Silly car purchases (and how I bought a car for 43 pounds.)

[Vanya]

Hello all, 

Well here's a slightly less serious thread in which I was hoping we could regale ourselves with stories of silly car purchases we've made over the years, or cases in which we've bought things as a laugh but then learned that we'd actually gotten ourselves a great deal in the process. I'll start.

So, I've recently had to re-evaluate my lifestyle, which has resulted in all of my cars being put on sale. They've got to go. End of. Sucks. I'll probably slash my wrists when I see the back of my SE for the last time but that's gonna get its separate thread!

To the point then - as a contingency come the day my GT86 is finally flogged off to someone who doesn't offer me a completely stupid price for it, I decided I needed a set of wheels. Preferably as cheap as humanly possible, to minimise running costs in the form of insurance, fuel consumption (seriously HOW did Toyota make a 2 liter boxer 4 so thirsty?!) etc. So I set out to buy the cheapest functioning car on Sweden's equivalent of Craigslist.

Now there's plenty of rides available for 400 quid. Problem is they've usually failed their MOT for various issues (rust being a common one) and extremely high mileage and badly taken care of.

The answer, when looking for a cheap car, is maybe to look at the brands that nobody values at all. A Volvo or Lexus or Bimmer are always going to have residual value. A Fiat however, is not. Facts of life.

With that said, I found an absolutely terrible looking 1997 Fiat Brava with low miles (65000 miles) for around 300 pounds:

The ad basically stated "Stood up for 2 years. MOT passed without advisories prior to then. Car won't start. Probably the battery, but what do I know about cars?"

Reading this I burst out in laughter and showed it to my little brother, who felt the same. It was time to go there and literally kick the tyres. It would also give us an excuse to test this sweet Lithium Ion starter he had bought me for Christmas. We made a bet that we could roll the car out of there. We made the call, packed the starter and an air compressor and off we went:

In the flesh it looked even sadder than the pictures, but from what we could tell, under the years of accumulated dust and filth it was in good nick. Clean engine bay. And there was half a tank of gas and good oil level.

The starter did its job:

Around this time the owner informed us he had an extra set of wheels and tyres for the thing. The ones in these pictures were ugly steel wheels clad with brand new, never used, studded winter tyres. The extra set were Alloy wheels with M+S tyres in very very good nick. SCORE!

Right then and there a deal was made. I told the guy straight up that he could scrap the car for free, but that the fact it was an unknown quantity without insurance, an MOT or paid road tax all equated to the car having more or less no value. I agreed to pay him a symbolic sum of 500 SEK, roughly 43 GBP. We shook on it and off we went.

Out in the sun:

Around this time we realised that the battery was so dead that the car couldn't even hold idle. The ride home was a real nail biter. Every intersection and traffic light caused a mild panic attack as I had to use my left foot to brake and the right foot to keep the revs up so the engine wouldn't die. And I'm not good at that, mind. Managed to lose my brother (who had the starter) along the way so I was alone. Add in windows caked in dust and you have a hell of a shit sandwich. Luckily there was washer fluid in the container which took care of the front screen but the side windows had to be rolled down so I'd have a fighting chance.

Back home (made it! phew!):

At this point it was time to clean the bastard up. 

After some spit and polish:

So far so good then. Being responsible car owners we then went off to Swedens version of Halfords to buy the cheapest engine oil we could get a hold of to replace the tar in the car at the time. 20 pounds poorer we set off to the DIY station to drain the old stuff and take a peak at the underside of the car. This is when things really sunk in, as in, what kind of car we had bought:

Note, this is a 1997 Fiat, sold on the Scandinavian market. By all accounts it should have been more rust than car at this point. But there's no rust on this thing other than light surface rust on certain suspension components and on the third backbox.  None. Nada. None in any of the wheel arches, undersides of doors or sills. Hell even the stickers on the shocks are still there, and legible. How in God's name?

Anyhow 2 days later the car passed its MOT without advisories. Unfortunately I don't have pics of the interior but I spent hours cleaning that (It looked like a cat had given birth in there) and now it looks as new. What's more after changing a few bulbs and blown fuses everything works on this thing. And I've gotta say from a comfort perspective it beats even my old XKR. Quietest ride I've ever experienced. Handles like a goddamn fishing boat with the vaguest steering since the Ford Model T but for 43 pounds I cannot complain. This is a keeper! 

Now time to change the timing belt and aux belt, and all the fluids and then onwards into the future!

Other things I've learned as a result of this experience, is that it's possible to have as much fun "restoring" a car like this as it is a classic. This Brava is ugly as sin, has a relatively low power output (113 Hp from 1,8 liters, albeit low weight of 1273 kg), and no real inherent value, but I'm proud to roll around in it, because it's MY ugly-POS of a car. 

Another thing is the environmental/sustainability angle. God knows how many perfectly usable good vehicles there are out there, currently slated for scrapping when they could be washed off, given a basic service and run for years to come. Instead of manufacturing millions more nondescript family econo-wagons...

Anyone else got any tales of Sleeper cars they've unwittingly purchased for a pittance? 

 

Edited July 11, 2018 by Vanya
extra text

[910Esprit]

My current daily driver, for the station carpark and shopping is a year 2000 Nissan Micra K11, bought it 5 years ago for £200.  Its not missed a beat and is a very good (comfortable) drive.   I'll be hopping in it in 30 mins from now - Not cool, but who cares?

[Vanya]

1 hour ago, 910Esprit said:

My current daily driver, for the station carpark and shopping is a year 2000 Nissan Micra K11, bought it 5 years ago for £200.  Its not missed a beat and is a very good (comfortable) drive.   I'll be hopping in it in 30 mins from now - Not cool, but who cares?

There is a certain kind of pleasure to be had in driving something so cheap that you just don't have to worry about someone nicking the paint when opening their door or bumping the car during parallell parking etc! Rock on! 

[Wally Finland]

I bought this from the neighbour for 100€ this spring. I had to put another 150€ to get the MOT. Not a bad price almost complete 4x4 VW.

 

don’t need it but for that price I can keep it.

Edited July 11, 2018 by Wally Finland

[Gashead1105]

2 hours ago, 910Esprit said:

My current daily driver, for the station carpark and shopping is a year 2000 Nissan Micra K11, bought it 5 years ago for £200.  Its not missed a beat and is a very good (comfortable) drive.   I'll be hopping in it in 30 mins from now - Not cool, but who cares?

It's a fact that the last surviving car after the apocalypse will be a K11 Nissan Micra. The automotive equivalent of a cockroach

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

Back in around 1991 I bought an Austin 1100 from a friend for 30 pounds. I then spent about another 50 on welding the sills and used it for the next couple of years.

At that time I was working as a builder's labourer. Over the winter we were building a nice big posh house about 30 miles away from my home along country roads. The pistons in the Austin's front brake calipers were corroded and would seize on after one application of the brake pedal. Therefore I used to try and drive the entire journey without using the footbrake once. I managed it on many occasions. If I had to use the footbrake on the outward journey, I would find an old brick-end at the site and whack the calipers loose again, ready for the drive home.

I learnt a lot about thinking well ahead when driving that winter.

Eventually I rebuilt the calipers with new seals and pistons and I sold the car for 300 quid.

[Vanya]

8 minutes ago, LotusLeftLotusRight said:

I learnt a lot about thinking well ahead when driving that winter.

Hahahahaahaha

[Dan E]

Holden 202 Estate bought in 1992 bought in Sydney for if I remember correctly 600AUD drove it from Sydney to Cape Tribulation then back down to Townsville, across to Alice Springs, up to Darwin then right back through the centre to Adelaide , back across to Sydney.

Across the Nullarbor Plain to Perth, up the West Coast to Monkey Mia and back to Perth where I sold it to another backpacker for 800AUD. 

We done the water pump about 30Km outside of Alice Springs and as you know its a bit hot in the middle bit and there is nothing there, luckily we had a shite load of water on board we finally made it into Alice and the engine was so hot the paint on the bonnet was peeling I have a picture of this somewhere. I said to the passengers "its buggered coach from now on" 

Well telling the barman about this in the backpackers he said take it over to see (insert Aussie name) at the garage over the road. So I did and I still remember his exact words, he looked under the bonnet and said, "she will be f&^king alright mate, new pump she will be fine mate" and to be fair apart from one puncture that was the one and only problem we had. I will try to find a picture of it

EDIT: thinking about it I did smash it up a bit on a camp site on the way back from way too much VB IIRC it was the toilet block we crashed into!! It was on private land so thats ok then isn't it and I was 21

[Colin P]

At the other end of the scale, but the way it came about does qualify for "silly". I'll try and keep it short...

In essence, needed a run around for youngest son as slowest car we had was oldest sons Cooper S. Went to look at a second hand Vauxhall Corsa with 65K on it, which as usual wasn't "on site". Slowly worked our way up in incremental steps and ended up leaving with a high spec delivery mileage Vauxhall Adam as the deal was too good to turn down.

The salesman's comment on departure was "I like the way you shop" (cracking deal though).

[Mightymetro]

Me and a friend decided we would like to try drifting, this was about 10myears ago before it became a common site.  We booked a javelin drifting day at barkston Heath and scoured ebay.  I managed to buy a BMW e34 540i v8 with 2 months m.o.t. Left.  Perfect.  £500.  Drove it home and it overheated, topped it up with water, got to barkston Heath, overheated.  Spent all day honing around drifting while filling the radiator up every 3 runs.  Had an amazing day.  Halfway home the engine completely expired and seized.  Got towed home and put it on eBay as spares or repair due to a seized engine.

 

guy bought it for £600 and when he turned up he asked if he could take the gearbox out on my drive as that is all he wanted.  I said sure, so he removed the gearbox and left.  I then scrapped the car and got £100.

best bit of business I ever did....and the most fun 

[Chillidoggy]

1966 Ford Anglia estate. £15 with the engine in pieces in the back.

The driver’s door never shut properly, I had to wind the window down and hang on to it with my arm when going round a left hand bend. Could be unlocked using an old halfpenny piece, and still no-one nicked it. Got written off (wouldn’t have taken much) by a VW Beetle punting it up the arse on the motorway near Rotherham.

[Barrykearley]

Many years ago I bought a mk3 Escort Ghia. A chap at works sons car - he was going to weigh it in over lunch and asked for a lift.

i bought it instead - had 8 months tax left on it the dim wait never cashed in and 10 month mot. I paid him what he asked for which madly enough was about the value of the tax on the screen.

next day - my best man rung me up and asked if I knew of a cheap car for sale as his engine had gone bang. Sorted - I simply passed it straight on. 

Two days later Ian rung me up to ask wtf was wrong with the car as it isn’t smoking but using as much oil as fuel and leaves a puddle when parked up. I whipped round and poked it. Seems the donuts son had replaced the cam cover - and not tightened it up. 5 minutes later All sorted.

he had that car for three years and never let him down.

[johnpwalsh]

Worst purchase.

Must be my first Lotus 11 years ago. Started a serious addiction which seems to be incurable. 22 cars later and all to blame on an Eclat. On the plus side I have met and made so many new friends and acquaintances. Even met my wife because of it.

[Vanya]

19 hours ago, Chillidoggy said:

1966 Ford Anglia estate. £15 with the engine in pieces in the back.

The driver’s door never shut properly, I had to wind the window down and hang on to it with my arm when going round a left hand bend. Could be unlocked using an old halfpenny piece, and still no-one nicked it. Got written off (wouldn’t have taken much) by a VW Beetle punting it up the arse on the motorway near Rotherham.

15 pounds?!?!?!?!? I'm hoping this was way back when otherwise you've got me beat money-wise!

[Chillidoggy]

4 hours ago, Vanya said:

15 pounds?!?!?!?!? I'm hoping this was way back when otherwise you've got me beat money-wise!

Indeed, you’re correct. It was 1975.

Later that year I bought a matt-green Ford Corsair 2000E for £25. It was a proper shed, the brakes pulled to one side, and there was a bush missing from the recirculating ball steering. So, to stop it in a vaguely straight line, before attempting to brake, I had to turn the steering wheel a half turn to take up the slack, and then a further quarter turn as I depressed the brake pedal. It had Russian-made tyres fitted which felt like driving on ice, and the handbrake never worked all the time I had it. I just left it in gear and hoped for the best. The driver’s seat reclining mechanism was broken, meaning that I had to perch upright on the squab, cos if I leant back, I’d end up in on the back seat. I avoided any kind of hard acceleration for that reason. I never locked it all the time I had it, but one night some idiot stole it, and ran it into the back of a Vauxhall Chevanne round the corner. I couldn’t open the bonnet, but nevertheless drove it 300 miles to Plymouth, then up to north Wales, and back home before consigning that one to the scrappie for, you guessed it, £25. Never let me down, although fuel consumption was at best 22mpg on a run.

The bloke I bought it from went out and bought two shitbox Morris 1100’s for £7 each. They lasted a year, after which we towed one with the other to the scrapyard, and got £15 for the scrap. He then went out and bought a Lancia Beta, the engine of which fell out when the subframe collapsed as he was driving down the M4, causing major chaos.

You youngsters have it easy these days!

[Vanya]

1 hour ago, Chillidoggy said:

Indeed, you’re correct. It was 1975.

Later that year I bought a matt-green Ford Corsair 2000E for £25. It was a proper shed, the brakes pulled to one side, and there was a bush missing from the recirculating ball steering. So, to stop it in a vaguely straight line, before attempting to brake, I had to turn the steering wheel a half turn to take up the slack, and then a further quarter turn as I depressed the brake pedal. It had Russian-made tyres fitted which felt like driving on ice, and the handbrake never worked all the time I had it. I just left it in gear and hoped for the best. The driver’s seat reclining mechanism was broken, meaning that I had to perch upright on the squab, cos if I leant back, I’d end up in on the back seat. I avoided any kind of hard acceleration for that reason. I never locked it all the time I had it, but one night some idiot stole it, and ran it into the back of a Vauxhall Chevanne round the corner. I couldn’t open the bonnet, but nevertheless drove it 300 miles to Plymouth, then up to north Wales, and back home before consigning that one to the scrappie for, you guessed it, £25. Never let me down, although fuel consumption was at best 22mpg on a run.

The bloke I bought it from went out and bought two shitbox Morris 1100’s for £7 each. They lasted a year, after which we towed one with the other to the scrapyard, and got £15 for the scrap. He then went out and bought a Lancia Beta, the engine of which fell out when the subframe collapsed as he was driving down the M4, causing major chaos.

You youngsters have it easy these days!

This post gave me cramps from laughter. The playing field in terms of build quality has indeed been levelled out significantly. I always get into arguments with people my age who for whatever reason have inherited opinions from people who enjoyed motoring technology from the 60's and 70's (thinking a new Alfa Romeo will be riddled with electrical gremlins, rust issues and constant failure of components, Jags use Lucas electronics etc etc).

[Barrykearley]

This does bring back memories of a ford cortina we had when I was a kid. Poo Brown - utter piece of crap. 

It got nicked one night - old bill found it across town in Matson. Old chap went to collect it - only to find some scroat had nicked the wheels by the time he got up there. He was in a foul mood about that - he went to work, picked up the works recovery truck and some wheels - by the time he got back to the car - it had lost the doors and bonnet..........

he was told catagorically by the old bill he wasn’t allowed to fire it where it sat

[ChrisJ]

4 hours ago, Chillidoggy said:

fuel consumption was at best 22mpg on a run

Just like a Lotus then

[LotuStuart]

Ford Cortina mk4, 1.3 two door. Cost me £25 in 1996.

needed an exhaust at £28 to get the MOT!

Ran it for two years, sold it for £300.

I used to drive it like a c*ck in central London. The cabbies and truck drivers would let me in gaps that they wouldn't in my Audi ur quattro.....

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

My other shed of yesteryear was a 1967 Triumph 1300 in obligatory maroon, which we bought for peanuts in about 1991. It was the archetypal Grandad car, so not what most youths were driving at that time. It was actually OK, with a nice interior, wooden dash and plently of room with 4 doors and a big boot. It was also reliable: I can't remember it ever letting us down. My overiding memory of it was being passengered by my brother on a village-to-village pub crawl on Christmas Eve. Full of Christmas "spirit", I suddenly decided to yank on the handbrake as he was driving round a bend. Sure enough the car skidded out of control and ended up in a ditch. I must have used up one of my nine lives that night: nobody was injured and luckily a farmer with a 4x4 found us a few minutes later and towed the car back out. There was barely a mark on the car and the only evidence of the accident was that the front number plate had fallen off. I managed to re-attach it early the next day and I don't think either of our parents ever found out about the incident. Stupid Boy.

[Chillidoggy]

Things have improved immeasurably over the years, car-wise. Starting the engine is no longer a roll of the loaded dice, it’s a given. Up until I bought a newish XR2 Fiesta, I must have pushed every car I had to start it at some point.

I once bought an 850 Minivan for £185. It was black, however it had been hand-painted using a 6” paintbrush. The driveshafts leaked so much oil that I used to go round to all my friends’ to ask for their oil changes. It wasn’t worth putting any new oil in, as it pissed oil out so fast. In 18 months I never actually changed the oil or filter. It had a weird habit of the steering rack locking up from time to time, which was picked up by an MOT tester, who told me he couldn’t pass it because of the dangerous rack. I told him he was talking rubbish, leant in, turned the rack back and forth with no locking. He couldn’t believe it, and had to pass it. As I drove out of the garage, the rack locked, and I narrowly missed hitting a passing car. Coming back from a gig London later in the year, one of the cooling pipes failed, and it seized up just outside of Canterbury. I raked my neighbour out to tow me home, he was not impressed at 1.30am. Swopped a case of beer for a secondhand cylinder head, fitted it, drove it down the scrappie and flogged it for £100. Never did find out what was wrong with the steering rack.

[jonwat]

Sorry to hear about your change in circumstances Vanya but I'm sure you'll have some great outings in your new steed. 😀