Bangernomics...what do you have?(under £500)

[magpie215]

Seems a few in here practice the art of bangernomics.

I am back in the game after a period of jap performance motoring.

previously I had many a mk3 Granada when you could pick them up with nearly a full ticket for £250-£450.

My current weapon of choice is

1997 Nissan QX 2 litre v6 automatic
picked up for £390
tax till end Jan MOT till may covered 170,000 miles

first impressions are it seems to be a well built quality motor just serviced it up myself at a cost of £60.

so stands me at £450 all in. well under the bangernomics threshold.

So what are you guys running? and how are you finding them for reliability etc etc?

[LC2]

Pug 306. £100 worth of french goodness. Run for 2 years so far with just basic servicing and a new cambelt. 80k miles odd.

Volve 740GL. Another £100 worth. (Though this is used as our Banger Rally car - currently painted as Lightning McQueen (Pixar - Cars)). 130k miles.

Far more expensive was the Vectra. A vast £600. Gets preventative maintenance, so not truely bangernomic.

[2 Wycked]

I've recently upgraded from bangernomics to the sub £1000 category, but my last banger was a BMW E30 318i Auto, owned from January to May this year.

£200 for the car - 11 months tax and 9 months MOT.
New fuel pump - £30 off ebay.
Lowering springs - £50 off ebay.

Sold to a friend for £350 and still going strong. Obviously he's taxed and MOTd it since, needed a little bit of work, but on the whole a fantastic old motor car.

[Thorburn]

Got this for free from my parents in August....



90k miles, passed its MOT last month just fine

[magpie215]

Thorburn said:

Got this for free from my parents in August....



90k miles, passed its MOT last month just fine

would love a forester on bangernomics but i think they are still outside the zone unless you get given it :-)

[jbi]

Paid £600 for my Celsior/LS400

Paid £700 for my new Land Rover Defender, which isn't bad considering it had a full rebuild and galvanized chassis fitted 7 years ago when it went into storage.

Not sure the bloke really knew what he was doing when he sold it to me

[omgus]

Got a free MR2 in the drive, starts first time, just needs ticket and insurance after xmas to keep the Scooby as my second car and run around in the little Toyota.

Also storing a Saxo VTS for someone that i am trying to get handed across to me, it needs more work (clutch) and re-hang the drivers door after some scrote tried to nick it) but i may fix it up and move to that after a nice winter in the MR2.

[magpie215]

jbi said:

Paid £600 for my Celsior/LS400

Paid £700 for my new Land Rover Defender, which isn't bad considering it had a full rebuild and galvanized chassis fitted 7 years ago when it went into storage.

Not sure the bloke really knew what he was doing when he sold it to me

bit of budget creep there but the LR sounds like a good buy

[cheadle hulme]

£300 from eBay. Sailed through last 2 MOTs. Has those "special" tyres that never wear out. Has only cost oil, filters, antifreeze and a wiper blade so far. Keep the 335i of the salty roads for all those mundane trips.

[magpie215]

cheadle hulme said:

£300 from eBay. Sailed through last 2 MOTs. Has those "special" tyres that never wear out. Has only cost oil, filters, antifreeze and a wiper blade so far. Keep the 335i of the salty roads for all those mundane trips.

that is a peach of a banger...love the running cost so far

[W00DY]

Bought for £200 and spent £130 on an MOT (needed a little welding and a wiper blade), £30 on shock absorber bush kit and £30 on service bits since Feb.



(Oh and £25 on blackboard paint and rollers )

[SlimRick]

£164 of Audi goodiness

[magpie215]

W00DY said:

Bought for £200 and spent £130 on an MOT (needed a little welding and a wiper blade), £30 on shock absorber bush kit and £30 on service bits since Feb.



(Oh and £25 on blackboard paint and rollers )

^^^ love it pmsl

[oldbanger]

I'm on my first non banger ever (04 plate Fiat). OK I know it's 6 years old, but it's the newest and most expenseve car I've ever had. Most I'd ever paid for a car before this one was £800.

[MidnightXR6]

2001 Y Rover 25 1.4

Full service history all original manuals and reciepts.
1 owner from new.
60k miles
engine looks fine coolant etc.

Taxed for 5 months and motd for 5 months.

£300

Cracking result as dont want to kill the ute over all this lovely scottish weather just now.

[(steven)]

A classic Mk2 mondeo.

Okay, so I paid a grand for it but that was back in 2005 and it's probably worth £400 now so it counts. (That and it's a lot easier than running a different £200 car every year, for the last 5 years)

Cheap, comfortable and can be fixed with a hammer as long as you don't mess with the clutch or subframe. (Not that it's needed much fixing apart from the odd electrical tantrum)

Edited by (steven) on Monday 6th December 21:56

[Dr Derek Doctors]

Pug 406 TD

£500 with 9 months tax and test, its done a poultry 253k miles and only took £20 worth of bits from a scrappy to get all of the broken electrics working.

Oh and it runs on pure 80p per litre veg oil.

[AshBaldry]

I've just bought:
Ford Fiesta 1.3 Encore
Good reliable pushrod engine
106,000
No s/h
Good condition
£35 a tank! Cheaper than £60 I'm my Mk1 FRS!

Paid..... £150! Being in the motor trade helps

[oldbanger]

SlimRick said:

£164 of Audi goodiness

that's a lovely car for that kind of price tag. How much does it cost to run?

[badger_royale]

Just picked up a beauty of a £100 'classic' Mk1 Mondeo TD, resplendent in blue with a half silver bonnet and gaffer tape bumpers. MOT'd til April, and drives OK but has absolutely epic turbo lag, its comically slow until it wakes up at about 2500 rpm.

I'll run it til either I get bored or it dies (I'm trading down from the GTV so it'll probably be the former... ), then might have to get something a bit more interesting.