What is the definition of a banger these days?

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Sat 24 Feb 2024 20:40
What is the definition of a banger these days? - Random

I'm wondering what a banger is these days? Twenty or thirty years ago a banger, IMO, would be considered a very rusty, shabby car on its last legs. When advice was asked this week on what someone should replace her Ford Fusion with, someone wrote £2000 was banger money. My C-Max I've just bought for £1890 is pretty well immaculate inside and out (bar some wear to interior door handle inserts and a scuff on the rear bumper), no way is it a banger.

So what is a banger? Sub £2000 cars have served me very well for over 20 years, except the £650 Citroen ZX I bought in a hurry, my fault I didn't check it over properly. Got shot of it within a year.

Edited by Random on 24/02/2024 at 20:41

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Sat 24 Feb 2024 21:00
What is the definition of a banger these days? - mcintosh

I think the meaning of ‘banger’ has shifted since James Ruppert coined the term ‘bangernomics’ to mean running (as his website bangernomics.com puts it) ‘fruity old cars with plenty of life in them’. This sounds like your Cmax. So ‘banger’ doesn’t necessarily imply that a car is on its last legs.

If you’ve been doing this for 20 years, you’re probably not in need of lessons from Mr Ruppert!

Edited by mcintosh on 24/02/2024 at 21:01

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Sat 24 Feb 2024 21:47
What is the definition of a banger these days? - elekie&a/c doctor
There are still plenty of good sub £2 k “bangers “ out there , but finding them is the problem. I’ve recently bought a 2006 Focus from an elderly lady that’s given up driving. One owner and 35k miles . £1400 . Drives like new .
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Sat 24 Feb 2024 22:24
What is the definition of a banger these days? - Terry W

30+ years ago banger status was attained mostly due to corrosion or failing mechanics, A banger was a car that "went", but likely to fail and be beyond economic repair.

Corrosion has been mostly eliminated, Mechanical bits (engines, gearboxes, suspension) are made to finer tolerances that fail much less frequently. Major failure points on a newer cars are likely to be digital - these can fail at any time and are far less a function of age or miles.

Instead of reaching banger status at 12-15 years old, a car of that age may happily run for another 5 years, or fail tomorrow as an ECU gets "cooked". More demanding MOT requirements (emissions, lighting etc) add to the number of failure points.

Thus bangers in a traditional sense no longer exist - although by the time a car gets to 15-20 years old the cost of any material repair or accident is likely to exceed its value. So any car with a market value of less than (say) £1500 is likely to deserve the title "banger".

Edited by Terry W on 24/02/2024 at 22:26

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Sat 24 Feb 2024 23:00
What is the definition of a banger these days? - Andrew-T

Thus bangers in a traditional sense no longer exist - although by the time a car gets to 15-20 years old the cost of any material repair or accident is likely to exceed its value. So any car with a market value of less than (say) £1500 is likely to deserve the title "banger".

Bangers are cheap cars which cost relatively little and are considered disposable whenever passing the MoT requires significant investment. But I always contradict the simplistic comparison of cost of repair with notional value of car. The true comparison should be cost of repair against cost of replacement car less sc*** value of failed car !

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Sat 24 Feb 2024 22:43
What is the definition of a banger these days? - Engineer Andy
There are still plenty of good sub £2 k “bangers “ out there , but finding them is the problem. I’ve recently bought a 2006 Focus from an elderly lady that’s given up driving. One owner and 35k miles . £1400 . Drives like new .

Technically my 18yo / 70000 mile Mazda3 is a 'banger'. I would be (very) lucky to get much more than £1k for it selling privately. I used a local dealer's PX calculator and got around £300 as the offer price. My dad's slightly newer and much lower spec Fiesta 1.25 got nearly 3x the offer price, not far off the £1200 he was given when he changed it for a 20 plate Fiesta.

Mine still drives fine, even before I had to spend £1.7k on a new exhaust manifold and sensors. I agree it's finding those cars that never have seen a hard life is the hard bit. Often good to get to know all your local neighbours well, just in case they fit into that category and then might give you first refusal as a (genuine) friend.

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Sun 25 Feb 2024 01:45
What is the definition of a banger these days? - edlithgow

ALL modern cars are bangers

My understanding of the term, is that it was originally applied to a disposable car for which a significant (perhaps MOT) failure would result in replacement rather than repair.

Nearly all of my past cars would have been considered bangers by other people, since they were cheap, but were not considered bangers by me, since I would usually attempt to repair them, at least until the tax disc ran out and the neighbourhood Stazi called the cops.

DIY repair tends to undermine the basis of bangernomics since it removes the basis for determining that a repair is uneconomic.

I understand that cars are now built to be uneconomic to repair at much younger ages, and may not be repairable at all if a particular electronic module is unavailable, hence my opening statement.

Edited by edlithgow on 25/02/2024 at 01:52

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Mon 26 Feb 2024 14:15
What is the definition of a banger these days? - Engineer Andy

ALL modern cars are bangers

My understanding of the term, is that it was originally applied to a disposable car for which a significant (perhaps MOT) failure would result in replacement rather than repair.

Nearly all of my past cars would have been considered bangers by other people, since they were cheap, but were not considered bangers by me, since I would usually attempt to repair them, at least until the tax disc ran out and the neighbourhood Stazi called the cops.

DIY repair tends to undermine the basis of bangernomics since it removes the basis for determining that a repair is uneconomic.

I understand that cars are now built to be uneconomic to repair at much younger ages, and may not be repairable at all if a particular electronic module is unavailable, hence my opening statement.

Indeed - rather like a computer (especially laptops), tablet or mobile phone, where you either can't get compatible replacement parts at all, they are very hard to find and extortionately expensive (for what they are), and where expertise is required to fit the new part, that adds a big amount on top.

Or the software becomes obsolete and incompatible with other devices that interface with the product, making them useless whether they actually work fine in all other respects or not.

I wouldn't be surprised if EV charging goes the same way as many computer/AV tech, where you can't find a compatible connector or the onboard OS / charging software 'can't' be updated after about 8-10 years making the car obsolete, and requiring yet more 'carbon' to be expended to build a 'replacement'.

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Sun 25 Feb 2024 08:57
What is the definition of a banger these days? - John F

There are no 'bangers' these days. When it was 20yrs old, our Ford Focus was just as fast and roadworthy as a new one. Any mechanical or minor body repair to my uncomplicated 43yr old Triumph TR7, my former practical workhorse (just me and a small case) and now my cheap to run 'historic vehicle', is very unlikely to cost more than its market value. However, more complicated upmarket modern cars, such as my 18yr old Audi A8, become more susceptible to big repair bills approaching their market value as they age. Just as a matter of interest I put its reg no. into a well known 'any car' buying site. It was rejected as too old, referring me to another 'carbuying' site. I was offered £3023, probably less than the cost of a major powertrain or suspension problem.

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Sun 25 Feb 2024 14:55
What is the definition of a banger these days? - pd

£2k is rapidly becoming entry price for anything which vaguely works and has a year's MOT.

If I search locally on Autotrader there are 29741 cars near me, only 10 of which are under £1,500.

That's a big change from 5-6 years ago. Yes, you will find stuff under £2k but it's difficult and a lot will basically be end of life, have a major fault, have 6 weeks MOT or all three.

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Sun 25 Feb 2024 15:47
What is the definition of a banger these days? - mcb100
Daughter #2, having taken on a 12 month contract doing outreach work with the uni where she’s doing a degree is now pottering all over the East & West Midlands, plus, occasionally, further, in a 52 registered 1.2 Clio that we paid £700 for two and a half years ago.
She’s also driving it to Inverness during the Summer.
I make sure it’s mechanically fit enough, but I’m pretty certain it falls into the banger category.
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