, just exchanging emails with the missus, she says "It doesnt feel right", is there any arguing with women, I earn enough at 40 to purchase a six hundred quid car, women are strange creatures.

[J4CKO]

Think I have got it the wrong way round, should keep my car and change the wife

[J4CKO]

Wife cant understand the appeal, I guess not many can

She thought it was a "proper" MG but if you think this is an old, tragic, ill handling piece of poop you havent seen nothing until you have seen a £600 MGB/GT.

[J4CKO]

Oh well, was worth a look and it wasnt that bad but had a lot of dings in it once in the sunlight, the main issue and it was a show stopper is that being the normal Pistonheads 6 ft 7 cage fighting company directory millionaire type I simply dont fit, all I had was a view of the windscreen surround and I suspect my head would cause an unsightly bulge in the roof with the hood up, the seat wouldn't go down any further. Ok I am not actually six ft seven, about 6 ft 1 but I wouldn't have been comfortable with that view, obviously I could have driven it but I think it would have pissed me right off !

So, its on Ebay but I suspect it will go higher, the chap is called Alan Leach of AJ Leach and Sons Motor engineers of Wilmslow, he is a really nice chap and always has time for a chat and to give some advice, the car isnt bad but certainly not pristine, too many dings but for a bit of top down fun seems fine, started ok, no smoke or noises, would say its worth the six hundred quid he is asking and it may make more on Ebay.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MGF-BRITISH-RACING-GREEN...