Running a banger cost effective?
Discussion
Im soon to be commuting to work (6 miles down the road so not far) but im wanting to keep my car in good condition and not leave it in a busy car park all day. So im tempted to buy a 500 quid banger to use purely for the commute to work. Is this likely to be more hassle than its worth or can you usually get something half decent that will run for the year without costing much more than petrol?
Cheers
Cheers
There's a long running thread here about running a shed:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
I have however done exactly what you're intending to do, with a £525 Ford Focus and it's been bloody great:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
I have however done exactly what you're intending to do, with a £525 Ford Focus and it's been bloody great:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Petrolsmasher said:
Im soon to be commuting to work (6 miles down the road so not far) but im wanting to keep my car in good condition and not leave it in a busy car park all day. So im tempted to buy a 500 quid banger to use purely for the commute to work. Is this likely to be more hassle than its worth or can you usually get something half decent that will run for the year without costing much more than petrol?
Cheers
Absolutely. For less than the initial lease on any 2019 car you can buy and run something like a mid-2000s supermini for a year. If it only costs £300 you can afford to bin it if it develops anything serious, but cars nowadays are so reliable than if you buy with your eyes open you should have no trouble getting a few years out of it.Cheers
My go-to car for a station run would be a tatty Ka. Ridiculously simple mechanically, you can leave it anywhere without fear, and pennies to buy, run and insure.
Done this now for a number of years for our 'second' car
Always sub £1000
Always last at least 1 MOT before I get bored and want something new
Only ever cost me normal consumables
The cars I have had over the last few years
Corsa D £800 so far and still own it
mk1 ford focus £500 over 2 years
Saab 95 £900 over 18 month
Lexus ls400 £1000 over 12 month
Saxo £600 over 1 year
Corsa B £400 over 1 year
C2 £1000 over 2 years
Fingers crossed never had a major failure so far so i may be lucky or just picked good cars!
Always sub £1000
Always last at least 1 MOT before I get bored and want something new
Only ever cost me normal consumables
The cars I have had over the last few years
Corsa D £800 so far and still own it
mk1 ford focus £500 over 2 years
Saab 95 £900 over 18 month
Lexus ls400 £1000 over 12 month
Saxo £600 over 1 year
Corsa B £400 over 1 year
C2 £1000 over 2 years
Fingers crossed never had a major failure so far so i may be lucky or just picked good cars!
If you are the sort of person who doesn't mind working on cars yourself then definitely, my experience over the last two years:
September 2017 I bought an 07 Renault Megane DCi 1.5 with 61k on the clock for £1200. 60MPG all day long, £30 road tax and nothing went wrong in 24K miles. Only costs were 4 tyres (£208), a set of wiper blades (£20) and two services with eBay filters and oil (£30 each time). Still have it actually, currently my backup shed although my mum wants it.
August 2019 got a bit bored of owning a diesel so ended up buying a 55 plate Honda Civic 2.0 Type S for £720 from eBay. Full main dealer Honda history from new, the previous owner spent £1100 on servicing, brakes and a knock sensor in the last 18 months. I have done 1K miles in it now and can confirm it is a good car apart from a few clonks over big bumps (suspect drop links). I have spent 10 hours cleaning it, spent £12 on some mats and another £10 on touch up paint. Only thing I have had to repair is the indicator in the wing mirror which is the whole indicator unit, not just a bulb. Honda wanted £65, got a copy part from eBay from china for £9 delivered (which looks exactly the same anyway).
My tip would be to get something unfashionable that has been properly looked after by it's previous owners. What you don't want is to buy is something that has been run on a shoestring for the last few years of it's life and is one MOT advisory away from the scrapheap.
Always check the online MOT history, if the car has failed and then scraped a pass every year with multiple advisories I would steer well clear. You want a car that has as few fails as possible and then for minor things like bulbs, tyres and wiper blades.
If you are the sort of person who doesn't even like lifting the bonnet then shedding is definitely not for you.
There are thousands of good sheds out there on eBay, half the fun I find is the investigation and spotting the good ones.
September 2017 I bought an 07 Renault Megane DCi 1.5 with 61k on the clock for £1200. 60MPG all day long, £30 road tax and nothing went wrong in 24K miles. Only costs were 4 tyres (£208), a set of wiper blades (£20) and two services with eBay filters and oil (£30 each time). Still have it actually, currently my backup shed although my mum wants it.
August 2019 got a bit bored of owning a diesel so ended up buying a 55 plate Honda Civic 2.0 Type S for £720 from eBay. Full main dealer Honda history from new, the previous owner spent £1100 on servicing, brakes and a knock sensor in the last 18 months. I have done 1K miles in it now and can confirm it is a good car apart from a few clonks over big bumps (suspect drop links). I have spent 10 hours cleaning it, spent £12 on some mats and another £10 on touch up paint. Only thing I have had to repair is the indicator in the wing mirror which is the whole indicator unit, not just a bulb. Honda wanted £65, got a copy part from eBay from china for £9 delivered (which looks exactly the same anyway).
My tip would be to get something unfashionable that has been properly looked after by it's previous owners. What you don't want is to buy is something that has been run on a shoestring for the last few years of it's life and is one MOT advisory away from the scrapheap.
Always check the online MOT history, if the car has failed and then scraped a pass every year with multiple advisories I would steer well clear. You want a car that has as few fails as possible and then for minor things like bulbs, tyres and wiper blades.
If you are the sort of person who doesn't even like lifting the bonnet then shedding is definitely not for you.
There are thousands of good sheds out there on eBay, half the fun I find is the investigation and spotting the good ones.
I run an 06 plate Fiat Stilo as a daily driver doing around 50 miles a day, I bought it last year for £800 with four new tyres and a years MOT since then it hasn't cost anything more than a service and usual consumables like break pads etc.. it still saves me money rather than driving the RS3 every day even taking insurance and tax into consideration.
Edited by ConzoRS3 on Tuesday 10th September 11:55
Very cost effective. My banger/shed history:
Corsa C (van): bought for £800 or so, got 2.5 years and 50,000 miles out of it before scrapping. 1.7DI engine so slow but 60+mpg. I never changed the oil!
Yaris: bought for £295 to replace the Corsavan. 10,000 miles in, and it returns 50mpg from the 1 litre petrol. Randomly losing coolant at times but I just top it up when it gets hot and on it goes.
Top tip: go for an economical engine if you do a lot of miles. I kept a log of every single penny spent on the Corsavan and the single biggest cost over the 50,000 miles was diesel (something like 833 gallons = near £5k!), followed by tyres, then tax, then insurance then parts. Bought it for £800, got £113 scrap value, total ownership cost nearly £8k.
Corsa C (van): bought for £800 or so, got 2.5 years and 50,000 miles out of it before scrapping. 1.7DI engine so slow but 60+mpg. I never changed the oil!
Yaris: bought for £295 to replace the Corsavan. 10,000 miles in, and it returns 50mpg from the 1 litre petrol. Randomly losing coolant at times but I just top it up when it gets hot and on it goes.
Top tip: go for an economical engine if you do a lot of miles. I kept a log of every single penny spent on the Corsavan and the single biggest cost over the 50,000 miles was diesel (something like 833 gallons = near £5k!), followed by tyres, then tax, then insurance then parts. Bought it for £800, got £113 scrap value, total ownership cost nearly £8k.
_Hoppers said:
gazza285 said:
What he said. Or perhaps an electric bike if you dont like getting to work all hot and sweaty.If you really, *REALLY* cannot bring yourself to cycle then yes, everyone else is right, a £500 shed is perfectly viable.
murphyaj said:
I hate to be one of those annoying people who comes on a motoring forum and tells you not to drive, but this really is the answer. 6 miles might sound like a lot to someone who doesn't cycle much, but trust me after a few weeks it'll feel like nothing. If it's 6 miles through town you'll quickly find yourself wondering why on earth most people drive when it actually takes longer. Electric bikes are indeed a viable option too.
If you really, *REALLY* cannot bring yourself to cycle then yes, everyone else is right, a £500 shed is perfectly viable.
Maybe he doesn't want to get to work all sweaty, or freezing cold and soaking wet from rain in the winter? Maybe he doesn't want to risk getting killed or seriously injured by somebody who was more interested in replying to their facebook/tinder message than watching where they are going in their SUV?If you really, *REALLY* cannot bring yourself to cycle then yes, everyone else is right, a £500 shed is perfectly viable.
Joey Deacon said:
Maybe he doesn't want to get to work all sweaty, or freezing cold and soaking wet from rain in the winter? Maybe he doesn't want to risk getting killed or seriously injured by somebody who was more interested in replying to their facebook/tinder message than watching where they are going in their SUV?
If it's bad weather take the car!I'd say scooter
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