A local farm / activity centre has an open day coming up in October and I figured I may go along with an exhibit. The general idea is to take along and display any old vehicle (well, preferably classic) that you may have that is Rusty and Running.

Whilst I don’t own such a vehicle, I figured it would be easy enough to scan the small ads, both in the local paper and on the internet to find such an oxidised banger. Sadly though, despite having looked for several weeks now, I have been unable to find a suitable car.

I will be fair and say that I wasn’t looking at spending too much. Rusty cars are available you see but they tend to be real classics, barn find fodder that has a unique chassis number, or rare Alfa Romeos. That got me to thinking. Main stream cars are so well made now-a-days that it is the mechanical (or more increasingly the electronic) parts that send a car to its grave. Top that off with so many used cars being available, a mass produced car will be crushed or scrapped long before the good old tin worm takes hold.

Once upon a time, a used family car such as a Ford Cortina or Vauxhall Viva could be found at ten years old with great mechanicals but useless body. Their modern equivalents however show no such signs unless they have been badly repaired or abused during their life. How many Mondeo’s do you see bubbling with iron oxide? Whilst their paint may be flat (and even then you can normally polish them up with a bit of elbow grease) and show a healthy dose of parking dents, the brown flakey stuff is rarely seen.

Of course, anything that is now classified as mildly classic is now rocketing in value. A scan through the back of various classic car magazines shows that unless it is an “in bits” project, prices are going to start north on two thousand pounds. Thoughts of unearthing a running Hillman Imp that has been abandoned in someone’s front garden for years have disappeared.

So my idea of picking up a run of the mill rusty saloon for a couple of hundred quid seems a bit far off the mark. In fact the rustiest find I’ve had so far was right under my nose, and won’t cost me a penny to buy. It’s my dad’s Honda Jazz, which is rusting quietly from several of the scars he has inflicted on it.

The only down side is that it is more battered and running, rather than rusty and running and as much as I may try, I don’t think you can call an 05 plate Jazz a classic!