The scrapage deal killed the second hand car market

[Monkey news]

I have been looking for a car until I get my company car in a few months. But there is just nothing of any interest for 2,500 squirells. I didn't want to spend anything more than that, but it looks like I will have to stretch to 3,000 squirells. But before I do that, I thought I would ask you friendly lot for any cars that I may have missed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks a lot

Monkey

[OwenK]

I just bought a mk2 MR2 the other week for £180. It could be in perfect nick and on the road for less than £500.

Who says you can't get a bargain anymore!

[Monkey news]

OwenK said:

I just bought a mk2 MR2 the other week for £180. It could be in perfect nick and on the road for less than £500.

Who says you can't get a bargain anymore!

I always hear of people grabbing absolute bargins, but I never ever find any.

[RB26DETT]

I got a 98 1.7 Puma for €180. Slight missfire but otherwise perfect

[OwenK]

Monkey news said:

OwenK said:

I just bought a mk2 MR2 the other week for £180. It could be in perfect nick and on the road for less than £500.

Who says you can't get a bargain anymore!

I always hear of people grabbing absolute bargins, but I never ever find any.

I used to hear of people getting jammy bargains too and it really hacked me off. I've been wanting to buy an MR2 project car for ages so I was patient, persistent (search ebay, pistonheads, autotrader, owners clubs etc every day) and set myself a target - to get one for under £250, in any condition and spec so long as it was a T-bar and didn't have major frame damage. Ended up winning this one which has a blown headgasket and needs a brake refurb and an MOT but is otherwise fine!

[Carpie]

OwenK said:

I just bought a mk2 MR2 the other week for £180. It could be in perfect nick and on the road for less than £500.

Who says you can't get a bargain anymore!

Paid £670 last month for a cracking one, 6 months Tax and a longer MOT (8 months maybe), 116k. They seem to be a bit of a bargain performance wise!

Only problem with mine is it has a faulty component between the steering wheel and the seat which makes it go sideways all the time!

[NiceCupOfTea]

You can't find a car for £2500!?

[Monkey news]

NiceCupOfTea said:

You can't find a car for £2500!?

Yep, I haven't found anything that has remotely interested me. I have looked at -

1) Renault Clio 172's
2) Peugeot 106 gti (but they are far too chavvy these days)
3) Toyota MR2 rev 3, but they have such high mileage which put me off

And a few others too.

I am completely out of ideas.. I really want a DC2 Honda Integra Type R, but they still fetch quite a lot of money which is out of my budget

[jamiebae]

Bought a lovely 206 GTi for £1,300 with a few niggles but otherwise good. Ran it for about 6-8 weeks, did 2.5k miles without fault and moved it on to a colleague when the new car arrived.

There's loads of stuff out there for £2.5k, surely you can find something!?

[anonymous-user]

Monkey news said:

But there is just nothing of any interest for 2,500 squirells.

You can have my e46 318i for £2500...

[va1o]

I don't quite follow what the OP means.

The scrappage scheme has taken out a lot of pre-2000 cars from the used market, most of which would have been fairly clean well maintained examples. This has reduced supply in this market segment somewhat and clean cars are currently selling quickly for strong money.

However, the effect its had on younger post-2000 used cars is fairly limited, the price level hasn't changed significantly (if anything made them a little cheaper) and the supply is still there.

Thats my take on it anyway.

[sjc]

This will be plenty of fun until your car arrives
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1814313.htm

[NiceCupOfTea]

Monkey news said:

NiceCupOfTea said:

You can't find a car for £2500!?

Yep, I haven't found anything that has remotely interested me. I have looked at -

1) Renault Clio 172's
2) Peugeot 106 gti (but they are far too chavvy these days)
3) Toyota MR2 rev 3, but they have such high mileage which put me off

And a few others too.

I am completely out of ideas.. I really want a DC2 Honda Integra Type R, but they still fetch quite a lot of money which is out of my budget

At the risk of being predictable, MX-5?

What are your criteria?

There must be hundreds of interesting cars for 2.5k!

e36 BMW 328i
Saab 900 turbo
MX-5
Alfa 156
Fiat Coupe
etc.

What's high mileage on a Toyota? It's only for a few months!

[Rollcage]

As said above , scrappage has taken a hell of a lot of perfectly saleable used cars out the market, but as supply has reduced, demand has dropped as well ,so real world prices have stayed pretty much the same. All scrappage achieved was to scrap the decent, saleable cars leaving only the crap owned by people who can barely afford to run what they have, l;et alone buy a new car.

Most traders that I know who operate in the sub £1000 market simply cant find much to sell these days, so when they do find something decent they sit on it for ages more often than not.

Having said that, I know one guy who sells decent cars between 2k and 5k and it has not affected him at all.

[Monkey news]

NiceCupOfTea said:

Monkey news said:

NiceCupOfTea said:

You can't find a car for £2500!?

Yep, I haven't found anything that has remotely interested me. I have looked at -

1) Renault Clio 172's
2) Peugeot 106 gti (but they are far too chavvy these days)
3) Toyota MR2 rev 3, but they have such high mileage which put me off

And a few others too.

I am completely out of ideas.. I really want a DC2 Honda Integra Type R, but they still fetch quite a lot of money which is out of my budget

At the risk of being predictable, MX-5?

What are your criteria?

There must be hundreds of interesting cars for 2.5k!

e36 BMW 328i
Saab 900 turbo
MX-5
Alfa 156
Fiat Coupe
etc.

What's high mileage on a Toyota? It's only for a few months!

I hadn't actually thought of the MX-5.. How un PH is that

I know modern engines will take over 100k miles, providing servicing is done. However, I still will not touch a car with over 90k miles. It is just personal preferance nothing else

[Rollcage]

Modern engines will take considerably more than 100k with ease, especially diesels (Not PH i know!) I have an X reg Corsa with 220k, and an 02 Plate Mondeo with 260k! Both drive pretty much as intended - ie the Corsa is not the great, but does the job, and the Mondeo is great.

[OwenK]

On cars this old and this cheap, buying based on mileage is absurd! If it hasn't exploded by now, chances are it's not going to. If it makes you feel better, buy a high mileage example but make a note of how much lower mileage examples are going for, too. Put the difference away somewhere safe as a rainy day fund in case something goes pop. If it does, it's accounted for. If it doesn't, you can pocket the difference!

[H_Kan]

There is plenty of interesting metal for 2.5k.

As mentioned, you'll easily get an MX5 for that, a nice mk1 with low miles, leather and pas etc could be had.

Mg's are a lot of car for the money and the e36 3 series is again a fantastic drivers car.

[tossbag]

In all honesty, while the world will give us things like this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1989-G-BMW-635-CSI-E24-HIGHL...

For £2500 I have no need to have any sympathy with the OP.
Look harder chap!

[H_Kan]

tossbag said:

In all honesty, while the world will give us things like this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1989-G-BMW-635-CSI-E24-HIGHL...

For £2500 I have no need to have any sympathy with the OP.
Look harder chap!

My God that looks bloody awesome.

Love the old 6 series.