Replacing the C1 next year?

[Bailes1992]

So the lease on Beccas C1 ends next July.
Thing is Becca gets bored of cars quickly and she likes to play. She's also constantly worried about damaging the C1.

So what do we do?

My sensible head wants to buy the current C1 off Citreon Contract Hire as it's genuinely a nice little car but Becca doesn't want to keep it much longer than a year because she gets bored quickly.

We could just lease another car. You can get Fiesta 1.0 Ecoboosts with the jumped up 140bhp engine on a 24 month lease for £1000 deposit and £100 a month. But Becca says she's always worried about damaging a new lease car.

The other option she keeps mentioning to me is buying a ratty old car for £500 after Christmas and spending 6 months sorting it out.
We've been looking at some BMW E36s, E46s and E39s. We've found several cars with a 20i, 23i and 25i 6 cylinder engines which are advertised as starts and drives with a bit of MOT but cosmetically rough. We would buy with the plan to fit a Sport body kit and spray in a single stage Imola Red (DIY job, I've been playing with my compressor latley with some reasonable results). Sport wheels and a fresh MOT we could even look into selling it 12 -18 months time for a profit.
We also had a look at some Volvos and a few Volkswagens with an auto gearbox fault. We could take a punt and hope the gearbox just needs an oil & filter change. Or worst case scenario just throw a second hand unit in. Again 12-18 months and sell hopefully without loosing money.

What do you guys think? Think it's worth a punt trying to buy something old and sorting it out?
Or should I just stick with a newer car for her?

Sam.

[dirtydirtydiesel]

You can't go wrong playing about with older cars Sam, I've been doing it for over 27 years & have yet to be bitten
& I know a lot of you won't like me saying this but I love bimmers we've had two e36's, two e46's & one e39 yes you could say I
Love em .
+ it's better to play with than a poxy ka

[Welly]

BMW Compact 325:



Reliable, cheap and a hoot to drive.

[Bailes1992]

But you can't pick them up for £500.

I'm looking at buying something like this...
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... &logcode=p

And making it look something like this...



We lost money on her C3 and I think it could be blamed on the fact it was not very common and therefore hard to shift parts. Something like a 5 series would be much easier to break should we buy a right dog.

[Welly]

That aint no girls car though? I think you have to be careful with a 5 series it can make you look like you're trying to be flash, but failing, even though that's not what you're doing.

Now an E30 318iS would make a nice car and well respected to. Although a good one would fetch strong money now.

[Bailes1992]

Becca is far from a girly girl. I too would love an E30 but I'm not a fan of the 318is. I really don't see the big deal. It would have to be a 320i or 325i for me. However far to expensive for me.

She's looking at E36 and E46 models mainly but won't discount an E39.

[Doggy]

I started looking at 318is's a few years back....
then decided a 320 would be better.....
then decided a 325 would be better.....
then decided a 328 would be better.....

.....so I wound up with a 200SX.

[lozz]

Reliable & cheap.,

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2000-LEXUS-IS ... 46416195f1

not everyones cuppa'tea iguess,

[Bailes1992]

How easy would it be to break an Altezza or an IS200 though?

I do like them a lot!

[lozz]

[quote="Bailes1992"]How easy would it be to break an Altezza or an IS200 though?


Dunno,never broke one, id guess, just like any other jap car. Heavy work & messy.

Iwent to buy alexus, last month, Ended up coming home with the 'Mon-dingo. only on the reason the Dmf and clutch had just been replaced'
or id of deffo came out with the 'is-200 for sure. they seem alot of car for the money'. (but icouid be wrong..there.

...........................................................................................
I've heard on the Grape'vine.the V.i.c Test's are getting scrapped in a few'day's.
so late model cars can be picked up for peanut's with a minor-ding's/scrape's- and put back on the road with little effort/cost's.

so buying a late model damaged car before an old 'munter-might be the way to go for some, (food for thought')

[PeterN]

Get her a 406, cheap to run, never go wrong and if she piles it up you can get another one for next to nothing.

Peter

[STALLED]

E36s are shite. Poorly built and most are fairly ropey these days. They do drive nicely!

[OllieNZ]

Get her a 406, cheap to run, never go wrong and if she piles it up you can get another one for next to nothing.

Peter

V6 coupe ;)

[PeterN]

Nah, 2.0. Hdi

[Bailes1992]

I would love to get her a 406. There's currently a D8 V6 Saloon at a local auction house but 406's are far too expensive to insure.