Do you have a car auction local? you can pick up some good bargains there. Got a mate who has a used car lot and any p/x he cant shift he throws in the auction. He recently had a nice mk 3 golf, it had a smashed up passanger door, but 12 months MOT and Tax, it went for £80. An MX6 with the 2.5 V6 used in the nasty ford probe, totally solid engine and will never go wrong but it sounds nasty, it rattles like crazy but it went with 8 months MOT, no tax but he sold it for £150.
I go to stoodley's in Manchester fairly often and im suprised to see what they just cant shift, lots of Vectra's and Mondeos with a bit of MOT and Tax, just dont sell even when they pop the price down to as little as £30.