..I am seeing this a lot!? - What is going on?

Several ads giving pages of re-assuring expensive sensible mods and TLC, then a couple of days, ask price goes into free-fall, then a couple of days later...'must scrap much loved car in great condition'.........What?! - Why?!

I know I am new to Coupes but are they really worth no more than scrap value??!! - Even on here..

It seems a non Plus struggles to make £1k and a Plus, £2k, regardless of prices stretching over £6k..

How many good condition Coupes have sold over £2k this year?

I am keen to buy, but very weary that if I make an offer of say £2k, it may well turn into 'I will have to scrap it' scenario when I come to sell...

Some of these ads have had me reaching for my bank statement, only to find a few days later the cars are being crushed / broken..

I think your prices are on the low side, plus's go for 3k+
Normal 20vt's for for £1500+ (needing jobs and paint work) with a good one in at around 2k

The deals about at the moment are due to people needing to sell up in a short period of time for what ever reason. You will find these snapped up with in hours.

Coupes are great cars but there service and running costs are prohibitive, people fall in love with the idea of a cheep bargin and then bail out at the first sniff of a large bill

heard this expensive running cost argument before (creating v low values) - what sort of costs are you talking about?

Do they need new turbos and full suspension rebuild every other year? - or what?

I am being pulled in by what appears to be fully sorted cars at well under £2k and not anticipating spending more than £500 per year maintenance (sub 280bhp non Plus cars) am I right or way out? - As I mentioned in my first entry above, regrettably even sorted cars dont appear to be selling, at any price...and some are just scrapped through lack of response as vendor puts price into freefall..

Trust me, its not something i want to see either, just observation.. - I am hooked on a sorted tweaked car and despite being very limited on disposable lolly at the mo, happy to pay £2k (or more for a spot on car) but the ads history strongly suggest that I would never get my money back and might even finish up giving it away...!?

You will never get your money back.
Well I know I wouldn't

If your after a car to 'Make my money back on' then maybe the Coupe is not for you. They do take alot of looking after and more so if tuned but try finding another car that looks/sounds or goes like a Coupe for 3k

Way out IMO. IME I would double it if you want your car to stay tip top. (My car is in factory standard tune)



You wont make your money back any time in the near future.

err, what takes £1,000 per year, every year ?

I think some people are confusing bits they want with bits they need the car to keep the car running.

Seems lately you will likely end up with one big job a year be it turbo, clutch, belts, suspension refresh, each one comes in at around £500 give or take some odds and sods.

Doesn't take long for a few jobs to catch up with you and you have a 1k bill.

That said, if you leave well alone, dont stick de-cats, bigger turbos, FMIC's you get much smaller bills!

Id budget more than £500 a year. Perhaps not £1000 but do you really think you'll buy one a run it as is? You'll end up replacing most of the expensive bits for sure so £1000 in your first year is easily achievable.

If you modify it you should keep a decent contingency fund back. I guarantee that you'll spend a couple of thousand in your first two years if you're serious about the car.

The sad fact is that they are worth more in pieces.

Its the same all over, the value of second hand cars is falling through the floor.

I looked at at 04 Reg Jaguar 4.2L XJ (the aluminum one)with 80k and full Jaguar Service History for under 6k!!!!! (decided to hold out for an XJR) Look at RX8's!!!

Times are hard, a 20VT is a luxury and luxuries are hard to sell when the news is full of defaults in Greece and potentially in the USA.

FYI - I spent considerably more than the going rate for my most black coupe and still think of it as a good deal!!

In terms of the running costs of 20VT's I actually think that they are cheap to run for the performance they offer.

If you buy any car over 12 years old which had only had routine servicing there will be parts that need replacing.But that is offset by the cheap purchase price.

It is cheaper to buy a mint car than restore a tired example. Much as I love my sprinty I know it does not make sense to restore it so I will run it into the ground.

Most people want a cheap fast car not a mint modern classic

You can keep the maintenance costs down if you do all the work yourself. For example you can replace the wishbones, drop links and track rod ends for less than £100 if you buy pattern parts, if you went for Fiat parts it'd be around £150. If you took this to a specialist who used Fiat parts it'd be over £300.

I did a full belt change inc cam position sensor and some other parts for around £200, it would have been £500+ at a specialist.

So far this year I've done, full belt change, new spark plugs, silicon hose of death and drop links and it's cost me around £300. It would have been *a lot* more if I'd paid someone else to do those jobs.

I'm in this for the long run, 90% of the parts which wear / break on these cars I've already replaced, just the exhaust manifold left, a replacement is sat in a cupboard.

I love driving my car; hardly anybody knows what it is, it turns heads, makes a great noise, is comfy on the long runs, it pokey in the corners and most importantly after 4 years of ownership still makes me smile. I have no intention of selling anytime soon.

depends on what condition you want to maintain the car to, to keep it in decent condition, i.e. changing oil and filters and doing belts when they need doing plus allowing for repairing suspension bits due to the terrible conditions of the roads these days and repairing the odd electrical gremlin i would allow for £1000 a year

if on the other hand you are happy to not bother changing the oil or filters regularly and take chances with the belts and are happy with the odd knocking sound from the suspension then your maintenace will cost you considerably less

but be under no illusion to maintain you coupe to top level it will cost you a £1000 a year, remember most of the cars are now at least 10 years old and things will break on them that you don't expect

as gunzi says if you are handy with a spanner you will likely save yourself a lot of money as the parts themselves aren't that expensive but the labour especially at non specialist garages can be

the cars are pretty much at rock bottom in terms of value which is why people with mods on the cars are breaking them as the simple fact is that the bits are worth more seperately than the cars as a whole

hmm, thanks for feedback - ok I shall budget up to £100 / mth to keep a nice one really nice, servicing at my cheapy mechanic and specialist stuff done..? where for Kettering, Northants area?

Happyish holding out for my dream light red metallic 20vt 6 / LE / Plus - love one with properly done Hybrid conversion..

Griffster - little bit of OTT in places on this thread, but generally people are correct.

One thing I would say however.

If you can stretch your budget now, it will save u in the long run.

I basically bought a coupe @ x amount, which worked out 40% purchase price towards the car and 60% on stuff that I wanted done before pickup, from cambelt to clutch to new radiator to mot etc etc.

There is no guarantee that I won't need to spend on my coupe, but I know that all the big jobs are done already.

Drop me a pm if you wanna discuss further.

Ross

If you buy a truly MINT coupe from a long term forum owner, then there will be nothing required, and it should dtay that way for 2 years or so.

The downside is that owners that love their cars, wil lnot give them away for £1000. Duffy sold his mint spring blue P reg for £3500 - WHY? becuase it needed nothing doing as he'd spent lots on doing.

You really get what you pay for with old cars.

A red plus or LE that is faultless is going to top £4000.

Coupes for £1000 are all in need of work, and not just some brake pads either. Most of them are wrecks, plain and simple.

People that break there cars dont make as much as they anticipate, many coupe parts will not sell, engines are worth peanuts compared to 3 years ago, lights etc dont sell, and the other bits are pretty much in abundance so cant demand any money, making stripping it worthwhile.

I onlty suggest people break their coupes if they have an engine failure and cant afford a repair, but they are not worth in parts what they once were.

There's no way I'd let my Coupe go for less than 4k. That's because its been well looked after, in the best colour with leather and aircon, has a full history, low mileage and there's absolutely nothing that needs doing to it.

But would someone else pay 4k for it? I suspect not (unless I was very lucky to find someone who appreciates a true 'Mint' condition car over those rough old dogs that you see on Ebay for £1-2k).

Anyway it's not for sale so I suppose it doesn't matter really.

I will never recover what I spent on my car. (left hooker plus)

£1800 purchase + the following work since. ( in under 12 months)
New thermostat
New turbo
New belts
5 new injectors
New plugs
New clutch
Forge dump valve
Rocker cover gasket
Soon to have £500 worth of body work
All done at power italia.
When I list it like that, I get queezy at the amount of money!!

I think it's worth about 4k..... Would I get that?????? I doubt it. Maybe I'm wrong though.....

Apparently mine is worth 1k..
check the link
http://www.fiatcoupeclub.org/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1226872#Post1226872

Ouch. It's worth more than a grand. Even with your high miles.
Mine has only done 96k, and is a plus, but it's a left hooker.
I love mine being left hand drive. Makes it more fun, but who else would buy it?

A left hand drive Coupe wouldn't bother me, I'm used to driving Lancia Integrales and Fiat Barchettas

Gilbo, on here, also has a LHD Coupe and I've driven his too.

It feels weird driving a LHD Coupe when you're used to RHD one as a daily driver, but you soon get used to it.

LHD cars don't bother me, it's driving on the left side I can't cope with

Make me an offer......I'll turn it down!!
I've spent so much time, effort and money getting my coupe looking and running right, that the thought of starting again with another coupe scares me.
Saying that there is a nice plus in piston heads which is super low mileage. Might give him a call.....if the work has been done on it, I may consider it. ;)))

Lol, I was just saying that a LHD wouldn't put me off from buying, if I was in the market to buy.

I've had my Coupe for five years, with no intentions of selling and have no money to buy another anyway.

It is strange how fast cars depreciate in the UK, often from new prices that were originally significantly higher than on the Continent. A good LHD coupe would fetch 5-8k EUR. The best would fetch more.

I think its due to the number of cars. The UK seems to have quite a high number of new cars compared to population which has a knock on effect on used prices as the market is very saturated. and we cant offload cars on many other counties either.

Not so sure about that argument. 2009 figures:

UK 2M new cars 65M population
France 2.25M new cars 62M population
Germany 3.8M new cars 85M population

So not really much difference against the other big European nations - bit lower actually.

I have a feeling that cars are in general less well maintained and "dumped" when they exhibit too many problems. People expect that a used car is going to be problematic and pay low. UK MOTs have historically been "easy" which has not helped.

Dealers in general also seem to be very expensive but not very good, so people avoid having work done on their cars and sell them on when they appear to get "troublesome".

Yes but the UK has limited outlets to export used cars. LHD cars can be exported to other European countries and north Africa far more easily. This will help to reduce the available stock and help support used prices.

I think there are a lot of factors of which maintenance may play a role, if this is actually the case. I do think there is a degree of age related snobbery when it comes to cars in the UK which will definitely depress used prices.

1K might be a little high on the average upkeep, but if you have a bad one then this would be a bit low. You can look at it differently though. If you did not have a Coupe what would you get? Most of us would have a newer car. Depreciation on newer cars is more than 1k a year. You also have to keep them on the road. If you wanted a performance motor that is newer, the depreciation would be even higher. Keeping it on the road would not be cheap either. The older a motor the more it costs to keep on the road. I had my first Coupe for nearly four years. The cambelt went two days after buying her. She was 4 years old with 62,000 on the clock. She was booked in for a belt change 2 days later. The engine rebuild cost me a couple of quid short of £1,400. She only needed consumables after that.

If you want cheap motoring buy an oldish diesel. If you want cheapish performance motoring buy a Coupe. If you want reliable buy German or Japanese. I have ever only had Mazda, Audi and Mitsubishi other than my Coupe's and a Cavalier many years ago. The only time I have ever broken down and not been able to get it going on the roadside was when the belt went on me.

...and there lies the rub...perceived value (particularly if the vendor has personally spent thousands during last year) and the actual Real value - the price someone will pay, cash, now! - I suspect that puts good Plus /LEs in the £2900 arena and a minter in the £3900 area (Real)? - add £1k or so if it is an asking price..same with Scoobies - huge gulf between asking prices (perceived value) and True value (how much cash someone will spend)- often several thousand adrift, making purchasing a stressful ordeal - I hate offering far less than an asking price..!

more ads asking three or four thousand pounds, and in same breath ' might break if price not met' ...kinda puts me off considering paying c £4,000 for a car that the the caring owner is considering scrapping..!!

Never come across this before with any other car, - worth more dead than alive?! - Cant see it myself..

lots of rare cars in poor condition can be worth more in bits than as a runner, its what the market will stand.

My cousin had a Delta HF a few years back, it was rougher than you could imagine and to anybody other than a collector, was a total liability. She got it after swapping a Rover 200 and a few hundred in cash. In hard to find bits alone it was worth a lot more than that.

There are lots of tired Coupes around, more than there are people willing to buy them and therefore bad cars are worth breaking up for other owners to get hold of cheap spares. I'm in no doubt that I've spent nearly £800 this year on repairs, if my car is only worth £500 it wouldn't take long to get that sort of money selling most of the nearly new parts off.