gregjd

As above, looking to get me a fun car within the next few months.. Must be reliable enough for daily use (will be garaged overnight).. Probably only 5K miles a year tops..mostly A & B roads to the station, plus the occasional 2 hour motorway run.

New or used I'm not that fussed.. must just have a certain something..

Current shortlist:

2nd Hand Cooper S (and possibly a Works kit)
Very 2nd Hand 911 (!)..reliability may be questionable here and it would probably be a left-hooker! Seeing as it has back seats I could leave it for the Missus when I need to go further afield and take the Merc instead )
2nd hand Evo VII (I quite fancy a white one, strangely, probably an import at this price!)
2nd hand Scooby WRX PPP or Sti (had a classic before..miss it more than I thought I would)
2nd hand Boxster
2nd hand M Coupe or M Roadster (seen a rare-ish dark green one for about £13K)
2nd Hand Elise or VX220
New (ish) Civic Type R
Import Integra Type R
Import RX8 or 350Z
2nd Hand Golf R32 (bit over my budget)
New Golf GTI (and a much bigger loan!)

Any other suggestions / comments ?

Darbo_wrx

up your budget by £1.5k and buy the GF's evo 6 Tommi Makinen edition
awsum car if i do say so myself

http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/showthread.php?t=402620

and very little depreciation as i think there gonna hold thier value Very well

Bobby Peru

Of that lot I'd go for an M Coupe, destined for classic status, good to drive, reliable and a lot of road presence.

cactus jim

you should buy my type r and spend the 3k change on modding it to a super-beast!!

see my for sale thread or pm if you are interested.

james

scoobyboy1

iTrader: (16)

Honda S2000, looked at a few of them before I bought a Audi TT, and was really impressed, but i needed back seats so i choose the Audi even though a midget would find it cramped in the back.

gregjd

Cheers guys, not quite ready to buy yet (I'm in the throes of moving house) or they'd both be contenders!
Must admit I am swaying towards the M Coupe or Roadster...or something Teutonic generally anyways..

LG John

Honda S2000

Geek Boy

How about an older car with some real charm.

911 3.2
968 CS
BMW E30 M3 evo

jonc

Brand new Clio 182 CUP, plus 3K of mods (optional of course)

bloke

What a bizarre list!!

You must have some idea of what floats your boat...rally rep, sports car, trackday car hot hatch

If you like sports/trackday car don't forget S2000 as SB says

vindaloo

5K miles a year but must be usable daily? Seems to be a bit of a contradiction.

If the Mrs + kids have to use it, how important is having 4 doors or easy access to the rear seats?

Does "very" secondhand include pre-tax-disc Porsche? If so, have a look at Fuchs website for 911s/912s. Not something you'd want to trust others with in the wet though...

DC5 ITR might be the answer or for something smaller, what about a Clio 172 or Renaultsport?

J.

GSB876

Mazda rx7 ????

Rokerlad

Seat Leon Cupra R 225

gregjd

Starting to narrow down my search now.. Budget £15K - £20K.. Current shortlist:

Mini Cooper S (torn between a new one or saving a few squid and getting a slightly higher spec version..maybe a Works one). Chili pack a must but I'm not sure what else I'll need.

Nissan 350Z (early example or an import for this money..Anyone heard anything good or bad about imported Z's)

New Golf GTI (Anyone had any luck getting a discount? I see you can buy EU imports of these at around £2K off list).

Porsche Boxster (as nice a one as I can get for £20K)

Which of the above would you guys go for? They all seem to hold their value well but I could see the residuals starting to slip a little on the Mini as the new model nears, and the Nissan prices may drop too once the novelty value wears off..

JoeyDeacon

Personally I would go for a Porsche Boxster. At this sort of money it has done most of it's depreciating and I can't ever see a day where you can buy a Boxster for say £10K.

midget1500

but to get a boxster for that sort of money you are looking at 8+ year old and 100k+ miles. a lot of money for a car that might start to be a money pit???

Brendan Hughes

Absolutely what he said. The others are frankly bland and will all plummet by comparison, sooner or later.


BUT would you really want to leave it at the station, and use a 3+ litre engine for (what sounds like) short journeys to/from?

Bartop

£20k would get you a very nice new EU import WRX with PPP

I urge you to reconsider sir !!!!

Abdabz

A fleet of Skoda Estelle 120's? You could have one for each day of the month...
Just need a bigger garage - but the remaining 19k of your budget should take care of that
Seriously the S2000 for me, old porches are a no no - every minor fault costs 1 squillion dollars to fix, and I hate mini's with a passion - powered by oestrogen like vw beetles

JoeyDeacon

Good way to loose 10K in 2 years!

There are quite a lot of decent 98/99 boxsters on Autotrader for around £18K-£20K with around 50K on the clock. No way they are going to be worth £8K to £10K in 2 years!

Plus I am certain that 350Z prices will fall once the novelty wears off. When was the last time a Nissan had good residual values?

Cyberevo

iTrader: (1)

If you want sheer fun, reliability, good looks, holds it's value, great track day car, then I would opt for the Integra Type R every time.

monty baber

God forbid suggesting a subaru on scoobynet !!!

scottiescoob

no choice really has got to be mini cooper s without a doubt. get youself along to www.mini2.com.

gregjd

Went and looked at the Cooper S and the New Golf GTI yesterday one straight after the other. The Golf really impressed me..seemed a "class above" the Mini (unsurprisingly really, as I guess it is both in price and size terms). Just seemed somehow more grown up than the Mini (and my old scooby for that matter). Booking a test drive for next weekend.. Needs the 18" wheels though! Interior (with optional leather) looked great. I'm thinking of importing one from Europe as there is money to be saved (especially on the options).

16vmarc

Cooper S - Better cars out there
911 - Enough said!
Evo VII - Bit of a beast!
Scooby WRX PPP or Sti - STi
Boxster - Nice but youd always be thinking of the 911!
M Coupe or M Roadster - M Coupe looks mean
Elise or VX220 - VX220 Turbo is a lot of car
Civic Type R - Bit common now, although pretty good
Import Integra Type R - pretty rare
Import RX8 or 350Z - very cool
2nd Hand Golf R32 (bit over my budget) - bit of a tank
New Golf GTI - Not that impressed with figures

Clio 172 Cup - Alot of car for the money and can give faster cars a run for their money!

gregjd

I know where you're coming from on the 182, but I've not been at all impressed with the reliability and build of our current Clio (albeit a boggo 1.4 example).

99PPPDriver

How about a low mileage Clio V6 255

Why follow the crowd when you can be true individual with the maddest clio EVER!

Most french cars are rubbish, but some are MENTAL!

I just need to find one in black!

Peter