2:03 am, September 2, 2010
WE’VE found it. Not the answer to why buyers expect to pay £1k less than the sticker price – no one knows that!
No, we’ve found the car that’ll get us to Monaco and back for our Bangers4BEN adventure in just over a week’s time.
Well, at least we hope it will.
It was sourced from our very good friends at Auction4Cars.com – the online trade-only auction arm of car supermarket Motorpoint.
After a tense few weeks of hunting on their part and negotiation on ours, we’ve managed to secure this – a P-reg Honda Civic.
Finished in the worse colour ever invented, hippy turquoise, it’s mechanically sound (we think) with tax and MOT until next year.
Unfortunately insurance companies seem to think that instead of the 1.4-litre wheezebag it’s got under the bonnet that someone’s replaced it with a supercharged V8 because they want a frankly ridiculous amount of money for cover.
We're not sure what this is
It’s also got a very strange contraption inserted into the dash – I think it’s called a T.A.P.E player. We’re not sure what that stands for but despite our best attempts it won’t play a CD.
We’re hoping our friends at Halfords can solve the mystery – we’ve already sent the high street giants a ‘pimping’ wish list and are just waiting to hear from them. Fingers crossed the big blue lights get the nod.
THEME
Which brings me on to our theme – as part of Bangers4BEN, which will see 30-odd teams drive from Blighty to Monaco and back in similar scrapheap dodgers, we need to dress the car up.
The first day has a fancy dress theme so we need the car to sort of match the outfits. We asked for suggestions on Twitter and here are some of the best:
Via @CimaRacing: ‘Strap a zimmer frame to it? Perhaps some slippers and a pipe, too. And a box of tissues on the parcel shelf, obviously.’
Via @JonBradbury: ‘Make it infinitely faster – rip off the Honda badges, paint it white and stick a small Brawn badge on.’
Via @motormorph: ‘Massive wrap which just says “VTEC just kicked in yo!”’
And rather more ambitious from @sam_burnett: ‘I think you should paint on a classic sporting livery by hand with a paintbrush. JPS black and gold, Gulf orange and blue, etc.’
Although these suggestions were good, we may have a plan which, if it comes off, could actually make a turquoise P-reg Honda Civic actually look cool. It’s all thanks to David @TrackandRoadMag who’s been negotiating on our behalf.
We won’t reveal all until it’s a definite, but we’re hoping to get the nod today.
We love Motorpoint because they found us a car
CASH
So how much did we pay for this Honda? Well, it started out at £500, but after chatting to the Auction4Cars.com team we got them down to £400.
Then commerical manager Dunc went up to Derby to get it and came away with the car after paying just £250! He twisted the Motorpoint team’s arm and, as it was for BEN, they caved in. Good lads!
Hopefully it’ll now make some decent cash for BEN at the charity auction after the event (that’s if we get back) because that is what Bangers4BEN is all about!
Bangers4BEN III starts on September 12 – stay tuned to our Twitter feed and Bangers4Ben.com for the latest news.
James
