Bangernomics - next buy.

5 years and 60k miles for £425 isn't bad IMHO, but it's looking shabby and rust is setting in so time to scrap it and start again.

Priorities are:

Minimum servicing/maintainence A modicum of performance No catylist Effortless motorway performance Easy to work on Ideally should cope with a roof rack Space for camping gear Cheap and plentiful parts availability It would be nice (but not essential) to feel some enthusiasm for the car.

As you can see from my shortlist I'm prepared to compromise on almost everything.

Here are my thoughts/comments: Another (tidier) Rover 416 - nuff said MkII Golf GTi - Seems to totally fit the bill. Practical, cheap and easy to work on. Are the shells prone to rust at the ages I'm talking about?

Used to have one of these - the bodywork should last well, can't imagine the engine will. Diesels seem to last longer, but... well, they're diesels.

any way at all one of these could be all year round transport? Porche 911 - Ok, so the initial purchase cost is going to be astronomical. However am I right in thinking this will be bulletproof reliable transport easy for home maintainence and practical as transport. Were they all galvanized?

LOL, these don't tick many of your boxes, apart from performance and enthusiasm! :-)

Z

I bet both are very easy to work on which compensates for a lot else but what I really hoped was it would trigger an idea in someone.

Seems to me that even having a shortlist is going against the whole bangermonics ethos. Just keep checking eBay for _anything_ in your area below a certain price. F'rinstance a friend bought a nondescript Mitsubishi (Galant or something instantly forgetable) for 12 quid. We were amazed to find it was in practically spotless condition. More recently he got a very tidy Vectra with a bust engine (cam-belt failure) for 60 quid that would definitely have been worth repairing. I doubt if either bargain would have appeared on anyone's shortlist.

They go well, post 87 Digifant 8Vs are supposedly a bit poorer in terms of power delivery (flat spots etc), but I've got one and there are no flat spots and it will do 45mpg if you're steady, which I doubt the K-jet would. The cars don't really rust. The areas that do rust are listed here:

The big ones IMO are the area in front of the A pillars - if it's rusted particularly badly, it'll get through to the rain tray which is where the blower and wiper motors live. If it's got that far, run a mile, because the inner wing will be barely attached to the a pillar, and you need to remove the wing to repair (or even see) the rust. I reckon they might rust there if they've been driven particularly hard and the areas' been flexing. Most other areas are cosmetic, and the cars are pretty much full of cavity wax from new.

I'd also avoid 16V cars, as having had one, I can tell you that parts are often twice the price and they get through plenty of fuel.

That's really useful Doki. Ta.

Funnily enough a long while back I owned a 2 year old Mk2 (I'd completely forgotten). It was already rusting where the blanking cap on the 'unused' windscreen wiper point is.

Aye, they can go there but it's not usually horribly bad. The area I'm talking about is easily weldable, but obviously you have to get the wings off.

Trouble with ebay is you don't know the price until the last few hours, and then it's too late to see the car. Or do you buy from the description and take a risk? Presumably if you get a lemon the hassle of towing/etc then reselling makes it a pain?

Theo (who might have to do something similar soon, but there's only a limited range of things I can fix so it's risky)

In news: snipped-for-privacy@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com, toad wittered on forthwith;

W124 Merc, get a 300E and it'll be all the car you ever need.

I'm mooching about in a very nice 190E I picked up for next to nothing and enjoying it. Ok, not the fastest thing in the world but it feels like it was built out of old safes and granite. It's 16 years old, tidy, and people comment on how nice it is rather more often than I'm used to. Bits are super cheap from places like GSF and Eurocarparts, they're reliable, cheap to insure, cheap to run and remarkably nice to drive.

Right. But if they don't happen to mention it has a siezed engine but don't say it's a runner either, it's caveat emptor. Do you take the risk or just go for those which are described as runners or list faults that it's worthwhile fixing? And take the risk there aren't any other faults that haven't been mentioned/spotted?

Theo

'ask seller a question' - 'can it be driven safely on the road, without any work doing'? Or similar.

That works :) Suitable blanket application of that question to likely suspects would probably do the trick. Should have thought about it a bit more...

Theo