with Matthew Tumbridge…
Used Car Expert Fleet: Rover 800; Purchase price: £240
Used Car Expert have signed up for a charity event that raises money for BEN; the benevolent fund for people in the motor trade. Essentially, we have to find a banger for less than £250 that can make it around the country for three days of high jinks. The cars are then auctioned at the end of it and all the money goes to BEN. Don’t worry I am not looking for you to sponsor us. Although, you are most welcome.
The key point is, we obviously want to do this with some flair. So we have been looking for luxury cars: Jaguars, Lexus, Merc C-Class. That kind of thing.
While that can be done, a few dealer visits and some judicious studying of ebay offers lead me to conclude that I would either have to spend a fortune bringing a £250 Jag up to a safe standard or cheat (by getting a trader to give me a part exchange).
Just as I was about to give in to the Devil at my elbow and call Bristol Street Motors to see what Part-Exes they had, I saw it. A Rover 800 on an N plate at £100 with a long MOT and only a couple of hours to go on the auction.
Car unseen, I plunged in with 30 minutes to go, as did a couple of other bidders. In a tense battle of tiny bids it eventually closed with two of us tied on £240. £10 under my budget. But had I won? It was after 6 so the garage selling was shut…
The next morning my esteemed colleague James donned jogging shoes and sprinted down to the “garage” with some cash in the hope we would see off the other bidder. Even though we already suspected the other bidder was the seller!
…and James Ruppert
Matt had done the hard part, so all I had to do was make sure that it was actually ran.
Probably the most reassuring thing was the £495 price board hooked on the sun visor. In theory then we were getting a bargain with a hefty 50% reduction. Trouble is, if the car was rubbish it wouldn’t matter if you got 100% off. The second most reassuring aspect was that this was a trader – of sorts. There was not a plant pot in sight and the cars sat on a combination of gravel, grass verge and bulging tarmac rather than classy brick weave. It also seemed like the garage broke far more cars than they sold as I weaved my way through their back garden. Yet I found all this strangely reassuring.
The proprietor was a genial bloke, emerging from underneath a Ford Focus to get the key and start the Rover instantly. He said it had been on his ramp and there was no rot. I believed him. It data checked as a grey car, even though it looked blue in the online pictures, but sure enough it was greay, so panic over and as it looked straight, we shook on it.
What had we done? Find out next month…