£500 small - mid sized car wanted

Status
This is not open for further replies. We close very old threads, and if this is the case, please start a new one on the same topic.

Blackie

RMS Regular
OP
Blackie
Messages
10,530
Location
Newtownabbey
Drives
BMW 520d SE
RMS Jonny said:
Cant help but feel your expectations for a £500 car is far to much :confounded:. Good luck with the search though :grinning:
Click to expand...
I'd disagree with that. I've had a couple of good cars at that money. The last one was the Vec B SRi that I got from @McFall1984

Yea it needed some things doing, but they were minor things, such as the rear brake discs and pads.

I stupidly got rid of it when we bought the Zafira in a bid to downsize our second car needs (the Zafira was and is the main car). I bough our Focus at the same money as the Vectra but it later turned out to be rotten!

In fact if anything, it's the typical Norn Iron cronyism of people charging too much for cars here! 9 times out of 10 you can buy similar cars on the mainland for far less than you can here.

Unfortunately in my case with my budget it doesn't make financial sense for me to go over there for a £500 car, whilst I'd get a better car, the traveling expense would make it a false saving!
 

McFall1984

RMS Regular
McFall1984
Messages
10,785
Location
Dungannon
Drives
To many cars
My e46 330d sport I got for 550, motd with 1 injector and a rear tyre
Couldn't fault the thing

Sold it for the same money I paid for it as I wasn't driving it at all

Not all cheap cars need work.

I'd happily buy cars under 500. If any work needed it's usually cheap to sort
 

Andy044

RMS Regular
Andy044
Messages
6,334
Drives
^^^^^^
I've nothing to offer myself but it take it that means the fiesta has had its day?
 

Coog

Admin
Coog
Messages
47,783
Drives
GTI
McFall1984 said:
My e46 330d sport I got for 550, motd with 1 injector and a rear tyre
Couldn't fault the thing

Sold it for the same money I paid for it as I wasn't driving it at all

Not all cheap cars need work.

I'd happily buy cars under 500. If any work needed it's usually cheap to sort
Click to expand...

I've been running a £500ish car now for 4 years, just motd it again a few weeks back. It's been brilliant.

The best bit of advice I had was to look at the old gumtree adverts (2 weeks +), get out for a look and then make a low but sensible offer provided everything checks out. It takes patience ringing round people who've not deleted their adverts though!
 

davey-dimples

RMS Regular
davey-dimples
Messages
12,071
Drives
E90 330D
Blackie said:
I don't know anything about these cars lol. Well except for the turbo being a weak spot on them, something to do with a filter gauze type thing in the oil feed pipe to the turbo?

I had also been thinking of a 206 but with the 1.4 HDI engine which I think suffers a similar fate?
Click to expand...

@Andy044 was this what you where talking about on mine?
 

_Stu_

RMS Regular
_Stu_
Messages
1,397
There's a 1.8 Vectra C facelift on FB for £650 Ono. The petrol in them tends to be reliable and an 06 is fresh enough to not have to worry too much about rot.
 

Brian mc21

RMS Regular
Brian mc21
Messages
810
Location
Antrim
Have a look on gumtree for damaged repairables. Dion down at temple auto salvage may have something. Got a wee motor off him a while back and they even delivered it. Seemed a real decent bloke.
 

davey-dimples

RMS Regular
davey-dimples
Messages
12,071
Drives
E90 330D
amg306 said:
I know nothing about this one, just posting it as an example, but you cant go wrong with the Civics:

2001 Honda Civic 1.4 | in Bangor, County Down | Gumtree

Got one last year as a temporary runaround for the mother in law for £500, hasnt put a foot wrong, she loves it and doesn't want to part with it now. Loads of room in them too!
Click to expand...

Is the heater blower not awful awkward to get at and last thing you want for a runabout for the kids is a car with no heat
 

FM155

RMS Regular
FM155
Messages
8,830
Drives
Alfa 155
Blackie said:
In fact if anything, it's the typical Norn Iron cronyism of people charging too much for cars here! 9 times out of 10 you can buy similar cars on the mainland for far less than you can here.
Click to expand...
I'd deffo agree with this. When I was buying cars for the kids, it was a nightmare to try and get anything that wasn't completely overpriced for the condition. Then when you try and sell for an honest price in good condition, have people telling you it's worth nothing.:mad: I just take the attitude that if I buy something older, unless it's completely rotten, I will just keep fixing it because I don't want to have to deal with ejits. That plus I like fixing old tat.
I've a mate in england who buys left field stuff of ebay and fixes them just because he enjoys tinkering. His current chariot is a Mk2 Laguna 2.0 petrol turbo estate with 65K on it that he bought for £120 and he had it sorted for less than £300 all in. He's done around 25K in it this year and will probably keep it for a while yet. Getting that sort of stuff over here is difficult, not impossible but very difficult.
 

Blackie

RMS Regular
OP
Blackie
Messages
10,530
Location
Newtownabbey
Drives
BMW 520d SE
@FM155 you are 100% in what you say! There's a red Mazda 626 on scumtree at £300 at the moment. The fella who is selling it bought it for £180 from a fella I know who in turn only paid £100 for it!

Everyone here is out to try and make a quick buck but willing to pay as close to nothing as possible!
 
Status
This is not open for further replies. We close very old threads, and if this is the case, please start a new one on the same topic.
Top