My new banger :-)

toyotacelicagt4 · 6 Aug 2011 at 19:45

Evening all,

I was thinking of buying a banger for the winter is my bmw is crap in the snow/ice and came across this beauty. It was only 2 miles from my house and cost me the sum of £350

Some specs....

1998 R
2.0 16v
Full black leather
Electric mirrors
Electric windows
Electric sunroof
Central locking
only done 87k miles with fsh
2 new tyres, rears near enough new
engine sounds sweet

Only thing thats wrong is it needs a new battery(alternator is fine). Now my question is what power battery do i need? The battery in there at the mo had no labels to saw what power it is. Any clues?

Thanks

Vita · 6 Aug 2011 at 19:47

£350. Not bad.

Barry Smalley · 6 Aug 2011 at 19:47

That'll do.

Princey · 6 Aug 2011 at 19:49

Baby Monaro?

Raymond Lin · 6 Aug 2011 at 19:54

Wait until Fox comes in here to tell you that it's not the car but the tyres that make the biggest difference in snow...he's right but I know why you got a FWD.

Simon · 6 Aug 2011 at 19:58

How much are those engines worth now? Sounds a good one

PMKeates · 6 Aug 2011 at 20:04

My sources tell me 43 Ah / 390 CCA.

toyotacelicagt4 · 6 Aug 2011 at 20:49

PMKeates said:
My sources tell me 43 Ah / 390 CCA.

Any chance you could double check that? I wanna make sure I get the right one

Cheers

PMKeates · 6 Aug 2011 at 20:53

Not really, it's a 21 year old car

Get around 60 Ah / 500 CCA and that will easily be enough.

MikeHiow · 6 Aug 2011 at 20:54

Simon said:
How much are those engines worth now? Sounds a good one

Not a lot I don't expect. I believe at that age it'll be the ecotec lump rather than the XE.

PMKeates · 6 Aug 2011 at 20:56

The Halfords battery selector chooses one that's 41 Ah / 360 CCA so I suspect my information is correct. I would definitely go a little over spec so min. ~50 Ah / ~500 CCA.

hurfdurf · 7 Aug 2011 at 04:46

If it runs well for a fair while that is a bargain, congrats.

lewism · 7 Aug 2011 at 10:40

Nice car for the money but by the time you factor in insurance and anything going wrong wouldn't you have been cheaper getting a full set of winter wheels for your car?

toyotacelicagt4 · 7 Aug 2011 at 10:48

Insurance is only 351 for the year. I rather drive this than my beemer incase something happens to it.

Begbie · 7 Aug 2011 at 13:31

Most likely the Ecotec, which isn't worth a lot.

If its the XE, it ill be worth more than the car to some people.

Berger · 7 Aug 2011 at 14:10

lewism said:
Nice car for the money but by the time you factor in insurance and anything going wrong wouldn't you have been cheaper getting a full set of winter wheels for your car?

This.

Plus you wouldn't have two lots of MOT/Tax/Insurance and wouldn't have to drive around in a ***** banger

jon.bda · 7 Aug 2011 at 14:20

Berger said:
This.

Plus you wouldn't have two lots of MOT/Tax/Insurance and wouldn't have to drive around in a ***** banger

Be four lots now going by OP's sig wouldn't it?

. And as for the Calibra...use it over winter, find a chav with a Corsa and flog it to them as a donor car when you've finished with it...

End Creditz · 7 Aug 2011 at 14:44

Was it the front wishbones on those that were replaced on a recall due to a faulty batch breaking? I think it was the same for the Cavaliers of the same period. I only partially recall this as a mates dad bought a brand new Calibra as a retirement present.

Moeks · 7 Aug 2011 at 15:46

Hard to argue for £350 ...back when they were current, I used to think the Calibra was a rather handsome car ...although I prefered the Ford Probe ...now I think the Calibra may have aged better tbh.

Lopéz · 7 Aug 2011 at 17:20

End Creditz said:
Was it the front wishbones on those that were replaced on a recall due to a faulty batch breaking? I think it was the same for the Cavaliers of the same period. I only partically recall this as a mates dad bought a brand new Calibra as a retirement present.

Yes, there was definitely something about premature failures on Calibras and Cavaliers, but I think it was mainly caused by incorrect jacking. Read it in a magazine over 10 years ago so I can't be 100% certain!