Last year I bought my wife this for our 15th wedding anniversary.

Hair down by Alex Leigh, on Flickr

In that year, it’s done about 500 miles. She’s just not got time to use it and hates it sitting on the drive, and I actually love driving it but sadly am about 6 inches too tall. So we’re going to move it on and buy something we both can drive (well let’s be honest, it’s me really). Mainly 30 miles to Cheltenham and to the local pub and anywhere we’re not taking teenage kids and dog.

I can’t get much past an MX-5. I know it’s all a bit hairdresser but I’ve almost no dignity left anyway 😉 Or a Honda S2000. Budget is 5-6k. This is not going to buy me a Jag XK sadly!

So we want something a bit bigger but not big, fast-ish without being nuts, reliable, not going to fall apart/rust if left outside and, enough space in the boot for something other than a small bag of grapes.

Anything else to consider?

MX5 hard to beat at that money for driving enjoyment, not the fastest and wont win any bragging competitions but lovely things to drive and explore limits in.
surprisingly capable with a decent peddler behind the wheel too……. easy enough to quiet the “Hairdressers car” crowd on a trackday thats for sure.
Merc SLK is in budget, TT, Z3 / Z4 at a push

Splendid! The stuff you went through to get that car too. 😉

S2000 will be too quick I reckon if you’re not wanting proper loopiness.
Z3?

Personally I’d get an S2000 myself. Ultra reliable, loads more grunt than an MX5 and bigger too.

Have a look at this:

Similar thread.

Lots of lovely S2000’s out there – very tempted. 😀

That or an MX5 when the Punto dies.
But can’t help thinking that the S2000 might just be the last of the ‘proper’ Hondas.
The pre camchain VFR800 of the car world.

6k would buy you a series 1 Elise too……. but your mrs would hate it 😯

£5-6k will get you a jag XK…

£3k upwards according to Autotrader.

Might need a bit of TLC to get it in shape, but it’d definitely doable.

Budget is 5-6k. This is not going to buy me a Jag XK sadly!

Some XKs on autotrader well under budget. I quite fancy one myself actually.

Jon – yes I believe that’s why it’s taken so long to have the conversation about it 😉 Still it was ace fun doing it, and we’ve had fun driving it but there’s no point it sitting on the drive and it’s not practical for me at all.

I do like the s2000s. That’s a useful thread. I’m not going down the XK route, I just know the words ‘money’ and ‘pit’ will enter my vocabulary. I know nothing about cars other than a vague intuition petrol is sometimes involved.

Really wish I hadn’t looked at that XK link!

mx5

Looks like you can get quite a lot of MX5 for £5k.

Can you not get a windscreen extender and/or a bucket seat (+ cushion for the missus)..?

apart from the boot space – how about the last MR2 they made?

Mate just bought a old Porsche boxter for that sort of money, looks and sounds amazing, he also not far from Cheltenham and knows of a good independent dealer to service them too.

Klumpy – it really is tiny, it’s not just the fact you’re looking at the roof lining, it’s just very small inside. Which is ace. If you’re 5ft4. At 6ft, it’s like trying to put an octopus in a string bag!

MR2 – not really floating my boat.

Porsche – I think that’s probably XK territory… 😉

Not going to get much to trade ours. Bit quirky. Probably have to sell it first (which is about the least favourite job of mine) or accept we’ll lose a lot if we do trade. This is a bit of a conflict with my ‘can I have shiny now’!

S2000 all the way.

Bullet proof and great to drive

Got to be a Honda S2000, I bought it new and had it for 6 years and it never missed a beat. Go to http://www.s2ki.co.uk for buying advice, a very helpful site.

Smart Coupe 🙂

My mate is a petrol head, had elises, super 7s, etc.

Reckoned the Smart was the best handling, just the gearbox isn’t great.

can get a lot for £5-6k….

Another vote for S2000 (I’m not surprised to see all the recommendations before) great car, Honda quality and reliability and you can drive it sensiblely if you / your wife wants.

I wouldn’t buy a Porsche for 5k decent ones hold their value really well so not much worth looking at below £10k IMO.

Definitely a Z4 over the Z3.

MX5 is perfect for wife assuming you are not going to drive it.

I would double check the road tax situation vs engine size and age of the car, it pains me to pay nearly £500 for a car that does 3000 miles a year.

I really think you should drive and then consider looks in the equation.

The S2000 is lovely but I’d shit myself if I drove it quickly.

The MX5 has alot less power but at the ends of its grip (and over) its simply sublime.

MR2’s boot is crazy tiny for even a purse.

If its just to bimble along fairly quickly in my money would be on a coupe TT or S2000.

If its for a laugh I’d look at the mk2.5 MX5 or (if you can stretch moneywise) Elise..

Be careful on the S2000s, they can drink oil in the earlier models and I suspect the high revving engine doesn’t like being run dry.

That said they are really nice driving cars and because of the VTEC drives like a normal 2l car below the VTEC switch which was 5000rpm IIRC. 5000-8000rpm was fairly mental but below that just normal 2l.

Wish I still had mine 😐

Z4 isn’t a bad shout and servicing costs aren’t crazy, the obvious choice is the S2000 though (although not exactly a relaxing Sunday driver IMO as need to be rev’d hard/lots of gear changes to keep it feeling sporty).

S2000 without a doubt.

I owned mine for 5 years, and 40000 miles. It never went wrong, and cost nothing more than routine servicing.

They’re not that fast in the grand scheme of things, but plenty fast enough to be fun.

For something well built, quick(ish), soft top etc I’d go either mk1 TT, S2000 or Z4.

If I wanted to spend a fraction of your budget I’d get a mk1 MX5. For your budget though, in comparison to the three cars above I’d go nowhere near a mk3 MX5.

I’d go nowhere near a mk3 MX5.

Grownup isn’t it but utterly Jap-Saloon driving dullness.

Thanks all. We’ll go and drive some. No rush, it’ll probably start raining again by the time we’ve decided. I’m sort of down to

MX5 Mk3
S2000
Z4 (BM tho, can I do that, not sure…;) )

First tho, go ride my bike. Less confusing!

MX5 is perfect for wife assuming you are not going to drive it.

😯 😉

Budget is 5-6k. This is not going to buy me a Jag XK sadly!

Oh yes it is – and make sure its the R 🙂

I’ve had two MX-5’s already. That makes me a young middle-aged Queen 😯

mk1 TT…

Either 180, 225 (both 1.8L T) or the 3.2L V6.

*points and laughs at Alex’s mid-life crisis #94*

😉

(from the safety of my clapped out land rover defender mid-life crisis, obviously)

944 S2

Alex, that little Suzuki is a beaut! A guy I work with has one, although a dick in a white van drove into the back of it at a controlled crossing a couple of months after he bought it. Insurance wrote it off. 🙁
He might be interested in yours, what are you thinking of asking for it?

I’d be thinking of a mk1 TT in 3.2 V6 flavour or s2000.

The jag may throw a few big bills at you that you *should* avoid with the others.

Not sure if 350z can be had for that money yet?

Long time since I’ve seen a suzuki cappuccino.I had one for a long weekend when they were launched and loved it!How much do they sell for now?

Stoner, yeah yeah at least I’m honest about it. It was that or buy a FS 29er. Leave me a shred of dignity eh? 🙂

CZ – dropped you a mail.

It’s a brilliant little car. Live driving a Jack Russell! Amazingly quick for a 700cc engine (turbo tho and very light) and superb in the corners. I get back in my yeti and it feels like a transit van.

Only about 1000 were imported. There’s 400 or so left registered and I saw some right dogs. They go from about 1k or less for ones that need basically rewelding from scratch to silly money for perfect ones. Ours is a really nice one and we spent some money on it as well. Don’t expect to get it all back, but it was worth it to see the look on my wife’s face when she realised I’d bought it for her.

I take it you are well now we’ll qualified in the origami art of the roof back together! I may need to look at getting one!

Yeah the roof is simple once you’ve done it a few times. Getting it into the boot however requires a bit more patience 🙂

fnarr