A cage with character

gotta be an E36 BMW M3...321bhp, rear wheel drive, and no traction control! Oooh, and it just so happens that I have one for sale!

[fizzwheel]

Originally Posted by petevtwin650

However I enjoyed em.

But thats what buying a car with character means though is it iconic like a Mk1 Golf, or is it a pile of bolts that needs constant fiddling with to keep it going like my dads Dolomite was, bonnet up every weekend, ace car when it worked, which wasnt for very long...

you guys seen this - http://www.intuh.net/barnfinds/index.htm
i had an email about it a while back now about a man who brought a house with a very large locked barn, when he opened the barn it was full of classic cars. what a find.

[quote=fizzwheel;1331737]I like the idea of a 944 I'd always discounted it as being to costly. What are the running costs like ?
[quote]

Well I can only speak from my experience of owning one and not only did I make money when I sold it, the only cost I incured was MOT, TAX, Insurance and some glue for the rear-view mirror which fell off.

That said I have heard a few horror stories about really bad ones.

I had three cars at the time and chose to be sensible and get rid of the Porsche as it was less practical - biggest motoring mistake I have ever made and to this day (nearly 4 years on) I regret it. Especially as the ones I am currently looking at are not even close to the same league of it.

Originally Posted by kwak zzr

you guys seen this - http://www.intuh.net/barnfinds/index.htm
i had an email about it a while back now about a man who brought a house with a very large locked barn, when he opened the barn it was full of classic cars. what a find.

It's a hoax story, that's life.

You want character?






You know what you should get then...












Get one of these...








They don't call them Hitler's revenge for nuffin y'know...

when someone mention's a character car they are usually referring to a car that was about that you prob couldn't afford or that you did have and you'd love another when you first passed your driving test so it all depends on your age really, like with me ive been driving since 89 so i sort of class a character car around the 1980 - 1989 era, if that makes any sense?

If it were my £5k... I would buy a Golf Mk4 GT-TDI, probably the 115bhp 6-speed in silver, decent history, mint condition, a/c etc.. Fast, well built, reliable, low depreciation, can't go wrong!

Another car with character would've been my first ever car. A mini 1275 GT in black with gold writing, it was my favourite car until the 944. It had plenty of character, which basically means it was always being repaired (or towed) somewhere.

Did look the nuts when it was on the road though.



Almost identical to this, except mine had chrome bull bars front and rear.

I'm biased:



... but how's about an MG?

Good GT's are harder to find, but you could net yourself a decent enough roadster - or even perhaps an RV8. Very sweet.

Rear wheel drive fun and simple mechanics that respond well to the 'just threaten it with a hammer' school of repair!

I'm two panels short of taking my baby off the road for a body restoration- but in the 11 years I've owned her, on average, she's cost less in mechanics bills than a new car would in repayments.
Economy's not to bad either (once you get a decent pair of carbs and know how to balance them every month or so) with about 30mpg round town.

As for Classic Insurance - two points, generally a car needs to be over 15 years of age, but the value doesn't matter - it simply will raise or lower you premium is all.
Average annual milage will affect your premium's cost too.

The main thing is you won't earn any no claims bonus, and any you already have is unlikely to affect your premium price... this also means that after two (or three years, I can't remember which) you'll effectively have zero NCB when insuring on a 'regular' policy.
Some companies will take it into account if you've been driving an 'average' annual milage of above 5k on a classic policy, but not all do - which is why some owners will insure on a 'regular' policy once every couple of years.

I only know this as I only put Red onto a Classic policy this year for the first time, so was introduced to some pitfalls by a nice man from the AA.