Breaking 205S Why?

[GLPoomobile 958]

As someone who has been very active on this forum for many years now, I'm still quite irked by the OPs comments. In fact, to be frank, they've pissed me right off.

The people who are breaking 205s (no matter what the circumstances are) are a minority on here. We've got some absolutely amazing resto build topics that are very active at the moment, and those guys deserve a lot of credit and praise for their efforts. To say that "I just get the impression that a lot of the people on here don't even like the 205 like an enthusiast but joined the forum for the sole purpose of breaking the 205's" is bloody insulting to the wider community on here.

 

And you know what, if people are joining up because they have a 205 they need to break, then fair play to them for doing so. It puts the usable parts back in to the hands of the enthusiasts who need them. If they weren't joining this forum to offload their parts, then maybe they'd just weigh the whole lot in as scrap instead, and that does us no good.

 

The whole opening post just seems odd to me. There's a legitimate concern there, but most of the blanket statements made about the members of this forum, and their motivations for buying a 205 or breaking a 205 just don't stick any more. It's like this topic has been stuck in a time capsule for the last 5 years and all of a sudden the OP has decided to open the lid and let it free. But things have moved on, and it's just not relevant any more!

 

Rant over.

Edited October 26, 2014 by GLPoomobile

[speno 239 2 Cars]

Strange quote I thought too , I've just finished welding my dimma and put the finishing touches underneath

This car got passed around that many owners until it came to my ownership

To say folk like me are not enthusiast is strange , when I can jump in my top end audi sports car but most days you can find me driving my pug

[u47sb2 27 2 Cars]

Circumstances often dictate. I'm gradually breaking one of mine to help keep the other 2 alive. This doesn't bother me in the slightest as the one I'm breaking saw road use until it well and truly was done (combination of hole in block, ropey wiring loom and rotten inner wings).

[Stu 18]

I agree that it's all down to personal circumstance and the intention behind breaking one up.

 

I'm halfway breaking a ropey 1600 that came to me with a knackered engine, frankly dangerous suspension, and a paint scheme so dire it's laughable.

 

But, the trim was mint, and my intention was to restore my red track car (that I've owned for 7+ years) back into a tidy standard looking road car.

 

So not only have I saved mine, and put it back to standard, some of the guys off the forum here have had a few cheap genuine bits to keep there's on the road or improve them.

 

There is still a myriad of bits to sell too, so money aside, I've took a ropey car off the road, rekindled my interest and want to use my own car ten fold and will be helping to keep some of the good cars and restoration projects going so do I feel guilty?

 

Not so much.

 

Anyone need any bits?

[GLPoomobile 958]

Stu and Steven, shame on the both of you! Contact the moderator team and ask for your accounts to be cancelled at once. We have no place for you here!

[layton1985 5]

Just been reading through the comments, and it's good to see what people think as for being pissed off aww I am sorry but can you please point out where I mention any names, anyway yes I can agree with both ends of the scale money is well money and family, bills comes first but some of you are having a go at me saying I just assume I'm pointing the finger at everyone and then say I'm breaking mine because some idiot . . . Or it has been .. . . Or it was . . . These are the things I'm talking about, took me years to get on this forum, and I've found some pretty good and useful information, sometimes one thread says you can't do something then another thread says you can etc but I've got there in the end, if crappy cars are being bought because it would cost the earth to make it look normal again then yeah fair enough break it I need parts for my car, I just didn't make myself clear in the original post, I was thinking of the people that start with breaking my beloved like someone else mentioned earlier etc.

 

This is a new paragraph because I am now talking about starting a new paragraph not the above post, is this right? Genuine question because my original post was criticised for not having paragraphs, I don't do a lot of writing or computer stuff hence me not being on here in ages to respond.

 

Anyway don't be offended by someone expressing a thought or an opinion, how are they gonna look at things in a different way if they don't speak?

[forbeslongden 32 13 Cars]

Fair enough

[Mac Crash 78 1 Cars]

seems to me there's a lot of people buying 205's because of the old dated reputation of it being a fast car, I mean a good 1.2 will give it a run for it's money these days!

 

Normally aspirated, such as?

[GLPoomobile 958]

Just been reading through the comments, and it's good to see what people think as for being pissed off aww I am sorry but can you please point out where I mention any names, anyway yes I can agree with both ends of the scale money is well money and family, bills comes first but some of you are having a go at me saying I just assume I'm pointing the finger at everyone and then say I'm breaking mine because some idiot . . . Or it has been .. . . Or it was . . . These are the things I'm talking about, took me years to get on this forum, and I've found some pretty good and useful information, sometimes one thread says you can't do something then another thread says you can etc but I've got there in the end, if crappy cars are being bought because it would cost the earth to make it look normal again then yeah fair enough break it I need parts for my car, I just didn't make myself clear in the original post, I was thinking of the people that start with breaking my beloved like someone else mentioned earlier etc.

 

This is a new paragraph because I am now talking about starting a new paragraph not the above post, is this right? Genuine question because my original post was criticised for not having paragraphs, I don't do a lot of writing or computer stuff hence me not being on here in ages to respond.

 

Anyway don't be offended by someone expressing a thought or an opinion, how are they gonna look at things in a different way if they don't speak?

 

My issue with your opening post was that it comes across as a blanket statement that implies that the behaviour you describe is somehow common place on this forum. My opinion is that it absolutely is not common place (any more). Therefore I struggle to understand why, after being a member for so many years you've suddenly decided to rant about this now, when it's just not an issue any more (again, in my opinion). I even took the trouble to do a skim of the For Sale section a while back after this topic was posted, and I could see no recent examples of people breaking a 205 that wasn't for fairly legitimate reasons (one example being a long term member, definitely a person who I would class as an enthusiast, breaking his track 205 due to the front end being written off).

 

You are perfectly entitled to have this rant, it's your opinion. I just happen to think you are wrong. If you'd posted this a few years ago than most of us would be totally in agreement with you.

[dcc 855]

I love pulling apart 205s. If I had sold on some of the ones I have owned and broke then I wouldnt be happy. Rust in hidden places, fiber glass to cover accident damage and some very dodgey wiring.

 

Some cars i have sold though were not even for a second considered for breaking.

 

At the end of the day its a car, the fewer there are the more saught after they become. One day I will break my grey car - its basically got enough money init to buy a 2nd house! But what ever happens, i dont give a f*** what you think, ill do what i want.

[speno 239 2 Cars]

Do you vet the person when you buy a second hand part ?

Also If the said part was dirt cheap and came from an average car what was too good to break in your eyes , would you still buy that part?

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

Yes plus extras

[Henry Yorke 269 3 Cars]

I remember when Dino was trying to sell his nicely specced Sorrento Mi16 on Jenveys and no one would buy it for £4k, so he broke it and made approx £8k and bought an E36 M3!

 

Contemplating breaking my CTI.....

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

I remember when Dino was trying to sell his nicely specced Sorrento Mi16 on Jenveys and no one would buy it for £4k, so he broke it and made approx £8k and bought an E36 M3!

 

Contemplating breaking my CTI.....

The funny thing is that the same car lives on as a standard 1.9 and us probably getting on for worth about the same as he wanted for it with truck bits on..... How times change!

[Daviewonder 533 3 Cars]

So how much is a average 205 GTI worth in bits then? Whenever I try and work it out I can never seem to come up with anything near what a complete one goes for.

 

Rebuilt beam £200?

Tidy Half leather £150 - £200?

Engine £60 - £150?

Wishbones pair £40 -£50?

Parcel shelf £15 - £20?

Wheels £80 - £150?

Rear Calipers £40?

Shell £150 - £200 (I couldn't even give one away a while ago)

Edited November 18, 2014 by Daviewonder

[Mac Crash 78 1 Cars]

So how much is a average 205 GTI worth in bits then? Whenever I try and work it out I can never seem to come up with anything near what a complete one goes for.

 

 

If your patient then your looking at around a minimum of £1,000 for a standard road car, all things considered... obviously it's much more economical to break a dog (shell's gone) than a genuinely saveable example, the more the car is worth, then actually you'll make less by breaking it, obviously.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Davie,

 

Your missing all those hundreds of small parts that go for silly money on eBay. Like single dash parts or GTI body kits.

[GLPoomobile 958]

I should imagine that breaking to sell off bits is actually quite an arse ache, so you have to weigh up the pros and cons. I know when I've sold off parts that I have laying about, it becomes quite a big undertaking even for a relatively small collection compared to a whole car's worth of bits.

 

There's the admin side (if selling via a forum) of tracking whose enquired about bits, who you've promised stuff to, whose paid you, what you've effectively sold and posted. Then there's the weighing and packaging of bits. Then organising the postage. On the subject of postage, everything is so bloody expensive to post now that it can become impossible to sell lower value items unless you offer as collection only.

 

Then there's having to make yourself available for collections.

 

And of course the inevitable being pissed about by time wasters.

 

And if you sell via eBay.........well eBay and Paypal, need I say more?

 

Oh, and the time and effort spent actually stripping a car and storing bits till they sell. Some bits might not sell, or may sit in storage for weeks/months/years.

[MaxGTX 8 1 Cars]

We have the same issue on the micra forum. If you can even call it an issue. Someone breaks an ANK11 March (Micra Import) and everyone loses their minds.

I'm a car guy, I don't want to see a car parted out. If that means one too far gone is used as a donor for one that just needs some tlc, so be it!

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

So how much is a average 205 GTI worth in bits then? Whenever I try and work it out I can never seem to come up with anything near what a complete one goes for.

 

Rebuilt beam £200?

Tidy Half leather £150 - £200?

Engine £60 - £150?

Wishbones pair £40 -£50?

Parcel shelf £15 - £20?

Wheels £80 - £150?

Rear Calipers £40?

Shell £150 - £200 (I couldn't even give one away a while ago)

It's worth noting - it wouldn't be particularly sensible to go buying cars at 'the going rate' to break.

 

The ones to buy are the ones with a ropey body, accident damaged etc so you can just discount those knackered parts from sale and pay less of a premium for the vehicle in the first place.

 

As Allye mentions, it's the dozens of £10,£20,£30 parts that take the total up. You need time, space and lots of enthusiasm though.

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

I should imagine that breaking to sell off bits is actually quite an arse ache, so you have to weigh up the pros and cons. I know when I've sold off parts that I have laying about, it becomes quite a big undertaking even for a relatively small collection compared to a whole car's worth of bits.

 

There's the admin side (if selling via a forum) of tracking whose enquired about bits, who you've promised stuff to, whose paid you, what you've effectively sold and posted. Then there's the weighing and packaging of bits. Then organising the postage. On the subject of postage, everything is so bloody expensive to post now that it can become impossible to sell lower value items unless you offer as collection only.

 

Then there's having to make yourself available for collections.

 

And of course the inevitable being pissed about by time wasters.

 

And if you sell via eBay.........well eBay and Paypal, need I say more?

 

Oh, and the time and effort spent actually stripping a car and storing bits till they sell. Some bits might not sell, or may sit in storage for weeks/months/years.

You've hit the nail on the head there!

[forbeslongden 32 13 Cars]

Still, could be worse, we're not exactly on Peugeot 605 levels of decline!

[Dai1983 1]

another thing that gets me is the amount of people that think they are gonna become a rally driver, they get a decent 205 totally ruin it never ever rally it then think it's worth a fortune because it has a s*ite roll cage a cheesy passenger aluminium foot plate battery behind seat and all the interior ripped out

I know what you mean with this but I'll add my 2p:

 

I'm looking for a project to get back on the road. I have good mechanical skills but I'm interested in building on my basic welding skills and maybe do some paint while I'm at it. How complete the car is and in what condition would dictate weather I go standard or caged, gti6, 309 beam etc. In my mind I'd rather a decent condition but stripped out car than a poor but complete car. I wouldn't strip out a minter however but I'm not looking for one.

 

I intend on using it almost entirely on the road and it will replace my current toy which is a 03 R1. Sometimes I'll have my young son with me and, while I wouldn't drive it like an assshole at any time, 205s do have reputation for LOOS and being made out of bean tins. I guess this maybe plays a factor in what people do to them. Maybe I and others with such concerns should stay away but the 205 is an icon and it's a car I keep coming back to wanting time and time again.

 

Somebody compared the situation to old Escorts. I think there's a while yet before 205s get that expensive but I imagine it's within ten years. I'd also rather a usable, stripped out, caged, arched and zetec engined Escort than a standard but mint car that I would be scared of driving just in case I got it dirty.

 

You should Just be thankfull the days of horrendous bodykits have gone and this isn't the VW scene where air suspension, stretched tyres, rat look etc are very common.

[Jemehan 3 1 Cars]

Just read through the topic, THIS is why i miss this forum, and a massive part of why i miss 205 ownership.

 

I had to sell my pug because it was my daily and costing me a fortune to keep on the road, bits falling off, car decided it'll have a strop and not start, or just run like a pig. I do miss my 205 and would love to have another.

 

Currently i have a AW11 MR2, which is fantastic, but the forum does not have the same sense of... enthusiasm, as you guys! The fact that you all have these opinions and judgement is good! Some cars need to be broken, some repaired. I do agree however, its down to how doggy the car is and if you can afford to fix...

 

Bless you all, makes me want another GTI!