Bangernomics - Post Your Cheap Daily Finds and Hacks

[Cooper]

Covid has sent the car market into a spin. Nearly new cars are fetching as much as their brand new counterparts due to lack of supply. PCH makes less sense as depreciation has seemingly evaporated.

At the other end of the car market, the one that keeps wheel bearings and handbrake cables on the shelves of your local motor factors is the cheap and cheerful motoring to be had out of something much older, kept for daily duties, dog transport, Tesco car parks and putting big miles on cheap remoulds.

The world of bangernomics. It was once cars under £500 with a bit of MOT. Today it's probably a few grand.

Lets use this thread to post up your daily bangernomics hack, or post up any marketplace corkers you've seen to help others in their search for motoring on the slimmest of budgets.

Thread inspired by the WBAC thread and some of the comments made by @Coog @RevT @NickR

We buy any car - what a massive difference in price in 4 months..

I kind of enjoy having something around the 1k mark....park it anywhere without worrying, put the dogs in the boot, use it for a dump run....then swap it for something else after a few months. I’ve been doing it for years, it’s hard to beat! I couldn’t do it without a toy or two in the garage...

rmsmotoring.com

 

[Cooper]

I'm just going to kick this off with my favourite cheap daily, the Saab 9-3 Estate (Facelift of course).

I ran one for two years a few years ago. Few grand picked it up. Needed a steering rack and just normal consumables after that, which were super cheap. Vectra underneath, and of course you need to go for the Fiat sourced 1.9 Tid (some day I'll have a titty-D TTid) to run the reliability gauntlet.

Here's a marketplace special for 2 grand. Best thing about bangernomics hunts is of course the quality ads. This one is a recipe for disaster.

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[Gavlar]

01 Corolla, ran one for years without a hiccup, put 50k on it. It was a 3 door so got a Mazda6 as I needed 5 doors; it then proceeded to rust round me which was a bad financial decision lol

Honestly still believe a Corolla will outlive everything when the apocalypse happens

 

[Cooper]

01 Corolla, ran one for years without a hiccup, put 50k on it. It was a 3 door so got a Mazda6 as I needed 5 doors; it then proceeded to rust round me which was a bad financial decision lol

Honestly still believe a Corolla will outlive everything when the apocalypse happens

My Corolla outlived my teens, where it spent most of its life in and around the limiter. Cockroach cars for sure. Pics!

 

[vw1500]

01 Corolla, ran one for years without a hiccup, put 50k on it. It was a 3 door so got a Mazda6 as I needed 5 doors; it then proceeded to rust round me which was a bad financial decision lol

Honestly still believe a Corolla will outlive everything when the apocalypse happens

Bro bought a fresh Mazda 6 last year, he near dropped when he looked underneath, complained to dealer who said "it's a 4year old car mate what do you expect". He had to spend a full day undersealing it.

 

[RevT]

130 PD VAG engined runabout is still the holy grail in my opinion, even better when it’s an auto estate. £800 purchase in England 18 months ago, costing about £1300 now after being brought back, timing belt etc replaced, two services and fixing the auto box ecu with full gearbox flush.

However, I’ve found a cheap-ish 6 cylinder E60 LCI touring that I like the look of so I may change. The problem is I’d care too much about it as it’s be costing me probably £3000ish.

 

[Burt2000]

Had this for 2 years a 2006 2.2cdti sport. It does about 20-25k miles a year. Averaging low 50’s, plenty of space and good boot, decent amount of poke, and so far very reliable. Apart from Normal service items it’s needed a front shock and spring, they are a bit crashy on rough roads but a great all round workhorse. Bought it for just under £1500 2 years ago with full history and a new clutch. It’s prob worth around the same now or not far off it. a few marks around the body now given my job but it does what it’s supposed to.

 

[gpaevo]

Loved my 9-3 Aero. Only issue for a daily hack was £500 tax and 22mpg.

Would rather daily a V8 if I was paying those costs again

 

[hitandamiss]

Fabia mk1 vrs bought as a stop gap for £1500 two years ago and can't part with it! 130 PD engine as already mentioned is great and cheapest car I've ever ran at 55mpg and less than £400 a year to tax and insure

 

[Cooper]

Loved my 9-3 Aero. Only issue for a daily hack was £500 tax and 22mpg.

Would rather daily a V8 if I was paying those costs again

Presume that was a v6. I dailyed a 2.0t for a month and got near 30mpg regularly. And it was a slush!

 

[Coog]

Generally speaking I’ve had depreciation proof motoring for the past 15 years. It doesn’t always necessarily need to be in a diesel shed either. Given the ‘few grand’ threshold, nothing below stands me more than that. The cayenne is a bit more but not a million miles away!

08 swift sport 65k miles full MOT, lady owned. Smells like an ashtray, otherwise hilarious fun and everything works

02 V6 A4 Cab sport. Climate, BOSE, full mint leather, full MOT, 90k but needed the belt done which I did myself. Has been perfect. classified as a classic so cheap to run too.

‘95 XJ6. Has had servicing and a water pump (preventative) and £20 worth of bushes in 3 years. Also a classic for insurance.

‘92 Golf. Needed a fair bit of TLC but still under budget in the end and has been perfect since the restoration.

All great fun and perfectly reliable. Can do all the jobs myself and parts are generally cheap.

 

[redanni]

Oh that golf is lovely

 

[mikey]

Unfortunately, like most, the price of 90s Toyotas is rising. 8 years ago I bought this from a scrapyard for £400, saved it from the crusher, only 47k miles. Been driving it daily since then, all it costs me is tyres and an MOT every year and the odd oil change when I can be assed. Ice cold AC, everything works, comfortable, 36mpg, what more do you need? I think it’s paid for itself many times over in my ownership.

 

[gpaevo]

Presume that was a v6. I dailyed a 2.0t for a month and got near 30mpg regularly. And it was a slush!

No 2.0T, Auto facelift. Was mapped by Noobtune.

 

[kharma45]

My kind of thread. If I won the lotto I’d be buying all kinds of cheap *****. Always fancied a Rover 75, partly because my grandfather always wanted one but my grandmother said it was too big and they didn’t need a car that size.

 

[Gambit]

The wee audi a3 1.8T with 80k I picked up for a grand last year was brilliant put a bit of tinker time & money into getting it how I wanted it and drove brilliantly for something that was 20yr old, bit rough bodywise but it was a daily so didnt bother me too much I'd have another in a heartbeat if looking a cheap daily.

Infact I shouldn't have sold it so quickly to @PieMan1 only sold it as I was expecting the scoob back....that was April and still no sign of scoob today

 

[FM155]

1993 Rover 414Sli, bought it in Derby in late 2003 with just over 100k on it for £395. Plan was to use it as a work car to commute from digs to work and to park at the airport at the weekends. Ran it for around 18 months with no issues and then got a job in Madrid in mid 2005 so the sensible* thing to do was drive it there and use it in the same way...

Flew home one Friday and came back on Sunday to East Mids Airport, went round to the services, checked the fluids and tyres and pointed it towards Folkestone and the Eurotunnel, down to Paris and on to the A10 to Bordeaux. My plan was to stop when I was tired and get a cheapo motel or whatever but the wee Rover was bowlong along at a nice 90mph (because there was an out of balance wheel which shook like crazy at 70 and only cleared at 90 officer..) so I kept going.

I drove all night just listening to freaky French radio stations with wall to wall Jean-Michel Jarre synth music until I got to Spain. Was really tired by now so stocked up on coffee and donuts and pushed on. Around another hour into Spain, I started getting calls from my agent saying that the client wanted to see me and could I come in etc even though I'd told them I couldn't make it until Tuesday. The client site was south of Madrid in Getafe so it ended up around 1200 miles door to door and the wee Rover ran like a clock the whole way.

Because I was there every second weekend due to flight times etc, I used the team Rover as the tour bus because we were'nt allowed on site at the weekends. So, it went up to Segovia in the Sierras above Madrid (via the Ski resort of Navacerrada of course) a few times, up to the Valley of the Fallen outside Madrid where Franco is buried in a Basilica that was dug out of the mountains by political prisoners, a lot of whom are also buried there.. and up to Toulouse returning over the Pyrenees using the Bielsa Pass which was a brilliant road on the Spanish side which I'd love to go back and do again in something nice.

The Rover did great for 9 months or so and then overheated on me going into work one morning.. Again, did the sensible thing and bought a head gasket, head bolts, timing belt etc to fix it at the side of the road near the flat I was renting in Madrid. Spent the next weekend taking the head off and cleaning it up and sorting the new gasket / belt etc. The gasket had gone on the peripheral seal around the outside and the head was fine, didn't need a skim or anything. Ran it for another 3 months there until the end of that gig and then drove it back to Leicester where the next gig was. No MOT or Tax on it by this stage so I just booked a test in a garage beside work and drove on..

Ran it there for another 6 or 8 months and then picked up an Alfa 155 V6 with a broken gearbox and a few other issues as a project which I could work on in the attached garage of the shared house I was in. Put the Team Rover up for sale and got £250 for it, had put around 30k or so on it in the three years I had it and other than the HG which was an easy fix, it did everything that was asked of it and took dogs abuse in that time. I absolutely loved it because it was so light on it's feet and comfortable, could carry a ton of crap on my various trips and just did what it was told.

Could actually write similar stories about a string of Alfa 155's including the V6 and I still have 4 of those..

 

[Gavlar]

View attachment 334976

1993 Rover 414Sli, bought it in Derby in late 2003 with just over 100k on it for £395. Plan was to use it as a work car to commute from digs to work and to park at the airport at the weekends. Ran it for around 18 months with no issues and then got a job in Madrid in mid 2005 so the sensible* thing to do was drive it there and use it in the same way...

Flew home one Friday and came back on Sunday to East Mids Airport, went round to the services, checked the fluids and tyres and pointed it towards Folkestone and the Eurotunnel, down to Paris and on to the A10 to Bordeaux. My plan was to stop when I was tired and get a cheapo motel or whatever but the wee Rover was bowlong along at a nice 90mph (because there was an out of balance wheel which shook like crazy at 70 and only cleared at 90 officer..) so I kept going.
View attachment 334977

I drove all night just listening to freaky French radio stations with wall to wall Jean-Michel Jarre synth music until I got to Spain. Was really tired by now so stocked up on coffee and donuts and pushed on. Around another hour into Spain, I started getting calls from my agent saying that the client wanted to see me and could I come in etc even though I'd told them I couldn't make it until Tuesday. The client site was south of Madrid in Getafe so it ended up around 1200 miles door to door and the wee Rover ran like a clock the whole way.

Because I was there every second weekend due to flight times etc, I used the team Rover as the tour bus because we were'nt allowed on site at the weekends. So, it went up to Segovia in the Sierras above Madrid (via the Ski resort of Navacerrada of course) a few times, up to the Valley of the Fallen outside Madrid where Franco is buried in a Basilica that was dug out of the mountains by political prisoners, a lot of whom are also buried there.. and up to Toulouse returning over the Pyrenees using the Bielsa Pass which was a brilliant road on the Spanish side which I'd love to go back and do again in something nice.

View attachment 334983

The Rover did great for 9 months or so and then overheated on me going into work one morning.. Again, did the sensible thing and bought a head gasket, head bolts, timing belt etc to fix it at the side of the road near the flat I was renting in Madrid. Spent the next weekend taking the head off and cleaning it up and sorting the new gasket / belt etc. The gasket had gone on the peripheral seal around the outside and the head was fine, didn't need a skim or anything. Ran it for another 3 months there until the end of that gig and then drove it back to Leicester where the next gig was. No MOT or Tax on it by this stage so I just booked a test in a garage beside work and drove on..

Ran it there for another 6 or 8 months and then picked up an Alfa 155 V6 with a broken gearbox and a few other issues as a project which I could work on in the attached garage of the shared house I was in. Put the Team Rover up for sale and got £250 for it, had put around 30k or so on it in the three years I had it and other than the HG which was an easy fix, it did everything that was asked of it and took dogs abuse in that time. I absolutely loved it because it was so light on it's feet and comfortable, could carry a ton of crap on my various trips and just did what it was told.

Reminds me of a 1.4 MG ZR I had, bought it with 30k on it and the only major thing that went wrong was HG. started to get all sorts of weird electrical gremlins around 145k so got rid, was starting to get a nightmare to get parts aswell since the facelift bumpers were like hens teeth even back then lol

 

[cauld1]

250 quid Peugeot 205 d-turbo. Did everything better than the fabia vrs it replaced - looked better, more comfortable, better on fuel, handled better, wasn't a characterless hateful boring car.

 

[BobSpounge]

The Golf club.

Black Mk5. 2007. Bought last year for twins to learn in. Daughter has lost interest in learning. Son passed test in July. 1.4 petrol around 2bhp. Fresh MOT yesterday. All it needed was rear shocks and a tyre.

Silver Mk4. 2002. 130pd. My wife's daily and she loves it. Highline spec with heated leather. Bought as a stop gap and we have it 8 years last month lol. Can't remember exactly what it cost, think it was around £1300. Previous owner was having a few issues with it that a couple of new sensors sorted. Steering rack has been the most expensive part I've put in it. It's been due a new timing belt for 4 years now lol. Starts on the button and shifts rightly too. The kids call it the dole car lol.

Green MK4. The Grolf. 2003. 100pd. Cost me £1200 I think. My daily. Think I have it 3 years now. Put a clutch in it last year. I expect to get another 2 or 3 of years out of it.

Discount the GTi. The garage queen. 2009 and newest car we have. I've no interest in anything more modern than that. New cars with all their tricks bore me.

 

[Cooper]

I think we need some dates in here.

A derv 205 is old enough to be a Granda now. Who’s running a cheap daily through covid. Are there any cheap daily’s left?

 

[Eamo_vxr]

I bought a metro gta in 2003 for £200 from a girl who was moving to Australia. Drove away at it, passed three mot’s, never serviced it, literally ran it into the ground and it didn’t need a thing.
Ended up weighing it in for £50 in the end.

 

[cauld1]

I think we need some dates in here.

A derv 205 is old enough to be a Granda now. Who’s running a cheap daily through covid. Are there any cheap daily’s left?

Derv 205 was 2012 in fairness! So the fabia it replaced was a fairly new car then, I hated that Skoda with a passion, genuinely the only car I've owned that I truly disliked everything about

 

[FM155]

I've owned Alfa 155s from 1998 until today. The last one I drove as a daily came off the road in 2018. They were always around about the £800 - £1200 mark and needing a small amount of fettling. I used them as daily runners and airport cars so they would get left in car parks for weeks at a time. Now I'm trying to thin the fleet a little and work on what's left to make them weekend/trackday toys.

 

[NickR]

I've had a few around the £1k mark over the last few years. I bought the octavia at the start of the summer to replace the passat. 186k on it but a very presentable car that drives well. It's going to make room for an estate again though the lab struggles with the height of the boot now that she's getting older. Plus I really want another saab or volvo estate....

Bought the passat of @southsky sunrise for sub 1k (235 odd thousand on it). Got over a year out of it as a daily and even with replacing a few parts and injectors, I didn't lose anything on it when I sold it.

Bought the Saab in 2019 to replace the passat saloon that the gearbox was about to explode in. Great going thing, 180ish k on it if I remember rightly. Returned 50ish mpg, comfortable and reliable. The wife's favourite of our cheap runaround. Sold it when the A6 avant went as we needed an estate for the dogs. Cost me around £1k and I think I got about £900 back.

Biggest disaster of them all was a 1.9tdi Passat S. My dad gave me it for nothing so I can't complain however it was dead as.... and the gearbox didn't like 3rd gear. Sold it cheap to a fella on Facebook that was happy with how it was going. Seen it about about a year later too.

I'm currently looking at Saab 9-3 Estates to replace the octavia and just waiting for the right one. No rush at the minute as we can make do with one car (Seat Ateca). Long live the cheap runarounds!

I have noticed though that 1k doesn't get you much these days and most of the ones I've had would be double what I paid nowadays thanks to the price hikes on all cars.

I do like having something that I can put the dogs into, do a dump run, park anywhere and not be overly worried about damage and of course no big hp payment every month. Leaves more money for living and maybe getting a toy.