Out of this list.

MX5 or Porsche 944. Though personally I reckon they're all foul looking things.

Taken up hairdressing have we?

Ditto.

Not bad. Very expensive to fix if they break, and the do more often than you'd expect. Watch for some consumable prices and exhausts are just silly prices - you could buy my car for less.

Don't buy an import - odd specs and dodgy parts availability.

Not worthy of the CRX name, roof weighs too much, performance nothing to write home about.

Predictable, but excellent choice, IMHO. Get the 1.8, though, or you'll never live it down.

That's going to be a s**te condition poverty 1.6 for that, surely?

Good car if you can afford a tidy 2lt, though.

At that money, no chance.

Get a tidy 924 for £2k, though.

Wouldn't get a useable one for £2k anyway.

Time to change the missus, then.

See above.

They do, but the 146 doesn't.

Look for a nice 146 Ti, change the belts and variator, and it'll last for ever.

Nope, but it looks goot, and fairly cheap to run (ish)

Again looks good, not a GT4 I know, but they do drive moderatley well, and well proven technology in them.

Yeah, I realise that will be the let down. I understand that there similar Honda specialists as there are Alfa/Saab/Porsche, usually ex franchisees who gave it for whatever reason

Yeah, Imports are out for strangeness reasons.

I know, it is the longshot price and performance wise.

Don't know about conditions, but poverty spec yes

Oh yes. But again they are holding.

One or two arround.

Round here, you might get one for 2k, they seem to hold as well if not better than the non turbo 944s, and Hartech is just over on bolton, so I would have an indy to work on it, with fixed price servicing etc.

Yeah upper end of my limit I might.

Nah, can't do that love her really, and she isn't so bad.

She has strange Ideas.

I really dislike the 146 shape, like a 155 gone wrong. At least me an her both agree that the 145 looks good.

Believe me, I've looked, and there's no way a £2k 944 wouldn't be anything other than a total money pit.

As above, really.

That shape 200SX would be a liability at that price.

Stick with the Saab, or buy a newer one.

You won't like it but none of the above.

Get a Citroën Berlingo Diesel (non-turbo): they go for silly money, pieces cost next to nothing and a semi-light foot will get you 6 liter diesel/ 100 km. Don't know about insurance but it should be small too.

The missus will love it: huge space for the supermarket run (even with 2 kids in the back), reliable (it will start every morning even when sleeping outside) and proven technical stuff (not to mention out of fashion), hey they even are rustfree (for French car)...

Within 2 years it's the missus personal car and you go on to buy a tip-top car with the cash you've saved, rather then buy a car now you can't afford and which first bill will kill it. That is if fuel bills or insurance don't get you first.

Might I suggest within 2 years a Porsche 968 CS? A black one off course.

Good luck ( you are not the first on the road between hart and reason)

Tom De Moor

Full makers workshop manual has been floating around on Overnet so DIY is a possiblity, can't say if it's still out there.

-- Peter Hill Spamtrap reply domain as per NNTP-Posting-Host in header Can of worms - what every fisherman wants. Can of worms - what every PC owner gets!

In article , snipped-for-privacy@removethis.hotmail.com spouted forth into uk.rec.cars.modifications...

well, I've been running a saab 900 T16S for 18 months, which I reckon all in, including buying the car has cost me £1700.

people say to me "you spent how much on that", but that is like less than £100 a month.

What sort of loan could I get that would cost me £100 a month for 18 monthly payments, and what sort of modern ish car would that get me? probably a loan for about £1500, and it wouldn't get me a 185BHP turbo performance Coupe that can haul a 28" widescreen TV in it's box.

If I got the loan for £1500 that would cost me about £1700 to pay back, and there is no garauntee that any car sold for that sort of price is going to be any more reliable than the £300 Saab that I got lucky on, even if it needed some routing repairs.

For someone with access to a workshop, and with more experience than me, it would be bargain to do, about £70 of parts and time to do it. I have neither that much mechanical experience nor a workshop, just the side of our backstreet, a trolleyjack and two axle stands, so i would need to enlist the help of a Saab indy to do the work, so while the parts cost the same, or less, there would be hundreds in labour to add on. So it is too much for me to justify spending out, when for a couple of hundred more, I could get a much newer, and equal quality car, and get something back selling the saab to an enthusiast who will cherish it.

In article , snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk spouted forth into uk.rec.cars.modifications...

Well, it's either replace it, or spend several hundred more getting the work done that needs it, and that is before thinking about the cosmetic stuff like the flaky laquer and the one small rust patch on the outer body.

Only about £70-90 of parts, but it's bushes and engine mounts, which on a Saab means the engine has to totally come out (no just lifting it a bit) and that costs in labour money (about £300 at an indy i've heard).

And then if the popping out gear isn't because of buggered mounts and engine movement (all the symptoms say it is), then it is a £400 recon box, and the same again to remove the engine for a second time, and the extra labout to remove the trans from the bottom of the block casting, and refit it all.

Find a mate with a yard and fork truck :).

i'd take the MR2 but ONLY a Turbo on that year :) plus would be a cacky early one for £2k

Celica's are nice but get the 1994 as it looked better and the GT is quick-ish

Prelude i'd love and performance is the best! best at the 0-60mph dash out of the lot, mazda MX5 is pointless unless a BBR turbo and the nissan 200SX is nice but £2k is more a

180SX?

the rest bah pish :)

I understand your situation and it got my sympathy.

But inside you know that if the Saab has cost you 1700 UKpounds in 18 months , that you are one lucky bugger. My Cosworth has had bills after 3 months in the region of 1700 UKP (and some larger too)...

Nothing garanties that you will get twice lucky.

Other than that a 185HP-car is not the way to haul a 28'' wide screen: that's stuff where a Berlingo is made for.

All I am saying -from personal experience- is that to take a step back to a dull, cheap to run, ultra-reliabel no-nonsense car and do some savings is something to take into account. If the maintenace costs are not the difference, then the fuel bills will be.

From time to time it takes one step back to jump further. Succes!

Tom De Moor

In article , snipped-for-privacy@spamtroNspidar.com spouted forth into uk.rec.cars.modifications...

Possible, but I don't want any ham fisted knobber getting at it, if I'm going to keep it.

In article , peter.usenet1 @nospam.demon.co.uk spouted forth into uk.rec.cars.modifications...

I've got the Service manual with all the parts and service descriptions.

I wanted to do that with the Skoda rapid that was on Ebay, finished=20 yesterday.

I knew the owner from various mailing lists. I knew someone who worked on the car for him. I knew it was his day to day runabout while he was geting his skoda=20 rapid cabrio some resto work. It was about 20 miles away, so easy to go pickup, and would have got me=20 about 45MPG, been a fun drive, and had fun to tweak if I wanted later. and I knew that it had 6months MOT, and was not shifting in the auction.

Went for =A3106 but the missus laid down the law this time. nope, you can= =20 wait till the double glazing is fitted, and then spend about =A32k after=20 you ahve sold the Saab, and get something reliable, and modern, it has=20 to be post 92.

--=20 The poster formerly known as Skodapilot.

I can agree with that - having gone through a similar thing when buying my

924. I could've stretched to a cheap(ish) 944, but they are so much more expensive on parts and getting one around the 2k mark is just asking for trouble. You'd need to budget for some expensive bits and pieces. Even this 924 I have is turning into a bit of money-eater. Had it a couple of months and the engine mounts are shagged - must've been on their way out I guess, but they were fine when I bought it. £63 is the best price I've had so far for ONE rubber mount. Ack. So much for it being made out of cheap VW and Audi parts. I'd still say they're good cars though - you could probably pick up a reasonable 924S for around 2k.

Chris.

Try Pelican parts in the US, I believe they ship internationally (get=20 all the bits needed in one go), and they have help and advice forums to=20 make the job as easy as possible too.

--=20 The poster formerly known as Skodapilot.

Cheers for that, I've been having a hard time finding a decent parts supplier for this Porsche. I knew a few good places for my Peugeot, but most of the 'Porsche specialists' I've found so far just seem to be breaking cars for spares. The only bits I've successfully got (well, perhaps success is too strong a word) so far have been some rusty old 924 exhaust brackets and a used window winder that took a guy three weeks to send because he 'had to get them off the car'. Nice.

Chris.

In the Porsche News groups BTW, try alt.autos.porsche.944 or the snob=20 element in alt.autos.porsche get too much, they quite often recommend=20 pelican. Might be worth a trawl through google groups to see if anything=20 familiar pops up with the 924. Chances are, you won't be the first=20 person to have a problem with anything that goes wrong.

--=20 The poster formerly known as Skodapilot.

Yeah, I post in the Porsche newsgroup but there often seems to be a general lack of conversation! Seems maybe plenty of these Porsche owners just let Porsche or a trusted mechanic look after their cars and don't go down the old 'where's the cheapest place to buy a new wheel bearing/exhaust/mystery bit of metal/etc' route themselves. These engine mounts do seem to be a common problem, mine seems to have done about the correct number of miles for them to fail - only trouble is, on every site I've searched, they only list one type of engine mount where I know for a fact that it has at least two different types. Argh! I even put on my 'I'm rich and want to part with lots of cash' voice today and phoned my nearest official Porsche centre to see if I could wean some information out of them, only to be told that the parts department was 'busy' and that I should phone back later. Eh?

Chris.