Wednesday 9th August 2017

Shed gets a pay rise!

Yes, the Shed of the Week budget is being upped to £1,500 - here's why

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This is not a decision that's been taken lightly, trust us. Shed is a PH staple, always one of our biggest features of the week and a story that we give a good deal of consideration before each Friday. We give Shed a lot of thought because, as well as knowing how popular it is, we all just like looking at cheap and interesting cars.

Sadly these sort of Sheds aren't around now!

Those of you who also enjoy that pastime will have noticed recently that finding gems for less than a bag of sand has become more difficult. Various scrappage schemes have made it hard, as has the incredible rise in classic car values, plus the fact that a lot of newer cars are less interesting than their forebears: a 2.4-litre, five-cylinder Fiat Bravo from the 1990s is a far more Shed-worthy than a diesel Fiat Bravo from the late 2000s, for example...

So the budget for Shed each Friday has been upped from £1,000 to £1,500. The options at three-figure prices on PH were becoming ever more limited, and often the same cars were making repeat appearances - not fun for writer or reader. While this rise won't bring back some incredible Sheds of a few years back - think XJS, Range Rover, six-cylinder E30s - thanks to the bizarre classic market, we're hoping it will open up new options for a more entertaining, informative Shed of the Week.

More money should mean more cool cars, right?

A quick reminder of the rules while we're here: all Sheds have to be from the PH classifieds, the car must have a valid MoT and, well, they should be interesting in some shape or form. Finally, all Sheds must now be for sale at £1,500 or less.

Simple, right? The first new Shed will be this Friday, and let's just say there are a few very good contenders already. If you've seen a great Shed, feel free to send it to me - [e-mail] - or Tweet us, or anything. Bring on Friday!

[Lotusgone]

Fair enough. It's not easy finding decent stuff each week without repetition. And I don't even have a shed to shift (unless the Alfa dies on me...).

[Monteverdi Hai]

Clicks SOTW.

Selection offers £500-£1000.

Clicks Price range.

Choices offered don't include up to £1500.

Why not just go up to £2000?

[anonymous-user]

Valid one Shed. Valid one.

Upping the figure was always just around the corner when accounting for how crazy the UK market has gone. Inflation is always playing it's part also.

Will be interesting to see what you can grab for 1500 in the future if (when) the bubble bursts....

[Vitorio]

Monteverdi Hai said:

Clicks SOTW.

Selection offers £500-£1000.

Clicks Price range.

Choices offered don't include up to £1500.

Why not just go up to £2000?

a stupid oversight in the classifieds search, but easily fixed by just editing the URL

https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds?Category=u...

going up to 2K would be a huuuge increase, and would make it much harder to justify that its all about dirt cheap interesting cars.

[Blackpuddin]

Vitorio said:

Monteverdi Hai said:

Clicks SOTW.

Selection offers £500-£1000.

Clicks Price range.

Choices offered don't include up to £1500.

Why not just go up to £2000?

a stupid oversight in the classifieds search, but easily fixed by just editing the URL

https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds?Category=u...

going up to 2K would be a huuuge increase, and would make it much harder to justify that its all about dirt cheap interesting cars.

Unfortunately that URL edit doesn't seem to work beyond page 1.

[dbdb]

£1,500 is the right figure - it has needed to be more than £1,000 for a year or two now in my view. There simply are not enough interesting cars at £1,000 to fill a weekly column, which is why my interest in SOTW has waned. I may start reading it again at the new limit.

[kiethton]

If we can stretch by an easy haggle can I submit this?

https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/...

[Cold]

Anyone else want the Shed committee to negotiate their next payrise for them? A 50% increase in one hit is pretty good going.

[lucido grigio]

If "Mr Shed " has had a rise ,how about creating a new position of "Mr Snotter" and have snotter of the month ,max price 500 GBP ?

No MOT required.

[Usget]

May I be the first to blame Brexit for this rampant inflation?

[Zetec-S]

Agree with this. Had a very quick glance at stuff under £1k, not really much choice other than the usual selection of Saabs, BMWs or Mercs which have been done to death on sotw.

Most interesting thing I could find for £1k in my 2 minute search (turbo & rwd)

https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/...

Whereas look what £1500 could get you

https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/...

https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/...

[xjay1337]

1500 is a much better limit.

[Toyoda]

So that POS Clio was submitted as the last Shed at the 1k limit simply to get us onboard with upping the new maximum?! All makes sense now!

[unsprung]

A not unwelcome decision, should any Shed be purchased via another currency. Sterling depressed of late.

Also, one of the genuinely laugh-out-loud columns I've read on PH. Double entendres about Mrs. Shed, etc. Thanks for the journalism -- and for not merely reporting the stat's.

[MarkwG]

Oh rats, was just about to fling our lads Corsa in the mix at £950....have to make it £1450 now...

[ChilliWhizz]

Has Mrs Shed been told?

[J4CKO]

I dont think it pays to get too dogmatic about price anyway, after all, these are asking prices, there is usually a bit of haggling that goes on, most £1500 cars will end up a smidge cheaper anyway, £1500 does give a lot more scope.

[Vitorio]

Blackpuddin said:

Unfortunately that URL edit doesn't seem to work beyond page 1.

You can get around that with more involved url edit, but adjusting the price in there doesnt seem to survive any buttonclick indeed

quite inconvenient.

[MarJay]

dbdb said:

£1,500 is the right figure - it has needed to be more than £1,000 for a year or two now in my view. There simply are not enough interesting cars at £1,000 to fill a weekly column, which is why my interest in SOTW has waned. I may start reading it again at the new limit.

This. My first thought when I read the headline was "F***ing finally!".

[MarJay]

unsprung said:

Also, one of the genuinely laugh-out-loud columns I've read on PH. Double entendres about Mrs. Shed, etc. Thanks for the journalism -- and for not merely reporting the stat's.

The Mrs Shed stuff has put me off to be honest. Was better before when it was just about cars and not trying to do some bad knockoff of Carcoat Damphands. I know, I know I sound like one of those "It was better before <X change>!" types on the internet, but that's genuinely how I feel.

Ditch the Mrs Shed crap and you'd have a better column IMO.