My gf has got the bangernomics strategy down to a fine art.
She bought a £2k Ford Focus approx 10 years ago. Said car is now 16 years old and on 165k miles.
Only gets stuff fixed to pass an mot.Hasn’t even had an oil change for 3 years. Had a patch welded on the sill about 2 years ago. Apart from that it just gets consumables. Went straight through it’s last not with just 3 advisories.
Headed for the scrappy this year if it fails it’s mot and we will buy another focus.
Mk1 foci are reasonably reliable , great to drive ,can be serviced anywhere and more importantly cheap to get bits for.

Being a 2006 Renault Scenic, a new bumper at insurance bodyshop prices rendered it uneconomical to repair and so it’s been written off.

Enquired as to whether they’d sell the car back to me.

£20!

Amazing. You should do the other bumper as well!

I had a 2004 Civic Type-S from 18 months old until it proved uneconomical to pass the MOT (after a lot of abuse) in 2013. I test drove a load of newer cars and was so unimpressed I bought a very good condition lower mileage and slightly younger ‘04 Civic and we’ve had it since then. It’s had an alloy refurbed, and the headlights replaced due to the lenses becoming rather opaque but I think that’s it (other than annual servicing and tyres).

It can’t go on for ever but I really like it. Climate control, cruise control, good seats, handles pretty well, fairly quick, not too uneconomical and acres of internal space for a fairly small car. Got a roof box last year so it can handle family holidays without being packed to the headlining. I even like how it looks but that might just be a case of Stockholm Syndrome! 😉 Like this but in dark blue and mud:

My latest bangernimics is a touran.

A car famed through the land for its reliability and cheapness of repair bills. 😀

Trailrats berlingo is tempting…

We have a 13 year old Astra G Estate, Cost £300 with a fresh cam belt and water pump. It had under 80k on it but had a cabin water leak.

Traced the leak to the roof panel joins and dried it out.
Parts are peanuts. I put all new brakes, shocks and exhaust for prob another £400. It’s a 1.6 8v engine that looks like the one in the mk1 Astra, not powerful but stupidly easy to work on. We’ve been to the French Alps twice in it and the GF commuted from Reading to Oxford in it until the traffic got to her.
It’s great, everything still works, even the air con.

All these car threads have got me perusing what’s about in local area, found myself looking at a Dinky 2 seater Smart fortwo Auto that I know my missus would get on with and that I wouldn’t feel so bad cranking up the mileage with local short journeys, saving the big evil diesel for longer family trips and bike haulage… Terrible purchase?

My Mondeo 2.2 (unneccesary upgrade) set me back £2100, it was denty but solid. Now it’s had some bills but I’ve also put 40000 miles on it and parked it in a loch, so, that seems fair. Just got a very clean MOT on it and sorely tempted to shift it on but just really finding it hard to beat- for big efficient estates the Mondeo’s still a star, lower mileage ones are getting quite expensive though…

So in finest STW style I’m recommending what I have, even though the entire point was to replace it. Itchy feet aside if I needed a car tomorrow it’d be my first point of call again.

Bangernomics always revolves a lot around the level of reliability you need, and how much you can fix yourself, though. I might have scrapped or sold mine on rather than replace the turbo, if I’d had to pay someone to do it.

The experiences family and family friends have had of old Audis has me wondering if a late 90’s early noughties Audi might be worth a look?

I had a petrol mondeo bought for 1200 used for 2 years did 30k sold for 1400 when I bought another motorbike, it was mint too

Got the Mrs a diahatsu charade for 500 ran for 4 years and 35k failed not worth me fixing sold for 280, I see it locally still running now

Then got her a hyundai getz or something for 350 still using it now after a few years

I’ve got a berlingo I paid about 1400 for been to Belgium and France and all over UK camping fold a seat down wheel a full bike in I love it

trail_rat – Member

within the last year?

Hell no; the cars I’ve bought last much longer than that. 🙂

waaay left field like a 7 series bimmer

Nothing says leftfield like a four door saloon. 😕

which i wouldnt thank anyone for

Ah, you haven’t driven one. International engine of the year, don’t you know? 😉

i judge the history and the owner as much as the car before me. Has worked pretty good for preventing lemons

😆
The confirmation bias is almost as strong as the likelihood of you driving a dull as ditchwater FWD Euro-shitbox.

Which if your not fussy

Oh, I’ve been known to have an eye for detail… 😉

OP: small simple and Japanese.

So yes you have no experience in the current market.

Thanks for confirming.

That’s all you needed to say. Didn’t need 2 passive aggressive posts for that.

OP, Japanese company stuff – Someone mentionned Honda CR-V above, great cars with loads of space but a bit thirsty, I had a 52 reg one a while back paid £1200 ran for thousands of miles and sold for a tad more when it went, nothing went wrong.
Latest one used for a local runabout and by kids when they come home is a 96 Toyota Corolla, cost £200 off an old lady nearby who was giving up driving. Covered in dents and now with a growing interesting paint job but again drives great, really smooth and everything still works. It came with service history and a years MOT which is coming up again next month, hope it passes…

I paid £640 for a 2003 Volvo XC70 2.4 D5 diesel auto with 230odd k on it. Now just below a 1/4 million and a joy to drive

Drive something you like, get it cheap and treat it well

Nice corolla 🙂

I’ve used the bangernomics principle for some time now.
Mostly its been fine, done some clutches and a cambelt on various cars. But the latest vehicle is pushing its luck. Despite my reservations we got an 11 yo Renault Scenic 1.5 diesel for £750.
I’ve had to do more to that car than the rest put together. Mostly its electrical wierdness, mechanically its ok, although it uses more oil than I’d like. Very practical, but its put me right off Renaults. You really shouldn’t have wiring connectors melting on a modern car. (its a common thing on these too apparently!)

Its the electronics that undermine bangernomics. My local garage which is basically a guy I have known for ages, tells me that he scraps loads of mechanically sound over 10year old cars because some electronic gizmo in the engine management system has quit and you have to replace the whole system for gazillions of pounds more than the value of the car. Some he reckons can be fixed with proprietary electronics but most are limited to that manufacturers own part.

Indeed, the electronic handbrake went on ours, looked at a manual conversion, but went for a new one at £500 in the end. It was touch and go whether I kept it.
You can’t even reuse a working one from another car because it has to be coded to the ECU and you can’t recode them! FFS.