RWD For £300-£500?

[x Alex x]

hey all,

since the escort is off the road for the winter it's insurance is going to waste, can swap it over onto another car easily to use it up.

was thinking since my GF uses the punto a lot now i'd get what i've fancied for a long time, something RWD to play about with, TBH all i can think of is BMWs and old volvos in the price range.

budget is £300-£500 ish obviously something with tax and test is preffered, any ideas folks?

cheers

 

[AppleSei]

£500 isnt much for a car these days never mind £300, id be very suprised to see an example in this price range have a lot of tax and test if any at all

Id go for an old BMW but it will probably be a really poor example, in fact anything in that budget would be a very poor example so i would refund the insurance and tax on the escort

 

[x Alex x]

£500 isnt much for a car these days never mind £300

Id go for an old BMW but it will probably be a really poor example, in fact anything in that budget would be a very poor example so i would refund the insurance and tax on the escort

cudda had that e46 for £400, been a few since it for around the same with tax and test, compact 316 too, cars seem to be going cheap around mine at the mo, not bothered about condition, just something to mess around with really

 

[AppleSei]

cudda had that e46 for £400

yeah but that turned out to be a pup

as said if it was me id just refund insurance and tax on the escort and maybe spend whatevers left on a winter hol/break for you and the missus instead

You seem to be getting by ok with no car or carsharing?

 

[x Alex x]

yeah but that turned out to be a pup

as said if it was me id just refund insurance and tax on the escort and maybe spend whatevers left on a winter hol/break for you and the missus instead

Can you get by for a couple of months with no car?

looking back for the money, it was amazing, if i'd have went down the scrap yard route i'd of had it well decent for around £500, full history, leather cd changer the works, had too much going on at the time.

just back from lanzarote sunday gone lol, the insurance is only £120 a year for the escort so it's not worth cancelling, yeah i could manage without a car.

 

[Chas Uno]

You could pick up an old Merc for £300 - £500, though it's likely to be clinging to an MOT with desperation at those prices! A tatty 190 is a nice car to drive and might fall into your price range, as will middle eastern Merc taxis (with vinyl interiors!) but anything decent will be out of your price range. You're really going to be looking in the minging category with your budget!

You can't even pick up a tidy Capri or Manta for less than £500 these days, well, not unless you want to spend all winter welding them. And the same applies to RWD Escorts as they're now going for silly money. Even Chevettes and Viva ain't cheap, plus you'll be forever fighting rust.

What exactly do you want to have a rwd car for and what type? An old low spec BMW, Merc or Volvo will probably just fit your budget without too much work, but anything sporty will be way out of reach unless you're going down the restoration route.

 

[x Alex x]

You could pick up an old Merc for £300 - £500, though it's likely to be clinging to an MOT with desperation at those prices! A tatty 190 is a nice car to drive and might fall into your price range, as will middle eastern Merc taxis (with vinyl interiors!) but anything decent will be out of your price range. You're really going to be looking in the minging category with your budget!

You can't even pick up a tidy Capri or Manta for less than £500 these days, well, not unless you want to spend all winter welding them. And the same applies to RWD Escorts as they're now going for silly money. Even Chevettes and Viva ain't cheap, plus you'll be forever fighting rust.

What exactly do you want to have a rwd car for and what type? An old low spec BMW, Merc or Volvo will probably just fit your budget without too much work, but anything sporty will be way out of reach unless you're going down the restoration route.

just fancy one, never had one, had a go of my mates beemer drifting and it was a larff

there's a 318 compact i have my eye on, going to ring about it in the morning, needs rear arches doing but i can get the lads at college to look at that, tax and test.

also a e46 coop tax till feb but MOT just out for £250, looks clean.. like i say, they seem to be a fair bit cheaper around mine than down south for once

oh and as for capris, i'd love one, there's a sierra auto for £400 too at a garage, looks a bit modded too with MOT, RWD escorts demand silly money now,

 

[dannygp]

looking back for the money, it was amazing, if i'd have went down the scrap yard route i'd of had it well decent for around £500, full history, leather cd changer the works, had too much going on at the time.

just back from lanzarote sunday gone lol, the insurance is only £120 a year for the escort so it's not worth cancelling, yeah i could manage without a car.

Insurance is only £120? You might aswell not have insurance, cos your bulling about something making it void anyway.

 

[auto_blanco]

ive had 2 BMW 5 series in the past 3 months, 1 cost £200 the other £250, both without T&T though but the £250 one cost £70 to get through the MOT. Sierras are a car I know well too, ive had 9 (I think) of them, cheap to buy, cheaper to repair and easier to get a slide going in due to low weight and simple suspension, depends what you need, dont bother with Volvos unless its a 940 turbo, otherwise they are pretty poor lol.

If you would prefer a BMW, get a 5 series, easier to find good ones for no money, E36 3 series arent as much fun to drive (too much understeer) and much costlier to mend (compact is better IMO) Otherwise, a DOHC Sierra is a fun car to drive considering its only got 125bhp!

 

[x Alex x]

Insurance is only £120? You might aswell not have insurance, cos your bulling about something making it void anyway.

Ermm.. What?

ive had 2 BMW 5 series in the past 3 months, 1 cost £200 the other £250, both without T&T though but the £250 one cost £70 to get through the MOT. Sierras are a car I know well too, ive had 9 (I think) of them, cheap to buy, cheaper to repair and easier to get a slide going in due to low weight and simple suspension, depends what you need, dont bother with Volvos unless its a 940 turbo, otherwise they are pretty poor lol.

If you would prefer a BMW, get a 5 series, easier to find good ones for no money, E36 3 series arent as much fun to drive (too much understeer) and much costlier to mend (compact is better IMO) Otherwise, a DOHC Sierra is a fun car to drive considering its only got 125bhp!

great info here, we had an auto 1.8 sierra yearss ago and i loved it, dad still says he'd have another.

deffinately preffer a BMW, funnily enough the ones i've seen the cheapest are the compacts and e46 coops, 5 series for around £600 with tax and test, might go down the no MOT route.

 

[auto_blanco]

my 1st Sierra was a 1.8 CVH auto, great car..they all are! I tend to buy with no MOT etc, sooo much cheaper to stick some new brakes on or something and get it tested yourself than to buy one with ticket. Provided theres no rust to speak of and the engine runs well and at half way on the temp, you shouldnt have any big problems to deal with for a long long time with a BMW. Suspension stuff is easy and cheap for the most part too.

 

[x Alex x]

my 1st Sierra was a 1.8 CVH auto, great car..they all are! I tend to buy with no MOT etc, sooo much cheaper to stick some new brakes on or something and get it tested yourself than to buy one with ticket. Provided theres no rust to speak of and the engine runs well and at half way on the temp, you shouldnt have any big problems to deal with for a long long time with a BMW. Suspension stuff is easy and cheap for the most part too.

very true, take my punto, £150 with 3 months test, i was happy to scrap it and have had 3 months use out of it, got it through the test for £20 doing the work myself.

by the sounds of it you know your stuff a lot more than i do though lol i tend to reasearch all the things to check on the specific car before looking as i'm not particularly experienced in buying cars.

 

[auto_blanco]

well im no expert but I do all the work on my cars myself and have bought and sold what seems like hundreds of cars in the past few years....

A few things you might want to know, the E36 compact has the more dated semi trailing arm rear suspension derived from the older cars, in my view its better. Much simpler, more fun to drive without the understeer the saloons and coupes are prone to and much cheaper to fix. The 318ti compact is a 16v as is the 318is Coupe, noisy timing chain tensioners are common and a must do fix otherwise it can jump time. Cheap to buy the part and just 1 bolt to do it though. There was no 8v 318i Compact or Coupe as there was in the Saloon. Front wishbones are hard ish to do though due to limited access, takes an age the 1st time and the bushes arent great at lasting. If you find a 5 series, they have 2 control arms on the front on each side which makes them dead easy to take apart and cheaper to mend. Other than that, usual car buying stuff applies, not much goes wrong at all, which is more than can be said for modern stuff!

yes..I am a total car bore lol

 

[x Alex x]

well im no expert but I do all the work on my cars myself and have bought and sold what seems like hundreds of cars in the past few years....

A few things you might want to know, the E36 compact has the more dated semi trailing arm rear suspension derived from the older cars, in my view its better. Much simpler, more fun to drive without the understeer the saloons and coupes are prone to and much cheaper to fix. The 318ti compact is a 16v as is the 318is Coupe, noisy timing chain tensioners are common and a must do fix otherwise it can jump time. Cheap to buy the part and just 1 bolt to do it though. There was no 8v 318i Compact or Coupe as there was in the Saloon. Front wishbones are hard ish to do though due to limited access, takes an age the 1st time and the bushes arent great at lasting. If you find a 5 series, they have 2 control arms on the front on each side which makes them dead easy to take apart and cheaper to mend. Other than that, usual car buying stuff applies, not much goes wrong at all, which is more than can be said for modern stuff!

yes..I am a total car bore lol

great info there, a 318 coupe caught my eye, tax and test till july, described as having a noise coming from the timing chain area, i imagine it was a job not worth doing/too big to do on a cheap car, depending on what it went for i was going to buy it and hope it lasted till the MOT lol

 

[auto_blanco]

haggle them down loads for it, then fix it for £30 and 1 spanner right in front of them lol, takes 5 mins at the most.

 

[x Alex x]

haggle them down loads for it, then fix it for £30 and 1 spanner right in front of them lol, takes 5 mins at the most.

thats fantastic lol deffinately worth a go cheers

 

[pk090]

well sounds good along the lines of rwd beemer or merc but as stated before they going to be hard to find a good one for the price....

can i have your green bumpers yet??

 

[punto_matt]

m Provided theres no rust to speak of and the engine runs well and at half way on the temp, you shouldnt have any big problems to deal with for a long long time with a BMW.

I really dont see how you are in a position to say that? Quite a bold statement dont you think?

 

[auto_blanco]

I wouldnt say that, they are considerably tougher than basically anything else ive ever had or driven. Obviously you can buy shagged ones and ones that have had a very hard life, but generally they can take abuse very well and if they havent been abused they last even longer. Usual things to replace are brake pipes, bushes and balljoints, the odd water pump and thermostat etc, but not very much else, especially on E34 5 series, E36 3s are a bit more delicate in terms of trim quality etc, but generally you wont find a broken gearbox for example, or even a blown engine if you get the proper M50 straight 6 motor. If its not rusty and the engine is good, they wont generally cause problems.

Bear in mind im not talking about the 'modern' ones which are almost as fragile as all new cars.

 

[x Alex x]

i knew my budget was enough for what i wanted £375 for a 3l v6 omega elite in silver, with all the toys, tax and test.

we've had a few as a family and they've been good, biggest we had was the 2.5 v6 CDX which was a beast.

going to see how the 318 is pans out first as obviously the omega isnt my first choice since it's such a massive car and would be harder to sell on.

CC bumpers are still in use, in my area i see 2 other green SXs one R reg and one S reg quite regularly so they can't be too hard too find