I wasn't thinking of such gifts between close family members, but I have often seen cars offered or asked for via Freecycle. I have even seen some cars (in ropey condition)offered for 1p first come first served on E bay - not even covering the listing fee!
So, have any of you given, or received a car, and was it on balance of benefit to the recipient or was it a white elephant?
If you gave a car away, what caused you to do this? Was it out of MOT or a non runner, or was it just 'in the way'?
I myself have been given a non running Citroen Xantia by an ex colleague. I had to pay someone to drop it off to my house, then made the mistake of thinking it was worth putting back on the road.
By the time I had changed the engine, sorted out the cooling problem and got it through the MOT it cost more than the car was worth/eventually sold for on e bay. I lost around £150 on the deal. This only happened a few years ago but I learned a sober lesson in that free cars can be very exensive, unless you're quick to recognise their real worth. This car was only 7 years old!
Suddenly the piles 7 to 10 year old cars in the local scrappy made perfect sense. I realised that I should have simply sold it for spares or repair and I would probably have made a small profit.
Having said that, I know that several people have been given cars that they have gone on to run for anything from the rest of the MOT to several years.
Edited by Hugo {P} on 07/10/2007 at 23:41
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I have been inordinately lucky and have been 'given' more than one!
Our Beetle we received while awaiting first child - the owner had been given a car by a relative and wanted to share her luck and pass her car on. We loved it dearly and when we upgraded we passed 'Brunhilde' onto a friend, who had several years happy motoring.
Several years later I was given an elderly Citroen Visa which rattled around and went like a bomb (was that steam I see coming from under the bonnet?) so we became a two car family. The owner had needed a more reliable/comfortable car as he travelled all over the country for his business. This several years later became a runaround, off public roads on a large estate, for the ground staff of the hotel we ran.
I then inherited my m-i-l's Datsun Sunny, which she had had from new, a Y suffix - which had spent most of its life sitting in Kensington and done little mileage considering its age. This we drove until it became uneconomic to repair and so scrapped it (£50).
Son was given an E-reg Renault 5 - which you could observe the road passing underneath and had no brakes, so we gave it to an enthusiast to either rebuild or use for spares.
One white elephant and three good cars - no complaints here!
I, too, have seen several cars offered on Freecycle and three caravans, all advertised as being in good condition.
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Years ago, when i was getting divorced from my 1st Wife, i sold most of my personal valubles to my different mates, most things went for 10p, but the car went for 50p. My "ex" was most put out by her half of the proceeds ;-) but after the "Absolute" my friends were kind enough to "sell" me my things back, but the car cost me £20! - i was robbed! ;-)
Billy
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Bought my ex a new VW for £14k. The moment it and the mortgage were paid off by me (about the same time) she asked me to leave!
Oh well, we live and learn ;-)
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Back in my twenties, a friend gave me a Triumph 1500 - the FWD model that preceded the dolomite. Lovely little car - I ran it for a few years until it finally gave up the ghost.
A couple of years ago we had one of the last Mk1 Mondeo Estates - an immaculate 2.0 Ghia with only 37000 miles and which we'd owned from new. The trade in value on the car was out of all proportion to the life left in it - maybe £1000. We gave it away to some friends who'd just had a baby. Still running nicely.
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In 1990 when I was about to set up in business my dad gave me an '84 Citroen Visa GT because I had to hand back my company Cavalier.The Visa had belonged to my stepmother but she refused to have anything to do with it after one of the gas struts failed and the hatch knocked her out a year or two previously. It had stood for a while and needed a new battery and exhaust and the tyres were flat-spotted. The repairs were simple to do and the tyres came back to life after running them at 45 psi and doing my first gentle commute to the new offices, 70 miles away. It had a rattly 1360 cc engine and an enormous twin-choke Weber carb you could send a ferret down. Great fun, and able to shake off the repmobiles of the day once I had sorted the folded soundproofing under the throttle pedal.
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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Was given an LHD 205 a few months back. Owner thought it was worthless. Had 4 months ticket and a couple of months tax. Put it on Pistonheads and sold it for £115.
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I was given a 15 year old Renault 4, and ran it for 2 years then sold it for £100.
I have been given several cars, barely running, for spares.
I gave away an old Polo, itself a gift, to a friend's daughter. She seemed a deserving cause, and I couldn't be bothered with the tax and insurance problems of trying to sell it.
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My Parent's were kind enough to give me their 89 Volvo 740 Estate recently ...260K on the clock and it's a brilliant car.
The car recently spent 6 weeks off the road whilst I was in hospital and I thought oh dead battery sized brakes etc...none of it started first time. Done a 220 mile trip in it yeasterday not a fault.
So far it required a new windscreen and tyre to pass the MOT ...my 2003 (53) Laguna required more with a quarter of the mileage.
They don't make em like they used to !!
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I've given away 2, a Renault 6 (1100cc) & a Volvo 240. Both times I regretted it. The R6 I gave to a chap I worked with in a tea shop in Brighton (he made the cakes & I cleaned the bogs) in the early 80's - funnily, he never forgave me for it. The car was fine, it didn't kill him or his family or anything like that, it was just that it changed the 'relationship' dynamic - I think deep down he felt patronised or inferior for it - odd really. The R6 was a fantastic little car though, soooo comfortable & never let me down.
The Volvo 240 I gave to another mate - it was pretty tired, but still a go-er. I had to get rid because my driving documents were never quite 'complete' in those (long ago) days & after a few close shaves, felt like I was pushing my luck a bit. Unfortunately, my mate was a bit of a wally - he took it to a mechanic/garage, who said the engine compression was shot....blah blah balh.... The car still went though & was generally in good nick & for a freeby not to be sniffed at - but he did, sniff at it that is. Anyway, he either sold it or passed it on. I saw the car many times after & parked up locally to - seemed to go on & on. Obviously, the 'compression' problem wasn't that severe... but matey boy made the gift horse & look in the eye mistake.
So, a couple of useful lessons learned: giving isn't always better than receiving & giving stuff away can be more complex than it seems.
I was given a Lambretta 125 (2 buddy seat type) - I had endless fun with that when I was 13-14 or so, no crash helmet laws in those days & plenty of country roads where I lived then - no idea how I never had an accident mind.
Both mates are now 'ex' btw - I sort of lost respect & interest in them & just saw them as nit-wits.
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Interesting comment on the 'changed relationship' angle. When we persuaded my father to give up driving he had a 'within warranty' Nissan Sunny. As they had 5 children and couldn't give them one each, they decided to give it to their cleaning lady, who had looked after them for several years. Shortly afterwards she declared she could not work for people who approved of the monarchy (WHERE did that come from??) and drove off into the sunset. Funny that that had not bothered her previously. We were a little disappointed as it was meant as a friendly gesture.
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In around 1998 my dad gave me his old pug 309 SRi.
I had offered to buy it from him when he was tired of it, though at 10 years old it had done only 41k miles.
Just before I was about to be given it, my BiL borrowed it and it snapped the cambelt:( That was unfortunate as I had already decided to change the cambelt when I took posession of it, as it had never been changed (Service schedule didn't specify it????)
I priced up the repair locally and found that I could get it transported down to Cornwall and get it fixed much cheaper than the Peugeot dealer quote, so that's what we decided to do. Unfortunaltey the dealer had other ideas for some reason. My dad's specific instructions to recover it and diagose the fault got transilated to 'please fix it'. So they proceeded with the repair.
On finding out my dad, who was continuing to use them for his new Peugeot 306 GTI 6, quietly pesuaded them that the repair should cost no more than it would have cost me to transport it and repair it down here. After much discussion, they agreed.
I kept the car for another 3 years and 40k with few niggles and then promptly wrote it off in 2001. The third party insurers settled for £600 and I kept the car, which I made a further £125 from for spares/repair.
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A few years ago now when i came back from a round the world holiday i needed a car and a chap dad worked with had a fiat uno that he was going to scrap. He said i could have it and i thought that even if i had to do a few jobs to get it back on the road it would still be a cheap runaround.
Trailered the car home and set about giving it the once over - a bit tired and tatty but seemed ok. That was until i started to jack it up - the jack kept going up and up as the floorpan and the sill decided to completely come apart. Said uno was swiftly trailered to the scrap yard and never seen again.
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I bought a '53 reg Astra for our friend in February. More specifically, i gave her the money which she then used to buy the car that i found for her. Friend is like a sister to my wife, and has our kids three days a week, so fair's fair.
My trusty '98R Almera is sat down at my mum's, because i couldn't bear to part exchange it for the Impreza i picked up today. It's worth maybe £1000 after a polish, but has a crack in the windscreen and a negliable but slighty annoying oil leak. After the blast i've just had in the Scooby (Bristol - Avebury - Stonehenge - Bath), Stepfather can keep the Almera, i really don't need back like i thought i might.
Never been given a car though.
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Friends with whom I recently stayed with in California were given a 15 year old Ford Escort estate by MIL, who gave up driving when aged 80. It was a 1.9 petrol auto with only 83k miles on the clock with a strange pre airbag lapbelt arrangement. Its value was probably 8cents or less, so they keep it for when friends visit, and for the daily commute. I find it a hoot to drive, being continually tailgated thru built up areas, then on Highway 50 up to Tahoe booting it and watching the Hummers disappear in my wake. And it does 25mpg! His other vehicle, a Toyota Tundra SR5 truck with 4.7 litre V8 only does 14mpg, so quite a saving.
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I think I have been given three cars. Perhaps four.
I've chucked a couple away when I shouldn't have and no doubt someone got them. I gave one to someone who swopped it for a van with an utter toerag who then drove about in this car I had an emotional thing about actually, winding me up when I saw him.
That's what comes of being neurotic, even a bit. The silliest and most trivial things get to you, and you tend to screw up in small ways.
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When I was living darn sarf a few years ago, my ancient Golf gave up the ghost (on the way to the MoT station as it happened). Being as poor as a church mouse whose wife has just left him and taken all the cheese, my brother very kindly bought a car - a '93 Peugeot 405 - on the understanding that I pay him back when I was slightly better off. I moved back up north shortly afterwards and one night (my 30th to be exact) on the way back from the pub he turned to me and said that a red L reg 405 wasn't a bad 30th birthday present! Was speechless, and still can't really believe the generosity involved.
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I've given away a couple of cars that nowadays I would sell.
Firstly a 7-seat Renault 21. MOT failure with long list of minor faults - £50 at a scrapyard and a long weekend I didn't have would have sorted it. Advertised in the free press as 'Haynes manual £1, free car'. Nowadays eBay would have earned me some money but five years ago I'd never heard of it.
Likewise a MK ii Polo that I gave to the council. Again, eBay would probably have realised something but it wasn't worth the £40 the MOT would have cost just to find out if it would pass (which I guess it would have).
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I was given a D reg Rover 216 EFi Van den Plas to "do what I wanted with" by a mate of my dad's when I was 18. It had been sitting in his garden for over a year since the MOT ran out, and his wife had been on at him to get rid of it. Having bought another car, and with no time or inclination to do anything with it, he was going to scrap it. It was dirty, but generally tidy apart from one door bottom. It had a very nice "wood 'n leather" interior and a full complement of electrics, all of which worked. The main problem was a chronic misfire when you asked it to accelerate hard.
We towed it home and I asked around about the misfire. Someone said try the throttle pot, so I went to the scrapyard and got one for a fiver. Swapped it over and the car ran like a dream.
Gave it a service, a damn good clean and spent an afternoon with filler and a spray can sorting out the door. Took it in for an MOT and it sailed through. Stuck it in Autotrader for £850 ono and someone came on day two with £750 in cash and drove it away.
I saw it locally for the next 2 years - same bloke driving it, and still going strong.
Cheers
DP
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04 Grand Scenic 1.9 dCi Dynamique
00 Mondeo 1.8TD LX
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Re giving away cars - I gave away a 1929 Lagonda 3-litre Special, high chassis, with a probable Brooklands history. It was when it had engine bottom end problems and I was, as they say in the Glesca, skint. But it went to a fellow Club member who further ensured its survival, as I had before when I rescued it from a dubious secondhand dealer and had it overhauled by a vintage "specialist" (unfortunately as it turned out equally dubious). But before that it served for SWMBO and myself on our honeymoon and it still survives; as sadly does herself no more. But it evokes very happy memories; as indeed does a 1940 Austin 8, also given away, held together with almost as much glassfibre as metal, after serving us well when she declined to get up behind on the bike!
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About '87 I rang a customer with an '74 Allegro 1500 Special to tell her that it had failed the MOT on a few of the usual things - only about £150s worth - and she said "The log book's in the glovebox, you can keep the flipping thing; and put the phone down....
It was the workshop hack and courtesy car for over three years; never locked - never nicked.
I sold it for £375 in 1990; I've still got the "Quartic" steering wheel. [Won me a few bets with youngsters over the years, that BL once made a car with a square wheel!]
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Back in 89 my mothers bloke gave me his Capri 2 litre GL !, 21 and had just past my test, insurance was £400, car worth much less due to numerous faults, mostly rust related, luckily sold the Reg (JHP 59V) for £350 which was just about enough to keep it on the road for a year, flogged it for a couple of hundred a year later and moved on to a Metro !?!
Cheers
CBG
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Drink Lager, Talk Piffle,
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