My OH had one of those old VAG MKIV 1.4 petrols. On hers the piston rings wore out and it failed the MOT on emissions. Common issue I think.
Some dodgy geezer bought hers and sounded like he 'knew someone' who would get it to pass the MOT anyway... so watch out if you are not so morally flexible.
Depends on who's definition of Bangernomics you choose. To me it's running a cheap car for little money rather than the fundamentalist, buy it and do nothing but fill up the washer fluid idea, you don't even have to do the work. You're just visiting old school garages and not paying for the fancy coffee and plate glass of the shiny showrooms.
My favourite was a £250 1.4 Astra in faded blue that got fondly? dubbed "the ashtray" by my mates. It was carburetted, gutless, velour seated luxury but I did nearly 60000 miles in it and it only needed about £250 a year spent on it at MOT time for whatever needed welding up. I don't regret chopping it in for an £750 Audi A4 off a friend of my Nan but I do kind of miss it.
Anyone buying that Octavia will have to drive me to bike events. I’m an easy passenger but will need picking up from the South Coast.
You all do know that when I sell the Octavia, my biking group will hang me out to dry.. this is collectively OUR car!!!
All our hopes, dreams, and fantasies are locked up within those 2000ml of dieselly combustion space…
Not Sussex Muddy@rse is it? If so I promise to bring it to Monocog Wales, but if you want a lift you'll have to get to Reading.
EDIT – Pictonroad is already getting his objections in..!!!. @pictonroadMaybe we should do a round of crowdfunding, and just leave it parked up somewhere on the A27 with the keys on the rear wheel?
I wasn't talking to you. You can sod off.
If that Octy wasn't at the other end of the county...
Not related to bangernomics but I do like how some forumites are so regular they have their own TLA...
@freeagent + definitely would advise some research on Mazda diesels engines that are ULEZ friendly. Have a great tendency of producing eye watering bills.
Same as any common rail. But yeah they're not great.
All my cars up intil my 5 series have been bangers.
Buy wisely and its almost free motoring
I wanted an 'interim' banger during lockdown before buying a 'proper' car. The criteria were: petrol, naturally aspirated, cam chain, estate, 35+ mpg, ULEZ. The answer came in the form of a 57 plate Avensis with 80k for £1800. I put on a set of tyres, couple of bits of suspension and a service. It's just gone through its 3rd MOT with no advisories and we've kept it. Free motoring indeed and it makes me drive v cautiously as, at its current value (£800), the slightest prang would write it off. If I needed to, I'd buy another tomorrow.
We have had a cheap Aygo for two years. It's generally used to bail son out as his car is now a track car, so generally in a state of repair. They and the Pug/Citroen are cheap to fix. We've done quite a bit to ours, mainly wear and tear.
My car is currently 22 years old, but I've had it 21 of those. The trick is finding a car thats been looked after and not abused.
No , not the same as any common rail deisel.
Some Mazda's, either the 2.0 or the 2.2 or both .suffer from major emissions related issues.
They over fuel massively to light up the dpf during regen . So much so bore washing can occur depriving the engine of a microscopic layer of oil for the pistons to slide about on
Secondly, there's so much over fuelling the sump gets contaminated with diesel fuel, diluting the engine oil which causes premature wear as the oil weight is way off. This has also caused diesel run on problems with crank slap blowing so much diesel / oil mix goes through the pcv valve and the engine runs away with no driver control
Thanks for the above - i think that firmly rules out the Mazda 6 diesel.
If you've got any suggestions as to what to buy for £4000-£5000 which fits 4 adults, is a decent motorway cruiser and ULEZ compliant id appreciate your thoughts.
I keep circling back to the BMW 1-Series - they're not really big enough but tick every other box.
Bought a 55 plate Audi A4 Avant 1.9 TDI with 155k a year ago for £700 off Gumtree. Did 18k in it and sold 10 months later for £1000. Did nothing to it except fit a new battery - which I knew about at time of purchase.
As others say, don't get hung up on the type of car. Look for something that's been well cared for with any expensive likely problems having already been put right by previous owners.
And be quick. Good deals don't stay available for long. The ad for my Audi had been up for 4 minutes! I phoned the guy immediately & bought it over the phone. When I picked it up - he said he could've sold about 50 times over.
If you’ve got any suggestions as to what to buy for £4000-£5000 which fits 4 adults, is a decent motorway cruiser and ULEZ compliant id appreciate your thoughts.
I've recently gone through the same, with a similar budget.
I ended up with a 2009 Mercedes C Class estate. 125k miles, but immaculate service and MOT history and one owner for just less than £4k. Only a 1.6l, but seems a very simple, non complex engine and has enough guts for everything I need it to.
There are plenty around of different engine, spec and age at this price point. Reassuring that there are lots of super high milage ones.
Example 1
We sold a 59 plate Kia Ceed auto yesterday with 90k on the clock for £600. We’d had it 12 years and recently MOTd/serviced - never had any issues with it. Very clean inside but a minor scrape plus keying damage on the outside which the buyer wasn’t bothered about. Sold to a friend so never advertised.
If you’ve got any suggestions as to what to buy for £4000-£5000 which fits 4 adults, is a decent motorway cruiser and ULEZ compliant id appreciate your thoughts.
I keep circling back to the BMW 1-Series – they’re not really big enough but tick every other box.
I don't trust modern BMW 4 cylinder engines, too many issues. Not sure about the 3 cylinder Mini-engined ones.
As someone who hates simply recommending what they have, you get a lot of Vauxhall Insignia for your money. The 1.8 petrol is very simple and robust if not particularly quick, but will do the job, or the 2.0T is basically an evolution of an old Saab design and offers decent power and economy (avoid the auto or 4wd versions). Think the later 1.4T isn't too well liked. I find mine very comfortable and think I'd have struggled to do better for the £2k I paid about 9 months and 10k miles ago
i’d not considered a Merc – i like the look of those!!
You can certainly get a lot more, newer and lower mileage other cars for your money than those Mercedes. And at that price they aren't really 'Bangers'.
But my thinking for the last few cars I've bought has been to get things that you often see in use as taxis, and with high milage examples available. You don't see as many 250k miles 20year old Vauxhall, Ford and Peugeot as you do Mercedes, Volvo and Toyota. There will be obvious outliers to this though.
So the remit has changed from banger fixer-upper you can work on with your son, to sensible £4k Merc Estate. 🤔
You and Molgrips need have have a chat! 😀
I'm not the OP - i just hijacked the thread with another question...
You don’t see as many 250k miles 20year old Vauxhall, Ford and Peugeot as you do Mercedes, Volvo and Toyota. There will be obvious outliers to this though.
Not many, but the other explanations are that if you're going to do 250,000 miles you'd rather do it in a comfy seat. And the problem with a 150,000mile Fiesta isn't that the front shocks have worn out, it's that new front shocks are worth as much as the car. Whereas a 150,000 mile C-class they're only 10% of it's value. Mechanically there's probably little to separate them.
You do see a lot of high-mileage Mondeos TBF
I’m not the OP – i just hijacked the thread with another question…
Ooops! 🙂
Something to be said for an 8v petrol engine as a cheap no frills option
Something to be said for an 8v petrol engine as a cheap no frills option
Do any really still exist? They died out around the millennium as mpg/carbon emissions became a bigger target.
The Ford Kent in the Fiesta must have been about the last pushrod one? 106's/Saxo's had an OHC, and once you've got an OHC there's not much more to go wrong/maintain than a DOHC.
Cam chain tensioners on the 1.8 petrol mercs need watching, they can wear causing chain to stretch £1k to fix. Tend to go at 110-125k miles. $k is good value though.
Similar size estates if you don't mind diesel would be a Seat Exeo - Audi A4 with a Seat badge and the 2.0 tdi VW engine.
i’d not considered a Merc – i like the look of those!!
Hello!
Mine was more than that, but I think the secret to a nice older car is suspension bushings and shocks, because they are what makes older cars feel old. They are a lot of effort to replace though. I'm planning it now - think of it as a restoration project.
On a Merc (and many others) you probably need a cheap hydraulic press (actually a welded frame and a bottle jack) and a set of those cups to use as drivers that come with useless threaded rods.
TBH suspension bushes are one of those jobs I'd give to Kwickfit to do for a fixed price. They have the potential to be an absolute arse.
They did the front control arms on the Focus, it took them 8 hours when the computer told them 3!
I did the MG myself and ended up having to pay a garage £££ to put it right and weld up what I'd broken!
Having said that and learnt lessons if I was going to do it:
Modern cars with modular assemblies that press into the arms - just buy the complete arms, it's more expensive but you save all the faff. Pattern parts probably come in about £50/side less than the garages cost to fit just new bushes, so it's marginal whether it's worth it.
Classics with individual bushings - if it doesn't move at first or with an air hammer, apply heat until it burns/runs out. All the intervening steps are a waste of time as they're either horicfically stuck, or loose.
They have the potential to be an absolute arse.
No, they ARE an absolute arse, especially if decide you can't afford replacement arms with the bushings already in, and you think you can press them out yourself. The front control arms for the Merc have a fancy hydraulic bushing which is quite intricate. MB want £300 for each arm, you can get aftermarket ones for £180 without the hydraulic bushing, but Febi make the bushing on its own for £30. That's not just a bit more. On the other hand, the ones at the back are £40 an arm with two bushings already in, so that's alright. The downside there is that there's 3 control arms and a spring carrier arm thingy to do on each side.
Something to be said for an 8v petrol engine as a cheap no frills option
We've a 16v non-turbo, no egr, no gpf, no dmf, few sensors, no everything pretty much, really basic engine. It's now 11 years and 130k in and cost us an alternator so far.
I'm thinking the vauxhall lump. But bet thats 20yo now...
Though granted a zetec is 16v and that's one awesome motor
I’m thinking the vauxhall lump. But bet thats 20yo now…
Not to make you feel old, but so's the Sigma/Zetec-E/whatever it's being called now is now 29 years old!
The Ford Kent in the Fiesta must have been about the last pushrod one?
one of my Ex’s had a year 2000 fiesta with that engine, great little car, looked smart too. It astonished me how little go it had for a 1.3 and how thirsty it was. Didn’t they also bung it in the parts bin rustbox KA?
I’d written off an almost identical one but with uglier headlights, it was a few years previous, had I think a 1.25 and was way better.
(By written off, I mean a lady in an Audi failed to stop, the car in front was a Volvo, Fiesta sandwich, the poor Fiesta only had a thousand miles on it iirc)
I’m thinking the vauxhall lump. But bet thats 20yo now…
I can’t be sure, and someone will be along to tell me otherwise but the 8 valve lump in our Astra looks suspiciously like the engine I had in a 93 Cavalier and not that dissimilar to the engine in the mk1 Astra.
Not too dissimilar to be blunt. C16se is it?
Sounds familiar
In all honesty, i think Michelin CCs are THE BEST tyres for any car.. no downsides in the summer/dry, and amazing grip in cold, ice, and slush.. similar price to other decent tyres too..
I’ve got those on the front of my EcoSport, and they’re outstanding tyres. I was going to rotate those onto the rear wheels when those wore down enough, but now my mileage has dropped to bugger-all, I’m not sure when that’ll be!
If that Octy wasn’t at the other end of the county…
Mine’s somewhere like Lithuania now; I paid £5000 for it with 82,000 on the clock, 51 plate, four years old, I had it for 15 years, did 91,000 miles in it, and never had it serviced. 1.9 TDi, had done whatever was necessary to get it through each year’s MOT.
Fantastic car, literally drove it like I stole it.
Didn’t they also bung it in the parts bin rustbox KA?
Yup, a friend has had a succession of those as bangernomic commuter cars, runs them until they die (either through rust, or through fire as a result of welding the rust without removing the carpet inside), then keeps one as a donor for the next one!
I always though they looked like they should be fun, like an original mini, an engine, 4 wheels pushed right into the corners, and barely enough metal between them to add weight. But no ones ever had a kind word to say about them. Obviously missed the memo when Ford was getting it's s*** together around the millennium and trying to produce genuinely good handling cars (IIRC they'd just poached the engineer responsible for the 205/106 era of cars at Peugeot).
I always though they looked like they should be fun, like an original mini, an engine, 4 wheels pushed right into the corners, and barely enough metal between them to add weight. But no ones ever had a kind word to say about them. Obviously missed the memo when Ford was getting it’s s*** together around the millennium and trying to produce genuinely good handling cars (IIRC they’d just poached the engineer responsible for the 205/106 era of cars at Peugeot).
I could be wrong but I think they were designed with quite an advanced 2stroke in mind but we're altered mid development.
I thought they were the previous gen bubbley fiesta reworked to get more life from the platform as cheap as possible. Still using the tappety sounding engine when the fiesta moved on. I had one as a banger runabout and quite liked it.....until my feet started getting wet when I went through puddles
I’ve never driven a ‘bad’ Fiesta, unlike the Escorts, which were terrible, aside the rwd ones.
Yeah they limped the fifties derived pushrod boat anchor on for some time. IIRC the tappets had course thread rather than lock nuts, so got noisey quickly.
Iron block, took ages to heat up. Didn’t have a temperature gauge.
One of those would probably be a perfect project. If you can find a rust free one, her 1999 example was showing rust on the A pillars at 6 years old.
I seem to remember the emissions put the 1.3 into the same road fund license group as the 2.7 944 I had back then though, which annoyed her.
The 957cc MK2 I learned to drive in was pretty terrible.
thisisnotaspoon
I always though they looked like they should be fun, like an original mini, an engine, 4 wheels pushed right into the corners, and barely enough metal between them to add weight. But no ones ever had a kind word to say about them.
Are you talking about the original Ka? My Wife had one & loved it. It was a decent car, although granted the engine was pretty terrible. I think that was done for cost-cutting to get it to a price point.
It handled well (I think it was based on the Fiesta chassis) and the ride quality considering it's size was amazing. It wafted over lumpy fenland roads with great control & swallowed the bumps up like a much larger car.
It was cheap to insure, service & maintain, although fuel economy considering it's size wasn't great. It was very reliable. I think the only thing that went wrong in the 8 or 9 years that she had it was a leak around the thermostat housing - they are plastic & warp over time.
My Wife got rid of hers as the chassis was getting very rusty & was going to start needing work. Bodywork was fine though.
I seem to remember towards the end of it's days it got a newer engine (probably to meet emissions regulations) that gave it a bit more oomph.
In all honesty, i think Michelin CCs are THE BEST tyres for any car.. no downsides in the summer/dry, and amazing grip in cold, ice, and slush.. similar price to other decent tyres too..
I agree. Forget the "snow" capabilities, they are ace in all the shitty weather conditions we get in the UK, without being a drag when we have the warm dry spells (remember them?!?).
My first car was a ford Ka... 1.3 engine with about 6BHP!!
Loved it - like a little go cart.
Like you say, a wheel pretty much in each corner was fun!
P534DPD
FUnny how you remember number plates!!
DrP
Just checked - the MOT expired in 2009. I fear it's no more....
