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 ?

Anybody want a cheap car ?P reg Escort 1.8 diesel.I've been told it's worth about £100 scrap, so you can have it for…

Posted by Graham Phillips on Friday, March 21, 2014

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..

olddog – Member
I’m to giddy to spell, or is that stupid?

I think you’ve answered your own question.

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.