Hijet overheads

Hi,

How long is a piece of string? As mentioned in "How to buy a Hijet", I broached the subject of me wanting a shopping trolley, to SWMBO, last evening. The current situation is that my dinner is not in the dog, which I think means nothing is written in stone. I want/need facts and figures, but will settle for guestimates.

What should I expect to pay for a PRESENTABLE Hijet with a long MOT, a good chance of passing it's next MOT, and RELIABLE (Sorry about upper case, forum will not allow me to go into bold).

What are the VED rates for pre-2002 and post-2002. I assume that 2002 is the change-over point? My Land Rover is VED exempt. SWMBO's Hyundai is £30 ... if she bought a new car, it will cost £140, plus "enhancements" for expensive cars.

What are other's paying for insurance? That's the bit of string. I have three lot's of full NCD (@75%) with LV, who also give a further 10% for multiple insurance (2nd car, house insurance, SWMBO's car insurance, etc) That's 10% off everything. I only have one car, so I MUST buy two more cars. No, hang on, my car is not insured with LV ... they wanted circa £150 to insure the Land Rover ... or £80 if it had a 2.5 engine instead of 2.25 (that's what they said ???) and was garaged overnight. I need 3 more cars. So I went for a classic policy, cost <£100 including Recovery within EU, and Legal cover. I believe classic insurance starts at 20 years old ... but at least one company charges less the older the car. SWMBO has her own full NCD, on her Hyundai. She argued this year's quote from c£300 to <£280, for "market value". I suspect LV are getting snotty, as we are both over 70. But they have been very good to her us ... SWMBO turned the key, took her about three seconds to write-off her SAAB (the assessors costed the repairs, just for fun, gave up at £7,000), my Discovery, and the Transit parked on the other side of the road. She phoned LV. "What happened?" - "I don't know ... I turned the key, and it ran amok". End of conversation. A courtesy car arrived within the hour. They offered her book value, £250, but invited her to offer evidence that it was worth more, they settled for £650. They offered me £1300 for my Discovery, I would have accepted half that, said I could buy the wreck for £130 (10%?) The Transit owner had to make his own arrangements.

So, what do other people pay for insurance?

End of Life? For several years, I would buy a Discovery with a long MOT, for well under £1,000. Pay £250 to have a new cam-belt fitted (if necessary). Fit a set of new tyres (but see later). Drive it until it was eligible for a 13 month MOT, and have it tested, decide what to do. If it was an expensive fail, I'd buy another Disco, same criteria, asset strip the MOT failure ... swap tyres, etc, and put it back on Ebay as a drive away (very short MOT) project, get £300 to £400 for it ... A Series Landrover fitted with a Disco TDi will give 30+mpg, and is TOO powerful ... and the Disco without it's engine is still worth money. I went through half a dozen Discos, one after the other, felt it was cheap motoring.

Question ... would a similar policy be viable with Hijets?

Hang on .... "Darling, do you remember our last Disco? And our 24ft cabin cruiser on the canal? And our cottage in France? And your brand new KIA, that you bought after the SAAB? Did we have them all at the same time? "Yes?" Now ... about this Hijet?"

Do I have the guts to ask?

602 (LMF ... any UK Vets recognise that acronym?)

In May 2013 I bought an 02 reg Hijet with 53k miles for £900. Found out it had a speedo change around 36k, so true mileage then was probably 89k. It's now up to an indicated 68k miles, and apart from a petrol tank it's only needed tyres and brake pipes and rear silencer for MOT.

In December 2013 I bought am 08 reg Piaggio Porter with under 18k miles (genuine) for £2,400. It now has 45k and has only had tyres and rear silencer.

Only one Hijet on Autotrader at the moment, an 02 with 70k miles for £1,475. There's no hard-and-fast rules I think, just a question of what's available and how little you can pay for it.

As for insurance, I'm paying around £400pa for both on one policy with Aviva, but that is full business cover.

Hope this helps.

Hi PFM

Thanks for that. Both you trucks are VED'd on their emissions, being 2002+. What VED are you paying?

I suspect there will be little difference between pre-2002 VED plus classic insurance, and post-2002 VED plus normal insurance.

Anybody else?

602

Mine cost £1400 when I bought it, it's a 51, had 8k on the clock, it can get a bit warm but has a fan override, I regularly do 100 miles + on a journey, and it works fine as long as you keep an eye on it. Done very little to it in the last 5 years, couple of wheel cylinders is about it.
Mine's is an odd one with low road tax but on emissions banding. I pay around £140 with own goods business cover.