been thinking recently about selling off the octavia and downgrading to an old trusty motor for pounding the motorways to and from work to save some cash with the soon to be new arrival of my baby in a few weeks.

it seems that new cars are just too complicated and expensive and not reliable enough to justify the expense of buying and owning for a bit of luxury and safety and fun. It seems that buying a well used 10 year old motor might just be the cheapest way to run a car, hence the terms bangernomics.

Any thoughts on this and what cars would be suitable to run into the ground cheaply?

oh and if anyone wants to make me an offer on my octavia now that I cant refuse to force my hand feel free!

Well, I had an F reg Escort 1.6 Ghia for a year to take the pressure off my car. Did 68k in it. Bought for £300 sold for £1000

Put new tyres on, michelins at £26 per corner fitted valves and balanced. Put new front brakes and pads on, did it myself, parts were £24 Changed the shocks and springs, parts were £85 did them myself.

All that went wrong were a cracked zorst manifold due to corrosion, the throttle cable snapped (£12 from a dealer, fitted again by me), the rear heated screen never worked, the front one was ace. Had a cracked headlight, bought new unit from a dealer for £22, had a temp sensor go and that was it. Oh and I bought a Sony headunit and 10 CD changer for £150 so that I wouldn't have to listen to the squeaks and rattles

Oh and I got 45mpg average, insurance was £90 TPFT as I had no NCB as I was using it on my normal car.

Cracking value. May do it again soon.......

Oh and I got 45mpg average, insurance was

Thing is, if it starts costing money, flog it on to some other fool and buy another. At these prices, cars are disposable. But one with a recent MOT and a 12 month tax and away you go. Flog it before either have to be redone

A friend has been driving a 275000 mile Mk2 mondeo TDI for a year that he paid £300 for.

In that time he had to have the handbrake ratchet replaced and a normal service and , well , thats about it really.

Ok , so it's a bit tatty in places but it goes ok and my car is costing me more every month than his did to buy outright

If you really don't mind hacking about in an old nail then I'd agree it can be worthwhile. When we moved house I needed to economise for a year or so and bought an Astra Diesel for £600. Kept it 12 months, cost about £200 for a service and MOT and then sold it on for £600...... All depends on what you buy though - nowt too flash or expensive re: parts.

I've got my old Rover 420 Gsdi that i'm holding onto for this particular reason.

If i went to sell it i'd only get about 500 squidlydids.I've had it 5 years only things i had to do to it was new powersteering pump which was 200 and turbo pipe 30.

So 230 over the five years is nothing.

Great cars IMO and some nice ones about still too if you can find them.(oh and boot space is equivalent to Octy )

I would be running it just now but as i just bought a house don't have the extra cash to have two cars and two bikes on the road.

But in about 6mnths it'll be rover during the week Skoda at the weekend and Motorbikes any sunny night!

I'm just going the same way. My Octy is now almost 5 years old and has done a little over 120K miles. It still drives like new (ok, almost new ), but it is getting a bit too small in the back for the ever growing children. So instead of getting nothing back for the Octy, I'm now going to get a sensible people carrier for a 5 grand budget. this should last the family well into the 21st century as the milage will be limited. For every day commuting I will keep the Octy and drive it until one of the conrods goes

And if it manages to go for another 2 years I'll be a happy bunny and go change it for a small pocket rocket

Older cars are the way forward

I've often been tempted to get an old car, although more along the lines of an 80s M535i or Merc E-Class. I decided against it on the grounds of *increased* insurance and expensive parts.

In many ways an old Mondeo estate I had was more fun to own than the Octavia as I could drive it on forest tracks, across fields and on the beach without being concerned It handled quite well and went ok as it was 2.0. It did end-up being a bit tatty though and cost a lot money to replace the worn-out bits. I replaced it because I needed a reliable car.

If you want to drive 'enthusiastically', an old car may not be ideal.

Personal experience:

81 Corolla DX estate. Owned from 1991-1995 (70,000-100,000), one radiator in 30,000 miles.

90 Accord Auto. Owned in 2001. Cost nothing in six months and 10,000 miles. Had 98,000 on it when I bought it from a Honda dealer (it was a px they didnt want).

The Accords have always had lots of toys on them too!

A workmate just bought a MkI Mondeo for £100, after his last one packed in. The last one cost him £300 and he did over 60k miles in it in 2 years !

I have a 1995 Micra to run about in. It does 45mpg and I`ve only had to pay for MOT`s, tyres ect in the two years I`ve had it. Its done 120k miles now and I have no intention of getting rid off it.

plenty of good recommendations there then that it does seem to work! These cheap older cars, are most people buying them from auction sites or ebay? Autotrader seems to have rather inflated prices that would mean that its not economic to down grade.

I live near the british car auctions in Blackbushe, tempted to go along and see what kind of things go down there. Anyone got any info?

Best place for a cheap old (but good) car is usually word of mouth, friend of a friend, elderly relative.

That's where I would look if I was shopping for bangernomic motoring. Anyone else have any ideas?

Underpriced cars in Autotrader will either be cheap for a reason (major problem and owner wants shot of it) or you get there too late as they get snapped up by traders who see an opportunity.

Lots of money to be made in 1000 quid cars if you can buy them for 500 - that's 100% profit!

Another good source are dealerships who've taken old bangers in p/x. They want to shift them so will let the go for silly prices

Chris

As a student I ran a 1992 Hyundai X2 saloon 1.3 - did over 40K in it and only paid for an exhaust - changed one set of brake pads (myself) and 1 cam belt (myself).

That car cost just over £2000, went for £500 four years later and never missed a beat - got abused and used as a workhorse carting all my posessions around each term

The other bonus about a banger is you don't get your day ruined when someone opens a door onto it in a car park