Your fleet running reports

[Sundayjumper]

£710 for the Disco.

[mik]

[GG.]

£710 for the Disco.

The continual messing around with the tax bands is just stupid. My 4.4l Range Rover was produced at a time when there was the expensive car surcharge and then it dropped down after the first few years. I think the first year I had it it was £5-600 and now it is £200p.a.

The smart is zero but still needs me to go online to "tax" it for £0 every year

GTS is £435 so double the price of the Range Rover. None of this makes sense.

[Carlos]

Also the quality of cars out there is utter shit.

I’ve seen 2 Clio 182s and both had clear rot coming through and one looked like the interior had been wiped over with a gravelly rag.

I luckily haven’t been in one used by a caper yet but no doubt I’ll end up with a perfect car ruined by the pungent smell of lemon sorbet.

Dave!

https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/auction/17716517

[scotta]

Decent cheap (sub £5k) cars just don’t seem to exist any more.

Been looking recently with my niece after her Aygo was deemed a bucket of dust by the MOT man.

£2500 budget for a small car gets absolutely nothing. all a bag of shite. went to look at a Ford KA from a trader. Had obviously been sat for months. Green algae on it. Flat tyre. Nope - you can fucking keep that. Another one advertised at a trader. Turned up to what amounted to a field. Car filthy, Big dent on the door that had broken the paint. Didn't even bother finding the guy and left.

Eventually sourced a decent car through my BIL's mate who runs a different garage but had to up the budget to £4k.

[Rich B]

trader sales at that level are a complete waste of time IME.

They’re usually full of crap that’s been traded in elsewhere (maybe because the owners knew they’d be a hassle to sell privately because they’re worn out), gone through the auctions, tarted up, had black shit smeared all over the dashboard and parked on a crappy forecourt.

They’re still the crappy worn out car that someone wanted rid of, at a loss, because they weren’t good enough to be sold privately.

Sub £5k - buy privately every time imo.

[GG.]

Quite a few interesting sub 5k cars here and their stock always looks immaculate:

https://www.heeltoecarslimited.com/stock

[Mito Man]

trader sales at that level are a complete waste of time IME.

They’re usually full of crap that’s been traded in elsewhere (maybe because the owners knew they’d be a hassle to sell privately because they’re worn out), gone through the auctions, tarted up, had black shit smeared all over the dashboard and parked on a crappy forecourt.

They’re still the crappy worn out car that someone wanted rid of, at a loss, because they weren’t good enough to be sold privately.

Sub £5k - buy privately every time imo.

I've seen a few Youtube episodes from that High Peak chap. He really does buy any old shitbox and just puts it through a valet, gets "his guys" to service it and put for sale for a large mark up. At that lower end of the market you're better off just buying private and leaving what money you save on repairs.

[GG.]

trader sales at that level are a complete waste of time IME.

They’re usually full of crap that’s been traded in elsewhere (maybe because the owners knew they’d be a hassle to sell privately because they’re worn out), gone through the auctions, tarted up, had black shit smeared all over the dashboard and parked on a crappy forecourt.

They’re still the crappy worn out car that someone wanted rid of, at a loss, because they weren’t good enough to be sold privately.

Sub £5k - buy privately every time imo.

I've seen a few Youtube episodes from that High Peak chap. He really does buy any old shitbox and just puts it through a valet, gets "his guys" to service it and put for sale for a large mark up. At that lower end of the market you're better off just buying private and leaving what money you save on repairs.

I think that's generally right but see my link above. If you look online I think you'd have to search for a long time to locate some of the high quality stock they have managed to get hold of.

I guess that's because they're not looking for anything in particular, just something that looks value and is in very good condition so if you want "x" you may not find it. Equally though - if you're fishing in the sub 5k market you can't be too picky (or impatient).

[Mito Man]

trader sales at that level are a complete waste of time IME.

They’re usually full of crap that’s been traded in elsewhere (maybe because the owners knew they’d be a hassle to sell privately because they’re worn out), gone through the auctions, tarted up, had black shit smeared all over the dashboard and parked on a crappy forecourt.

They’re still the crappy worn out car that someone wanted rid of, at a loss, because they weren’t good enough to be sold privately.

Sub £5k - buy privately every time imo.

I've seen a few Youtube episodes from that High Peak chap. He really does buy any old shitbox and just puts it through a valet, gets "his guys" to service it and put for sale for a large mark up. At that lower end of the market you're better off just buying private and leaving what money you save on repairs.

I think that's generally right but see my link above. If you look online I think you'd have to search for a long time to locate some of the high quality stock they have managed to get hold of.

I guess that's because they're not looking for anything in particular, just something that looks value and is in very good condition so if you want "x" you may not find it. Equally though - if you're fishing in the sub 5k market you can't be too picky (or impatient).

Yes, reading the 'about us' section and it makes sense, seems like a dealer run by an actual car enthusiast and not much stock so going out of their way to only select decent cars.

[Rich B]

trader sales at that level are a complete waste of time IME.

They’re usually full of crap that’s been traded in elsewhere (maybe because the owners knew they’d be a hassle to sell privately because they’re worn out), gone through the auctions, tarted up, had black shit smeared all over the dashboard and parked on a crappy forecourt.

They’re still the crappy worn out car that someone wanted rid of, at a loss, because they weren’t good enough to be sold privately.

Sub £5k - buy privately every time imo.

I've seen a few Youtube episodes from that High Peak chap. He really does buy any old shitbox and just puts it through a valet, gets "his guys" to service it and put for sale for a large mark up. At that lower end of the market you're better off just buying private and leaving what money you save on repairs.

I think that's generally right but see my link above. If you look online I think you'd have to search for a long time to locate some of the high quality stock they have managed to get hold of.

I guess that's because they're not looking for anything in particular, just something that looks value and is in very good condition so if you want "x" you may not find it. Equally though - if you're fishing in the sub 5k market you can't be too picky (or impatient).

Specialist stuff is an entirely different kettle of fish, i’m talking about general spam chariots. i’d always ask myself, why did the last person sell it and how has it ended up on this traders forecourt with enough margin left in them for him to make money?

there’ll always be exceptions, but i’ve looked at lots of cars over the years and found private cars to be WAY better.

[integrale_evo]

I’ve only ever spent more than £5k on one car (e30). However I’m usually interested in something older and specific and happy to put up with quirks and fixing things.

The sort of thing I’d spend £5k on for someone else to use as a ‘nice’ everyday car is rather different!

[jamcg]

Pick a car you’re interested in and find a Facebook group dedicated to them, join it and see what comes up there. Especially the renaultsport ones, there’s some lovely ones pop up and are always cheap for some reason, despite being rare and desirable motors

[scotta]

trader sales at that level are a complete waste of time IME.

They’re usually full of crap that’s been traded in elsewhere (maybe because the owners knew they’d be a hassle to sell privately because they’re worn out), gone through the auctions, tarted up, had black shit smeared all over the dashboard and parked on a crappy forecourt.

They’re still the crappy worn out car that someone wanted rid of, at a loss, because they weren’t good enough to be sold privately.

Sub £5k - buy privately every time imo.

Even private everything is a load of shite at that budget. Looked at private sales as well.

[Sundayjumper]

On the topic of replacing Disco engines, cost from a legitimate breaker / specialist is IRO £3k for the engine & another £5k for fitting and all the “while you’re there” stuff.

306DT engine for gen 1 Disco 4 replacement

Engine has had bottom end rebuild in late 2022, about 20k on the engine since rebuild and running nicely.

See attached video

£3000 shipped as is on a pallet ready to go, £8500 fitted and future proofed with alloy manifolds, new lifters, timing chains, turbos and crossover pipe

£2750 if you collect, will be coming out of the car on Sunday. If you want to drive it or hear it running in person so you know what it's like LA8 just outside Kendal

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/kjQ4Pn ... tid=wwXIfr

[16vCento]

If it does ever go pop, I'd definitely be putting an XF engine in and not a D4/Sport engine in as it will have had a much easier life.

As long as oil is changed regularly, and it's not laboured from cold, they seem to be ok, bearing seems to spin causing crank failure mainly if they've been used for recovery/vehicle delivery and are towing at near max capacity frequently, or if they're used for site visits etcs and have lots of stop/start journeys.

Weirdly there were more instances of 2.7s failing in Jags but the 3.0 was always pretty good (obviously exceptions existed).

Other failure point seems to be if the oil pump housing fails when the belts are done, pump shears due to housing material failure which obviously very quickly kills it, seems to happen about 1k miles after replacing the belts, seemed to affect 3.7 more than the 3.0 though.

[Rich B]

Is all this because you have an issue with the engine, or they’re just so unreliable you have to plan £8k into ownership of a Discovery?!

[Gavster]

It definitely sounds like an interesting way to bring some excitement into your life “will my engine go bang today?!?”

[integrale_evo]

£5k on top seems an absurd amount to me or do they warranty the engine itself as well for that? Cants imagine turbos, manifolds and timing chain kit being more than £2k, £3k for a couple of days work seems a bit rich?

[Sundayjumper]

...bearing seems to spin causing crank failure...

I've not seen that said before, that the bearing causes the crank failure. Is that the main bearings ? Messes up the alignment of the crank, stresses it, CRACK ?

Good reminder about the oil pump, I need to check if that's been done, and also the idler on the front that likes to snap and throw the timing belt off.

My car appears to have had an easy life, cosmetically very good inside & out so I don't believe it was ever a "working" vehicle, and the tow ball is almost mint, definitely not been used much if at all.

Is all this because you have an issue with the engine, or they’re just so unreliable you have to plan £8k into ownership of a Discovery?!

The latter Broken engine is the worst case but seems common enough that you shouldn't ignore the possibility.

I've had it since the end of September and I've spent over £1300 just on replacement parts already. Mainly brakes & suspension. Fitted everything myself of course, so £0 labour, I guess the total would be £2500++ if you were giving it to a specialist each time. The only real issue with it right now is this boost leak that I'm hoping is the inlet manifold. New manifolds are here, I'm hoping to fit them over the Christmas break if the weather can stay dry and not too bloody cold.

Apart from all that I do quite like it, so I'm giving it a chance