Are the days of sub £1000 sheds gone?

[Bubbs999]

I used to like to browse the ads looking for sub £1000 used cars for something appealing to tinker and fettle with.
If things went horribly wrong it wasn't too much money to lose.

Now used cars prices are frankly riddiculous ( Autotrader seem to think £3400 for a '08 Ford Smax with 105k is a 'good' price )

Sure, you can still find non-drivers or accident wrecks for sub £1k but it doesn't seem that long ago when £1k yielded a good selection of road legal daily drivers with a curent MOT.

What say you all ?

[itcaptainslow]

Fish in the MG Rover pool - there’s still sub £1000 cars there, albeit not half as many as there used to be.

[Alex_225]

Not quite but almost. I was looking at Saabs recently, the last one I owned was a 2005 9-3 with 130k on the clock. I bought it was £1200.

More recently I was looking for another Saab and there were plenty of equivalent models, some with higher miles for £2k+.

Lots of cars out there which I'd have considered £800-900 motors going for double that. Guess that's where the entire car market has gone up in price.

[valiant]

They are out there but you have to avoid AT now for that sort of budget.

FB marketplace, gumtree and maybe eBay if you’re lucky can yield some bargains.

[BeastieBoy73]

Pre covid a mate and I did one of those european banger rally’s where the budget for a car was no more than £500.

The choice of available cars at the time was amazing. We picked up a very tidy Beetle convertible.

It had the daisy alloys on it so I continued the theme.

There were lots of interesting cars on the rally including numerous MX5s, MR2s, Mercs, Volvos and even a BMW Z4.

We are keen to do another this year but finding a suitable yet fun car is proving tough.

[757]

Nope, got a 1 owner, full history, p/x to clear 2008 Vectra SRI petrol for £1000, 10 months ago, off a dealer on autotrader. Just need a car that is savagely off the radar

Still have it, and put nearly 10,000 miles on it, flew through its MOT in September.

[vikingaero]

I'm on the lookout for a new shed. Covid increased the price of all cars due to restricted supply/component supply.

£1k sheds became £2k sheds, £2k sheds became £3k sheds etc. I'm finding that prices are easing a little, but there are plenty of sellers still thinking they have a lottery ticket. The biggest problem, no matter what price point, is that there are few Quality/straight examples. Quality has been replaced by Kwality. The norm now is that sellers will advertise "excellent bodywork" with multiple dented panels or excellent interior with pictures of seats covered in stains that look like semen.

[Pit Pony]

Here's a question.

How much is a W reg 65k 1.6 16v Astra club worth. ? Full service history. Zero rust. Everything works. Interior is like new.
2 owners ( My father in law -Rip and my 29 year old son whose wife can't UAE it as it's a manual)

Not Birmingham.emmission compliant.

I've told him, don't let anyone tell you it's worthless. When you come to sell it we will get you at least £1000.
I'm sure it will be hard to sell because the world is full of mouth breathers

[jeremyh1]

Alex_225 said:

Not quite but almost. I was looking at Saabs recently, the last one I owned was a 2005 9-3 with 130k on the clock. I bought it was £1200.

More recently I was looking for another Saab and there were plenty of equivalent models, some with higher miles for £2k+.

Lots of cars out there which I'd have considered £800-900 motors going for double that. Guess that's where the entire car market has gone up in price.

I keep a very close eye on the Saabs on sale and your right about what you say but these cars are hanging around for months and not selling

The bubble is going to burst
I am on the look out for a hardtop 90s NG900 as a project car for all the 900 bits I have here to make a nice one!

[kdri155]

There are still cars out there for sub £1,000, i purchased this for my daughter after her Qashqai turbo failed and ran on its own oil, admittedly its not what she'd buy herself but she's grateful for it.


Its a 2004 Peugeot Partner 2.0hdi, 104,000 miles years mot £950.00

Edited by kdri155 on Sunday 8th January 10:23

[jeremyh1]

kdri155 said:

There are still cars out there for sub £1,000, i purchased this for my daughter after her Qashqai turbo failed and ran on its own oil, admittedly its not what she'd buy herself but she's gratefulfor it.


Its a 2004 Peugeot Partner 2.0hdi, 104,000 miles years mot £950.00

I also have one of these with 250k on the clock one of the most reliable vehicles I have ever had I drove it from Totnes in Devon to Uxbridge and back yesterday morning and still got back in time for lunch

[Kawasicki]

kdri155 said:

There are still cars out there for sub £1,000, i purchased this for my daughter after her Qashqai turbo failed and ran on its own oil, admittedly its not what she'd buy herself but she's grateful for it.


Its a 2004 Peugeot Partner 2.0hdi, 104,000 miles years mot £950.00

Edited by kdri155 on Sunday 8th January 10:23

Good man

[Fusion777]

There are runners available, just not that many. Seems that about £800 is the bottom limit now.

[LuS1fer]

I once bought a fully functional Mondeo Mk II on eBay for £400 and got £2000 in that Government scrappage.

I can't find any decent cars under £1000 but those that exist have stupid VEL rates that have to be factored in plus they often have only one key so the £1000 car suddenly pans out at £1500. The tyres will also be ditchfinders, often 4 different makes.

I think nowadays a decent shed is about £1500 to £2000.

I notice now that more and more dealers are advertising "low mileage" for cars with over 100k on the clock...

[Ffordd Ar Gau]

This has got me thinking, so jumped on AT to have a look (max price 1k) as I often do.

Handful of sub £500 mostly non runners, up to £1k is a large quantity of spares & repairs, non runners, stty hatchbacks with a few months MOT, and general crap with a few gems (by comparison) hidden in between …

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202301063...
Ok so the Ad is a bit weird and they call it a 9-3 in the text, but it’s a 3 ltr, ahem, diesel

And

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202212142...

Early MK1 Focus, proper shed type
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202301063...

Another Saab, 2.0T and convertible too…
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202212262...

£990 gets you the first car I’ve spotted with FSH & 1 year MOT in subheading …
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202301052...

Even get a Jaaaag. “Trade sale” = “it’s a bag of ste and I don’t want any comeback”
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202212012...

I know this is S/R as well but it’s been up a while and I keep thinking about it. Must be something wrong with me
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202211141...

Also a Rover 75 V6, MK1 Octavia VRS, Saab 9000 “barn find”, Diesel Merc S320, MK4 Golf GTi (deposit taken) and X2 Mazda MX-5 (probably rotten at £1k though) right up at the top of budget.

Will have a look on eBay Gumtree later to see what the same budget can get.

ETA - EBay “Buy in now” up to £1k - nothing to report. Spares/repairs and mediocre cars. I suspect the best bargains to be had are those up for auction rather than Buy Now,

Edited by Ffordd Ar Gau on Sunday 8th January 11:42

[Limpet]

Ffordd Ar Gau said:

I know this is S/R as well but it’s been up a while and I keep thinking about it. Must be something wrong with me
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202211141...

I think that one nicely illustrates the problem with current pricing.

A borked, 20 year old example of a very common car with moon mileage and a short MOT would historically be beer money, or just weighed in to avoid the grief. It wouldn't be advertised for £700.
Some years ago, my dad bought a Mondeo very much like this as a stopgap while waiting for a new car to arrive. The Mondeo drove, but had stuff wrong with it, and had 6 weeks of MOT left. He paid £75 for it which is what the scrappie had offered his colleague. Ran it for 4 weeks, weighed it in and got his money back.

[BoRED S2upid]

I just sold a one owner Chevrolet Kalos for £300. Terrible car but it worked.

[abzmike]

Clicked on this literally expecting a discussion on garden outhouses… oops.

[markymarkthree]

02 FOCUS 1.8D estate 104000mls available very soon.

Edited by markymarkthree on Sunday 8th January 13:46

[Lisa2022]

Hi all,
I agree I’m on the look out for an old cheap shed preferably a small 1 litre wheelbarrow.
Should have sold my car to webuyanycar 7 months ago when they offered a very good price but that meant paying back that very good price to replace my car. So the trade in prices were high very good but not better off.
The value has reduced 1k for my car but I still can’t find anything better for my price value and definitely can’t find a 1 k shed.
Would buying a 05 plate with 150 k or more pass it’s next MOT without having to replace exhaust emissions parts, suspension parts, head gaskets etc ? Is there any cheap cars out there that don’t need 1k of repairs to keep it running road worthy?
What’s happened to the normal cheap price cars are they all at the scrapyards???