R264 MMW
1998 Honda Civic 1.4i
Bought: November 2000 for £5,650, 17,000 miles
Sold: November 2001 for £4,300, 35,000 miles

When the Rover blew up, I threw in the towel and decided one and for all - no more bangers. My boss heard about this and organised a deal on this Civic for me via his mate, who was the sales manager of the local Honda dealers that we audited. It had been sitting on the forecourt for a while so I got a good deal on it (apparently). I still don't know why it didn't sell as it was in mint condition and had a low mileage, but maybe it was because it didn't have air-conditioning. As usual with Jap motors it had electric everything, and it was really reliable, but very dull.

Anyhow, in a year's ownership I doubled the mileage, put petrol in it...and...err...that was it. Aren't new cars boring? Oh, I did break a hubcap when I slid into a kerb in the snow, but that was it for unscheduled costs. As usual I got bored (I'm so fickle) so I paid off the HP, and bunged it in the Freeads. However, selling this car was an absolute nightmare, and I still to this day can't work out why - it was a very clean, late-model, low mileage car with all the right bits, long MOT and a full service history. Tried the FreeAds - no calls. Tried Autotrader - no calls. Got suckered into Cardata as it was the only call from the Autotrader ad - £90 later and a promise of a guaranteed sale, nothing. Don't follow my example, if they ring up, just hang up (or you can be more polite about it). Kept up the FreeAds (as it was free), but I ended up dropping the price by a grand. Had quite a few tyrekickers by that stage but then a Indian bloke bought the car after a harrowing six weeks on the market.

I was certainly glad that was over - back to bangers.

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