Used car buying advice

[The Duke]

The 05 ka i took punt on, Bil Sgt wife’s, last month for £100 with 36k on it, went for it’s mot yesterday. If failed on one old tyre, a factory one that began to perish.

What a result. The cars worth about £600, so i was toning anything below £300 mot cost is a win, but given i dont include tyres with mot cost, they are wear and tear. So im made up with £135 all in for a mint (the interior is in better shape than my 15 car) car with 12mot. Also with 36k on the clock, its lower miles than my car lol.

 

[PlaneMan]

That’s a proper result, nice one.

[Richard]

Steve, I have to agree that was a real result. Tyres and brake parts are consumables and should not really need to be counted as a true cost though it is probably best to get off the 13 year old boot. The exhaust might be another thing about to go from condensation though they do ‘feel’ as though they last longer these days. Your BiL was the loser in that deal, I got more for a 18 year old Honda with just shy of 100,000 miles. That was a sound car but as a low slung 2 door coupé had outlived its tenure.

I was going to change the small Honda, but it had an issue with the throttle body wiring so it was not available and I needed something with 4 doors and a hatch back urgently. Now I have put too much into it with the throttle body, its wiring and disks all round having been changed, That has also done close to 100,000 miles, while the Kia has yet to reach 2,000 after 18 months. Still at least I have remained mobile one way or another.

[Bob Williams]

Granddaughter has had a 55 plate Kia Picanto for almost 2 years now. 70K+ on the clock when bought, I think there must be at least another 30K on it now. She is a big girl with a big BF and big mates (aren’t they all now?) and the Kia is never still: it’s a work bus and BF family live about 35 miles away, plus she is always off somewhere like Lincoln, Sheffield or MancLand for rock concerts, shows, shopping and the like, with BF or a carfull of big mates. Last MOT was 2x tyres, centre exhaust, added a service. Under £80. IMO she is a better driver than her dad, but I would never say that of course. That’s because granddad taught her the basics on an old airfield, then I got her lessons with a good school. She failed Theory 4 times, passed road test first time.

Her first car was a Ka, I begged her not to buy it. It was £150, but came from a friend who lived on a farm and I had seen it parked always in the farmyard mud. 3 months’ MOT, I knew what it would be like. Sure enough, it failed MOT with a rotten floor and loads of other stuff. She listens to me now – (sometimes) – I spotted the Kia at a mate’s garage, knew the one previous owner, and advised her to buy it. The garage gave her £150 against the Ka, which was about £149.50 more than it was worth; tank was empty.

IMO those little Kia Picanto’s are good cars for new drivers. Low overheads, low maintenance, not enough power to get them into trouble. Although I own a Hyundai Tucson, I have driven an i10 (equivalent to a Picanto) on Motability road test and thought it not as good as the Picanto. The i10x actually felt dangerous: it’s a “small SUV” but it just felt top-heavy going around corners. I didn’t like it. Now they have something called the ‘Grand’ i10x, which is a larger version and may drive better.

http://tinyurl.com/ycuygmzk

Uprated engine, more gadgets, aircon, probably safer but the gadgets and aircon are why it now needs a 1.25 Litre engine. Why does the motor industry build a low-maintenance, low-cost, basic car, then “improve it” and add cost? They all do it.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[The Duke]

I agree, the all “grow” their car then eventually it out grows the segment and then the have launch another new small car. Vx entry was the cross for years, now they have the viva now its its place .Oh boy is shocking, about£6.5k new.

You would be menial imho to buy one when you could get a 2rmonth old mid trim fiesta for that money. If you want a small car.

For are at it too, the ka, that replaced the fiesta when that grew, the fiesta is now escort size. But the new ka mk3 now is a 5 door. So ford will soon need another cheap small entry car. The ka now is almost fiesta size.

I was in the MiL mk2 ka last year and pulled up behind an old late 80s early 90s bmw 3 series estate, the ka towers over it. My mind was blown.

Anther of my favourite hates is the new clio. Now as a fan of the old clio williams from the 90s, which is about mk1 ka size, the new clue is larger than a focus. Actully a friend has one in a mid to top spec (signeture) and it’s quiet nice, but that’s not the point. The care jas change so much over the previous gen, surly it should of had a new name.

If I wanted a new dependable car for cheap, id get a Dacia stepway. Does nothing brilliantly, but pound for pound probably the best car on sale today. Think it’s about £10k. I see it in the same light as the old panda 4×4. A no frills do anything great car, just not that cool.

Talking of great 4x4s the poor Jimny is being replaced this year. One of the most underrated cars out there. If I was taking up green laneing etc that is the car is start with. A good 10 year old one, that I could batter and do roadside fixes on, that will almost match (ans beat in some areas) the range rover. For a fraction of the upfount cost, and even more on maintenance.

You can probably tell by my car likes, I’m a cheap skate at heart. And I love it.

[Richard]

Steve, you are a shade out on the viva price, by about 50% as the base price is north of £9,000 and no doubt with extras could nudge £10,000. It does look an entirely different bag of nails compared to the original from the early 1960s era. I knew one or two who had an original version back then, but somehow the new one does not capture anything good from the past so I can understand your lack of enthusiasm.

Yes cars get bigger and a whole lot more complex as the years go by. When I bought me most recent one it was just before Christmas 2016 and I needed a car URGENTLY. The only one off the shelf was a high specification version with a fair discount so 4 days later I was driving about in the Kia. I have used the speed limiter, I love it, I have used the cruise control, the radio, A/C and heater. I have not really used the sun roof, though I did check it was there and the rear reversing camera is a nice gimmick. The noisy proximity sensors are a pain. The fuel consumption gauge appears to be quite accurate, though my fuel use is ‘modest’, I have today topped up last October’s purchase so 4 months ago. The little Honda is showing its age a bit, it gets the short straw use to the shops and back so it barely gets warmed up this weather, that does nothing for the fuel consumption. With fewer options I guess most of its functions have been used over the last 12 years, with the Kia I have used very much less of its functions. The hands free mobile use is good, but not as good as the Nokia voice operated version from about 2008. Connecting the mobile to the satellite navigation system for traffic updates takes for ever, so it was a ‘used once to try it option’. It might be more useful if I made longer journeys . I am less sure about the road sign detection capabilities, since they do nothing more than produce a dashboard symbol. Park assist appears to be provided, but I have not explored that either. The automatic handbrake release function is sometimes useful, but I do have at least semi working hands so not essential. Beyond the radio and I have not checked out all the stations available, the Hifi options remain untried though there are a number of connectors I understand.  I ended up turning off many of the other functions, such as the automatic seat adjustment on entering and leaving the car.

[Bob Williams]

My last car on leaving the Army in ’76 was a “Super-Viva” – the 1800 2 door. I had uprated it with a GM kit that was half a V8 set, obtained from a US Army mate. The Viva 1800, Magnum 1800/2300 and the “Droopsnoot” Firenzas all had a 4-pot derivative of a GM V8 engine. I upgraded the suspension and chucked a Holley carb into the mix. It was frightening on the Autobahn, changing lanes at anything over 180 Kmh was scary, it rocked and rolled for half a Km. I sold it back in the UK with 70K miles plus on the clock, the engine was just about blown. I later bought a Droopsnoot, but when I realised that civvy life was serious, I sold that to a bloke who wrote the car and himself of on the M1. He was blood tested and found to be well over the limit at an estimated 120 mph. I bought the last of 7 Capris I had owned and it turned out to be rotten.

Whilst rebuilding my life I bought a banger of a 2 door 1256 Viva estate, which was not as bad as I thought after paying only £125 for it. It was an ideal mechanics motor: low insurance, plenty of room in the back for tools. Not a car for transporting females though, which is why I bought one of next 3 Granadas – an ex-police 3 litre V6, then a 2.0, until my favourite Granny: a 2.8 V6 Fastback, which was lovely. Then I became a workshop foreman, the garage was mine to manage and completely mine at weekends, and I started buying Insurance write-offs to rebuild.

I have to laugh a little when I see one of the new “Viva’s”. They are far away from the first 1159 cc and 1256 cc basic family motors.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Richard]

Years ago I was about to head off overseas and hired a Hertz rent-a-wreak to take self and wife to the cattle station oops the airport, even then it was a shopping centre with a plane park attached. Anyway first we had to get there and with a 3 litre v6 it should have been at least pleasant if not fun. When geriatrics on bicycles were half way down the road as the lights changed and I was still trying to get across the junction in the thing I decided that it did not so much need a service as putting out of its agony.

[Bob Williams]

Richard that 3 litre would be the UK Ford iron lump. The fastback I drove, had the German V6: much lighter, a bit more BHP and better power to weight ratio. Made in Stuttgart and RHD even so, the saloon, estate and fastback 2.8 models had better steering, suspension, trim, interiors, ICE and paint. As a consequence, the Stuttgart cars were more comfortable and drove a lot better than the UK models. In Germany I had a Capri 3.1 RS, an uprated, rebored version of the same motor. I loved it and should have kept it, but someone made me an offer I could not refuse.

If I still had all the cars I ever owned, I would need a garage twice as big as Chris Evans’.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[The Duke]

£9k may be what the rrp is, but my local vx has/had them 12 months ago for £7.5k new .

I’ve had tow of the things off them, one was the entry level some, and it was horrid. Although it’s selling point was cheap and with plenty of kit. It had cc, speed limiter, city steering (dangeors in that car, normal steeting was imho too light to begin with) and something my car that Rrp is £26k vx does not have, which was lane assist . I like the idea of LA for long motorway jornts, but find it pointless for a city car as it’s continuously shouting at you. Luckilly vx let you turn it off, unlike the Rav4 h I test drove a while back. Also the basic viva had the cheapest injection molded wheel I’ve ever had the pleasure of using and I once owned a 1991 escort van.

Even with the kit, £7.5k is too much. The second I had had half leather seats, which had a superior none slab poimd shop shape and a faux leather, steering wheel, which made the car feel much better, but still wouldn’t pay £7.5k for that. Probably cost you closer to £10.5 new. Lol. Though I didn’t feel violated driving that one. Funny what a decent wheel can do.

The viva on paper looks a better buy because it ticked a lot of the tech boxes that you need to pay for from the comp. But because you get the toy for free, you can just tell they have crimped of the fundamentals. For instance the mk1 ka, feels and drives far better. Somtjing that precedes it by 20 years.

A god trick the original ka did, was instead of giving you lots of super cheap plasitc they just gave you non at all, which made it “funky/quirky” but also saved money. They got the basics right, and gave you no frills. The original mk1 disnt even have a glove box but a space for a butty box, and never bothered with airbags at all. By 2003 they had to remove the butty box dash and put in two air bags.

If anyone remembers the old panda, and its cloth basket of a glove box, that is sort of what ford recreated with the original ka, but there was a plastic space. Sadly cos of the airbags (which is ultimate good) that only lasted 4 years.

[Tippon]

Richard wrote:

The exhaust might be another thing about to go from condensation…

Seconded. My wife’s got the 2010 Ka, and we replaced the box on the end of the exhaust last year (technical term that ??). She hammers her car a bit, doing 100+ miles a week minimum, in all weathers, so her exhaust would have gone quicker than most. It only cost about £35 for an eBay replacement though, so not the end of the world.

[Richard]

I bought our little car about 12 years ago for our eldest daughter to learn on as well as being my runabout. Sadly medical matters got in the way and she never used it more than 2 or 3 times. However with all the family medical issues I ended up doing a shade under the insurance limit miles (14,000) for several years, even though I tried to share the miles out with the other car. Now most appointments are within a few miles and there can be days when the car does not turn a wheel. It is due an MOT quite soon so I wonder what will now show up as near the end of life. The exhaust is currently quiet, but the short run and no run days will start to take their toll, still as a 2006  I guess it needs some sympathy. Many years ago the Devon Police had a Vauxhall that in the course of three years. It was on the road 24 hours a day and they had to schedule down time slots for quite frequent services. I have a feeling it was reported as having done something well over 300,000 miles and to still be going strong with only the standard consumables ever being needed.

[The Duke]

I’m still yet to pick the car up. Just not got round to it. But over the years I’ve got to know the owner of the garage quote well, so when I dropped it off I asked him to give it a once over, see if anything pop out to him.

Good thing about the old ka is they was very popular, and now parts are peanuts, and scrap yards are full of them too.

How common the is/was should be in the mind of any buyer that doesn’t have a lot of spare cash, if you stick with fiesta, focus astra, corsa, or mondeo, or even golf (but I suspect you’ll still get stung by the german tax a little),  the scrap yards will have all the parts to keep your car going at cheap prices.

Anther god shout is ebay. I got a break servo for my lads pug of half the price of my local srappy, tho mine is a robbing tw*t, and I got the radio/dim face plate of buttons off there to for the girls ka. It came with a wiring look adapter too.

It’s yet to be swapped out, as she was waiting on the mot before she buy a new radio. All she wants is an aux input. As she doesn’t own a single cd so the optional extra of the cd payer is worthless to her .

[Richard]

I used to use scrap yards for parts in the increasingly past, but these days most of the time I am only after consumable parts that have already been consumed by my use, so any second hand one is likely to be end of life. Interior parts like window winders and radio facias etc are very likely a reasonably good buy and any half decent scrappier will likely provide some sort of guarantee. I am not sure that tyres and brake parts would be such confident purchases. Being a total cheapskate I repaired the heater control knob, epoxy and several yards of tightly bound very strong button thread saw it last until I waved it good bye. I did once buy a rear axel, (1956 Ford Popular) and an engine (A30 from years past) but that was back in the early 1960s. Then an engine removal could take me just about an hour without a hoist and a mini clutch less than half a day, not any more.

[The Duke]

Anyone buying tyres and breaks from a scrap yard needs their licence revoking for the safetly us all.

But almost everything else is fine. Most cars in scrappies are write offs so are full of perfectly good parts. A car with a rear shunt is written off today easily (for good reason), so you have a full bonnet worth of perfectly good bits. I don’t use my local one, but have the number of a few not so far away (20miles) that will call you back if the they have it, tried and tested.

[Bob Williams]

The best motor I ever rebuilt for myself took months, best part of a year of weekends. It was a Sierra Ghia 2.3 V6, built from 3 crashed cars (2 hatches and an estate) I bought a bodyshell from Ford and carried out all my own work, insulation and sound deadening thicker than normal. When built, it was beautiful, metallic light blue, proper Ghia interior, 5-speed box, Granada rear axle & suspension. I had it checked out by a Nottingham Motor Engineer and the RAC, got a clean bill of health. The engine had done just 22,000 K but I stripped and rebuilt it. I ran it for about a year and a mate offered me stupid money for it, nag-nag-nag, sold it. Stupid of me.??

We had one of those smartasses at our garage, thought he could top that. Bought a wrecked Sierra Cosworth XR 4×4, started a rebuild in his own garage, dropped the gearbox onto concrete. As it was then £1500+ for a new box and none available second-hand, he was f****d. Sold the rest back to where he bought it at a 70% loss on his cost.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[The Duke]

Seen my first dead body, or rather almost dead, missing half a face, in a saphie cossie, one id been in an hour earlier at 16.

It was about a week before I joined up. It belongs to my neighbour and me and my dad went out for a pint with him. While at the pub the landlord’s son 18iirc asked for a go  down the quiet lane next to the pub. 300 yards later he was no more.

We heard the bang from inside the pub, I was first to the car followed by his girlfriend. She wasn’t best please.

my overriding memory was all the white paint, the owner was a painter and used it as ballast in the boot for grip (most used a bag of sand), as he hit these concrete bollards the paint exploded out the boot covering the whole interior and about 20 yards outside the front of the car.

The guy was growing in his own blood, a strange night indeed. Sadly isn’t the last I’ve seen, but defo the most strange.

It never bothered me as I didn’t know the lad, thinking back night what a waste of a life.

Back to old cars id prefer a mk2 xr3i, less powerful but I think they look brilliant to this day. Aged better than the escort 2000 or cossie of its day. I think I even like not more than the mexico. Id also love a bmw 2000 turbo. I love the shape of the bmw 2000. Alpha have a very similar shaped car from the time also, but don’t know its name.

[Richard]

Steve, that sort of thing stays with you for a long time. I was travelling back home in the 1960s when the first Cortina was selling well. It was a horrible night, squally rain, slippery roads and as often as not almost zero visibility. Several ‘heroes’ steamed past me during one downpour and shortly after it cleared it was clear that all was not well. A Cortina had possibly started round a left hand bend, the tail came out and it slid backwards across the verge into a side on collision with a very large tree. The speedometer was about 1 inch wide and the driver’s seat was folded back onto the rear from the force of the impact. There was no sign of anyone else except the obviously deceased driver in the car, though an empty baby seat in the back of the now windowless car had everyone worried. We searched the hedge and field fortunately without finding anything. A broken spirits bottle explained the aroma in the car though not all came from the bottle’s remains. It came out later that there had been some sort of family row, he had stormed out and at least one child was left fatherless and a widow had been created.

Today first I heard and saw a police car, then as I stopped for petrol on the way back from some shopping, a helicopter landed behind trees and buildings. The way home was closed off and I had a long detour round a housing estate. Judging by the number possibly as many as ten police according to news reports it was not a pretty incident. The air ambulance recently left the scene an hour and a half after the incident. For an OK stretch of road it has collected more than a usual number of deaths, an average of close to 1 a year over 25 years.

[The Duke]

It’s never a nice thing when you see these incidents, the wife showed me one yesterday (maybe earlier today) where a drunk pair ran down two kids, never nice.

I think ad I was so young, I never really gave it a second thought, then the following few years, I was unfortunate to see die and bury a few friends while in the marines. They was more sad to me, but again I was young and it never really bothered me to the extent I saw it bother others.

My wife has said a few time I’m strange, as I don’t seem to mourn, she saw me bury my father and grandparents. My wife still mourns her nan time to time almost over 15 years on.

As I’ve got older I think I’m a bit more sensitive to these things but on the whole death doesnt bother me. I look at it as a pointless endeavour, the same as worry. Which seems to be my wife’s favourite pastime.

It’s just part of life, we are all living a death sentence, some faster than others, some closer to the finish line than others. And some just have bad luck. My worry or mourning won’t change any of that.

This is why wifie says I’m a strange one, and it wouldn’t surprise her if one day I cracked and went on a spree. I just ensure her if that day comes, she’ll be first on my list. ?

[Bob Williams]

Last time I mourned was my nephew Alan, only 7 years between us and more like a kid brother. Strong as an ox before the lung cancer got him and one of those quiet but hard lads who rarely had to prove it. He was an NCB blacksmith, which means a lot more than shoeing horses*. He and his mate could see the pits going down the pan, so both did a course on closing down colliery shafts. Their good and bad luck was that they were the only two guys who took this course in the whole of the UK mining industry. As pits closed, they were in demand all over the place, along with several Mine Engineers and Geologists, they toured UK pits, earning more money in a few weeks than they had ever made. Those two had to go down the shaft in a huge bucket after the headstocks were demolished, inspect, take samples from the shaft walls, get together with the “- ologies” (who did not go down with them) and produce a report on the fitness or otherwise of both shafts to take anything up to 20,000 tons of stone and a deep concrete cap, after the stone had settled.

Our Alan and his mate were working 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week as the Thatcher government closed pits as fast as they could get miners to vote for redundancy. Alan made enough to buy the local pub, which had been my dad and Alan’s granddad’s local, since dad moved to the village and pit in 1926. I think it was that final work which aggravated his cancer: he complained of a bad back for a few years and it got worse during the work. The bad back was of course the disease eating his chest, and he smoked. I still miss our Alan, we were mates as well as relatives and I pulled him through the death of his first wife at 26, nagged him to go out with the lass who became his second wife and widow. He was delivering sacks of coal at 16, before he went underground at 18. As a trained blacksmith he bought a full-size anvil and had it delivered to the gate. I went up to give him a hand with it to his front door, only to see him carrying it up the drive himself. He painted that anvil gloss black as a sign of his work, mounted it on concrete. It’s still there and one of his stepsons has the house now.

*But he could do that too, he attended Farrier training, qualified and made a few quid locally, shoeing at riding stables. He also made some Civil War weapons for a re-enactment group. I caught him working on a 12 foot Pike in his forge – he grinned behind the goggles and said “Pikes ‘R’ Us!”

Last time I saw him at Nottingham City Hospital, I took him a monster box of Maltesers, which was the only chocolate he liked. It was also one of the few things he could get down, it was just so sad to see my big kid bro looking so thin.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Author]

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