whats your best car for the least money

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Tue 19 Nov 2002 18:53
whats your best car for the least money - prokon
Mine's has to be a three year old lada i had about twelve years ago, only paid £280 for it, never gave me any trouble and sold it 18 months later for £350.
i have to admit i actually liked driveing it, is that sad or what.
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Tue 19 Nov 2002 19:46
whats your best car for the least money - Cardew
Yes it is very sad indeed - unless it was capable of perpetual motion.

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Tue 19 Nov 2002 20:35
whats your best car for the least money - wemyss
Cardew, Surely you're not suggesting what I'm thinking.
alvin
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Tue 19 Nov 2002 20:51
whats your best car for the least money - Robert Fleming
I must confess, in the old backroom I did post a few times as the aforeunmentioned's fan club.
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Wed 20 Nov 2002 09:12
whats your best car for the least money - Dizzy {P}
Prokon assured us a day or two back that "i am the one and only Prokon". I can still recall the posting several months ago that said "i am the one and only Chris Watson".

The similarities in style and gibberish, sorry I mean 'content', are far too much of a coincidence!

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Wed 20 Nov 2002 09:20
whats your best car for the least money - Mark (RLBS)
I don't think so.

Either way, can we let it go rather than rake up old rubbish or give someone a bumpy ride who doesn't deserve it.

I can clean it up if appropriate at a later time.
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Wed 20 Nov 2002 19:56
whats your best car for the least money - prokon
still the digs keep on comeing, maybe some people have notheing better to do.
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Tue 19 Nov 2002 23:05
whats your best car for the least money - Ian Cook
Forget Ladas, mine's a Vauxhall.

1963 FB Victor estate, for which I paid the princely sum of £25 and sold on (6 months later) for £62.50 (this in 1974)...and the car did exactly what it said on the tin!

Nothing ever came close.

Ian Cook
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Tue 19 Nov 2002 23:36
whats your best car for the least money - Miller
Hello Mr Watson, hows things up in North Shields? Bought any tanks lately?
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Wed 20 Nov 2002 08:50
whats your best car for the least money - volvod5_dude
Volvo V70 Torslander at just under £20K on the road.
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Wed 20 Nov 2002 16:44
whats your best car for the least money - Dave_TD
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure it's possible to purchase a motor vehicle for substantially less than "just under £20k"...

I think my "best car, least money" motor has to be a P reg Peugeot 405 Style estate, turbo diesel. 350,000 miles, 6 months' MoT, £250.
Everything on it works, it gives 50+mpg, loads of space for all the kiddy clutter, it hasn't let SWMBO down (yet), and it looks like it's worth ten times as much from the outside.
For sale in 18 months, when the Skoda will filter down to her.
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Wed 20 Nov 2002 16:52
whats your best car for the least money - Toad, of Toad Hall.
Skoda Estelle 120L5. 600 quid 3 years old. Had it for 45,000 miles and nearly 7 years. Scrapped it in perfect working order. I bought it to replace a late model VW Golf 1.3 when I went to Uni. It was *much* better than the VW. Brilliant car.

The late lamented Rover. 700 quid. 3 years and almost 27,000 miles of sheer abuse. Have a photo of the clocks at 110mph. Placed in Road Rallies.

Both excellent cars.

Far better than the Golf and Jetta I had before.


--
These are my own opinions, and not necessarily those of all Toads.
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Wed 20 Nov 2002 18:04
whats your best car for the least money - bernie
Lancia Beta HPE.Many years ago came across this car in a scrapyard looking like there wasn\'t much wrong with it.I knew the yard owner and on enquiring about it was told the car had been brought in by a female student who said there was no oil pressure and could not afford to have it repaired.

I could not resist and got the car for £50.I eventually found the reason for the lack of oil pressure was that the sump had been knocked at some time and the dent was exactly over the oil pump pickup.I knocked out the sump and Voila! oil pressure restored.I ran the car for about 3 years,went touring Scotland in it and the cost made every trip so much sweeter !
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Thu 21 Nov 2002 09:35
whats your best car for the least money - volvod5_dude
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure it's possible to purchase a motor vehicle for substantially less than "just under £20k"..."

Depends on whether you want to drive around in a heap of clapped out junk!

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Wed 20 Nov 2002 18:11
whats your best car for the least money - PB
1973 Wolseley 6, in 1985. Paid £95 with 10 months MOT. I bent the suspension a few months later (v. icy, high kerb) but still got £30 scrap.

I once paid £40 for a Golf that did 15000 miles in the 12 months after we spent a weekend and £50 getting it sorted for the failed MOT.
PB.
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Wed 20 Nov 2002 21:25
whats your best car for the least money - lezebre
The year your Wolseley was built, PB, I paid £15 for its predecessor, the 6/110. A hundred and ten bhp (wow) from 6 cylinders seemed great at the time.

It was a 1965 model in a car lot with a £25 sticker. That's the best % I've ever achieved off a screen price. I told the guy I wanted it as spares for a minter I already had - fib.

When the old style front number plate fell off, I tied it across the vertical grill, Dixon of Dock Green style. In 'connaught green' the Wolseley looked black at night, and gave one or two old - timer wagon drivers a momentary scare.

Six months later it passed another MOT needing only a cheap axle oil seal job. The autobox never liked running in second, but that didn't detract too much from the stateliness of the leather and picnic tables.
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Wed 20 Nov 2002 23:43
whats your best car for the least money - Richard Hall
Chrysler (Hillman) Avenger 1600LS, WLR 574S. Bought for £40 as an insurance total loss after a minor shunt. Replaced rear bumper and one light unit, plus a couple of minor jobs for MOT - total around £50. Did 20,000 miles with only routine maintenance plus a starter motor (£5 from a scrappie). Run into by an Electricity Board Land Rover, dented a rear door. EB insurance paid me £175, let me keep the car. I paid £50 to get it through another MOT and sold it on for £170, still with the dented door. Total £200 profit over 20k miles. I've had a soft spot for Avengers ever since.

Richard Hall
bangernomics.tripod.com
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Thu 21 Nov 2002 01:30
whats your best car for the least money - DavidHM
My one and only car is my R19.

Paid £475, with some dents that I have sentimentally had repaired. 45 mpg on a run, fast enough to frighten new 2.0 Golf GTis, leccy windows, remote locking, remote stereo, sunroof, PAS, etc.

Had a new clutch, new cambelt (out of choice), and routine servicing. No idea what I could sell it for but it's modern motoring at banger money.

Drove my parents' brand new Focus today and didn't feel gutted to climb back into my car. Not bad for a car that costs less than the insurance premium.
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Thu 11 Nov 2010 11:05
whats your best car for the least money - keeef
1973 Wolseley 6, in 1985.

Any photos please PB?
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Thu 11 Nov 2010 13:28
whats your best car for the least money - Niallster

MK III Cortina in turd brown. Huge metal beast. Absolutely unbreakable.

Bought for £50 sold 3 years later for £100.

I once travelled down the M1 and heard a loud booming sound. Didn't effect the drive so I carried on.

Turned out the radiator was holed and was bone dry and the booming was the bonnet expanding uinder the heat from the engine. I drove 80 miles like this. Can of radweld fill with water and off again no problems.

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Thu 11 Nov 2010 15:17
whats your best car for the least money - Armstrong Sid

Any photos please PB?

If you get a reply I'll be very impressed.

You are responding to a post which was 8 years old

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Thu 11 Nov 2010 16:54
whats your best car for the least money - Collos25

One of the best things about the wolseley 6 was that you could change the clutch in under half an hour unlike the 4 cylinder morris versions which were a nightmare to change.

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Thu 11 Nov 2010 17:02
whats your best car for the least money - daveyK_UK

Rover 213 with the honda engine

onl issue was the carb, but it was soon sorted on the side of the road.

brilliant car, and highly under-rated.

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Thu 11 Nov 2010 17:56
whats your best car for the least money - johnnyrev

H reg Fiat Panda 750l, paid 800 quid for it and ran it for four years with no repairs, no breakdowns. Sold it on for 600 quid when the clutch starteed to slip and got a Cinquento Sporting.

The Panda did loads of mpg, was okay on the motorway cos it had 5 gears ( a rarity apparently), used to get ice on the inside in the winter and went sideways quite often on the very narrow tyres!

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Fri 12 Nov 2010 11:56
whats your best car for the least money - SteveLee
9 year old Opel Senator 3.0 CDX auto with 140K on the clock bought at auction for £80, in the glovebox was the FSH, the car had 4 new tyres and a new OE exhaust, I reckon the owner had snuffed it and the widow chucked it in the auction. It had all the toys including switchable suspension (still working) I ran it for 3 years putting 40K on the clock with absolutely no problems. The car was reasonably fast, supremely quiet and comfortable, handled surprisingly well. I sold it on for £400.

Can't be bad eh?
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Fri 12 Nov 2010 15:21
whats your best car for the least money - barney100

Simca 1100 about 30 years ago. £300 and ran it for about three years with much to the merriment of army mates. It did a super job and I traded it and got my £300 back when the tin worm got at it.

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Fri 12 Nov 2010 18:05
whats your best car for the least money - RaineMan

Around 30 years ago I was given a rather rusty Hillman Minx. Absolutely reliable during six months ownership bar I disconnected the oil pressure warning light as it was irritating at night.! I sold it for the princely sum of £17 with a shortish MOT. The new owner came back some weeks later and thanked me. He had had a fortnight's in North Wales covering 600 miles without incident. They don't make them like that any more!

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Fri 12 Nov 2010 18:14
whats your best car for the least money - bathtub tom

>>Hillman Minx. ........ I disconnected the oil pressure warning light as it was irritating at night.!

Sounds just like the one I had. Consumed oil at 50MPP. Mates old engine oil kept it going until someone gave me their old Q20W/50 (remember that?). That old oil had done 3K miles already, but it solved the pressure and consumption problems.

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Fri 12 Nov 2010 18:30
whats your best car for the least money - RaineMan

>>Hillman Minx. ........ I disconnected the oil pressure warning light as it was irritating at night.!

Sounds just like the one I had. Consumed oil at 50MPP. Mates old engine oil kept it going until someone gave me their old Q20W/50 (remember that?). That old oil had done 3K miles already, but it solved the pressure and consumption problems.

The Minx had good quality oil in it as I gave it a basic service after I was given it. The worse oil I remember is BP VF7 that was meant to improve economy. I put it into a 1300 Escort and it left blue smoke behind. Totally cured by changing to a good 20/50 - it may even have been Duckhams!

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Fri 12 Nov 2010 18:39
whats your best car for the least money - Glaikit Wee Scunner {P}

It's all relative. The best transportation for least money was a Honda C50 that was almost new and had a minor paintwork scrape. 1/3 of new price and wonderful to own.

Always bought what car I could afford under the employment circumstances, without clearing out the bank book .Never looked for as cheap as possible. So not really possible to say. Cheapest was a 1961 Ford 100E at £50, but insurance was about 1/3 of that and got through my surplus cash as a uni student keeping it on the road. Most of the next series of British cars were ruinous in the DIY and repair costs.

Advice I was given, was to spend 1/2 annual salary on a new/almost new car when flush. Followed that because I could- generally. My £17,000 Skoda is a bit over that nowadays....but a bargain compared to the other OTT prices in the VW/Audi range. £20,000 for an A1 in this weeks Autocar.

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Fri 12 Nov 2010 20:47
whats your best car for the least money - sandy56
two different cars I remember fondly- Ford Granada Mk2 2,8 ghia X bought new and kept for about 10 yrs- only ever had servicing costs.
and
Suzuki alto I had for about 4 yrs , spent most of its time siitting at the airport but always started and ran OK, total service and repair costs about £50.
Now have a MK 3 v6 Mondeo that has been expensive to sort but now is costing nothing so will probably keep it for a while.
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Sat 13 Nov 2010 00:20
whats your best car for the least money - Avant

Quite a fun thread to resurrect, even if the request for a photo may have been a lost cause!

If you want a photo of a Wolseley Six, just Google 'wolseley six'. You'll also see a video of two jokers 'racing' a Six and an Austin 1800 round Bristol.

For a lot of our first car was very cheap and very special. Mine was a 1955 Austin A50 Cambridge, bought (appropriately) in Cambridge for £65 when I left university there in 1969. OCE 340 always started first time and never let me down. Sold for £65 too.

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Sat 13 Nov 2010 22:06
whats your best car for the least money - davecooper

"Depends on whether you want to drive around in a heap of clapped out junk!"

Ooh! Someones a bit touchy. There are good cars under 18 grand you know.

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Sun 14 Nov 2010 08:52
whats your best car for the least money - a900ss
My best car for the least money was a 1991 Rover Montego diesel estate. I was a poor student in those days and my dad gave it to me. He had used it as a taxi and after 250k, it had served it's purpose.

For me it was great as it was free and amazingly economical. It was more economical than modern TD's. I remember driving from Hertfordshire to West Wales, I was skint so drove at 60 MPH to save fuel and the car did 71MPG. Great for a poor student.

It's also the car that is probably responsible for my marriage. At the time, I lived in Hertfordshire and my girlfriend lived in West Wales and later Gloucestershire (where we both now live) and I could afford to see her due to the car being so cheap to run. If I'd met her when I had my previous car, a tuned 3.0 litre Capri S, i'm sure my finances wouldn't have stood the test of time.
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Sun 14 Nov 2010 10:35
whats your best car for the least money - veryoldbear

Them Montegos had a Perkins diesel engine which was solid dependable and difficult to break. Minimal electrics, no DPFs no DMF's just good solid agricultural engineering. Pity about the bodywork ....

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Mon 15 Nov 2010 20:17
whats your best car for the least money - Trilogy

My best buy was my first car,which was a 1956 Standard Super 10. It had one owner from new with just 51,000 miles recorded. I bought it in 1982 and sold it in 1987 for £700.

I've owned about 20 cars in 30 years, covering about 700,000 miles, and suffering a total of around £13,000 in depreciation.

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Mon 21 Nov 2011 12:22
whats your best car for the least money - keeef

If you want a photo of a Wolseley Six, just Google 'wolseley six'.

I was referring to PB's Six, not just any old one. :(

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Thu 18 Nov 2010 09:53
whats your best car for the least money - LinuxGeek
For me its got to be Toyota Carina-E. Purchased it for 800 and it was one of the best cars I've had.
Currently driving a Honda Accord 2.2 i-CTDI and love it.
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