What you need is what every man seek, a car for a man, something that represent yourself. When peoples see you car, they should think 'Oh dear, this man have really good taste'. My friend, there is one car for such manly desires, the Messerschmitt KR200.
I dont have much knowledge of cars but what I do know is be careful and mindful of the cut and shut scams that are about when buying second hand cars, whereby you have 1 half of 2 different cars bolted or welded together which is not only illegal but also dangerous. This may not be relevant in this case just thought I would mention it on the off chance it is relevant
YMMV indeed! I had one for six years, all the non-maintenance repairs (brakes, tyres, rear shocks) I had was a cracked windscreen, a leaky sump after whacking it on some rocks on a treacherous scottish road, and a HGF at 120k miles which was about £200 to sort out at our local garage with a head skim. Loved that car, absolutely loved it.
OP: Perhaps putting 2 + 2 together to make 5 here, but... My reasoning dictates that you're probably looking for a write-off because you want a car that is nicer than you can reasonably afford if it were in good working order. I understand: I just quit a decent job for one that I thought would be more 'fun'. Stupid, tell me about it. Now I need a car, and I can't really afford something good. Leasing seems to be the answer. Brand new car of your choice and spec, 0 responsibility, and low monthly payments. (As long as you don't opt to buy at the end). You should look into it!
TSB - in light of the recent job change perhaps you should ask Krikkit to change your username to TheBinMan.
Have a look at a Skoda Fabia, it's basically a VW Polo underneath so servicing is easy and cheap. Insurance is pretty cheap on these as not very many young people drive them so accidents in your age group will be low also in a high risk postcode the 'yobs' don't want to steal them! The 1.9 diesel is a great car a quite rapid if you can get one in your price range. Don't worry too much about 100k+ mileage as that's nothing for a diesel, so long as it's got a decent service history you should be ok.
My bicycle says everything anyone needs to know about me , its just not suitable for the 30+ miles ride to Lancaster and back again These cut and weld jobs are usually easy to spot by just comparing both sides of the underside chassis together, previously spotted this on a couple of Focuses for my mum With all cars you get good and bad examples, an example would be that Top Gear Challenge where they all had the same model BMW. I'm not looking for a car I want as it doesn't need to be around too long and only last about a year. The reason being I don't have the money right now but need a car in August. I should have some money around February but have to cope with something till then. Leasing could be an option but the deals I have found on cheap cars have initial payments larger than my budget (which is as cheap as possible to buy and insure). I haven't limited the model of a car in my search, I don't feel I can be too picky still and just be grateful for whatever I can get.
Had a look at Citroen - C1's are back up to 99pcm. Had a quick scan on AT, this looks half decent for the money, as long as the oil isn't sludge it should last fine. Plenty to choose from though.
It's the search I have been looking at for the last few days, except the postcode I use is 0.4 miles away There are a few cars but I was just checking all options and the neighbor just got a damaged, repairable car and thought I'd get more opinions (wouldn't trust him to help myself though). Just going to see if my Dad has changed his mind on the Corsa this afternoon after his own car has given up on him. Also never realised that AT has an insurance estimation function.
my grandad had one of these for about 20 years, unkillable. He passed it to my haunt's husband, still run great.
Old 80's - 90's japp cars are worth a punbt. I bought a Nissan Bluebird on an F plate years ago, it ran and ran and ran, built like tank, comfortable to drive ok it wasn't a fast car but it was my first big car, I miss that thing. I had a set of 6 x 9 speakers on the parcel shelf and 12 inch sub and 350 watt amp in the boot
I thought the reason 'the trade' pass over damaged 2nd hand cars was down to the zero resale value even if fully repaired, taxed and MOT'd? Like there's apparently a big stigma on cars with troubled histories even if they are 100% fully working?