The £2,000 car

[workshopmanualman]

Hi Foggy,

you're right; things need to move on in the car world and we need to look more at this as a hobby than regular transport. Perhaps soon that'll be forced upon us, as in a stroke the government may reduce 20 years of natural wastage to a few short years, perhaps even 12 months. Now if it is to be a permanent scheme, and our cars are suddenly worth £2k each MoT, then that hobby idea may well be a feasible option. There must be loads of cars out there being used that have no ready supply of spare parts.

My slight worry is that if we decide to hold out against buying a £10k car and all the costs that that entails, and keep our current cars, come next MoT time, or major mechanical or bodywork crisis, then we may well end up with cars for which there are virtually no spare parts and no infrastructure to recreat those parts from scratch. And what of those amongst us who have no access to credit? God forbid they have to catch the bus or train.....

As for Jay Leno. I like him, but don't forget he earns $100m a year so isn't really in the real world anymore. If he suddenly decided he likes the 300 series, goes out and buys one, he has a team of mechanics permanently on hand to restore it from scratch, and probably has a gazillion suppliers ready and willing to make any part he so desires. Did you see the look on James May's face when he interviewed him in his garage? To me it said money and toys beyond belief. Collectors in America must dream of the day he decides to buy into their brand.

Anyway, here's hoping that Gene Hunt tonight is driving a 360GLT saloon in silver!!!

[Chris_C]

Anyway, here's hoping that Gene Hunt tonight is driving a 360GLT saloon in silver!!!

"Fire up the Volvo"

Now there is a topic more worthy of forum space... it's back

[workshopmanualman]

Hot pants versus the 300 series? Are you serious? On a 300 series forum?

I think he'd say "Fire up the Vulva" anyway.

[trabitom99]

Anyway, here's hoping that Gene Hunt tonight is driving a 360GLT saloon in silver!!!

Is it that time of year again ? Ashes to Ashes part II?

Goes to check Google ...

Tom

[volvosneverdie]

I think he'd say "Fire up the Vulva" anyway.

Genuinly amusing.

[jtbo]

What are your exceptations about used car prices in future if this £2,000 funding starts?

[workshopmanualman]

No idea! I was kind of hoping you guys with systems up and running could tell us that one.

[jtbo]

Our system is tad different, but it has been working quite some time now, one gets 500 euros if he scraps old car and gets new one, I believe it was 300 euros if one gets approved used one.

I remember how I did browse car ads years ago and it was around 500 FIM that could buy you car that had MOT, but now it is 500 euros or more for same condition car.

IMHO prices did go up with euro and also crush support has upped price a bit.

edit: 1 EUR is almost 6 FIM (5,94573 from my memory)

[workshopmanualman]

So prices went up quite a bit for you guys? Interesting.

Here we have no system as yet, and may not have for ages as the current government promise a lot but seem to deliver nothing. Certainly a car would be worth a nominal £2k, but only if you intend on part exchanging it against a new car. If you have no intention of part exchanging it, plus if there is a requirement that you have to own the car for at least a year before you can trade it in [as Citroen seem to suggest], then value lies on the supply / demand curve as normal. At the end of the day the 300 series don't fetch big money even in pristine condition, so even now there is little demand for them. [But to be honest lots of cars are in this category, so I'm not bemoaning the 300 series at all.] Would this demand, hence current used price, increase if one was able to part exchange it a year into the ownership experience?

Oddly enough I think new drivers may swing things for us. Even the youngest 300's are now approaching 20 years old, so classic status in terms of gaining insurance. If you've just passed your test and fancy a new Clio, it may be prudent to buy an older car and run it for a year to not only get an insurance discount, but a good p/ex value. With fewer older cars about [assuming many trade up] then prices would rise in an ideal world? Also the 1980's are due to be back in fashion.... but was the 300 fashionable back then?

Hmmm, one to think on. I was crap at economics as it was all bunkum and driven by people who couldn't get a real qualification to save their lives. All pub talk at the end of the day isn't it? If I hadn't spent all day sanding and painting windows I'd not even really be thinking about what is subjectively a boring topic!!

Anyway, 9pm BBC1 tonight.....

[jtbo]

In our system one needs to buy a car from dealer, new or used and 300 is what you get if you get used one, still cheapest cars seem to be almost too closely 500, even people selling it probably would not buy new car, economics really do suck big time, there just is no logic.

[workshopmanualman]

I had to spend 18 months studying economics as part of my job; hated every single minute, and spent the time constructively drunk. Get two economists in the same room, you get two different viewpoints. Get three economists, a packet of plain crisps and a small glass of wine, they consider that a wild party. I passed the course by the simple tactic of just writing reams and reams of b*llsh*t for the exam. Oh, and I was drunk for the exam, which helped. No way could I have been involved with such people on a sober basis. [And I'm guessing they probably felt the same way about me..... And I bet they drive new 5-series BMW cars whilst I drive a 20 year old 360, having obviously spent all my money on booze....]

Now I can guarantee that 500 people here will turn out to be economists!

Here eBay is the biggest single supplier of used cars, so anybody can judge prices in our market pretty quickly, although possibly not accurately given the number of off-sales. At £500 one would not buy from a dealer; he would still want £250 profit on the deal, after paying 15% tax, so you can guess the condition of the car.

Oddly enough I've seen fewer 300's on the streets of Surrey recently - where have they all gone?

[MJ]

James, I believe Leno actually said on weekends you could "drive your MG"

But yeah, he really made the point well, especially when he said a' hundred years ago horses were being used in the cities for transporting people and goods, (and often being badly treated) whereas now we use cars and lorries, and we keep horses pleasure. The same will be said for petrol cars in the future.'

I feel similarly about bio diesel being created from crops - a hundred years ago much of agricultural land was being used to grow cereals to feed horses who would provide transportation - why not now use that same land to grow crops that can create fuels for vehicles?

BTW what a collection that Leno has! Truly awesome. And lets hope there will be a Volvo in Ashes to Ashes, that was the most disappointing thing about the last series, how many 80's cars were there? There was the Quattro, a couple cars used by the main characters, two or three police vehicles and the Escort. There hardly seemed to be any others in the background, you'd think they could easily have hired a few more to improve the atmosphere. I can't see anything beating "Fire up the Quattro!" through

[workshopmanualman]

Jay leno is a motoring God I admit.

Who understood last night's plot?

Sun activity now at a 100 year low, as the regular 11 year sunspot cycle seems to have stopped, but scientists say this will not cause global cooling.... as it may well have done in the past. Hmmm, smell a rat here. Anti-car lobby at it again? I read the other day that a single container ship puts out the same pollution anually as, wait for it, 50,000,000 cars. Er, is it me or is this all a bit one sided?

[jtbo]

http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/ He is completely unknown in here.

I know Jay Leno show, but it was some kind of talk show, right?

But I know that is carage I would like to have

Nissan and Mazda have huge garages too, latter being bit of secret and it is not available for public, it has some one of kind prototypes, race cars and all of that.

All those places to visit before dying, I wonder if I live long enough.

[workshopmanualman]

That's the guy - and well found for his garage. He writes for magazines and newspapers also, so we get to know about him here even though we do not get the show [unless through cable]. He just likes cars in any form. He was on the tv recently with Top Gear, and the interviewee James May looked sick with envy. I guess if you like cars, and get shown that garage, then that would be the ultimate Top trump. However, isn't there a museum in Brussels that features a similar collection? One available to the public?

As for visiting places, there is never enough time. I'd love, for some obscure reason unknown even to me, to drive my car to Poland. Then there is Chile; drive top to bottom. Alaska. Iceland again, etc, etc, etc..

My car is in for the MoT this afternoon, so hopefully I'm all set for another year of 360 fun. I've noticed with my 2 litre that the rear wheelnuts have a habit of unwinding themselves over time. Anybody else noticed this rather annoying trait?