I love how countries, governments and states make us have our cars inspected for road worthiness but do a pi$$poor job making the roads car worthy 😂😂🤷♂️🤷♂️
My best bargain ever was in the 80s my dad was out on the front chatting to a neighbours dad he came in and said have you got £60 i thought he was after a borrow so i gave it him and thought no more about it. 20 minutes later he came in chucked a bunch of keys a logbook and an mot certificate and said go look what you've bought ! I went outside and sat there was kermit snot green Skoda 105 ! (yes when they were still the butt of everyones jokes ! ) looking at it it was in good nick clean and tidy. looking at the paperwork it was 1 owner from new 6 months MOT and 8 months tax ! dad said it's better than walking to work through the winter. i took it for a run and it had terrible wheel wobble needed balancing but i thought a quick trip to local breakers could save some money he had one in i got all 4 wheels and tyres as new decent branded ones too for a tenner i ran it till it needed a test and was going to weigh it in my dad said i will take it for a test it passed ! so i gave it him to use a mobile toolbox he ran it for a year tested it and passed it onto my brother that ran it for a year i think the joke was on everyone who took the proverbial out of it !
That cleaned up really well, looks like new. The best deal I got was on my first car. A 98 1.0L Nissan Micra saved from the scrap man for £250. I've had it 4 years, and apart from a bit of welding it's been great and really reliable.
This is like deja vu for me! We bought my daughter an 05 Seat and during lockdown it grew a ton of mould on it. I’ve sorted the mould but it still has a musty smell so I want to do a seats out and centre console out clean. One thing I found made a massive difference was getting a new cabin filter. Only a tenner and took care of the smell coming through the fans as the old one was filthy! 👍
Another great video, Gary. Thank you. Best bargain. £1695 on a Mk4 Astra diesel in 2012. I did 120,000 miles in this car travelling all over the country. Biggest expense was a second hand diesel pump. It was an absolute work horse. Great car.
Thank you for the video Gary. My best car buy has to be a Citroen Xsara which I paid £1200 for in 2010. Owned the car 10 years and added another 90k miles to it. It never once let me down or refused to start.
Loving these videos, so relaxing and it's awesome to see the transformation a good clean can give a car! Best bargain I've ever bought? Mark 1 Mazda Eunos Roadster for £400, saved from the scrap man! It's in the middle of a massive restoration at the minute so if you know anyone that can help with welding, let me know! 🤣Need to save those pop up headlights from the scrapyard in the sky!
Every American youtube detailer would capslock the title to the max and call it a safety hazard blah blah. Afcourse mold can be dangerous, but i think working like you did is enough to prevent any negative effects from it. Perfect work for a cheap little car!
Best bargain was an '87 Austin Metro that I bought in '04 for £500, it was a dream find 1 little old lady owner, full history and new MOT. It had the 1.3 engine and weighed about as much as a tin can so flew everywhere. It was a sad day when rust claimed it come MOT time in '08 and I couldn't afford to get it repaired.
Not meant as a criticism, but how do you get the mold out of the cushion material under the fabric on the seats? Doesn't it grow down into the foam or whatever is used? I would think the seats would still be a bit funky smelling after the fabric covering is cleaned.
Nice looking Seat after the cleanup :) Will be interesting to see what the MOT guy finds, who knows, maybe there's not too much to fix to make it road worthy. Haven't had very good luck with cheap cars myself, too much repairs, but have kept each car for many years anyway. My current car, 2016 Kia Rio has been the most reliable car of all my cars, over 6 years without problems, but bought it new. Going to keep driving with this car.
Fantastic video and I’ve learnt loads from you in your washing techniques. I wish I was nearer to you. Can’t wait for the next video. Keep up the great work.
Had a very similar experience with a VW golf i picked up for £300, managed to get it cleaned up through an MOT and made a nice little profit. Used cars under 3 grand just now are selling so easily.
Cheap cars! I've had tons of them. Renault 5 (I think). Bought in 1988 from an auction for £35 with T&T (short). I cleaned it thoroughly, threw away piles of crap including a boot full of leaves. Sold it the following week for £225. Matra Simca 6 seater 3 front seats 3 rear. Bought in 1990 for £0.38 (yes 38 pence, it was all I had in my pocket!) with T&T. Used it for a 10 months tested it and sold it for £375. 1978 Vauxhall Chevette saloon. Bought in 2004 for £350 with full T&T. A 1 owner with 14,000 miles on the clock came with the original tyres (Mich XZX) complete with cracks. Ran it for 3 years as an everyday car (cheap classic insurance). A set of new tyres was £65! Sold with a full test for £400 to as work colleague who ran it for 2 years. Ford Mondeo. Free, but it needed a clutch which cost me £65, which I fitted myself. Ran it for 3 years, wife had it after she passed her test. Sold it with a full ticket for £600. Audi A4. Bought for £300 with T&T but some electrical problems. No blower fan, heating/AC display not working (common fault with them) dodgyy starter. Replaced the blower and display and did a full service cost under £100. Wife ran it for 2.5 years got £1200 as a part ex on a 2 year old car. I've had more old 5 series BMs, a MK2 Escort, a Mk5 Cortina, being able to fix mechanical and electrical faults can save a fortune when buying problem cars, a clean, shiny car makes people think because it's cared for. Best tip for selling a reasonable (not a piece of junk) car privately: clean it thoroughly top to bottom.
Bought a Mk2 1990 VW Polo GT in 2003 for $50. Ran it for for six months. Head gasket went. Parted it out and made $350! That's pounds not dollars .NZ keyboards don't do pound signs...
Ugh, if we only had AutoShines in the states. I need my Honda glass and seats done. Always SUPER Satisfying to watch you transform a vehicle Gary. Kudos.
My 1st car was my biggest bargain, I paid £60 for a Lada estate in 1987, ran it for a year then sold it on for £250. I know most people took the mickey out of the Lada, but it was a great and reliable workhorse, and if they were still sold in GB I would be driving one today without hesitation.
Bought a 2007 plate corsa 60k in February for 500 quid no mot 300 quid later we have a wee run about for going to football an taking the dog about, racking value for cash
i bought a rover 75 estate with full mot for 300 quid did nothing to it stuck it on ebay starting price 500 quid went for 1500 quid now thats a bargain. a dealer bought it and collected it stuck on his website for 3500 quid he still got it on website 6 moths lata too dear for what it is. cheers hope seat ibiza makes you some profit
When I was stationed in Germany, I had bought a new stereo system and had the old one sitting around wondering what to do with it. One of our troops lost his license and was therefore no longer allowed to own his 1976 BMW 518. Ended up trading him the old stereo for the BMW.
Many years ago I had a Peugeot 406 that was so unreliable that I parked it in the garage and spent £300 on a Mondeo with 10m MoT at the local auction. The Mondeo didn't miss a beat in 18 months and 27k, only costing me servicing and consumables. My son was so impressed he bought it from me for £350 and kept it for another year and 12k before selling it on for £500. However the value of the pug detonated and was traded for a Fiesta tdci at less than half what I paid. You win some you lose some.
Bargain and that'd make a cracking little first car for someone who's just passed their test. Best bargain car? Mk2 RS2000, rally prepped with cage and scrute tags still intact, paid £1K, sold it the day after for £2500 cash to a bloke who saw me filling it up at a petrol station.
Hey Gary. In 2000 I bought a 1996 Mondeo 1.8TDi saloon from the local rent-a-car place who were selling off all their cars to concentrate on vans & trucks. At just over 3 years old it had 135k on the clock & I reckoned it would all be motorway miles, just what the engine was built for, and it would have been on the ramps every other weekend being looked after. The book price was £3000, I paid £2000 and kept it for 10 years. Brilliant motor, spent hardly anything on it. I worked 25 miles from home and it never let me down. Had 249k on the clock when I got rid. Engine was still sweet as, but the bodywork was going downhill fast.
Best deal I ever got on a car was when I bought a 2012 MINI Cooper S Clubman for 100 USD. Vehicle was trapped in an on base parking lot about to be abandoned since it wouldnt start and the owner was leaving the service to go back to his home state. Paid him the 100 dollars and he gave me the keys and signed over the title. Took me 2 months to get running again but once it was back on the road it was the most fun car I had ever owned. Eventually traded it in for a newer F55 MINI and am now on my third MINI, an 2019 F56 John Cooper Works.
Best bargain was about 15 years ago, I got offered a sh!tbox of a 1996 Nissan Micra 1.0 in a sort of light pastel green colour. Girl who owned it had bought an MGF and was too embarrassed to trade it in. She said if I gave her any more than £50 she'd be cheating me. It took me two full days to do the cleaning and decontamination process as it was easily as bad as your Seat and another two days with cutting compound and polish. But it cleaned up lovely, no rust, no dents or dings and the interior came up like new considering it had 100k miles on it. Engine was sound with no leaks, and sailed right through an MOT with one advisory on a tyre which I got replaced. I used it as a wee commuter for a few months having way too much fun in it and sold it easily for £1495. I never had so many enquiries, so quickly on a car in all my life. Question for you Gary. What dilution ration are you using with G101 for the headliner?
My best bargain was Dave, my 2001 Merc E320. Dave was owned by a little old lady who had no clue how much it was worth, she said I could have it for $500 if I could get if off her property the same day. A battery and some fresh gas later and Dave was on his way home. I cleaned him up and he is now my trust steed.
I have a 2002 Mk2 Clio. It's my 1st and only car. I bought it for £400 with 6 months MOT or it was going to scrap. It was a shed but a bit of cheap work and she's still running well to this day.
Last year i bought a 2007 Volvo S80 D5 SE Lux with 92k miles one owner fvsh 4 new tyres, i took it home gave it a good scrub (i'm a valeter too in my previous life) got it looking mint fresh MOT no advisorys sold it 2 months ago for £4500 with 103k miles on the clock lol
The car I own, a 2005 Astra mkIV Sport AKA The Black Beauty was £200. I bought it seven years or so ago. It was a little shabby then, but if you look at my channel, you'll see how (with help) she's fighting fit.
Great effort Gary. I do envy you getting the opportunity to make such a difference to a complete stumer. Back in the day, I have bought loads of cheap cars, even small fleets of tatty vans which when cleaned up and sold, one sale paid for them all to be bought, the rest was all profit. But the one I find most funny has gotta be a mini I bought for my mum which had a bad misfire but otherwise good. Had a bit of a dig, spotted the issue but left it there, haggled hard and absolutely stole it. When we had got out of sight and earshot of the location with it struggling and farting all over the place, I asked my mum if she had her nail varnish with her. She looked at me a bit odd as she gave me the bottle, I whipped off the distributor cap and painted over the crack I had spotted tracking the spark between leads, gave it 5 mins to dry a bit and it ran like a dream the rest of the way home. Put a new cap on it the next day and she had it for donkeys years. Had another one buying a minibus for the local kids football team. Very uneven tyre wear, plenty of knocks, bangs and rattles from underneath which were all obvious to my eyes, no rot, no MOT so I kept quiet, got it for a song. I fixed it quickly and cheaply (dead cheap track rod ends, loads of suspension bushes, wheel bearing adjustments, a prop shaft UJ, exhaust hangers, grease everything etc) and it ran the kids about safely and legally for years with minimal maintenance and without emptying their club funds.
I bought a Volvo S60 2.0t for £450 last July,full service history,it’s an absolute dream to drive,bodywork is amazing,also bought an S60 t5 for £600,that’s got full service to there’s only one scratch on the bodywork,I love my Volvos.
Second hand cars don't depreciate in the US like in the UK, but in 2015 I bought a 1999 Toyota Avalon with 179k for $2000 (£1600) and am still driving it. Some maintenance, whole new interior to replace the decimated leather, better looking wheels, and a few maintenance items (Tbelt, tune up, brakes, links, tie rod ends, tires, battery, etc.) have run me about $1200 total since then. It passes yearly PA insp/emis everytime and every feature on the car works at 217k mi. Can't wait to find about about the MOT! You are a magician, it looks almost like new!
My best car deal was an auction car I purchased on Dec 2020 in California. Twelve year old Ford Focus with 36,600 miles for $3500. Upon picking it up I found $500 in the center console. Needed new tires and an oil change. All else was ok. Drove it across America in Dec 2021. Sold it with 43,000 miles for $5600 in early February when my move to London was approved. Don’t think I will ever beat that one.
I acquired a1 yr old '88 Ford Festiva for $1200 vs the $6000 retail. Gas mileage was phenomenal, 12 in / 300 mm wheels. Had for ten years, still like new. Sold it to my Brother-Stupid-in-Law, who managed to destroy it in 6 months. Narragansett Bay
Saab 9-3 bought for £200 sight unseen on eBay with 1 weeks MOT left. It passed MOT with me doing nothing to it! Kept it and used it for 3 years then sold it for £225 with 1 days MOT left to someone who just wanted the B204 engine. Happy days!
Last 2 cars were stop gaps. Both had for 3 years a piece. Passat petrol £800 then scrapped for £300. Volvo v40 £720 then scrapped for £400. Not a penny spent on either in that time. Just over 800 quid for 6yrs motoring. Admittedly I only do around 6k a year though
A Vauxhall Omega 2.2 caravan from 01...got it for a hundred Quid...bought a fresh battery and drove it for years...and still would, if I had not sold it for 200 Pounds a year ago, because I switched to motorcycles full time now ; )
A friend of mine bought a Corsa for £130 when his VR6 Golf’s clutch had gone kaput… 10 months and 9,000 miles later he had to scrap the Corsa, but he got £120 back… so £10 for a year of driving wasn’t bad for him at all 👌
My best deal is when I bought a Golf GTI Clubsport 2017 for about 21 500£, had it for 2 years and sold it for 21 000£, kept the winter wheels and sold them seperate for 400£. So in the end, nearly the same price I bought it for :)
Back in 1980, I bought a 1968 Toyota Corona with a bad motor for $50.00. It had spun a rod bearing and broken a piston in #4 cylinder on the 1.9L engine. I worked for a group of auto parts stores which had a machine shop in their lead store, and I got all of the engine parts with my employee discount... around $200.00 in parts and no cost to me to have the machine work done! The automatic transmission was slipping a bit, and the differential was making a bit of noise-- a trip to a local salvage yard supplied low-mileage parts for another $100.00. The result was a decent-looking car which got decent gas mileage that I drove for the next 2 years... then used it as a trade-in on a new Nissan Stanza (they gave me $1000.00 on trade!)
I bought a '99 Volvo S70 T5 for $1500 CAD last year. I had a mate sell me his car for peanuts because the missus didn't want to drive standard anymore.
I just brought a 2019 fiesta st line for 6K not categorised but it's a horrid car, definitely a biohazard, I've spent my whole saturday stripping the interior.
In 2014 we bought a 1991 Toyota Landcruiser. We had no idea the vehicle would be so robust. The mileage could be better, but since we live in a canyon, the Land Cruiser is vital when the canyon (occasionally) has a partial landslide due to heavy rain. Landslides take days or weeks for DOT to clear, so during the wait, the Landcruiser is our only way to get to a grocer, short of a 12 km hike, on foot.
Brought a Zafira for £700 just to tide me over till I could get another big car.... My wife still has it and it sails through it's MOT every year ... So far . Nice clean up by the way.
Best deal I've got was a nissan micra 1.4 2008 with only 18000 for £250 without mot put through mot at the cost of £200 plus cleaned it up as was abandoned for a year and sold it for £2500 within 10 days of listing it
Best deal I've ever had was my first car. Went over to a specialist engineering garage about 30 miles from me, bizarrely, to buy some fireworks and saw it there as their show car. Had to have it! Pristine Escort Cosworth, all custom rebuilt by them and totally immaculate. Finally talked the owner into selling it to me for 13,500. I'd had it for a year and took it back to the engineers to get some other bits done to it, when the guy I bought it off offered me 13k to sell it back to him! I took it, as it was costing over 3k a year to insure. A years motoring in that bloody belting car, as my first car, and it only cost me 500 quid! AND they still have it!
I had a mk4 golf for 1300 quid with 150k miles on lasted me 6 years turbo eventually went bang at 203k everything else had just been standard wear and tear.
Bought a Vectra C for £2500 and ran it for 12 years but it needed a clutch, cambelt and the sub frames were rusting out, replaced it with an Insignia and the Vectra sat on my drive for 6 months during the pandemic as I couldn't scrap it.
Great video , My bargin car was my 92 Toyota mr2 payed just £450 with mot I did a bit of body work drove it round for 18 months and cashed in for a very heatly profit altho I wish I had kept it a bit longer
Didn’t keep it for very long but my 2001 micra was the cheapest car I’ve ever brought, it was old enough to buy itself a pint but I got it for £550 and for the money it was bloody good, no rust at all, led pioneer CD player with usb and aux, it was a shitbox but for a first car it was perfect! I didn’t care if it got a ding or two, as it was so cheap, and fixing anything on it was cheap and easy too!
Im a mobile tyre fitter and done a job in a boys drive, next door neighbour had a skoda fabia vrs se 1.9tdi 6 speed on a 57 plate 2 owner car, full leather, got chatting to him turned out he had left it for 5 years in his drive due to clutch going, asked him how much was he wanting, boy asked for a offer and said cheekily would he take £400 he said aye on one condition i didnt break it for spares, wee SE in this condition with a MOT are 3k im £1400 in parts in it and still a great profit if i was to sell it. But wouldn't part with it she is a wee project that will be on the road in a few months.
The text said it was a 3 cyl Seat Ibiza. Does that mean it was a genuine 3 cylinder engine or an engine with 4 cylinders but only 3 worked!I I always prefer your videos where the car appears to be a 'no hoper' Gary.
That car has all the hallmarks for a water leak. I'd put a hose pipe around the doors and common points of entry for water to get in. Its most likely the damp proof membrane just behind the door cards on this model, also unblock the drain holes in the bottom of each door. The big give away (not the obvious mould) was the gel dehumidifier box and lid still left in the vehicle. Deal with the source first then once you've cleaned the interior thoroughly, use an enzyme cleaner from Adam's polish or I think Dodo Juice. This has billions of good bacteria that will feast on anything organic in the car leaving it free of mould spores and bad bacteria
It was a Nissan 200ZX years ago £300 massive power and no speed cams then, thrashed it in to the ground but it was only needed 4 new tyres and I scrapped it. What it be worth now🙁🙁
We're very interested in your channel!We has a brand new wall-mounted pressure washer to be released. We are thinking if we could have a chance to collaborate to this new product.Hope get your reply!
I'm Mr Banger for cars, I have a rule that I don't buy anything over a couple of grand. Always have to put money in to get them good regardless of the initial outlay
Cleaned up very nice, great price for a run&drive! Couple of things to tackle, like the rust under the passenger door/at the door sill around the b-pillar area and those technical details you had mentioned - and it will be perfect for town dutY
Bough a 1996 BMW 316 for £500 in 2010 to last me a couple of months - Ended up driving it for 14 months before I hit black ice and wrote it off. After selling the airbags, climate control panel and the rest as scrap, other than fuel, the car (including insurance) had cost me £6 a month to own!
Hi! Isn't the magic eraser way to harsh / abrasive for a leather steering wheel? I have used on my steering wheel and, while the results are spectacular, I feel like the leather is now way too worn compared to before the use of magic eraser..