Discussion
I'm always on the hunt for my next car and watch PH / Ebay most days.
What really surprises me is the relatively small difference between good and ropey examples of the same car. I don't understand this on the basis you can't make a bad car a good car for the money it would have cost to buy the good car in the first place.
Do people really think you can sort out rusty arches for £300 or than a 'good clean' of seats or alloys will bring them up to a mint condition (if it was that easy, surely they'd do it before sale). I've got an M3 hence posting this here but I use my 8v Integrale as an example. There's been a few sold this year needing work / recommissioning / repaint and a shopping list of other work for £7.5k but there's no way someone would pay £10k for my mint, just serviced, UK car (it's not for sale by the way!).
Makes me chuckle when a car needs rusty arches fixed, a bit of paintwork, wheels refurbished, cracked windscreen replaced and overdue a service but someone still claims it doesn't need much. That sounds like a £5k bill to me and probably more.....
I suppose the answer is that people like to get a car they can improve but I find it hard enough keeping up on the jobs a mint car needs never mind a ropey one...........
What really surprises me is the relatively small difference between good and ropey examples of the same car. I don't understand this on the basis you can't make a bad car a good car for the money it would have cost to buy the good car in the first place.
Do people really think you can sort out rusty arches for £300 or than a 'good clean' of seats or alloys will bring them up to a mint condition (if it was that easy, surely they'd do it before sale). I've got an M3 hence posting this here but I use my 8v Integrale as an example. There's been a few sold this year needing work / recommissioning / repaint and a shopping list of other work for £7.5k but there's no way someone would pay £10k for my mint, just serviced, UK car (it's not for sale by the way!).
Makes me chuckle when a car needs rusty arches fixed, a bit of paintwork, wheels refurbished, cracked windscreen replaced and overdue a service but someone still claims it doesn't need much. That sounds like a £5k bill to me and probably more.....
I suppose the answer is that people like to get a car they can improve but I find it hard enough keeping up on the jobs a mint car needs never mind a ropey one...........
I hear what you say................
However,
Here is my take on this having previously been down several routes to owning a car that I wanted -
Option 1 -"only driven on a weekend and high day and only 500 miles done between MOT,s, FSH at main dealer only, immaculate, careful owner/driver with all fluids warmed and cooled properly prior to driving, always driven with mechanical sympathy applied, below average mileage, never seen rain and currently SORN, etc etc etc blah blah blah"
Option 2 - "Car has been used daily, serviced by main dealer and reliable indy - records to prove, mileage will rise daily as still in use, No advisories on last MOT, matching branded tyres and wheels recently refurbished to original factory finish etc etc etc blah blah blah"
The best option available to ME with MY hard earned was to view as many examples as I could and make my own decision !
However,
Here is my take on this having previously been down several routes to owning a car that I wanted -
Option 1 -"only driven on a weekend and high day and only 500 miles done between MOT,s, FSH at main dealer only, immaculate, careful owner/driver with all fluids warmed and cooled properly prior to driving, always driven with mechanical sympathy applied, below average mileage, never seen rain and currently SORN, etc etc etc blah blah blah"
Option 2 - "Car has been used daily, serviced by main dealer and reliable indy - records to prove, mileage will rise daily as still in use, No advisories on last MOT, matching branded tyres and wheels recently refurbished to original factory finish etc etc etc blah blah blah"
The best option available to ME with MY hard earned was to view as many examples as I could and make my own decision !
I hear what you say................
However,
Here is my take on this having previously been down several routes to owning a car that I wanted -
Option 1 -"only driven on a weekend and high day and only 500 miles done between MOT,s, FSH at main dealer only, immaculate, careful owner/driver with all fluids warmed and cooled properly prior to driving, always driven with mechanical sympathy applied, below average mileage, never seen rain and currently SORN, etc etc etc blah blah blah"
Option 2 - "Car has been used daily, serviced by main dealer and reliable indy - records to prove, mileage will rise daily as still in use, No advisories on last MOT, matching branded tyres and wheels recently refurbished to original factory finish etc etc etc blah blah blah"
The best option available to ME with MY hard earned was to view as many examples as I could and make my own decision !
However,
Here is my take on this having previously been down several routes to owning a car that I wanted -
Option 1 -"only driven on a weekend and high day and only 500 miles done between MOT,s, FSH at main dealer only, immaculate, careful owner/driver with all fluids warmed and cooled properly prior to driving, always driven with mechanical sympathy applied, below average mileage, never seen rain and currently SORN, etc etc etc blah blah blah"
Option 2 - "Car has been used daily, serviced by main dealer and reliable indy - records to prove, mileage will rise daily as still in use, No advisories on last MOT, matching branded tyres and wheels recently refurbished to original factory finish etc etc etc blah blah blah"
The best option available to ME with MY hard earned was to view as many examples as I could and make my own decision !
Pagoda1966 said:
I'm always on the hunt for my next car and watch PH / Ebay most days.
What really surprises me is the relatively small difference between good and ropey examples of the same car. I don't understand this on the basis you can't make a bad car a good car for the money it would have cost to buy the good car in the first place.
Do people really think you can sort out rusty arches for £300 or than a 'good clean' of seats or alloys will bring them up to a mint condition (if it was that easy, surely they'd do it before sale). I've got an M3 hence posting this here but I use my 8v Integrale as an example. There's been a few sold this year needing work / recommissioning / repaint and a shopping list of other work for £7.5k but there's no way someone would pay £10k for my mint, just serviced, UK car (it's not for sale by the way!).
Makes me chuckle when a car needs rusty arches fixed, a bit of paintwork, wheels refurbished, cracked windscreen replaced and overdue a service but someone still claims it doesn't need much. That sounds like a £5k bill to me and probably more.....
I suppose the answer is that people like to get a car they can improve but I find it hard enough keeping up on the jobs a mint car needs never mind a ropey one...........
Rusty arches no big deal, wheels refurbed £200, cracked windscreen not major.What really surprises me is the relatively small difference between good and ropey examples of the same car. I don't understand this on the basis you can't make a bad car a good car for the money it would have cost to buy the good car in the first place.
Do people really think you can sort out rusty arches for £300 or than a 'good clean' of seats or alloys will bring them up to a mint condition (if it was that easy, surely they'd do it before sale). I've got an M3 hence posting this here but I use my 8v Integrale as an example. There's been a few sold this year needing work / recommissioning / repaint and a shopping list of other work for £7.5k but there's no way someone would pay £10k for my mint, just serviced, UK car (it's not for sale by the way!).
Makes me chuckle when a car needs rusty arches fixed, a bit of paintwork, wheels refurbished, cracked windscreen replaced and overdue a service but someone still claims it doesn't need much. That sounds like a £5k bill to me and probably more.....
I suppose the answer is that people like to get a car they can improve but I find it hard enough keeping up on the jobs a mint car needs never mind a ropey one...........
Don't forget, the cars described as mint are often not mint themselves and need work.
But,its like everything in life, why buy a £500k house if you could buy a better value country pile for £10m. At some point there is a cut off. Would you pay £25k for a mint low mileage 205 gti? Probably not because at that point other cars may be of interest.
It's life really.
I came to the conclusion that somewhere in the middle is probably your best bet. You have to be very lucky to a find a car, priced and described as mint, that is truly mint. Most described and priced as such actually require just as much work as those slightly lower down the price ladder. The reason for this is pretty obvious, it is usually only those owned by (affluent) enthusiasts that are kept in truly top fettle and these owners don't often want (or need) to sell their pride and joy. As the OP states, unless you are talking about real exotica, you will never see your money back at the time of sale so selling doesn't usually make financial sense either. However, many owners and dealers will do their best to pass a car off as mint, and it often isn't hard to make something appear exceptional in an advert.
Equally, avoid the unloved and ragged dogs for obvious reasons.
There are plenty of cars out there that have been well cared for, properly serviced and have evidence of consistent maintenance spend throughout their lives. They will not be mint, but aren't priced as such either. Buy one of these with a healthy budget set aside (maybe £5k) for an immediate TLC spend at a good specialist and you will end up with a car that a) you know inside out thanks to the overhaul and b) is probably better than many of the 'minters' out there. I believe you have to be quite unlucky (or careless) to buy a car in this manner and find it has a list of faults so extensive and/or serious that they cannot be sorted by the money set aside.
That said, you might get lucky and find one of the truly mint cars, but the search itself can get pretty frustrating and expensive in lost time and travel...
This is my experience of it anyway
Equally, avoid the unloved and ragged dogs for obvious reasons.
There are plenty of cars out there that have been well cared for, properly serviced and have evidence of consistent maintenance spend throughout their lives. They will not be mint, but aren't priced as such either. Buy one of these with a healthy budget set aside (maybe £5k) for an immediate TLC spend at a good specialist and you will end up with a car that a) you know inside out thanks to the overhaul and b) is probably better than many of the 'minters' out there. I believe you have to be quite unlucky (or careless) to buy a car in this manner and find it has a list of faults so extensive and/or serious that they cannot be sorted by the money set aside.
That said, you might get lucky and find one of the truly mint cars, but the search itself can get pretty frustrating and expensive in lost time and travel...
This is my experience of it anyway
Edited by csampo on Saturday 15th August 09:45
Edited by csampo on Saturday 15th August 09:46
Spot on csampo - I do exactly the same - bought my Evo2 last year at a good price and happy it was a generally good car but didn't expect it to be trouble free motoring. 12 months on and £7k down but I know exactly what's been done, by who and what still needs to be done. Reflecting on my original post, I might be a bit niaive when reading adverts. A car needing lots of work is typically easy to see, whereas I take as read that a mint car is a mint car when that's not necessarily the case. This would explain the relatively small difference between cars........I now get it ! 😃
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