Bangernomics - Post Your Cheap Daily Finds and Hacks

SERE Motors

RMS Member
Messages
1
Found a totally rust free Mk1 Focus 1.6 Zetec with 100k and a real full year MOT. Recent timing belt, discs, pads, shoes, drums, battery, all waxoyled. Gave £600 for it, fitted a clutch and PAS pump, and found a set of cheap ST170 alloys. Love it! 40 miles a day, 45mpg, I work for Ford now so may as well drive the product 😎
20210915_192909.jpg
 

Coog

Admin
Messages
47,633
Drives
GTI
Found a totally rust free Mk1 Focus 1.6 Zetec with 100k and a real full year MOT. Recent timing belt, discs, pads, shoes, drums, battery, all waxoyled. Gave £600 for it, fitted a clutch and PAS pump, and found a set of cheap ST170 alloys. Love it! 40 miles a day, 45mpg, I work for Ford now so may as well drive the product 😎View attachment 335510

I’d quite like a 1600 zetec 3 dr to stick into the shed. Always thought they were fantastic looking cars and they drove brilliantly too
 

ALN

RMS Regular
Messages
3,256
Location
Orlando, FL
Drives
Clio 182
Found a totally rust free Mk1 Focus 1.6 Zetec with 100k and a real full year MOT. Recent timing belt, discs, pads, shoes, drums, battery, all waxoyled. Gave £600 for it, fitted a clutch and PAS pump, and found a set of cheap ST170 alloys. Love it! 40 miles a day, 45mpg, I work for Ford now so may as well drive the product 😎View attachment 335510
This is what I had been hunting for but most are pure rotten
 

RWL

RMS Regular
Messages
1,265
Location
Antrim
Drives
A6 Allroad
Found a totally rust free Mk1 Focus 1.6 Zetec with 100k and a real full year MOT. Recent timing belt, discs, pads, shoes, drums, battery, all waxoyled. Gave £600 for it, fitted a clutch and PAS pump, and found a set of cheap ST170 alloys. Love it! 40 miles a day, 45mpg, I work for Ford now so may as well drive the product 😎View attachment 335510

I was behind you on the Sandyknowes roundabout yesterday or the day before and said to myself that’s a seriously clean looking Mk1, looked great!
 

Captain Starlet

RMS Regular
Messages
8,173
Location
Land of the spuds
Drives
S2000
That'll outlast us all!

Was very telling when I worked at Toyota that the 2 older techs had proper older reliable Toyotas. One had one of these, and the other a Carina E

t'

I have put around 70,000 miles on it, and it has never given any bother, just service it each year which works out at around £40 for oil and filters. Brake pads were less than £10 from memory. Always wanted one back in 2005 when I passed my test, had to "settle" with a Starlet sr because the insurance was too high.
 

gary1365

RMS Regular
Messages
10,275
Location
limavady
Drives
Great news
I have put around 70,000 miles on it, and it has never given any bother, just service it each year which works out at around £40 for oil and filters. Brake pads were less than £10 from memory. Always wanted one back in 2005 when I passed my test, had to "settle" with a Starlet sr because the insurance was too high.
I wanted to buy a starlet but the car dealer and my dad ganged up on me and told me the starlet would be too expensive to insure. I ended up in a death trap rusty Saxo instead 🙈
 

Burt2000

RMS Regular
Messages
11,267
Drives
Type RA Ltd
Best daily I ever owned. Cost me about £1200 in 2017. 1.8 petrol auto. Literally like driving an arm chair and never gave one bit of trouble, it was mint underneath too, not a pick of rust and had a massive boot.

If I had space at the house I’d still own it and I only sold it as I changed job location and started doing about 500 mile a week so needed a diesel, hence the current shed the civic derv. Old Toyotas are legendary for reliability.


21564DEF-79A3-441D-907B-59E1B077C206.jpeg
 

roverspeed

RMS Regular
Messages
7,480
Location
Belfast
Drives
Insignia
Best daily I ever owned. Cost me about £1200 in 2017. 1.8 petrol auto. Literally like driving an arm chair and never gave one bit of trouble, it was mint underneath too, not a pick of rust and had a massive boot.

If I had space at the house I’d still own it and I only sold it as I changed job location and started doing about 500 mile a week so needed a diesel, hence the current shed the civic derv. Old Toyotas are legendary for reliability.


View attachment 336181
You were actually pretty lucky with that.

1.8 had a widespread problem with bore liner ovalisation, excessive oil consumption and eventually a leg out of bed.

Toyota did extend warranty to 120,000 miles/7 years as long as they had be serviced on time.
 

Antoin

RMS Regular
Messages
7,306
Location
Portstewart
Drives
E60 535d
Best daily I ever owned. Cost me about £1200 in 2017. 1.8 petrol auto. Literally like driving an arm chair and never gave one bit of trouble, it was mint underneath too, not a pick of rust and had a massive boot.

If I had space at the house I’d still own it and I only sold it as I changed job location and started doing about 500 mile a week so needed a diesel, hence the current shed the civic derv. Old Toyotas are legendary for reliability.


View attachment 336181

Friends of ours had a diesel one of them that caught fire on the M2 home one day. Reliable up to then to be fair :joy:
 

lightning

RMS Trader
Messages
2,851
Location
glenavy
Drives
volvo 740
You were actually pretty lucky with that.

1.8 had a widespread problem with bore liner ovalisation, excessive oil consumption and eventually a leg out of bed.

Toyota did extend warranty to 120,000 miles/7 years as long as they had be serviced on time.

I’m pretty sure that’s only the 1zz/2zz stuff. That avensis will have the older 7afe from the carina. Bullet proof.
 

Burt2000

RMS Regular
Messages
11,267
Drives
Type RA Ltd
Yeah as above, had 2 of them with the older 1.8vvti think it was 130bhp and they really are a bomb proof engine, never used oil either. If I needed a daily for low city miles I’d get another auto one in a heartbeat.
 

lennyd

RMS Regular
Messages
2,914
Drives
a car
IMG-20210825-WA0003.jpg

The current daily. I have a really strange relationship with this car. I'm not fussy with it like any other car I've owned but it's sort of growing on me. Haven't washed it since the first lockdown last year and it's not the straightest bodywork wise but I can park it anywhere and I'm not worried about, it does 50mpg with little effort and on a greasy day 2nd gear is my biggest friend for a bit of simple, safe craic. (Also freshly chipped back roads are a laugh) and it's a fun wee car to drive on. I still look after it, mechanicaly, though. Shod with pirrellis and it gets serviced on the button with the bmw clocks. In the 3 years/40k it's cost me 3 or 4 sets of tyres, a set of front discs and pads, crank pulley, 2 bottom arms and 3 service kits.
 

mikey

RMS Regular
Messages
1,899
Drives
Celica
I’m pretty sure that’s only the 1zz/2zz stuff. That avensis will have the older 7afe from the carina. Bullet proof.
Aye my Celica has the 7afe. Goes alright for 115hp, gets mid 30 mpgs and like any Toyota isn’t afraid to see the cutout once in a while!
 

surprising_skoda

RMS Regular
Messages
3,809
Location
Dungannon
Drives
Skoda/BMW/Austin
I still miss the 2005 Mini I had last year. Bought it a couple of weeks before lockdown happened, big dent in the passenger rear quarter and was damp inside and flat battery & tyres.
Got it jump started and drove it home, by the time it had done the 8 miles or so it was driving much better, brakes were freed up, and as it had MOT to October I ploughed on with it. Never let me down once (apart from a battery terminal bouncing off and locking me inside it one time!) and handled like a dream. Swapped the standard 15s over to some white 16"s I had sitting and never looked back. The pan-roof was open most of the summer, the back seats were permanently down to use it as a wee van, and it did 30mpg in 2nd gear everywhere.
MOT got extended and it made it to Spring this year when a mate plagued me for a gearbox for one and I broke it. Still regret it, can't find any £200 Mini's that run perfectly any more.
Everything I own falls into bangernomics really but that's the most recent one I "let go". I'm running an E61 520d M-sport at the minute that owes me about £600 and I can feel the turbo sticking every so often but I ain't blowing the banger-budget and fixing that!
 

BarryPort

RMS Regular
Messages
4,108
Location
Portstewart/North Sea
Drives
Sierra Cosworth
Back to topic this thread has got me itching to go view this reduced Alfa 159Ti SW in Ballymena

View attachment 335127

Ok so finally viewed this today @NickR & @TalkToFrank. We all knew it had to be cheap for a reason. It’s had a bump to the rear & the boot won’t close. Remains unsecured the whole time. A lot of the paint is brushed on (with a brush). Engine light on. I got out after the test drive & said sorry it not for me, he focused on the ground in disbelief & said:
‘That car just doesn’t want to leave this yard’

😂😂😂
 

ALN

RMS Regular
Messages
3,256
Location
Orlando, FL
Drives
Clio 182
Ok so finally viewed this today @NickR & @TalkToFrank. We all knew it had to be cheap for a reason. It’s had a bump to the rear & the boot won’t close. Remains unsecured the whole time. A lot of the paint is brushed on (with a brush). Engine light on. I got out after the test drive & said sorry it not for me, he focused on the ground in disbelief & said:
‘That car just doesn’t want to leave this yard’

😂😂😂
I feel like there should be a YouTube series on going to see rubbish cheap cars like this. Would be good entertainment
 

jd_96

RMS Member
Messages
8
I have two cheap motors

2008 A6 2.0 TDI S-line Multitronic on 146k. Owned this for 4 years now and it has been great. Few things it has needed in that time: both front wheel bearings, alternator pulley, rear calliper, EGR and it currently needs both front door locks replaced (typical VAG). It's well maintained and runs on Pilot Sports, also just got timing belt and an upgraded oil pump fitted. Car is in decent shape on the outside and like new on the inside. Drives flawlessly and is perfect on long drives. Planned on changing it for a 3.0 after having it for a year to let insurance drop down a bit, but I wasn't able to find another as clean.
You can get a decent 2.0 S-line now for about £2500 or a 3.0 Quattro for £4000.
Planning on grabbing one of the V10 S6s or S8s once I've a house bought.

2006 Superb 2.0TDI Elegance on 273k. Bought this year for £600 with a full tank of diesel in it. Spent most of it's life as a taxi so up close the bodywork is rough, but inside it still in good shape and it drives really well. Few small bits need done to tidy it up to my standards but overall a credit to the taxi driver who put all the miles on it. Full leather with front and rear heated seats and front electric memory seats so it's a bit of cheap luxury. Very comfy car and a lot softer than the A6 although it's still on original springs and shocks so can feel a bit off if you give it the beans on a back road. I mainly use it for around town and the mapped PD is perfect for that. Leave it in 4th and it just rumbles along. Get about 50mpg on a run too. I did have it up for sale for a few days because I don't really need it, but after "best price bro?!?" and "too many miles bro do £250" over and over again, I've decided she's staying.
Both motors show we really need to look past how many miles a car has, especially the A6.
 
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