Bangernomics and how far you travel for a car in the low price bracket?

howardmarks

Just a question and purely in the realms of bangernomics cause ive been seriously looking into this the past month with the thread bangernomics car of the week being a great resource. How far are we willing to travel for a car that has a price tag of under a grand. Surely the costs of getting somewhere to find its a lemon would keep u shopping within a 60 km radius. Just notice some of the cars i'd be more tempted crop up further down the crunchie. Anyone any thoughts on this?

Anan1

Put simply, the farther i'm expected to travel the more certain I need to be that it's the right car. Before undertaking a 200 mile trip, say, i'd want to have seen lots of high-res photos of the car, copies of SH, and been seriously impressed by the owner on the phone.

Two years ago a lad came from Wexford to Cork to take a 12 year old Rover 420 diesel off me, I met him in Youghal as I'm a nice chap :pac: €770 he gave me. Personally I have gone to Dublin for a €2300 car and Wicklow for a €1300 car (the previously mentioned 420) but I encompassed the Wicklow trip with a bit of business in Dublin so it wasn't that bad.

no1beemerfan

I've gone from Sligo to Wexford one sunday to view a then 15 year old car for my brother. Never saw a picture etc of it before hand but we still bought it!

If I was pretty sure the car was ok or got a good vibe off the seller I'd travel anywhere I suppose.

dirtydiesel

If its a car I really want then 100 miles or so would be fine, I recently sold a 96 td transit, advertised it for spares only, as it was rusty beyond repair, guy travelled from Monaghan to Tipperary to buy it as he wanted the turbo!

fonecrusher1

Its a tricky old question. One ive pondered myself.

If your going more than a 100 miles outside your county you really need to do a good bit of investigating so you don't come back raging because the car you drove many miles to look at was a piece of crap.
Which is exactly what happened to me 4 years ago when i went to Gorey to take a look at a mid 90's Diahatsu Foutrak commercial (i was into 4x4s a few years ago) with a view to buying it on the spot.
This guy assured it was a good 'jeep' & well worth the journey. He had it advertised on carzone & the pics where decent but in hindsight the photos were a few years old. I repeated many times 'im coming all the way from cork now so if theres anything i need to know tell me before i hit the road'
When i eventually got there after being on the road for 2 hours coming from cork in a noisey little 1.8 pajero pinin i was gobsmacked by what i was presented with.
It was a complete shed. Didn't look bad from a distance but up close it was a mess. Deep scractches & dents on every panel, tires bald & the interior was the worst ive ever seen on any car, the rear door seal was missing & there was various vegitation thriving on the load bay. Just a state of a yoke. I didn't even take it for a spin. I was feckin furious. After a few choice words i needed to get away from the daft little bogger because i was tempted to do something that might get me in trouble. Drove home pissed off & tired. I was a cranky bugger for 2 days after the incident. Complete waste of time & i had been lied to. Spent a good few euros on fuel & a good few hours on the road because of this fool.

Basically i learned a valuable lesson. Some people are idiots & what they consider a good runner is a heap of sh!te to others. If the car you want is well up or down the country ask him to take a few good digital snaps & send them on to you. Make sure he knows the distance your travelling & that your serious about the car.

-Corkie-

Any new/used car I buy I go to AL Hayes in Portumna which is a bout 2 hours away.

I wouldnt mind travelling anywhere as long as the car was good and as Anan said impressed by the owner.

Vikings

Dublin to Mallow for a €1000 car. It was a toss up between Mallow for a €1000 car or Donegal for a €1400 car. But you really have to travel with the sole intention of driving it home, could be very tough coming back empty handed.

zilog_jones

I drove about 60km to see this last week, was pretty good but they forgot to mention the big dent in the wing conveniently not pictured! :mad: Paint was all scratched around the dent too, I'm sure that unusual colour would be a bollocks to match if resprayed.

zilog_jones

zilog_jones wrote: »

I'm sure that unusual colour would be a bollocks to match if resprayed.

I reckon 'twould be no bother at all to match

johnos1984

-Corkie- wrote: »

Any new/used car I buy I go to AL Hayes in Portumna which is a bout 2 hours away.

I wouldnt mind travelling anywhere as long as the car was good and as Anan said impressed by the owner.

That place has every car you could ever want.

And only recently have they learned how to drop the price, still by only a small bit

zilog_jones

RoverJames wrote: »

I reckon 'twould be no bother at all to match

You think? I really don't know much about that kind of stuff. You know how much it would cost to get it sorted out? It didn't look like there was any other damage besides the wing (everything looked straight on the inside), the dent was about a foot wide.

A dent doctor might get the dent out without cracking the paint so you mightn't need it painted at all. I wouldn't have a clue how much painting a wing would be but don't let the colour put you off at all. No bother at all to match that me thinks.

zilog_jones

It'll definitely need respraying - the paint is scraped to shít around the edges of the dent (looks like it hit a stone wall or something rough), that's what put me off more than the dent itself.