911 for 2011: We've bought our next car(s)

AFTER the incredible highs of selling our Hyundai i10 World Cup car for £3,005 more than we paid for it…

… you’ll have to forgive the lack of an update on our 911 for 2011 campaign.

But just because we’ve been celebrating for the last week doesn’t mean our attempt to turn £0 into a Porsche 911 for automotive industry charity BEN has gone cold.

Far from it… In fact we think we may have a deal that could possibly be as good, or perhaps even better, than the last one.

Hyundai PR chief Tom Barnard, and lynchpin in the i10 World Cup car sale, was again key in our latest deal which has seen us buy not one, not two, but THREE cars!

So what have we bought? Well, unless you’ve missed the picture above right (it’s quite a big clue) you’ll have worked out by now that we’ve managed to secure three Mazda MX-5s to sell for BEN.

Of course, it’s not as simple as it sounds – there are a few of those famous 911 for 2011 ‘issues’ to overcome first.

Let me explain. Barnard put us in touch with his equal at Mazda, PR supremo Graeme Fudge, who bought 20 original MX-5s to celebrate the roadster’s 20th anniversary this year.

The cars have been doing the rounds on the press fleet to show just how far the new versions have come on, but at the same time showing how they’re kept that original light and entertaining philosophy MX-5s are famous for.

Well, now that PR campaign is winding down, Barnard explained that he heard Mr Fudge didn’t need them all so, hearing that, we pounced.

A quick call and some Car Dealer ‘charm’ later and we had a deal on the table.

THE DEAL

‘Right, you have two choices,’ said Fudge. ‘You can have three without MOTs – two of which shouldn’t need too much work to get them roadworthy. The third has been reversed into a lamppost at high speed by another magazine, so is only good for spare of repairs, but you could use it as a donor car for the other two.

‘Or we can build you one good car out of them all and you can buy that.’

Both options sounded good – but then we saw what Mazda wanted for them…

‘For the complete car it’ll be £1,500,’ read the email. ‘Or for the three without MOTs it’s £500.’

What?! Excuse me? £500 each surely? I rang to check…

‘Nope, I mean £500 for the three and we’ll deliver them,’ added Fudge.

Woah! Now if that isn’t the deal of the century I don’t know what is. So that’s the plan. On Monday, Mazda are ringing me with details of specifications, work needed and colours and then we need to find a friendly Mazda specialist to help us get two roadworthy and ready for sale.

With a bit of luck we could add considerably to our current total of £5,364.75 for BEN – the Auto Trader listing I pinched the picture for this blog from was listing a G-reg car, similar to what we’ll be buying, for £1,500!

More next week…

James

Read more about our attempt to turn £0 into a Porsche 911 by 2011 here