I'm starting my chassis in the next 4-6 weeks and planning to buy a donor when the chassis is nearly completed for several reasons, but I've been doing some research on ebay and autotrader looking to see what's available...

I've also been on the sierra forums and explained what I'll be upto when I get the donor in, and that I'll be looking to spend around 250 quid ish. One guy said something along the lines of "You'll be lucky to get an engine on its own for 250 quid mate"... From what I've seen on ebay there are a few tired bargains to be had, but the average price for a serra in decent nick seems to be more towards 500 quid.

What did all the locosters (and anyone else who used a sierra donor) pay for their complete car?

Also, what sort of condition was it in?

I'll be after a serra with 2.0 pinto & type 9 box, hopefully with a bit of tax & test so I can get it home and see how it drives. Obviously this will cost alot more than a serra with no tax or test and a fecked fan belt etc...

Paid a tenner for mine, including a lovely 3:38 diff!

I paid £320 for mine of the eblag
With a brand new MOT and 6 months tax.
68,000 genuine miles, full service history.

Almost a shame to break it.

David

£75

Inc half a tank of gas, a few months tax.

Ebay'd the lights, sold the type 9, swapped the pinto for a crate of beer.

Bargaintastic

Mike

Paid £75 for a 2.0 Sapphire with an Mot! Even drove it home. Stripped it of the donor parts then stripped rest of car and sold many bits making about £150!

The price of scrap went silly over the summer.

I couldnt shift one on here for £150 but got over £160 in weighting it in. I would say many a sierra got scraped.

Same car today and you almost have to pay to get rid.

You may be better of just collecting the donor bits as you come across them.

Bought for £210 off ebay been stood for a year listed as engine seized, at the time it was the cheapest around. Buyer lost V5 so wouldnt let me pay till found, it took 4 months. The good news was that the engine had not seized just battery connections corroded and no petrol in the tank. But when the documents turned up it had had a new diff, recon gearbox, recon unleaded head and a recon propshaft all done less than 20k miles ago. So all the bits i need are already recon just needing clean and paint.

Xr4x4 £140. Sold all the bits on i didn't need for £750

I paid £300 for mine, 48k genuine miles, 1 owner from new, immaculate.. Was searching for a while and havent seen one since, but was worth it, have got alot back from selling interior etc..

Ed

Delivered to the door for £85. 65k miles with 3 months tax left [cashed in for £40 ish].

£46 with T&T. Drive it home, reverse into the garage and chopped the front off with a stihl saw

Bit of a waste really as there was NO rust anywhere on it but meant I got good parts for my kit.

Steve

Got my 1st donor 1.6 sierra for free, got offered a 2.0 litre (with rear discs) for 75 quid sold the 1.6 for ........ you guessed it, 75 quid

Ended up with a fre donor car and made a few pennies selling the odd bits that i didnt need and the shell.

Bonus !!

so what the hell am I doing wrong then? It's currently looking like I'm gonna have to pay hundreds of pounds for a donor unless someone turns up at my door with a decent condition example and says "here's the key's"...

the pinto's do seem to be getting rarer by the week, mind.

Any tips as to how you guys got yours for free/less than 80 quid?

Cheers

Paid £27 for a running MOT failure 2 years ago; sold the engine (1.8 CVH) for £35...

[Edited on 3/12/08 by stevebubs]

Xr4x4 V6, £100, had to drive 100 miles to collect, car was pretty good, not even rusty.

His mother sold it as she got fed up with it being left in her drive once he had a baby!

£40 quid here

1st one I paid £80 - 56k miles
2nd one was -£90 - 70K It was free and it had 6 months road tax on it :-)

xr4 for £50, the front wheel fell off putting it on the trailor

50 quid 2.0 ghia twincam with cosworth rear lights and spoiler interior was perfect and rear seats still had plastic on seat base my friend had owned it for over 10 years !! still had 1 months tax and 6 months mot all that was wrong was blown head gasket i was going bec any way

i paid €200 for one that had 200k miles on it, had a busted cooling system, a whacked head gasket, a bent chassis, and a malfunctioning brake master cylinder!!!!

oh and the engine looked like it had done the Paris-Dakar

I had to give him a lift back home though.

quote:

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Originally posted by coozer


Bit of a waste really as there was NO rust anywhere on it but meant I got good parts for my kit.

Steve

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Just bought 2.0 Pinto , Auto, with 7 months MOT and a months Tax. 80k miles fsh no rust. £200

Hope to recoup that in selling the parts we're not needing.

Took a while to find 2.0 Pintos are getting rare.

quote:

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Originally posted by serieslandy


Steve

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i paid £120 for a stripped out sierra parts minus the engine. i couldnt get a sierra up here tothe point i was going to go down south to pick one up. buying the parts already stripped out saved the wife from moaning aboutit lying on the drive for weeks on end

Davie

For £300 quid ish you can probably get a donor pack

My 2.0l twincam ghia about 5 days t&t cost £100 sourced by kit supplier and as said in previous thread and in other posts sold bits to sierra owners

£116, and that was after i'd got the eBay rage (I'd told myself I wasn't going over 100)...

Used it to potter around in for a couple of months, was great fun to drive. DOHC engine ran on 3 cylinders until you'd got it nice and warm (and then it was only barely firing on the fourth), and the knackered drivers seat frame tried to tip you out of the rear right door whenever you turned left.

Looking back, barely anything from that car has actually made it onto the Indy. Nearly dead DOHC engine got given to the local college, MT75 gearbox was sold on, disc brake rear axle and 7.5" diff was sold, prop got binned eventually. I think all i've used is the steering wheel column and rack, the front hubs, and some of the cabling from the wiring loom