I wouldn't be put off by money pit comments. They are what you make of them.
I bough a £1000 182 nearly a year ago. I've replaced rear calipers and cables, serviced it and since done 8k without serious issue. It has failed to start a few times on first click and has some unusual yet mild gremlins however it has never (finding wood to touch) failed to get me to work with a smile. I do intend to spend a fair bit on it this year because I like it, not because I think it will stop working if I don't.
They are cheap to run and own generally but can get expensive (like all cars) if you don't do your own work or don't have a friendly and experienced garage/friend. To put this into perspective, a set of brake pads and disks from a BMW dealer for an E46 M3 is more money than my 182 is worth - 182's are as cheap as you can get fun/cost wise.
I would personally have snapped up the 182 for £2200 above. The airbag will be the cheapest fix of all of them. I would have sold the modifications and returned the car to standard(ish) and probably made £4-800 back.
Failing that I would find the extra money, or do some bartering and buy Landymans car. Its super nice from the looks of it and sounds to have been maintained regardless of cost. Your both £300 apart surely you can both fix that?
That is a very useful post, thank you for taking the time to do this
To be honest with the economy heading the way it is I'm relaxed about not buying anything at the moment as the market seems to be heading downwards across all cars.
However I may circle back on the black one above and then keep a sizeable slush fund to fix anything that crops up.
I'd love to buy landys - if it was 3k I think that would be a good and fair price for a sale for both seller and buyer in the current rubbish market - but appreciate that would mean a £800 reduction of the sale price.
It all comes down to invidiual perception, years ago I had a car and spent a fortune on maintenance - clutch, brake discs and pads, more than recommended servicing, new suspension bits just to freshen the ride up even though they were not really needed - however when I came to sell it the maintenance enabled me to sell it quickly, but not at any kind of major price premium to other examples which were far less well maintained. Often you cannot get back anything like what you have put into a car, but that's life I guess.
I'm rubbish at negotiating, maybe I should let you guys do it for me - your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to get me the RB car for £3k.
Only kidding on the last paragraph and I will finish by saying whether the black one or landys one - both guys have been real gents and are a credit to your community. Price aside, I would trust them enough to pay for the car before seeing it as they are genuine sellers - that is a rare commodity in this day and age!!!