As you know, I’m very old. Old enough to remember when they shut the doors at the MG plant. We all knew it was coming and so did MG.
Indeed, they built the B LE – it stood for Limited Edition – which had badges but still those horrible big bumpers. It was anything but limited: they built thousands of them. More than 6000, I believe. Lots of people bought them believing that they were a sure-fire investment. They stuck them in garages and waited for the appreciation to happen.
It did, but not to an absurd degree. The ones that were used sell today for £4000-£5000, much like any other MG B, and lightly used ones are £12,000. This is a long way round of talking ‘one careful owner’. I was on the radio, chatting about a 1980 MG B that a widowed wife was selling. There were few details about the car as she didn’t want to go on air, but the good news was that it had been used and was their pride and joy. So would I buy it? No, but would I buy a car in that situation? Absolutely.
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There are one-owners, and one-owners, of course, as the old gags make clear. The principle is that the motor has been properly cared for and cherished like that MG B. But we can do better than some clunky old MG.
Following the roof-off theme, a one-owner 2000 Alfa Romeo Spider in Turismo spec is how you want to pick up an Alfa. One that has reliability engineered into it. This one had covered 90,000 miles, so it must be doing something right, and was just £2990.
Safer ground is going to be an old BMW. An E36-generation 328i automatic from 2000 again, with a measly 58k miles, about the same as that MG B. The asking price was £5995, which sounds steep, but the ‘one careful owner’ premium definitely applies.
Everyone wants a Porsche 911 and a one-owner example is always going to be very welcome, so it was great to stumble across a Carrera 2 with an impressively comprehensive history. At £20k, it seemed like very reasonable money indeed. One to buy and keep, then keep up the servicing record and you won’t regret it.
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That ZX...
...is a perfect example of what I'd be worried about.
You'd have to assume that the original intention of the first buyer was to "run it into the ground". So exactly how far from that point are we now they've finally decided to let it go?
Mind you, this is coming from someone who's just bought a one-owner 2008 Skoda Roomster petrol DSG with 137000 on the clock...watch this space...
One of many measures
Probably a more important measure of the car would be the current owner and how long they've owned the it. I'd never bought a secondhand car/motorbike from a dealer until I was 42, I'd glean alot about the car just by meeting the owner.
Other than that I do like completetly standard cars
xxxx wrote:
"glean" would you, how quaint. What would you "glean" from meeting a complete stranger, whose only thought is to relieve you of the contents of your wallet?. What a TWIT you are.
"they've owned the it"...?, "completetly"...?.
Most of your hilarious posts criticise designers/brands of vehicles you know nothing about, evidenced by your own words, liking standard cars. Peel yourself from your decrepit sofa, get a job and shut the heck up about auto related subjects you have just admitted you know less than nothing about. HUGE TWIT.
Dramatically?
Any evidence of this? We have two cars, a Seat and a Skoda. Cars a little different - an Ateca and an Octavia, both with exactly the same 1.4tsi engine. Having driven the Ateca with cyclinder deactivation on/off I found no difference in fuel economy. The Skoda, which does not have cyclinder deactivation, averages around 8mpg more than the SEAT.
It's a good theory and it may contribute to better emissions, but in our experience cylinder deactivation makes little or no difference to fuel economy.
scotty5 wrote:
Huge difference. My father in law has a A3 COD and has averaged 52 mpg since ownership over 4 years. Not is the tax dirt cheap at £30 a year, it also has more torque and bhp that the normal 1.4 and is nearly a whole second quicker to 60.
The extra cost was recouped in 2 years (by way of more mpg and tax) and I'm not even facting in the fact COD engined cars are worth more when they're sold on.
Most gains are made open road though!
xxxx wrote:
A WHOLE SECOND QUICKER?...WOW! Must come in handy at the traffic lights GPs!.
Facting(?) in the fact...hilarious. TWIT.
scotty5 wrote:
Because Ateca is an SUV. you cannot mention SUV and fuel economy in the same sentence. plus that engine figures aren't the best for a heavy tall vehicle, you'd probably use all cylinders all the time.