What's currently good for bangernomics?

Jonny69

Jonny69

Jonny69

Man of Honour
Man of Honour
Joined
3 May 2004
Posts
17,722
Location
Kapitalist Republik of Surrey
Ok, so about 5 years ago I bought my girlfriend an emergency car, a 10 year old Renault Scenic for £1500. I maintained it at first, then the [notorious Renault auto] gearbox technically started to play up but it's never got so bad one couldn't live with it. Around two years ago I decided something would die any minute so I stopped changing the oil etc in anticipation. But it didn't die and after another 12K miles I decided to change the £3.99 oil I put in. It's coming up to another 10K miles on the replacement oil and just passed another MOT, which puts it into defying the accepted laws of physics bracket. Nothing has ever gone wrong on this car and everything still works bar the central locking on the boot. She's going away for a short while and has instructed me to have a replacement waiting when she gets back...

We were looking at new or nearly new cars but say I were to go for bangernomics again. What's out there? Must be an auto not too juicy on the fuel or tax and never go wrong, for ultimate povo motoring.

Bear in mind I know nothing about motors past about 1972 :p :D
 
Sounds like my wifes old megane! Just kept going and going, auto box was on it's way but never actually went! Sold it to a bloke for £100 or so then a week later it died!
He's not bothered too much though as not long after he won £1.9m on some online game apparently!
 
iaind said:
What are you thinking of spending? W124 should be good
Click to expand...
I'm guessing about the same as before, £1500 tops. The Renault was in fantastic nick for the age when we got it.

Or maybe I should aim lower :D (She's probably going to kill me)

W124 is a 90's VIP Merc barge isn't it?
 
Jonny69 said:
I'm guessing about the same as before, £1500 tops. The Renault was in fantastic nick for the age when we got it.

Or maybe I should aim lower :D (She's probably going to kill me)

W124 is a 90's VIP Merc barge isn't it?
Click to expand...

Yup W124 90's VIP Merc. Solidly built, awesome awesome cars imo. Not much can go wrong with them, the only problem we had on ours was the ABS went, but that had done 240K Miles. That was the only fault, all electrics worked. Good drives tbh, we had an E220. Before that my we had a 230TE. Had 3 in fact, but that was mid late 80's.

Good cars, cheap servicing. Last forever really.
 
From looking for cheap motors for a friend at the weekend, I noticed that there is a serious lack of them in the market, even more so decent ones. I can only imagine that with the scrappage scheme, thousands of cars potentially suitable for bangernomics went to the scrapyard.

I don't know anything about them but I recall thinking these seem good value: http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1974857.htm
 
Last edited:
Vita said:
Yup W124 90's VIP Merc. Solidly built, awesome awesome cars imo. Not much can go wrong with them, the only problem we had on ours was the ABS went, but that had done 240K Miles. That was the only fault, all electrics worked. Good drives tbh, we had an E220. Before that my we had a 230TE. Had 3 in fact, but that was mid late 80's.

Good cars, cheap servicing. Last forever really.
Click to expand...

:)
 
Loads of people want cheap, reliable automatics that are good on fuel meaning choice is going to be quite limited :(.

Micra?
 
I'd recommend an old Volvo 940/960, but they're hardly light on fuel..

W124 could well be the way to go here.
 
Surely the rule with bangernomics is just to keep it until it completely dies? Why buy into another cheap car with potential problems if the scenic is working fine?
 
Vita said:
Yup W124 90's VIP Merc. Solidly built, awesome awesome cars imo. Not much can go wrong with them, the only problem we had on ours was the ABS went, but that had done 240K Miles. That was the only fault, all electrics worked. Good drives tbh, we had an E220. Before that my we had a 230TE. Had 3 in fact, but that was mid late 80's.

Good cars, cheap servicing. Last forever really.
Click to expand...

I've just watched the Fifth gear build quality test of the W124. For those of you who haven't seen it, be warned that there is a lot of car abuse in there. But I have now decided that I'm going to own one of these at some point in my life, so impressive how much abuse that car took.
They put on sticks of dynamte in the engine bay and the engine survived :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:
 
Cristian said:
I've just watched the Fifth gear build quality test of the W124. For those of you who haven't seen it, be warned that there is a lot of car abuse in there. But I have now decided that I'm going to own one of these at some point in my life, so impressive how much abuse that car took.
They put on sticks of dynamte in the engine bay and the engine survived :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:
Click to expand...

My dad had 2 W123's in Red bk in 1988. Then he got a 1986 230TE which was the new W124 in 1993 in the good 'ol Merc Beige colour, which was like an off yellow haha. That had 7 owners before my dad got it.

That car we had for about 14 years. We brought EVERYTHING in that car, including our old sofas, when we moved house. The shocks/suspension on the rear was totally gone, it had a lot of camber, but yet it drove solid. It had a bit of grunt too. Got rid of it for £50 to a scrappie as it had given up. Awesome car. Then we bought a '96 W124 E220 estate, that was an automatic with 4 gears. Was a good motorway car tbh, excellent cars. They sure don't make them kind of Mercs anymore.

W203/204 seem plastic compared to W123'S/W124's.
 
I will 3rd or 4th or whatever it's up to now the W124 :) ...there is a reason why the Taliban like these when they aren't using their Toyota Hilux and Landcruisers. The W124 Merc ...holding the Western Allies at bay since ...2001. I'm not sure they come factory fit with 50 calibre machine guns but you can always improvise if you like.
 
Last edited:
Vita said:
Yup W124 90's VIP Merc. Solidly built, awesome awesome cars imo. Not much can go wrong with them, the only problem we had on ours was the ABS went, but that had done 240K Miles. That was the only fault, all electrics worked. Good drives tbh, we had an E220. Before that my we had a 230TE. Had 3 in fact, but that was mid late 80's.

Good cars, cheap servicing. Last forever really.
Click to expand...

I had one and I think I bought a nasty looking one, it was only £500 and was rusting badly - saying that though mechanically it was in fine condition, was the 3 litre petrol with 220k miles on. Good cars if a little old looking now.
 
I'm wishing I had bought one when I was looking, 1500 would have bought a lovely one and the only reason I didn't was fuel economy. But now I'm only doing about 20 miles a week, I'm seriously considering swapping!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom