Cheap, Useable, Easy to Spanner car

[dgmx5]

Full marks to @Doctor Houx for reading the question

Budget is ideally £1,000 stretching up to 2,500. The principle being that if I really ****** it up, it would not be a financial disaster if I had to scrap it.

Having owned a 2002 Leon, I don't think VAG cars, or indeed any cars by that point, have a lot of room to work in compared with the NA MX-5 or, as @zagatoes30 says, older cars and I do think SAABs and Volvos of that era do have a certain cool as far as European cars go.

The Puma is a good shout @spkennyuk , along with something like a Saxo VTS, in that they are probably easier to work on and full of character. But they fall into the same category as an R53 MINI in that they don't offer a great deal of practicality.

An older Merc is also a good shout even though it was never a brand I ever felt any desire for (with the exception of the full-fat NA V8 C63 AMG estates which meet none of the requirements I set).

Octavia/Superb are cars that I have looked at in the past without the idea of doing work on them myself. Again, I think they would be a pain to work on. But thanks @UlstermanAbroad for the link to the Car Throttle YouTube channel; plenty to look through there.

By the way, my idea of space in an engine bay is that of a V4 95/96. Can you hear the echo?



By the way, how cool is this?

 

[Ebenezer]

Looks like you'll be joining @philw696 with a Renault 4. Ticks all your boxes!
Eb

 

[Zep]

There you go, sorted.

There will be plenty to fix and you will be thanked when you throw it away.

Austin Maxi 2 HLS 1981 | eBay

There is a full service history going back to 2011 along with period marketing brochures and original handbook. Google "John Lennon Maxi" if you're not familiar with the story. We have here one of the last twin carb Maxi's off the Cowley assembly line.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[dgmx5]

Looks like you'll be joining @philw696 with a Renault 4. Ticks all your boxes!
Eb

Except budget. Those things are getting expensive. But otherwise, the R4 is a great shout.

 

[dgmx5]

There you go, sorted.

There will be plenty to fix and you will be thanked when you throw it away.

Austin Maxi 2 HLS 1981 | eBay

There is a full service history going back to 2011 along with period marketing brochures and original handbook. Google "John Lennon Maxi" if you're not familiar with the story. We have here one of the last twin carb Maxi's off the Cowley assembly line.

www.ebay.co.uk

The Austin Maxi 2 HLS surely has to be a Zeitgeist car the way this country is going. Early 80s BL mechanical sh!te in dogsh!t brown.

 

[mikem]

Despite my growing up in Leicestershire in close proximity to Mallory Park, my father was never into cars or spannering of any description, and I spent my formative years with my head in books.

To my great regret, I did not spend my spare time tinkering with vehicles of any description.

I did not even get to own my first car until I was 24 as I lived a meagre life on a PhD grant in Nottingham.

When I later bought an NA MX-5 in 1999 I did do some small tasks, and I changed over the hood to an NB glass window roof making it a genuinely useable daily in winter with a heated window element (there was an Italian one make series of the NB '5 and they had 24 softtops which were duly collected by the MX5OC in a transporter and brought to the UK. I spent an afternoon in a multi-storey car park in Camberley under guidance swapping over my plastic window roof to the later version.

I fitted bushes and uprated RARB on a 200SX.

I changed discs and pads on my Leon Cupra R and some other small bits.

But as you can see, a whole load of stuff I have never done particularly concerning the engine.

Sadly I don't have even off road parking let alone the dream garages some on here have.

So I would like to get a cheap, useable car that would be suitable for me to do some spannering and learning on. Something that if I messed up would cost me little if I had to scrap it.

So, I am looking for:

a. something mechanically simple, probably with limited electronics;
b. easy to work on and with space under the bonnet to do so. In this respect the MK1 MX-5 had a surprising amount of empty space;
c. preferably 4 door hatch or estate so it would justify its existence as being useful alongside the 4200 and a Z4 which are many things, but not really useful;
d. cheap in as classic PH-shed money (i.e. £1,000 rather than the £1,500 limit SOTW now allows) but I suppose £2,500 might be doable;
e. cheap VED. Modern cars are too tighly packaged, so I guess I will be looking pre-2005 and would consider classics;
f. access to body panels to allow replacement rather than respray of any dings, rust etc (this is not a necessary requirement);
g. has that undefinable quality of 'character'.

To give you an idea of what might hit the spot, the following have been considered but probably ruled out:

a. obvious choice a few years ago might be a return to an NA MX-5 but these are no longer cheap and we already have a roadster (Z4) so duplication of what we have. NB 5s are cheaper but prone to rusted sills and I don't want to get involved with welding or bodywork if it can avoided;
b. classic Mini - again no longer cheap and very impractical though loads of character;
c. R53 MINI - tightly packaged engine bay and impractical;
d. SAAB V4 95 or 96 - the only car my parents owned during my lifetime that I perceived to be cool (they did have an Escort and Mini before I was born) but outside budget.

Triumph Herald/Spitfire. Lift the bonnet up and you can climb in the engine bay to work.

 

[philw696]

Triumph Herald/Spitfire. Lift the bonnet up and you can climb in the engine bay to work.

Need to remove the front seats and transmission tunnel to do a clutch getting the gearbox out through the inside of the car.

 

[philw696]

Ford Pumas can rust so get a good Mig Welder into your tool kit.

 

[Oneball]

Saab 900 (pre Cavalier)
MG ZS
Merc 190 or e-class pre 90s (maybe too expensive now)
BMW e34 e28 e32 (think these may be too expensive now)
Alfa 33
Audi from the 80s
Volvo 240
Daihatsu Fourtrak

 

[philw696]

Saab 900 (pre Cavalier)
MG ZS
Merc 190 or e-class pre 90s (maybe too expensive now)
BMW e34 e28 e32 (think these may be too expensive now)
Alfa 33
Audi from the 80s
Volvo 240
Daihatsu Fourtrak

Some Good choices there Tim especially the BMW'S

 

[Wack61]

Just to confirm Phil the love emoji is for the V12 Vanatge not the Renault ;-)

a mate went on a cruise , they got off the ship at Monaco , a crowd round a car so they went to see what it was , a Mk 1 escort

I bet phil’s Renault 4 turns more heads than an Aston

 

[Andyk]

a mate went on a cruise , they got off the ship at Monaco , a crowd round a car so they went to see what it was , a Mk 1 escort

I bet phil’s Renault 4 turns more heads than an Aston

Certainly turns mine every time Phil posts a picture...... ;-)

 

[CatmanV2]

Certainly turns mine every time Phil posts a picture...... ;-)

Head or stomach?

C

 

[philw696]

Chaps had the 4 GTL for 2 years trouble free and worth more than I paid for it.
Maintenance has been lubrication services with new front discs and pads.
Several people want to buy it.
Try that with a Maserati.

 

[zagatoes30]

By the way, how cool is this?

View attachment 79310

Love that cool 96 Estate, there was one in an auction earlier in the year, a bit above your budget at £5k. How about this

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1295530

Or this, which I quite fancy myself

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1290308

 

[philw696]

Love the Volvo 240 used to love seeing the odd one on the RAC Rally in the Good Old Days usually a European entrant.
Iain Tyrell recently has done a video on a 89 Saab Turbo rating it highly on his YouTube channel.

 

[Harry]

The Austin Maxi 2 HLS surely has to be a Zeitgeist car the way this country is going. Early 80s BL mechanical sh!te in dogsh!t brown.

Oi, don’t be rude about Maxi’s, my mother has still got hers sitting in the garage (hasn’t been driven for 20 years and is used for storing her baking tins etc).

 

[midlifecrisis]

Just to confirm Phil the love emoji is for the V12 Vanatge not the Renault ;-)

I must concur, those looking under the bonnet of the R4 were:
A, wondering why the gearbox is at the front and why there's an umbrella stuck in the dash.
Or
B, testing their eyesight by looking at small engine components.

 

[midlifecrisis]

Oi, don’t be rude about Maxi’s, my mother has still got hers sitting in the garage (hasn’t been driven for 20 years and is used for storing her baking tins etc).

Perfect project car. So simple engineering. Just need to buy Harry's mum a stack of shelves.

 

[Simon1963]

Oi, don’t be rude about Maxi’s, my mother has still got hers sitting in the garage (hasn’t been driven for 20 years and is used for storing her baking tins etc).

Then she’s a very sensible lady. At least she’s found something it’s good at.