Are decent/loved cars a thing anymore??

[M.F.D]

Remember car forums? I personally loved them and can remember shopping for cars and this is where you would go to find a decent, loved and well maintained example.

I am currently on the hunt for a well sorted hatch for daily/family duties. After a LOT of deliberation, I am looking for either an E87 130i or MkV Golf GTI. Would consider a Focus ST also. Price point is £6000-£8000 (give or take for the right car).

Now Facebook has taken over, forums seemed to have died and as such you now need to go to the relevant Facebook page which is just full of complete and utter morons selling stboxes. I'm not a fan of Ebay/Gumtree either for similar reasons. No-one seems to be able to write an advert either, easier to upload a stty photo and "GTI for sale PM me".

Sadly, PH seems to not have much in the way of what I'm looking for, which only really leaves Autotrader and Cars and Classic.

Is it just me or is this a major frustration to other people too?

Edited by M.F.D on Wednesday 4th May 10:48

[Belle427]

I’ve advertised a few interesting cars on pistonheads and got no response but sold elsewhere ok.
EBay has been the most successful, Facebook is full of wkers.

[DaveyBoyWonder]

Belle427 said:

I’ve advertised a few interesting cars on pistonheads and got no response but sold elsewhere ok.
EBay has been the most successful, Facebook is full of wkers.

Agree - advertised a car on FB over the weekend stating my reasons for sale and that I wasn't interested in swaps/part exs. Took about 5 minutes for someone to offer me a swap for a Ford Focus.

[anonymous-user]

People on the whole don't look after cars anymore. If it gets washed it will be swirl mark city due to automated carwashes or those "wash it with a yard broom" self wash ones. Nobody checks the oil until the light comes on and they chuck another litre in when they get round to it. Add in 20K mile service intervals and it is no wonder they are sludged to hell with stretched timing chains.

Most people can't park so the alloys will be kerbed to hell and every panel will be dented and scratched. The interior will be utterly trashed by dogs and children and be full of rubbish.

People at my work get all excited about getting their "beautiful" (their words not mine" VW T-ROC and then proceed to turn it into a wreck within a year or two. It amazes me that people who are so obsessed about having a new car then instantly don't care what state it gets into and never bother to clean them.

people are weird, guess it is the use, dispose and then get a new one society we live in.

[M.F.D]

Joey Deacon said:

People on the whole don't look after cars anymore. If it gets washed it will be swirl mark city due to automated carwashes or those "wash it with a yard broom" self wash ones. Nobody checks the oil until the light comes on and they chuck another litre in when they get round to it. Add in 20K mile service intervals and it is no wonder they are sludged to hell with stretched timing chains.

Most people can't park so the alloys will be kerbed to hell and every panel will be dented and scratched. The interior will be utterly trashed by dogs and children and be full of rubbish.

People at my work get all excited about getting their "beautiful" (their words not mine" VW T-ROC and then proceed to turn it into a wreck within a year or two. It amazes me that people who are so obsessed about having a new car then instantly don't care what state it gets into and never bother to clean them.

people are weird, guess it is the use, dispose and then get a new one society we live in.

Unfortunately, I think you are right, to a degree anyway.

There must be petrolheads like you and I selling cars though, just looking/finding them is a monumental ballache.

[anonymous-user]

M.F.D said:

Unfortunately, I think you are right, to a degree anyway.

There must be petrolheads like you and I selling cars though, just looking/finding them is a monumental ballache.

If you bought a car from me that I had owned from new it would have

1)Full owners book pack
2)Both keys
3)Every single piece of paper I had ever received for the car
4)Never been through a car wash
5)Never been used to transport waste to the tip
6)Never been smoked in
7)Matching set of non budget tyres
8)Not been driven into things
9)Not used the kerbs and bumpers to help me park.

I don't think that is too much to expect, but finding something like that is nigh on impossible I would imagine. I couldn't actually face the thought of looking at and paying good money for cars other people have treated like crap and are essentially disposing of to get their the new shiny thing. In the end I just ordered a Dacia Sandero as I just like the idea of something new that hasn't been utterly ruined by other people. It will be treated like my checklist above.

[M.F.D]

Joey Deacon said:

If you bought a car from me that I had owned from new it would have

1)Full owners book pack
2)Both keys
3)Every single piece of paper I had ever received for the car
4)Never been through a car wash
5)Never been used to transport waste to the tip
6)Never been smoked in
7)Matching set of non budget tyres
8)Not been driven into things
9)Not used the kerbs and bumpers to help me park.

I don't think that is too much to expect, but finding something like that is nigh on impossible I would imagine. I couldn't actually face the thought of looking at and paying good money for cars other people have treated like crap and are essentially disposing of to get their the new shiny thing. In the end I just ordered a Dacia Sandero as I just like the idea of something new that hasn't been utterly ruined by other people. It will be treated like my checklist above.

Appear us lot are a dying breed. Either that or literally no-one is selling the car I want..... confused:

[RoVoFob]

M.F.D said:

Remember car forums?
I am currently on the hunt for a well sorted hatch for daily/family duties. After a LOT of deliberation, I am looking for either an E87 130i or MkV Golf GTI. Would consider a Focus ST also. Price point is £6000-£8000 (give or take for the right car).

Now Facebook has taken over, forums seemed to have died and as such you now need to go to the relevant Facebook page which is just full of complete and utter morons selling stboxes. I'm not a fan of Ebay/Gumtree either for similar reasons. No-one seems to be able to write an advert either, easier to upload a stty photo and "GTI for sale PM me".

Is it just me or is this a major frustration to other people too?

What’s wrong with babybmw.net?

There’s a large number of 130i owners on there - myself included - and a 217-page long and regularly updated ‘130i hunters unite!’ thread, plus a classifieds section where members often advertise 130is (think you need to be logged in to see this): https://www.babybmw.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=58

I found my current - very well looked after - 130i on the Facebook group, advertised my last one - with practically brand new suspension - on the Baby BMW classifieds before selling to 130i specialist Jason Barker, who sells a large number of these.

£8,000 is a very decent budget for one of these. My 76k 2006 model with xenons, heated leather Logic7 speakers, new Bilstein B12s and some other bits is probably worth around that. Most 130is have 100-150k miles and are in the £4,000-£6,000 range.

[samoht]

I bought a car from a fellow PH-er a year and a half back, very much well looked after inside and out.

I wonder if to some extent you're shopping for cars that tend to be owned now by people whose attitude to car care is somewhat lackadaisical, so it may be the type of car as much as the shift in society / social media.

[S80]

No, it’s not just you!

I am in a similar situation r.e. looking to buy an early- mid ‘00’s estate car as a 2nd car. I’ve now resorted to looking on auction sites, including classic/modern classic auctions. I expect to potentially pay more than private sales etc, but:

• eBay adverts are often poorly written and want ‘X amount’ payment upfront (I get that people piss about and don’t turn up to actually pay for them in the end) but personally I’m also unhappy of the thought of paying £500 deposit by PayPal or bank transfer, as what’s to say the person is actually going to be there when you turn up to buy the car?
• Facebook Marketplace adverts are ju… No. Just No.
• AT has just become a slide show of photos, one minute you see an ad for a car, think, ‘looks half decent, got history etc’, you go and do something else, come back and it’s sold!? But that’s how the current used car market is just now,

Because I work it’s not as if I can just drop everything and go view a car immediately. And there are hardly any locally to me, most cars are at least 2 hours or more away.

The positive of the auctions being you get the opportunity to pre-view the car at the same time as the next person, and if you’re happy with the inspection, you have the same opportunity to try and buy the car as the next person, on a set date, at a set time, instead of being constantly let down because “the bloke down the road came up and gave me the cash half an hour ago, so it’s sold”.
And most auctions will either be able to deliver (for a fee of course) or they work with transporters who they can recommend. So then I don’t need a day off work or trek across the country on a weekend to collect.

The challenge at the moment though, is finding the type of car I want in my chosen buying setting….
I have a driving holiday booked for early June, and at the moment, no car to do it in!

Which brings me on to my next point.

I think true car people do ‘love’ their cars. I don’t like driving my daily car, I don’t like it’s engine, the steering, the gear lengths, the electric parking brake, and now it’s running a bit rough, but I could never part with it. I’ve become too attached to it.
I’ll keep it until the engine goes, probably won’t be long , then work on my DIY skills and put a 5 cylinder engine and decent ‘box in to it instead of the miserable 4-cyl and ‘eco’ driving gearbox. Sure I could buy a D5 manual but it wouldn’t be my car that I’ve become accustomed to. Maybe the heavier front end, along with putting better suspension on it, would improve the steering too…..
Not sure what could be done on the parking brake

Now if that doesn’t say there’s something seriously wrong with me, I don’t know what will