Just had service, MOT, 2 tyres and some minor work on my 150k mile, 10 year old Renault Trafic. £320 all in from my friendly local garage and I'm sorted for another 12 months. I'm so happy
Bangernomics even - I'm to giddy to spell, or is that stupid?
Pfft. 2004, 176k mile 1.6 petrol Focus. Ex hire car! Cost me £600 6 months ago.
Took it in for MOT on Wednesday to see whether it was worth taxing. Flew though for the MOT, fee only.
Kind of the worst car, but yet best car I've ever owned!
Pfft, A4 avant 2000 1.8 petrol, soon to be member of the 200k club
In 80k its had discs pads and a set of part worns.
10 years old and 150k? thats barely run in! '93 850 on 170odd and an '02 t4 on 210
Pfft, 1990 Peugeot 205, bought for £280 12 months ago, zero maintenance and still going strong.
Pfft. Audi a4 s line 2014 with 5k on clock. Paid 32k 6 months ago. Still going strong.
Pfft, my first car a fiat ciquencto (spell check if you care) cost me £0.00 ran it for 12 months only cost me a tax disc, then it died outside a scrap yard I pushed it inside got £200 for it and a lift home and used the £200 to buy my second car a fiesta that lasted a year.
^^ Winner 😀
ThE best part about bangernomics is used parts.
The mrs crashed the frontera a while back. Insurance played funny buggers and were offering pretty much my excess in exchange for the car.... Reliable car with 4 new tires , new brakes and new rear suspension.....plus 3 week old mot
Told them to shove it
New wing , wishbone and indicator from scrappy - 60 quid
New steering rack from another scrappy 55 quid
A brand new brake flexy and new copper pipe to master for 15 quid
Couple of late nights and a weekend
Drives better than before the crash! And i still have my reliable motor.
Oh 15 years old and 93k on the clock......speedo hasnt worked or acrued milage whole time ive owned it. (18 months)
How do you have a three week old MOT and a broken speedo?
I think the girlfriend will be going down the bangernomics route in future. A local garage are wanting just over £1000 for replacing gear box bearings and a clutch plate. This on a 5 year old petrol Zafira. 😡
11 year old Lexus LS430 - with all the extras you can imagine, including massaging heated /aircooled seats, auto dipping rear mirrors, self closing doors, audio controls from the back seat etc etc.
Only 110,000 miles on the clock too... (and LPG converted for cheapness to run - couldn't afford a 4.3litre engined car otherwise)
new thermostat with gasket for £3 or £4 for me some time back. Admittabley the old one did sort of half die.
What part of mot needs a speedo.
Its an advisory. 1 as it was on the previous years.
I use a gps for a speedo instead.
"I think the girlfriend will be going down the bangernomics route in future. A local garage are wanting just over £1000 for replacing gear box bearings and a clutch plate. This on a 5 year old petrol Zafira.
"
They are at it.
As of 20 March 2013 according to the AA
The car will fail if a speedometer is not fitted, is incomplete, inoperative, has a dial glass broken/missing or cannot be illuminated.
Totally chavtastic focus 1.8 zetec, 110, 000 on the clock. 550 quid to you guv! Barely run in! 80 quid to sort the dodgy handbrake and bobs yer aunties live in lover 🙂
I do feel ishould have a happy hardcore Cd booming out of it though
Aa haver pish .
"The glass being cracked is not a reason for failure providing there is no possibility of misreading the speedometer, no possibility of the indicator needle being fouled or the cracked glass being a safety hazard."
Do they do a road test in the mot now,
But seeing as the same testers hand book says "Will be checked for:
Presence
Condition
Can be illuminated
"
Without road testing it will be - its there , its in good static conditon and it can be illuminated"
Ill get round to getting it retinned one day - dry solder joints is all it is.
176k on the mighty 2002 Mundeo TDCi Ghia 130.
Ace car.
Skoda Octavia 2002, 190k on the clock, about £300 the last time it went in for an MOT, but not cost a penny since, oh & I got it for free. Mustn't grumble but the key fob needs a new battery...
The 2014 Audi wins 😆
2000 Honda Civic. 120k. Passed every MOT in the 3 years I've owned it 🙂
Up until 18 months ago i had a N reg cavalier that i bought for £300 with 170,000 on it. Owned it 6 years and sold it for £240 with nearly 300,000 on the clock, apart from a fuel pump the only money i spent on it was for discs/pads & tyres 8)
Got a 306 Hdi now which is pretty much the same. Cost me £400 and in 18 months its done 30,000+ miles and apart from wear & tear stuff like pads & tyres has cost me £25 from a breakers yard for an airflow meter.
I'd rather have a banger that i can just chuck the bike in and leave anywhere!
2003 Volvo at the moment.
Have to admit being a bit 'arrogant' about the OP's commitment to Bangernomics as they are PAYING someone to do work on their motor.
While we are on the subject, anyone want an Escort estate for scrap value ?
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just gor 4 tyres for my van for £80, matching michelins with 90% tread left from my local scrappy. love that place. i was trying to kill the van but my 1996 merc sprinter just refuses to die in any way so i think im going to hand paint over the rust 😀
5 yrs motoring so far. cost me £400, only ever needed brake pads, oil, and now tyres, it does only have 180k on the clock though.
Pfft 2014 Golf TDI 10 delivery miles and no new parts .......... Oh
bamboo - Member
Pfft. Audi a4 s line 2014 with 5k on clock. Paid 32k 6 months ago. Still going strong.
😆
2005 BMW 320d se. 221k on it and still running well.
J reg Volvo 940 estate bought for £240 with 150k on it - 17" alloys and filthy inside & out butcame with the original steelies as well.
Spents 3 weekends cleaning and polishing and only costs were MOT'S, oil, filters and 2 lightbulbs over 5yrs of ownership.
Sold on steel wheels and with 205k on the clock for £700 and punted the set of alloys for £85 😀
Then spent the £700 on a Cinquecento sporting from evilbay sight unseen (24k fsh) had that for 2yrs and spent on 2 MOT's and a back box - sold for £700 with 35k on the clock.
7yrs of motoring for pennies 😀
£800 on 1995 automatic 2.0 Golf cabriolet with 67k on the clock 12 months ago - one pair of brake pads only and still going strong.
The commute on the m25 car park is bliss now with the auto box and my little lad loves driving in the 'cool car' with the roof down on the warm days.
Conversely, the Mrs 2007 Megane has required 4 tyres, a drive shaft, several bulb changes, a £300 service and window modules replacing in the same time. Probably £1500 all in. Oh, and the CD player isn't working. And the radio reception drops out at the sight of a hill. And the seat bolsters are wearing thin.
Oh, but it does give 40mpg for a 2 litre diesel..
I think you've answered your own question.olddog - Member
I'm [b]to[/b] giddy to spell, or is that stupid?
1997 VW Polo 1.0 was given to us for nothing by friends. Has 120,000 miles on the clock. Last year we did Edinburgh to Cornwall on holiday and a few other big trips. Last mot cost about £45 for a tyre. It just keeps on going!
Rusty, too pedantic... I'm a bad spelling boy, two spelling mistakes today. But am I too stupid to be told
Bangernomics is great but perversely, I would only recommend it to people who have plenty of money. It can be a very cheap way to own a car over a year or hopefully more, but if you are hit with a large bill to keep you on the road it can be a killer if you can not afford the hit.
Time, cost, quality.
I just don't have the time to pee around trying to find replacement cars or selling to breakers etc
So it cost me more to buy a quality newer car that depreciates a little and cost a small amount to service and keep running.
I'm happy BUT I love to drive an old snotter from time to time so I don't have to worry where I leave it, or how it's parked.
Very liberating knowing the motor costs you nothing 🙂
but if you are hit with a large bill to keep you on the road it can be a killer if you can not afford the hit.
That's the point of bangernomics though - the maximum a bill can be is a few hundred for the next banger because you don't fix anything. If something's too complicated for me to fix myself (which is almost everything) I just leave it by the side of the side of the road (metaphorically, most of the time) and get another one. If you keep sending it to the garage to be fixed that's not bangernomics, that's just running an old car.
Unknown...Good point well made.
But to further my point I would recommend someone on a fixed ( low budget) to get a fixed monthly cost for there car, hopefully with a warranty, that way they will be on the road at all times.
If you are on a low budget and have loads of time you are right but most people need to stay on the road.
Buying decent old cars takes time.
If you have a bit of cash and time bangernomics is a great way to save even more money and drive more interesting cars.
Unknown...Good point well made.But to further my point I would recommend someone on a fixed ( low budget) to get a fixed monthly cost for there car, hopefully with a warranty, that way they will be on the road at all times.
If you are on a low budget and have loads of time you are right but most people need to stay on the road.
Buying decent old cars takes time.
If you have a bit of cash and time bangernomics is a great way to save even more money and drive more interesting cars.
Kind of agree and disagree.
It doesn't really compute with me that you need a lot of money. Like unknown says, that's the point. It's virtually impossible to lose any significant amount of cash. Worst case scenario it costs the equivalent of maybe a couple of months payments on a cheap new car.
Neither is it difficult to keep the car on the road. I've always driven old cars for less than a grand (roughly 80% of them have been less than £500!), and time off the road has always been kept to a minimum. Certainly no more than other people with much newer cars. Current car of 3 years has not had one day off sick.
But, I do hate buying them. I find it stressful. And of course finding a good one takes a little bit of knowledge, a good nose for an honest owner, and a bit of luck too.
It also helps greatly if you do have spare time and don't mind getting your hands dirty with general maintenance. Older cars tend to come with 'character'. And if things do go catastrophically wrong, self-diagnosis, sourcing parts, and even doing the repairs yourself can save huge amounts of money.
In my mind though, it is a far bigger risk buying something say, 5 years old, where the outlay is much bigger, yet the potential for mechanical failure virtually the same.
It also helps greatly if you do have spare time and don't mind getting your hands dirty with general maintenance. Older cars tend to come with 'character'. And if things do go catastrophically wrong, self-diagnosis, sourcing parts, and even doing the repairs yourself can save huge amounts of money.
Good debate/chat
I completely on the side of running a Banger if you have the time and inclination. I ran this for about two years as I had the time ( and money if needed, but I was frantically saving for a house deposit)
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apart from tax, insurance and petrol it cost about £600 for two years.
I now run two cars, a brand new Quashqai and a 20 year old Toyota, I could afford to run two new cars but running the older Toyota and doing all the maintenance, saves me a fortune per month.
Reminds me, I need to tighten the handbrake 🙂
For me it's all part of my view about staying ahead of the game financially. I had a light bulb moment many years ago (after getting into a financial hole) that if you live without debt (mortgage aside) then life is cheaper. But true it requires an initial period of doing without to build up a financial, buffer. Then discipline not to blow it all on bikes, beer and holidays, not always successful for me, And, in my case, a Mrs OD who is good with money and tolerant
Iro cars, the first year depreciaton alone on a moderately priced new car would fund years of older vehicles and money to run them. the key thing is knowing when to call it a day with and old vehicle, bin it and seek something else. I've generally done well enough without a massive amount of knowledge, but one dog, so it goes.
"In my mind though, it is a far bigger risk buying something say, 5 years old, where the outlay is much bigger, yet the potential for mechanical failure virtually the same."
This is my view also
So for me id rather buy at around 10 years old and cheap or 3 years old as i think those are the points where you get most "value" if you know what your looking at. 5 years old and folk seem to think its only depreciated a ouple hundred quid from the 3 year old price.....but then i also think that the 5 year old market demand is greater which drives prices up.
Bought my van at 3 years old - 5 years ago. Its done 50000 miles in my ownership , and still being offer 1800 on trade in. How ever better the devil you know imo so have opted to get my clutch changed instead. - release bearings whining like a banshee
I used to have 3-5 year old cars and spend a fortune to keep repairing them to keep up the value. I have spent £xxxx to buy it, therefore I need to keep spending to keep it up. Then I started commuting by car, I'd been cycle commuting for 15 years, and I saw various other guys buy nice shiney newish cars and have either the 3 year expensive of worn out parts or have an accident, normally FOD wandering sheep, and get lumped with big bills.
I bought my Goff estate in 2005, £5.5k. 43k on the clock. It had 2 lambda probes and a mass air flow meter in the 3 month warranty. Since then all I've done is water pump and cam belt twice, brakes, servicing, tyres and a battery. Which I do myself. It's now nearly 14 years old, passed every MOT. It's only been in the garage once, to plug in the diagnostic computer to confirm a miss fire. Plugs and leads solved that one.
The Wife's Polo is 13 years old, 72k on the clock. Only had tyres and serving in the 4 years we've owned it. We're arguing with an insurance company ATM due to a numpty driving in to it when it was parked. They want to write it off for a £350 repair bill. Says it's uneconomical to repair. Trade vale in Glasses is £700, bottom retail is £1300. So it's still "worth" what we paid for it.
I'm not buying another until one off them dies, then it won't be anything too special if all I'm going to do is rag it back and forward to work and throw dirty bikes in it.
X reg 170000mile vw golf SDI estate. I have known the car from new so had to make the decision whether to put a 2nd hand gearbox in it 4 months ago. Gald I did! Just passed its mot needing 2 tyres, a brake caliper and anti roll bar bushes. My wife does a 250 mile commute 3-5 days a week in it. My mechanic told me it was the older engine with a low pressure diesel pump so as long as I change the oil every 10000 and do general repairs when needed it would be rust that kills it in the end!
Bangernomics male sense!