Unless you plan to sell it, any item is worth whatever value you (the owner) place upon it. Reading through this thread it looks like you don't actually wish to bin it, so don't. Just be prepared for a bit of heartache before the pay off. I bought an £800 shed of a Coupé and spent two years bringing it up to scratch. Would i do it again? No. Would i part with this one? A resounding no. I've ploughed in over 3 times the cars worth in parts and my own time.

If after all, you decided to sell, it's only worth what the buyer wants to pay...and that is never the same value as you place upon it.

Haha, typical that someone would quote that bit just as I'd edited it out.

It seems to be Hobson's Choice for me at the moment. If I spend a large sum on getting the Coupe welded up, it can reasonably be argued that I'm throwing good money after bad. But the same can be said of me buying a cheap runabout for under a grand and then having to spend much more to get it right (or scrap it and start again).

There is in fact a third option that has been offered to me, someone wants to take it on as a project and restore it properly over a period of time. But that still means I need to find a runabout in the meantime and I'm really not happy with the ones I've seen so far.

So there's two pages about the faults *

Not having a dig, just saying I don't think it'll be worth too much in parts. Certainly not enough to buy a good example.

Lets not forget you posted a thread titled "considering my options" where you invited opinion. So I gave you mine which was and still is it can be fixed. I also don't think there's enough value in the cars salvage to buy yourself a decent replacement.

I did indeed invite opinions, all is good. At the moment the coop is under dry cover, so in a much better place than under a tarp on my drive. There are definitely some good parts on it, particularly the engine, and the proposal that's been put to me to do a proper restoration over the summer is an interesting one. I'm about to send off the tax disc and SORN the car, although if the welding guy can quote me a figure that I can afford to put it back on the road now then I may well go down that route as finding a cheap runabout that isn't going to be another money pit is proving to be harder than I thought. :-/

Not so much from the likes of you mutt, who has been a faithful owner for years and is still trying to make the final decision about what to do, etc.

It was mostly frowned upon when people were coming on here, buying good or very easily saved Coupes and then breaking them for spares, knowing they were worth more in parts.

Our aim is to cherish these cars as long as possible and we need the odd broken one to save our own, but we didn't need people buying good ones, just to break for a bit a spare cash, hence the 3 month waiting rule coming into force before being allowed to sell.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do about yours although I do hope you find a way of keeping it.

I let my 1st coupe go for parts over the head of it needing a new steering rack, straight after getting the clutch done. I regretted it and hence have bought another one to afflict myself with haha

I do intend to keep this one as a toy and not a daily driver though.....

Thanks, Theresa. I'm still awaiting answers from some people before making a final decision on how to proceed.

Just to muddy the waters even further, someone at work is now selling his Mazda RX8 and wants £1295 for it. I'm looking for something practical and economical as my main car, and was hoping to find some cheap runabout for not much over £600. But everything I've seen so far has been shady in some way or other, either not enough MOT, having what I suspect may be a bent MOT, or I suspect that they're hiding a major fault etc. There's nothing in banger money territory that I can find that I have confidence in at the moment.

So the RX8 is tempting, as it is solid all round, has a full MOT, the seller is at least someone at work, and is far from being a banger or a boring car, it;s absolutely gorgeous inside too, even has a 9-speaker Bose surround system. If I was looking for a second car, this would be perfect. But it's just not practical as my main car, especially as you need to rev the bollocks off these to make them perform; unlike the coop, they have no bottom end, the action is all in the high revs.

get a celica gt4 bullet proof been working on a couple of st185's awesome piece of kit

I sold an Rx8 to get my coupe.
They don't need the nuts revving off them tbh but hitting 9.5K is quite good fun anyway.

If you get a good one they are great cars but....
The engines can let go at any time even if well maintained or even after a rebuild and mine consistently did 13mpg around town, which is on par with the BMW 850i I had.
Handle like a go-kart too.

The rx8 was costing mazda big time in warranty claims.
My old 7 performed well but like it's been said mine did about 12mpg average and maybe 15 if I took it real steady.
I wouldn't touch one unless you can spend a good wedge on maintenance and general running costs very regularly.

I decided to pass up the chance of buying the RX8 and am now the proud owner of... an Astra turbodiesel. I did need a practical runabout right now, I wouldn't want the RX8 as a daily driver. It would only really work for me as a second car for occasional fun.

I've now taken the tax disk off the coop and am about to SORN it. She's under dry cover in the corner of a workshop and I'll either sell her for spares and repairs or possibly keep it on as a longer-term project. In the meantime, I needed a runabout until the coop's fate is settled and I now have one. There's no rush to sell the coop at the moment, although I may put up a thread inviting offers to buy it for spares/repairs.

P.S. The winning ebay bid for the RX8 was £1,900.