I need a cheap car - ASAP

[KnightsofRowallan]

On Wednesday I was driving along in my faithful old Megane when I experienced a braking mishap and crunched into the car in front of me. We were both able to continue until there was a layby - maybe a couple of hundred metres. Neither the other driver or I were hurt, although we were both a bit shocked. We took pictures and exchanged details, and then she drove off, whilst I awaited the AA. After paying for the MOF, four new tyres, and a new Starter motor, road tax last week, and other things, I was less than happy.

AA repair guy took one look and said it would need Relay. Fair enough, so I sort out where I want to taken. After waiting rather a long time the Relay guy turns up, and examines the damage. Despite being a low speed impact the front end was extensively crumpled - and he expressed the opinion that it was a write off. But he did recover it the the place I used to get it repaired.

I phoned the insurer yesterday morning and talked through everything, they will deal with recovery and scrappage. The guy on the phone suggested a value of £800, of course they is the issue of the £250 excess. He also suggested that they will keep the policy open so a replacement vehicle can go on that account - of course with adjusted premiums. I also hope to get most of the road tax refunded as I only paid it last week.

I am a bit Harry Skinters at the moment, but really do need to have a motor. My brother suggested looking on E-bay. I have never used E-bay for anything, so am not at all sure about using it for looking for a car.

Has anyone got any helpful advice?

RadcliffeCarAuctions.co.uk

Some really cheap cars. Clearly they are not without risk.

 

[oldsoak]

Mitsubishi under the Proton badge - good car

IIRC, a lot of the parts came from Japan and were assembled in Malaysia.
As has been pointed out - as a motor to get you from A to B reliably, nowt wrong with it.
As a magic carpet to sire your heirs in , not so much.

 

[SauceDoctor]

IIRC, a lot of the parts came from Japan and were assembled in Malaysia.
As has been pointed out - as a motor to get you from A to B reliably, nowt wrong with it.
As a magic carpet to sire your heirs in , not so much.

Quite so. I admire the purity of the idea. Mrs SD is about to change her car (again, for complicated reasons). It has 180BHP, 6 gears is too many, three cylinders is too few, it has eleventy airbags and about 4 miles of wiring. The Drastic Plastic (Proton) would get her there just the same.

 

[Ian525]

Quite so. I admire the purity of the idea. Mrs SD is about to change her car (again, for complicated reasons). It has 180BHP, 6 gears is too many, three cylinders is too few, it has eleventy airbags and about 4 miles of wiring. The Drastic Plastic (Proton) would get her there just the same.

Shame we cant have simple cars again but I guess the Dacia Sandero is pretty close (I miss the original boxy Fiat Panda

 

[single malt]

Shame we cant have simple cars again but I guess the Dacia Sandero is pretty close (I miss the original boxy Fiat Panda

Aye the joys of setting points , tappets and carburertor and crawling underneath cars in the cold and wet

 

[Ian525]

Aye the joys of setting points , tappets and carburertor and crawling underneath cars in the cold and wet

Oh I miss that.
What I meant was a straight forward car without all the gadgets and gizmos that add cost - electric windows, electric mirrors, twenty speakers. (ABS though is a good thing)

 

[single malt]

Oh I miss that.
What I meant was a straight forward car without all the gadgets and gizmos that add cost - electric windows, electric mirrors, twenty speakers. (ABS though is a good thing)

Aye nowadays all I do is check the oil and windscreen washers but then again to old to be crawling under cars

 

[BossHogg]

My freebie is still going strong, I've put 21,000 miles on since I've had it.

 

[SauceDoctor]

Aye the joys of setting points , tappets and carburertor and crawling underneath cars in the cold and wet

There's a happy medium, I think. I had a 1990 Escort XR3i, the shape pictured. (in fact it was exactly the same)

Just on the edge of what you could do yourself. Mine was the last of the Jetronic cars, before EFi, although even the EFi wasn't THAT complicated.

That said, my current Focus (and the missus new one) can be tuned with a laptop, and free software at that. (FoCCCus, ELMConfig and FORScan)

Have a nice XR3i

 

[single malt]

My freebie is still going strong, I've put 21,000 miles on since I've had it.
View attachment 509712

Freebie, did you win it in a Raffle

 

[BossHogg]

It used to belong to my son in law, when he qualified as a train driver, he treated himself to a new car and gave me his old one.

 

[monkey123]

My freebie is still going strong, I've put 21,000 miles on since I've had it.
View attachment 509712

As a HETO isn't the footpath outside of your jurisdiction ?

 

[BossHogg]

Not when it's parked outside my own house.

 

[oldsoak]

Quite so. I admire the purity of the idea. Mrs SD is about to change her car (again, for complicated reasons). It has 180BHP, 6 gears is too many, three cylinders is too few, it has eleventy airbags and about 4 miles of wiring. The Drastic Plastic (Proton) would get her there just the same.

If your driving style is more sedate and it's really a Church, family cab, and supermarket trolly, it's great. Reliable engine, power steering, air con on some models, basic radio and reasonable all round vision. I'd get it waxoiled ( does that still happen ) and regular washouts to keep the salt rot at bay. It should really go for a fair few years, or until the Green Order Enforcers ban anything with a combustion engine.

 

[Yokel]

I think I paid £600 or so for my car (yes I know I will have stated the exact figure on here when I got it), so why has the insurance company sent me documents saying that I have to pay over £4500 for a year of fully comprehensive insurance? Has someone misplaced a decimal point?

The brakes have had a few hundred quids worth of work done lately.

 

[wafubustard]

I think I paid £600 or so for my car (yes I know I will have stated the exact figure on here when I got it), so why has the insurance company sent me documents saying that I have to pay of £4500 for a year of fully comprehensive insurance? Has someone misplaced a decimal point?

The brakes have had a few hundred quids worth of work done lately.

£4500? Bloody hello, are you 18 with 6 points and already written off 3 cars?

Saying that my old Saab 93 was more expensive to insure than a brand new BMW 1 series but my driving was still the same.

 

[Tappet]

tappets

My what?

 

[Tyk]

I think I paid £600 or so for my car (yes I know I will have stated the exact figure on here when I got it), so why has the insurance company sent me documents saying that I have to pay of £4500 for a year of fully comprehensive insurance? Has someone misplaced a decimal point?

The brakes have had a few hundred quids worth of work done lately.

Insurance companies occasionally bugger about with their risk profile criteria and that can lead to silliness like you've encountered. Your age/occupation/postcode/car type or something else they now view as high risk will have put their price into low earth orbit.
Do some online shopping for insurance quotes (not just the comparison sites) and you'll get something vastly more rational.

 

[Tappet]

I think I paid £600 or so for my car (yes I know I will have stated the exact figure on here when I got it), so why has the insurance company sent me documents saying that I have to pay of £4500 for a year of fully comprehensive insurance? Has someone misplaced a decimal point?

The brakes have had a few hundred quids worth of work done lately.

For whatever reason, they think that insuring you/your vehicle (could be one, the other, or both) is a massive risk.

I would get on some comparison sites and see if you can lower that - and have a look at moneysavingexpert.com.

 

[Yokel]

I will phone them up first of all because it sounds like a massive f*** up - decimal point in the wrong place? I was grumpy about paying £57 per month as that included the admin charge of when I needed a new motor after a timing belt failure, and then got another charge for changing it again when the delivery driver crashed the replacement, and I had to find another one.