Bargain Basement Motoring

[NewcastleFalcon]

An opportunity arose and I have added another £100 car to my fleet.

Its the Japanese Fiat 500, only much much much cheaper!

nf ownwork

nfownwork

Regards Neil

[old'uns]

that's a cheap K12....

[NewcastleFalcon]

that's a cheap K12....

Well spotted, and as my significant mileage photo testifies only 53,240 miles.

Mot to November. Bit of rough paintwork in a couple of areas of a sortable nature (if I choose to sort it) but a decent back-up motor.

REgards Neil

[Peter.N.]

Its the only sort of motoring I do! I have been looking for another 406 Hdi estate without success as there aren't many about and the prices have gone through the roof which probably confirms my opinion that they are probably the best car that Peugeot have made, so I bought a C220 cdi Merc, of similar vintage, no DPF or DMF, nicely made but doesn't feel as 'homely' as the 406.

My local garage man told me about someone who had a nice one that they wanted to sell but never heard anything about it until a few weeks ago when I had a phone call from him. I didn't really need the hassle of another car but agreed to have a look at it as it was only local. I spent about half an hour trying to find something wrong with it so I had an excuse to buy but couldn't and to cut a long story short he said make me an offer, so tonge in cheek I said 250, done he said.

Its a 2003 with just over 120k and even the handbrake works! a first for me. I will put some pics up if I can find them.

Peter

[NewcastleFalcon]

Thats the way to do it, well done Peter, looks great in the photos.

None of the buy-any-car merchants or the dealers would offer anything for the Micra I bought, and few people can be bothered with the hassle of selling them privately, so I got a call when it became surplus to requirements.


Regards Neil

[Timmo]

A good friend of mine got a micra the same as that early last year, £125, 73k miles, years mot, etc. Did a few trips to London in it from down here, whilst not The perfect distance cruiser, didnt miss a beat!

[daviemck2006]

I had one of them for a while a few years ago. The ignition key went dodgy, only starting intermittently, supposedly a common k12 fault. I cured it by adding a push start button so if the key didnt start it the push button did. It took a lot of abuse on the pizza runs and never complained, then i sold it for £50 profit. I wouldnt have liked to do long journeys in it though, but then I had an activa for them!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Useful information Davie I'll watch out for that and copy your fix if it crops up!

Regards Neil

[sparksie]

Its the only sort of motoring I do! I have been looking for another 406 Hdi estate without success as there aren't many about and the prices have gone through the roof which probably confirms my opinion that they are probably the best car that Peugeot have made,

Agree 100%
You need to look hard to find anything comparable in their recent history.
There was a time when Peugeot built to a standard, with price a secondary consideration and style very much an afterthought.
Amazing they survived, really. 504 was a genuinely indestructible tank, but Ladas looked significantly better.
Then the accounts dept replaced it with the 405, a 205 on steroids. I suspect there are more surviving 504s than 405s, now.
406 got it right. I don't think I've seen an estate, but if built to the same standard as the saloons, what a car!
I still regret not fixing my 406. It was like a labrador and kept going even after a submarine incident that resulted in a bent conrod.
I must keep an eye out for another, before they become scarce.

[Peter.N.]

There seem to be more down this way than anywhere else in the country, at least you see more. We did a 2000 mile trip round Scotland last year and never saw another one but as soon as we got back they started appearing again.

My wife's Hdi estate gas done about 220k miles now and is still going strong and our first one is now languishing at the top of the field, a victim of water ingress but not before it had completed 246k miles.

I also have a C220 Merc diesel at the moment, its faster than the 406 but nothing like as refined. Road and engine noise and not as good a ride, so I might get rid of that and stick with the two 406's

Peter

[Timmo]

the 406 is one of the breed that look better as an Estate than a saloon IMO. its proportions just fit the estate spot on! when our Xantia est. went, i couldnt find a good equivalent around here at all, All day comfort! i miss that!

[Peter.N.]

I have nearly always run estates as I used them for work and they are much more useful anyway and the 406 has a very large load capacity for its size. Not as big as the XM's I ran for about 15 years which again weren't as big as the CX's which I ran for a similar period but certainly bigger than most modern estates.

Peter

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

saw a Volvo 240 Estate 'properly' for the first time ever, back at the weekend (Goodwood Breakfast Club), hadn't realised how big they are, substantially bigger than my 405.

[Hell Razor5543]

And then you can get the extended CX estate!;

https://www.carthrottle.com/post/a7bz668/

[Peter.N.]

I have driven couple of 240's one saloon and an estate and was very disappointed in them compared with the Citroen CX safari I was then driving, they felt very uncouth with noise and vibration although the seats were nice, and the CX estate was even bigger!

Peter