A friend of a friend is selling a 1990 Micra, and I’m half tempted just for a cheap runabout. Should be cheap on fuel and to maintain, and insurance is as not bad as it gets nowadays.

So – anything I should look out for? What should I be offering? 45k on the clock, lives in a garage, allegedly no rust and just had a new battery and exhaust… MOT till April and tax till May.

Chap is asking £400, which I think is a bit steep

Offer what you want to pay for it.

Oh, and just because it’s low mileage doesn’t mean things won’t go wrong. Possibly more to go wrong as parts haven’t been replaced over the last 20yrs like they will have been on higher mileage cars.

it’d be worth £400 with a new ticket. Without I’d say £300 is fair.

Having bought and run a low mileage 1987 Citroen AX (bought 2007, 22’000, paid £200 with new battery and 4 month Tax MOT) I’d say go for it – but try to pay less!

If it’s anything like mine, it’ll be heaps of fun, lightweight (cheap on fuel), and dirtily simple to maintain*.

*Assuming you’re handy with cars and can find donor vehicles in a scrappy. My local had run out of AX parts by the time I got rid of the car, and the Citroen dealer wasn’t able to source a lot of the parts.

Aye, I’m not expecting it to be trouble free, but I’m hoping stuff that does go wrong should be comparitively cheap compared to a newer / bigger car – ie a Mondeo or something.

Reckon I might offer £200 and see what he says…

With a full MOT? 350-400 is fair

you could run it through we buy any car.com

Only has MOT till April, which is why I think £400 is a bit steep.

yup 400 for a couple months mot is steep

bottom line is – willing to get hands dirty go for it …. if you haveto pay a garage forget it – false economy !

My mechanic ran one for a few years, and has nothing but good thing to say about old Micra’s. He throughly recommends them, buy it!

Avoiding garages is part of the plan. I’ve been carless for a year, so I figure if something goes wrong and it’s off the road while I figure out what to do to it than it’s no bother. And if I can get it cheap enough it’ll be disposable!

I learnt to drive in one – they’re nasty from a driving point of view! Very very very light steering, brakes are frighteningly on-off (i.e. locked or just slowing down), wobbly suspension.

OK for a run about. Not sure on old car parts prices, but at least it doesn’t have sensors every where!

I got a 94 micra for 270 with 6mth tax and 1yr mot. Went though 3 mot not needing nothing. Last mot needed 25 quid back box and a bit of welding. Vest xar we ever had till mrs drove it into a flood and the electrics died.

1990 micra, as in the really old box shaped ones?

400 sounds expensive to me

I gave away my 1993 Micra a couple of years ago (lot more miles, but 6 months tax & mot)

I think the golden age of Micra’s was the 1992-1997 ones

Yep it’s the old box shaped Micra. Not expecting much from it other than getting me from A to B, but if I can get it cheap enough it should do that ok.

It’s apparently a minter, but it’s still 21 years old!

They are very good and reliable cars. There’s been one in my family for about 10 years, its an L reg 1300. Apart from the rear silencer always rotting and a very small weld on one sill about 3 years back its cost nothing to run. Servicing takes around 1 hour, there’s bucket loads of room when the back seats are down. The one we have is slightly different as I fitted lowered and stiffer springs that has totally transformed the handling from cushion like to go cart 😉

They’re ace little cars, all the versions of the Micra are – hugely underated (and nice and cheap as a result). If you were in the market for a new small car and didn’t buy the current Micra I’d actually ban you from ever making a decision for yourself ever again.

If you drive the old boxy micras like the kind of car they are then there’s nothing to complain about. They’re not fast and don’t have brilliant handling but they are great to drive all the same. The plus side of not being fast or quick (and not being appealing to the fast or quick) is that they’ve usually been driven fairly gently. As a taller gentleman (6’6″) its also pretty much the most comfortable car that I’ve ever driven

Things to be aware of though are….. in those days most small cars were geared as city cars – the ratios favoured nippy acceleration around town. The downside if you have a 4 speed gearbox is that it results in a lot of revs and noise on the motorway (compared to more modern cars) Tiring if you make frequent journeys of 2-300 miles (get a polo instead), not an issue otherwise.

The other is – that economy – economy was what sold cars in the 80’s and that was acheived not by remarkable efficent engines but by making cars that weighed next to nothing. Today safety is what sells – a modern super mini will weigh roughly twice as much as a 1990 micra and the weight is all armour. Pretty much any modern day vehicle you might get into a shunt with will drive right through you – you are going to have 90% of the accident.

EDIT: Forgot – if it has one achillies heal…… the oil cap on some models is funny rubber bung – if you take it out be prepared to spend the rest of the weekend trying to get it back in again 🙂

21 years pah …..

im driving a 23 year old land rover 90 just now ….. – needless to say im learning to weld also ….. i should also mention its not my daily driver its just a project for me to play with and mess about on the farm – the farmers also a landy nut 😀

They’re ace little cars, all the versions of the Micra are – hugely underated (and nice and cheap as a result). If you were in the market for a new small car and didn’t buy the current Micra I’d actually ban you from ever making a decision for yourself ever again.

The frog eye ones are not up to the reputation. Very poor build quality, nasty (renault) electrics, poor driving position, noisy, rear bulges completely out of sight (look at the amount with dented rear bumpers) great turning circle though! And at least they are easy to fix… The previous version to this (the bubble one) was much more solid and much better built & much more deserving of the reliable tag.

Forgot – if it has one achillies heal…… the oil cap on some models is funny rubber bung – if you take it out be prepared to spend the rest of the weekend trying to get it back in again

Ha. I forgot about that. Absolute nightmate. Old Micra was my first car back in 1994. Metallic green, brown velour interior, 1 litre automatic 8)

does it look like this?

or this?

My wife has been driving a ’96 1000cc model (like the silver one above but without wings) for the last 3-4yrs. 30-60km per day and it hasn’t missed a beat apart from when the accessory belt snapped due to overdue replacement.

Very economical and an absolute blast to drive around town: I call it the roller skate.

Replaced at Christmas because I don’t want my children to die in it: I suspect it would fold up like wet cardboard in an accident.

Rocketdog- older. the first shape out I bet.

The one I’m looking at is the K10, like Hora says the first shape there was – proper boxy little feller.

One of these!!

That’s the bad boy!

£200 tops.

It will serve you well as a run-a-bout. Easy to work on, cheap to run, will make you smile when you drive it.

Brill!

I had one of those, very early car of mine, bought off my Grandpa when he stopped driving. K reg so 1993. Very reliable but nasty to drive and certainly not something I’d want to do big miles in. I had the problem with the oil cap as well, it was a nightmare to remove and refit.

However I sold it for £50 more than I paid for it so that was OK!

21 year old minter? Like this?

Erm…