Buying a kit car for day to day use?

[pilottom]

Hi,

I am 19 and looking to get a car (mainly to get to work etc). I have about £4k to spend and have been thinking of getting a kit car. I came across this one [url]www.pistonheads.com/sales/80368.htm[/url].

Just wondering how reliable something like this would be and whether it would be a good idea (or not) to have one as a day to day car? Also, what sort of running costs would I expect to pay?

Many thanks,
Tom

[dern]

It's impossible to say.

Firstly you might be as hard as nails or be a wet fish which will have a bearing on your ability to shrug off the weather and secondly your ability to wield a spanner will have an enourmous bearing on costs and lastly the car may either be a genuine sale due to family or an upgrade or someone may be offloading something that requires a fair bit of nurturing. All this is true for any kit car (mine included which is also for sale although outside your budget). It's possible and some people do use them as every day cars. I wouldn't personally as I'd rather us my bike all winter but if I didn't I might be tempted... maybe

Regards,

Mark

[Fer]

My Westfield is a daily drive. There have been some glitches, like tracking down parts, and the on going exhaust saga has been a challenge, but the winter was fun, and not nearly as cold as people had predicted!

[pilottom]

Ok, so what sort of thing will need repairing or replacing and what sort of frequency will these need changing

Thanks,
Tom

[dern]

pilottom said:

Ok, so what sort of thing will need repairing or replacing and what sort of frequency will these need changing

Again a tough one to answer. From my experience of two westfields nothing serious but lots of little things. Depends how it's been used. Regular use may spring leaks in aged coolant pipes for example or cheaply done electrical connections may not last but if you can fix this stuff yourself and, more importantly, you enjoy tinkering then you can fix all these things easily. If you buy something with ford, vauxhall or rover mechanicals then you'll find you can pick up all the bits you need from local factors which is very important in order to keep any car on the road for when you need it. Both my cars ran ford running gear and brakes until recently which is dead easy to fix and get parts for and they're relatively cheap and there's established upgrade paths.

Make sure though that you get a good engine. There's nothing more soul destroying (I imagine) than an old engine that can cope with a couple of weekends a month but then dies on regular use. An engine from an established engine builder is good as is a low mileage engine. A highly tuned pinto or xflow may well be an excellent budget engine with plenty of power but will cost you come rebuild. A zetec which is fairly standard will last forever, give plenty of power and be easily replaceable as any goodies it has like throttle bodies or even cams can be swapped to you replacement engine. It's things like a modded head or a bigger bore which will be relatively expensive to replicate. Also buying a pinto or xflow with the intention if changing to a zetec is a fair bit more expensive than simply picking up a zetec for a hundred quid so try and get what you want to start out with unless you invisage being able to have time off the road to do the conversion.

You'll also want to figure in fuel consumption and tank size (although the latter can normally be changed). My old xflow (1700 on twin 40s) used to give 15mpg and due to the size of the tank I was wary of taking it over 60 miles. That meant refuelling on way to and back from work which meant I rarely used it for the commute. My v8 will give 20mpg if you're really careful but even on a blast it'll give 15mpg and the tank size mean it'll do 100 miles before stopping.

I've found that consumables such as tyres and brakes last forever however and even then sensible tyres can be had at 30 quid a corner and front cortina discs are less than a tenner a side and pads less than a tenner a set and they're easily up to daily use. I'd upgrade the pads for the track though and my v8 tends to eat sticky tyres.

That formula 27 looks very nice for the money but I have no experience of those engines at all.

Mark

Edited by dern on Sunday 25th June 20:37

[Furyblade_Lee]

To a certain extent kit cars are as reliable as the components used to build them. If the engine, box and wiring loom are out of a 30 year old Escort then you are gonna have "glitches". However, if its been built properly with new or genuine recon parts and a new loom then it should be no worse than any other second hand car.Pay particular attention to how well the wiring and instruments have been done, its probobly the most difficult thing to sort out if its playing up. Mechanicals are generally simple and understressed in a lightweight car, and they are cheap to replace.

[steve_d]

A JBA Falcon (thirties style roadster) was my daily drive summer and winter for ten years. I always had the hood down unless it was raining at the start of the journey. You will be surprised how few trips are in rain. With a decent heater and a silly hat and gloves even the depths of winter are no problem.

If you are going to use it daily then it must have either a hood that goes up and down in minutes or a tonneau cover. Without these you will not be able to park it outside at the other end of your journey and the whole hassle of dealing with time consuming weather gear will eventually result in it staying at home.

Steve

[kingb]

check insurance

i was considering getting myself a dutton in the next few months but when i had a quick look at insurance wasnt as good as i hoped. yes any normal car with as much performance was far far more but it was more that my current car and i decided i could really pay more for a car that is more of a gamble with reliability. but ur starting budget is more than mine so if you can afford it go for it

[emicen]

I've considered this option myself numerous times. Everytime I come to the same conclusion, unless its something production-esque, like a GTM Libra with doors, roof, stereo, heater etc, it simply wouldnt fit the bill. I'm as much of a car nut as anyone, but their are limits to enthusiasm and sense of humour. The cold and wet are very effective at finding these limits.

Your geographical location comes in to play on this one. Its all very well the above chaps saying with some driving gloves etc their cars were useable in the winter, no disrespect intended btw. But with gloves my tin top production Toyota's are barely useable sometimes in the Scottish winter its that friggin cold!