Cheap reliable car

[Manky Monkey]

My much loved & well travelled Ford Fiesta seems to be finally dying, (terminal gearbox trouble -more than the car's worth to replace).
So I'm looking for a cheap, couple of 100 quid -hopefully reliable -car. If you know of anything, give me a shout please.

[Dslam]

Might have something you may be interested in Andy
Give me a ring after six today or I am in all day tomorrow.

[minimutly]

Hmm MM, not sure I agree with your easoning as far a "cost more than the car is worth", if you know the car,and it doesnt have other issues, very often the cheapest in the long run is to fix it. Unless of course you're planning to flog it.
You could buy a cheap run around, obviously privately with no warranty, for the clutch, headgasket or even gearbox to fail.
Each to his own of course.

[spanners]

,,festa,, s/h  gear box,s are pretty cheap ,,

[Manky Monkey]

Cheapest I've found is 700 quid, plus a clutch, 50 -100 quid, plus labour, 300 ish at the local garage. The car's 11 years old & done just under a quarter of a million miles. Trust me, it's not worth it.
Will ring you soon Andy.

[Manky Monkey]

Hopefully sorted with a Fiat Punto, thanks to Mr Dslam's neighbour.

[morrag]

Nice little car, the Punto, think of it as a n4 Wheeled Ducati Desmodecci! well, maybe not, but still, a very nice motor, we have a few in our family, Punto's not Duke's...

[Manky Monkey]

  Fingers crossed it works out alright.
Won't be for a week or so. So in the meantime I'll be walking to work, (about half an hour), walking for 5 or 6 hours at work, then half an hour home again -& you can guarantee it'll rain every day! Also means I've got no way of getting to Loon's workshop to work on my truck, (about 5 miles away), so guess I'll be having an enforced rest from it for a little while.

[mrhutch]

can you not get a postie pushbike?  Always fancied one of the old ones

[spanners]

,,leccy,, bike  ?

[minimutly]

Not sure of your local terraine Manky, but if its flatish a pushbike is surely better than walking. Get down to your local recycling centre, plenty there usually.

[Manky Monkey]

We haven't used bicycles at work for years. Carrying too much Mail now, so it's all done by van & trollIes, (like golf trollies), that take 2 bags of Mail at a time. 2 Posties in a van, sharing 2 deliveries, 14 - 16 bags of Mail, each weighing 20 kilos, plus all the larger parcels, Special Delivery items, (guaranteed delivery before 1pm), etc. We also empty all the Post boxes on our routes.
Used to be able to buy the old bikes. I had a Pashley with rod brakes & no gears. Cost me 11 quid. We weren't allowed to have the trays that fitted on the front & they were brush painted a different colour before they were sold off to prevent people impersonating Posties to rob Post Offices or whatever. Mine was black.
For a while the old bikes were donated to a foreign aid charity -don't send them food or medicine, give 'em bicycles. I used to watch the news reports of famines abroad, expecting to see some guy peddling past in the background on one of our bikes. That was stopped because of health & safety or something, so in the end they just used to cut the old bikes up. Royal Mail regularly goes round in circles so some manager will probably get a huge bonus for coming up with the idea of giving us all bikes at some point.

[Manky Monkey]

Should hopefully only be a week or so & I'll have a car again. Don't mind walking at all, but it takes so bloomin' long to get anywhere -could lose half a day just walking across town & back.

[stinkey]

I can hear violins playing in the background ,ee by gum when I was a lad we had to walk 200 miles to get to school ? Kids don't know their born nowadays ?

[Manky Monkey]

Aye, try tellin' 'em that & they won't believe you.

Drove my Fiesta to work this morning, expecting it to grind to a halt at any moment -it really was making some 'orrible noises. I'd planned to go straight to the local scrapyard after work, but a collegue was after a bonnet for his girlfriend's Fiesta. 50 quid & you can have the whole car.
Sorted, as we say at the depot.