The Beater thread
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 813
Likes: 0
Damnit UF you've got me thinking about beaters now after reading your thread 
I don't do a lot of miles commuting (14 a day) but after nearly three years together I've started to feel a bit precious about dragging my S to filthy industrial wasteland every day. It's only a matter of time before a dopey trucker converts my convertible to a single seater.
£600 (potentially recoverable after re-sale) and £200 insurance sounds tempting although I see you're starting to fettle a bit too much, 'twas supposed to be a winter beater!
your S will be getting jealous of all that attention.
I don't do a lot of miles commuting (14 a day) but after nearly three years together I've started to feel a bit precious about dragging my S to filthy industrial wasteland every day. It's only a matter of time before a dopey trucker converts my convertible to a single seater.
£600 (potentially recoverable after re-sale) and £200 insurance sounds tempting although I see you're starting to fettle a bit too much, 'twas supposed to be a winter beater!
your S will be getting jealous of all that attention.It really only adds up having one if you can buy for less than £500, insurance less than £300, 40+ mpg, doing more than about 6k miles a year in it and nothing goes wrong with it. Best to plan it on the car only giving you back it's scrap value if working out costs though.
I think my usage is borderline costing the same as just using the S2000 on paper. But I have a backup car so the Honda can be laid up on the driveway while I fix something. I can park anywhere. And I've a set of back seats if the need crops up.
Plus the skinny little Kingpin retreads on the Micra will cope better if we suffer any snow, they actually look like a snow tread to be honest and are certainly wearing at that kind of rate on the dry roads
Thread Starter
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 13,330
Likes: 180
Yep - that's the sort of costs i worked around.
Car was 600
Insurance was under 200
55+mpg.
1400 miles a month
Currently saving £175 a month on fuel alone on commuting plus what i'm saving by using the FIAT for general running around duties too.
It's probably cost me another £500 on stuff that needed doing including 4 tyres. However bear in mind that I paid for the car, the insurance and the tyres by flogging some of the other car / computer related crap i've accumulated and had no real need for.
I did look at Polo SDI - YAWN. Focus - stellar mileage and YAWN. Golf Mk2 and 3 - shit boxes and a number of other things but they weren't available for < £600. I knew the FIAT would come with issues but i also knew how cheap the parts were and how easy they are to work on.
What you also have to factor in is the wear and tear it saves you on the S2000.
I won't need the following;
Service - £150
Winter tyres - £400
New soft top - £300
Possible engine replacement given that the car is now on 95k miles and rising.
However it's at the point now where it's almost reliable ( I'll be doing the headgasket fairly soon just for peace of mind ) and i'm still happy with the costs and more importantly the savings. If i stuff this into a ditch over the winter or someone runs into it, i'd rather it was this than the Honda which is safely tucked away out of harms way. The insurance isn't linked so if i murder this, the Hondas premium doesn't suffer. The Fiat has no excess on the policy, the Honda is £350.
Cheap is all relative I suppose and you have to do your maths carefully - but there is no way to really do this on a complete shoestring, you have to be prepared to spend some money.
Car was 600
Insurance was under 200
55+mpg.
1400 miles a month
Currently saving £175 a month on fuel alone on commuting plus what i'm saving by using the FIAT for general running around duties too.
It's probably cost me another £500 on stuff that needed doing including 4 tyres. However bear in mind that I paid for the car, the insurance and the tyres by flogging some of the other car / computer related crap i've accumulated and had no real need for.
I did look at Polo SDI - YAWN. Focus - stellar mileage and YAWN. Golf Mk2 and 3 - shit boxes and a number of other things but they weren't available for < £600. I knew the FIAT would come with issues but i also knew how cheap the parts were and how easy they are to work on.
What you also have to factor in is the wear and tear it saves you on the S2000.
I won't need the following;
Service - £150
Winter tyres - £400
New soft top - £300
Possible engine replacement given that the car is now on 95k miles and rising.
However it's at the point now where it's almost reliable ( I'll be doing the headgasket fairly soon just for peace of mind ) and i'm still happy with the costs and more importantly the savings. If i stuff this into a ditch over the winter or someone runs into it, i'd rather it was this than the Honda which is safely tucked away out of harms way. The insurance isn't linked so if i murder this, the Hondas premium doesn't suffer. The Fiat has no excess on the policy, the Honda is £350.
Cheap is all relative I suppose and you have to do your maths carefully - but there is no way to really do this on a complete shoestring, you have to be prepared to spend some money.
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 20,788
Likes: 8
From: location, location
Straight through exhaust AJ and upgrade the boost pipework / make better hose connections on the existing stuff. IIRC the guys on the forum were also fitting 'custom' intercoolers off other cars to let them hold boost for longer due to lower charge temps - one or two of them were making home aquamist kits for the IC using a 2nd washer bottle, pump and a fan washer jet in front of the IC.
Apparently on the PD130, a straight exhaust does next to nothing, mind the decat did very little too and i don't want the noise really.
Yeah unfortunately there doesnt seem much for the Fabia as far as FMIC etc, even off golfs etc.
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 3,087
Likes: 4
From: In the gutter
Damnit UF you've got me thinking about beaters now after reading your thread
I don't do a lot of miles commuting (14 a day) but after nearly three years together I've started to feel a bit precious about dragging my S to filthy industrial wasteland every day. It's only a matter of time before a dopey trucker converts my convertible to a single seater.
£600 (potentially recoverable after re-sale) and £200 insurance sounds tempting although I see you're starting to fettle a bit too much, 'twas supposed to be a winter beater! your S will be getting jealous of all that attention.
I don't do a lot of miles commuting (14 a day) but after nearly three years together I've started to feel a bit precious about dragging my S to filthy industrial wasteland every day. It's only a matter of time before a dopey trucker converts my convertible to a single seater.
£600 (potentially recoverable after re-sale) and £200 insurance sounds tempting although I see you're starting to fettle a bit too much, 'twas supposed to be a winter beater!
your S will be getting jealous of all that attention.It's a cracking little car, it's fun (the sound of a 3 cylinder is amusing), it'll do a genuine 45-50 mpg on an Urban cycle and it has a warranty so costs nothing to repair. (Not that the last one went wrong!)
I was so happy I've just renewed and got another shiny new car for the next two years.
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 2,717
Likes: 3
From: Chicken Town
So after 50k miles, 4 years and 3 winters it's time to take the S2000 out of daily commuter use and put it in the garage I've finally got. 80 miles a day 5 days a week is slowly emptying my pocket and the additional running costs are becoming irksome. I needed another set of winter tyres and that's another 400 quid plus it will need another full service if i keep the miles up. I toyed with using the motorbike but it's just a little too far on a 125 and in all honesty, the bike, like the S2000 is meant to be used for fun only.
So i went out today and got chatting to someone who runs a garage that knows someone who is selling one of these
Driven it around the block, started it from cold - all good. 82k miles, no rust and no knocks or bangs and a full MOT, needs tax but at £93 for the year ... i'll cope. I like the fact that it's red and the fact it's a Schumacher edition is hilarious. £200 to insure, high 50s mpg and it has only cost me £600. It's had new brakes, new handbrake cables, new exhaust, new alternator, new radiator and various oil seals done, has a full service history Admittedly it's not as clean as the one above but it's not far off, just needs a wash and a polish. I'll be removing the rear seats and anything else that's not driver related to make it as light as possible. Found some higher profile ( and cheaper ) tyres to ease the mpg up a little. I reckon on getting a good mid 50s mpg out of it on the run to work and back.
Fuel costs will come down from nearly £360 to about £150 a month and every mile I stick on this is a commuting mile I'm not putting on the S2000. Means i get to enjoy it on nice drives on nice days. No need for winter tyres on the S2000 and no need to worry about crashing it in the winter months.
It's also FUN and i can see some smiles per mile driving it - i can't commute in something miserable or boring and as much as a Mk3 Golf 1.9SDI would be cheap to run ..... i'd want to kill myself just knowing it was sat outside. I looked at Micras ( mostly rust buckets at this price point) and anything TDI was either too expensive or an utter nail with a boat load of high mile issues awaiting the new owner.
Looking forward to picking it up next week.
So i went out today and got chatting to someone who runs a garage that knows someone who is selling one of these
Driven it around the block, started it from cold - all good. 82k miles, no rust and no knocks or bangs and a full MOT, needs tax but at £93 for the year ... i'll cope. I like the fact that it's red and the fact it's a Schumacher edition is hilarious. £200 to insure, high 50s mpg and it has only cost me £600. It's had new brakes, new handbrake cables, new exhaust, new alternator, new radiator and various oil seals done, has a full service history Admittedly it's not as clean as the one above but it's not far off, just needs a wash and a polish. I'll be removing the rear seats and anything else that's not driver related to make it as light as possible. Found some higher profile ( and cheaper ) tyres to ease the mpg up a little. I reckon on getting a good mid 50s mpg out of it on the run to work and back.
Fuel costs will come down from nearly £360 to about £150 a month and every mile I stick on this is a commuting mile I'm not putting on the S2000. Means i get to enjoy it on nice drives on nice days. No need for winter tyres on the S2000 and no need to worry about crashing it in the winter months.
It's also FUN and i can see some smiles per mile driving it - i can't commute in something miserable or boring and as much as a Mk3 Golf 1.9SDI would be cheap to run ..... i'd want to kill myself just knowing it was sat outside. I looked at Micras ( mostly rust buckets at this price point) and anything TDI was either too expensive or an utter nail with a boat load of high mile issues awaiting the new owner.
Looking forward to picking it up next week.
I take it the S is still insured, so how did you get on regarding your NCB when insuring your wee runaround?
Called Flux earlier to gauge how much a Yaris 1.0 (as an example) would be to insure and found out that my maxed out NCB is meaningless as it's solely tied to the S2000?
This meant that I was quoted the same as a muppet with zero NCB
Never owned a 2nd car before so must admit I didn't realise this fact (if indeed it is a fact and they're not just pulling my plums)