The Cost of Running a Classic Car....
Discussion
Had a very bored evening putting together all of the MOTs and all of the receipts for bills that I've spent on the car over the last 9 years. There was a reason, I'm not that sad - time to get an agreed evaluation.
I had an idea in my head that I've spent 15 grand on a car that I bought for £3k and is now worth mebbe £7k. You can only imagine the shock when I totalled it all up......
£23 547.......
Now that includes tyres, one exhaust, servicing (mostly self done) etc and therefore averages out as £2500 per year. Which, if I'd bought a car for £8 grand in the first place, would have been what I would have lost in depreciation every year. And it still would have cost me servicing and tyres etc every year.
So I'm not miffed and I'm justifying it by thinking of all of the good fun I've had in this car and trying to ignore the tantrums I've had when it spectacularly failed yet another MOT, or how I couldn't afford a decent honeymoon coz most of it had to go on the car.
But it's time to sell it to someone who won't thrash it 72 miles a day after I've spent so much on it. And buy me something else just as fun.
I had an idea in my head that I've spent 15 grand on a car that I bought for £3k and is now worth mebbe £7k. You can only imagine the shock when I totalled it all up......
£23 547.......
Now that includes tyres, one exhaust, servicing (mostly self done) etc and therefore averages out as £2500 per year. Which, if I'd bought a car for £8 grand in the first place, would have been what I would have lost in depreciation every year. And it still would have cost me servicing and tyres etc every year.
So I'm not miffed and I'm justifying it by thinking of all of the good fun I've had in this car and trying to ignore the tantrums I've had when it spectacularly failed yet another MOT, or how I couldn't afford a decent honeymoon coz most of it had to go on the car.
But it's time to sell it to someone who won't thrash it 72 miles a day after I've spent so much on it. And buy me something else just as fun.
<Takes deep breath>
Total body restoration (sills done twice), new floorpans, in fact it's quicker to say only the boot lid is original. Bare metal respray in original chartreuse yellow with chrome bumper conversion
Engine is stage 2 1850, ported / gas-flowed unleaded head, re-conned HS4 carbs, stage 2 cam, lightened and balanced crank and flywheel, electronic lumenition ignition, freeflow exhaust (no centre box), lcb manifold, performance coil and dizzy, K+Ns which all puts out 105 bhp at the wheels when I had it set up on the rolling road. New gearbox, old overdrive, new back axle, new prop shaft, new fuel pump to drive it all.
Suspension is lower coils at the front and uprated lever arms. It's rock hard, but good for the majority of roads I drive. At the back it's konis and parabolic springs, with an uprated anti-roll bar (a whopper one, can't remember what size), which is just brilliant. Runs on standard minilites with 185 / 70 continental / bridgestone tyres. I can keep up with 2 of my mates lotus elises on the bends, unless it's very wet.
Brakes are straight off a V8, but running greenstuff pads
Interior is new club black leather seats and new black carpets, with mohair hood and tonneau set. Most plastic bits replaced with chrome, but I like the black crackle dash.
What's worth? Dunno. Not 25k, that's for sure! Looking at the market, I would guess somewhere round about £7-8 grand mebbe. I'll go for £8 grand for the agreed evaluation and let them haggle.
Total body restoration (sills done twice), new floorpans, in fact it's quicker to say only the boot lid is original. Bare metal respray in original chartreuse yellow with chrome bumper conversion
Engine is stage 2 1850, ported / gas-flowed unleaded head, re-conned HS4 carbs, stage 2 cam, lightened and balanced crank and flywheel, electronic lumenition ignition, freeflow exhaust (no centre box), lcb manifold, performance coil and dizzy, K+Ns which all puts out 105 bhp at the wheels when I had it set up on the rolling road. New gearbox, old overdrive, new back axle, new prop shaft, new fuel pump to drive it all.
Suspension is lower coils at the front and uprated lever arms. It's rock hard, but good for the majority of roads I drive. At the back it's konis and parabolic springs, with an uprated anti-roll bar (a whopper one, can't remember what size), which is just brilliant. Runs on standard minilites with 185 / 70 continental / bridgestone tyres. I can keep up with 2 of my mates lotus elises on the bends, unless it's very wet.
Brakes are straight off a V8, but running greenstuff pads
Interior is new club black leather seats and new black carpets, with mohair hood and tonneau set. Most plastic bits replaced with chrome, but I like the black crackle dash.
What's worth? Dunno. Not 25k, that's for sure! Looking at the market, I would guess somewhere round about £7-8 grand mebbe. I'll go for £8 grand for the agreed evaluation and let them haggle.
after all that..you want to sell?
I bought my MGB for 200 quid, bought a welder and a sheet of mild steel, fixed all the rat holes, I painted it, new suspension & brakes, redone the head and valves, bought Minilites with tyres off ebay(!), cut up an old conveyor belt to fix the seats and some old carpet to put underfoot. I haven't done the sums yet, but must be close to 2 grand and the car should be worth 3 now..!
In other words:-
The Cost of Running a Classic Car...depends on how much money you've got!
I bought my MGB for 200 quid, bought a welder and a sheet of mild steel, fixed all the rat holes, I painted it, new suspension & brakes, redone the head and valves, bought Minilites with tyres off ebay(!), cut up an old conveyor belt to fix the seats and some old carpet to put underfoot. I haven't done the sums yet, but must be close to 2 grand and the car should be worth 3 now..!
In other words:-
The Cost of Running a Classic Car...depends on how much money you've got!
bri_the_fly said:
after all that..you want to sell?
I bought my MGB for 200 quid, bought a welder and a sheet of mild steel, fixed all the rat holes, I painted it, new suspension & brakes, redone the head and valves, bought Minilites with tyres off ebay(!), cut up an old conveyor belt to fix the seats and some old carpet to put underfoot. I haven't done the sums yet, but must be close to 2 grand and the car should be worth 3 now..!
In other words:-
The Cost of Running a Classic Car...depends on how much money you've got!
I bought my MGB for 200 quid, bought a welder and a sheet of mild steel, fixed all the rat holes, I painted it, new suspension & brakes, redone the head and valves, bought Minilites with tyres off ebay(!), cut up an old conveyor belt to fix the seats and some old carpet to put underfoot. I haven't done the sums yet, but must be close to 2 grand and the car should be worth 3 now..!
In other words:-
The Cost of Running a Classic Car...depends on how much money you've got!
Indeed. My dad bought a BRAND new 1.6 sierra for £5500 in 1983. In 1993 he gave it to my sister, but in doing so he got all the bills for everything and totalled up 10 years and 180K of motoring and it came to £28K in servicing and repairs and tyres. Like a free MOBILE phone really ?
I got my mk2 cav 2.5 years ago for £40 and have only spent the bear minium on it, which has perhaps totalled £800 to do 50K. People said I should have scrapped it when the gearbox went, but £200 fitted and it's like a NEW car.
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