Can anyone think of anything somewhat tastey (2.0 or 1.6 turbo) that will come up cheap with the insurers? Willing to put the work into something older/tired/needs fixing as my dad restores classics 🙂

I made the awful mistake of thinking a VTEC might come out as a hack way of getting something that could move when needed. Lancaster wanted 5K…

Just a bit tired of driving a 1.2 for 7 years. No NCB though as on dads insurance. But may get 2 years with Churchill if I go with them.

See that’s just one of the flip sides to being young 😉

Until I was 21 I drove woefully shit cars 60bhp max, then I bought a 3.0ltr Capri 😀 £300 TPF&T
That was 1986 though things have changed a bit since then.

I had a 3L Granada. Every corner was the sweeney*

* ask your dad

He had a bloody 944 when he was my age. You lot ruined it for us all!

Buy a mk4 Golf TDI 150, get it remapped and then go and annoy porsche boxter owners – make sure and carry a suitable tow rope as you’ll park it in a field, they under steer pretty bad at the best of times and after a remap you’ll eat tyres every 6000 miles but they can be cheap fun (for a diesel).

I had a Lancia Delta Integrale in martini colours at 19 (1991) but i worked as a mechanic and bought it from a customer as crash damaged, spent 12 months and all my earnings repairing it with extensive body and jig work to bring it back into alignment – sold it after 6 months as it cost a fortune to run and keep in tyres but regretted it as soon as i watched it get driven away – stupid…stupid…stupid me 🙁

i can vouch for a diesel!!!! got a mondeo 2.0 tdci titinium x. scares so called sportier cars lad in a corsa vxr had a glum look on his face after a quick blast!!!! try a fabia vrs small cheap and same engines as the golf as its all same company vw skoda and seat.

steer clear of common hot hatches as a lot have bin claimed on insurance thus higher premiums. remapped diesels the way as the gearboxes tough out of the box and low comp turbos stop the dredded pop better mpg, more low down pulling grunt!!!! il never go back to petrol now!!!

Doesn’t fitting Recaros and a roll cage make insurance cheaper? 😀

The only thing I can think of is to trawl through AutoTrader looking at cars you fancy and comparing insurance groups.

Old Focus ST / RS? Mondeo ST220?

Old BMW 130I?

Old Octavia VRS?

Willing to put the work into something older/tired/needs fixing

There may well be rolling eyes everywhere, but maybe try a FD Mazda RX7? I got mine insured ridiculously cheap, especially seeing as it was quite extensively modified, and despite the horror stories they’re a piece of piss to look after. You just have to be a bit more conscious of how you treat the engine and what its weak points are. Fuel consumption isn’t all that bad either.

long time ago me pal had a black rx7 only one ive ever seen in the flesh!!! sounded awsome and shifted too!!! very nice cars and apparently he got dirt cheap tax and insurance due to the 1.3L aspect of the engine (apparently)

if you want old theres a mk 2 fiesta kicking about here with a 1.6 zetec s cdti diesel engine in. had remap and bigger blower and intercooler. kills the st brigade and he has a hoot with the tdci badge on the back and the pittance to run it!!! wide steel wheels on her and a simple white paint job with fishnet recaros. NICE

Whatever you get, add your dad on your insurance as a named driver. I saved £100 doing that, and he’ll rarely drive my car but it’s there for emergency use.

Note that this is as a named driver only – taking out the policy in his name would be fraud if you’re the main driver…

Afraid its less the vehicle and more you postcode, take up Churchills offer of 2 yrs (named driver?)NCD, fit a blackbox and insure it in your name.

Give it a few years and you’ll be able to insure anything for £300 but will have also worked out theres better things to spend your money than pseudo sports cars. 🙂

in my case my postcode not the best, car kept on street, sporty car with 18 inch alloys etc and ive bin driving 9 months now (got quote for me and the wife when bought mondy when i passed my test) shes 24 andim 26 shes got 6 points and 2 yrs ncb and its 739 py fully comp for both of us with our own protected ncb!!!! you just have to hunt around!!!!

Fiat Panda 100hp, cheap to insure and great to drive. Smart forfour Brabus, had one myself and was a cracking little car.

Old Focus ST / RS? Mondeo ST220?

Old BMW 130I?

Dunno what planet these are classed as cheap to insure, my wife looked at the 130i before she got her Gold and cheap to insure it wasn’t!!

Fiesta ST’s are pretty cheap on insurance for a 2.0, or maybe a clio 182 if you want something a bit faster?

got a mondeo 2.0 tdci titinium x. scares so called sportier cars lad in a corsa vxr had a glum look on his face after a quick blast!!!!

😆

Buy a mk4 Golf TDI 150, get it remapped and then go and annoy porsche boxter owners

I doubt it, they will laugh as anyone knows Golfs are incredibly dull to drive. Being able to go from 0-30 quickly as the front tyres scrabble for grip is not exactly fun.

There’s a mention of the Fabia vRS up there ^

Well, have a look at the Ibiza 130TDi Sport too. It’s the same car as the vRS, but doesn’t have the boyed up looks to go with it and the vRS badge so insurance may be cheaper.
They rebranded it FR when they did a facelift, to separate it from the 100 TDi sport version which they kept going.

It’ll feel like a rocket compared to a 1.2 Corsa. The 0-60 on paper isn’t amazing although quick enough. But, it’s brisk once you get it rolling because it just keeps pulling through the gears.

Just be wary of the handling. The nose is quite heavy and you can really feel it, which isn’t helped by the lack of feedback from the steering (the new Ibiza is streets ahead in this department).

If you really want to push the boat out, have a look at a Ibiza Cupra TDi – 160 bhp, bigger turbo & injectors, nicer wheels, bigger AP Racing brakes, front mounted intercooler and more capable suspension than the Sport version. Insurance might be a bit steep.

New Golf GTI/Golf R is cheap to insure for its power due to all the technology to stop you crashing at low speed.

If you’re willing to put work in why not look at something a bit older. Maybe a Mk5 Escort RS2000 or a Mk4 Astra GSi. Although only go for the Astra if you want to understeer everywhere in a cloud of tyre smoke.

Willing to put the work into something older/tired/needs fixing as my dad restores classics

MGBGT V8

3.5l of grumbly V8, not difficult to tune to 250hp+, or just get the supersports version if you can find one as they had that as standard.

He who suggests astra should be killed by pain of death.

Mgbgt- great fun as a weekend car. As a daily driver no one would thank you. Slightly damp day even with a retro fit electronic dizzy they are a pain in the chuff to start on choke.

In the time honoured tradition of suggested what you have, a3 tdi Quattro sport. s3 handling, 45mpg. £250/yr insurance.

cripes. there’s a lot of living the dream in this thread, with all these nose-heavy diesels! 🙂
mx 5?
if those things wore a lotus badge they’d be half as reliable and 3 times the price.

He who suggests astra should be killed by pain of death.

OP said fast(ish) he didn’t specify that it had to be either interesting or have the ability to go round a corner without killing the occupants.

You’ve been driving for 7 years? So you must be a minimum of 24 years old. I’m very surprised that insurance is still a limiting factor.

When i was twenty i bought a Bora TDI (the saloon verion of the Golf/Fabia/Ibiza mentioned above). Insurance was about £800 if i remember correctly. When i was 24 i signed for a brand new Octavia VRS, which is about £450 to insure. Obviously this doesn’t account for my NCB…

Anyway, as for cars to consider; a lot of models in a range will share the internals with the ‘hot’ model, but not be badged as such. My Bora for example was badged as ‘SE’ yet had the same engine / gearbox as the Golf GTTDI / Fabia vRS. The Ibiza above will be the same. I’d suggest this is the place to look.

Don’t buy a diesel! Not until you are old and boring like me. Don’t listen to people who rave about how quick their remapped oil burners are, they are still boring and lack any fun value whatsoever. Get something old and rear wheel drive and enjoy corners and roundabouts. MK2 escort with bored out Kent engine for me but might need a big loan to buy a good one.

I love diesels but they do not corner worth a damn, it always makes me laugh when people tell me their diesels as fast as the petrol version….. Except the petrol actually has handling.

Ability to go round corners is better than being able to go fast…… ALTHOUGH if all your interested in is overtaking then youll be happy.

Mx5 is a good shout.

Buy a MK1 MX5. Won’t be too expensive to insure and will be fast enough, but mostly ‘enjoyable’ enough to keep you interested.

Since they are lightweight things like brakes and tyres are cheap and you don’t need a huge engine to get decent speed from them.

This is one area of life where you end up glad to be middle aged….this is not really going to help the op, but it’ll make me feel better

I have a BMW m135i, and it costs me £250 to insure, the e92 M3 I had before it, cost £350.

Insurance costs really dropped significantly at 40, its the one upside I can think of of being 40+.

I’ve spent thousand on insuring fast cars through my 20’s and 30’s, its nice to not be stung for this any more.

Insurance seems to be getting better value, especially as I get older, probably helped by recent changes that make it illegal to discriminate on gender

I thought having my wife on the insurance would make it cheaper since I have a 320bhp hatchback 😀 But I took her off and it reduced the cost by over £100.

Works out relativley cheap overall at £570, considering I have 6 points and a claim in the last year, and only 2 years NCB.

fit a blackbox and insure it in your name

Telematics insurance probably isn’t ideal, otherwise he may as well stick with the 1.2, the whole point being that you’ll be penalised for using the performance!

I’ve had two GT TDI Golfs – a mk4 130 and a mk5 170, they’re good cars, quick enough, but not a particularly exciting drive (which is fine with me). I’d have thought there are far better options out there. Realistically most modern ‘performance’ cars aren’t going to reach their limits until you’re doing very illegal speeds, so I’d be looking at something a bit older if you want that sort of thing. Something like a mk3 Golf VR6 would probably be more ‘fun’ in that respect.

Old BMW 130I?

I have an ’06 plate one of these. I’m 31 with 7 years no claims insuring in rural Somerset and it’s £400 a year. I don’t think this is particularly cheap.

Epically fun car though. 🙂

Toyota MR2? Sometimes they come up cheaper because they are only 2 seaters so less risk of you binning it whilst showing off for your mates/not getting stolen to be used as a getaway car etc…

Budget?

Newer cars can be a lot cheaper to insure, despite being worth more and potentially better performing too. There was a push a while ago for easier and cheaper repairs, plus better safety systems – ABS and the like, and these days traction/stability control. Newer cars tend to be harder to steal also. There’s also a factor of people spending more taking a little more care.

Worth playing around with online quotes – Admiral/Elephant let you put in your details then keep changing the car and seeing what the result is. You may find something newer that lets you spend more on the car from the savings on insurance. Also worth looking for the less obvious performance stuff – eg. the Civics of 10 years ago, rather than a Type-R, there was also a Type-S with 160bhp in a 5-door body and way easier to insure. Plenty of examples that aren’t the out-and-out performance one but pack a decent engine into a plainer looking model.

MX5 is the best suggestion. Great handling, just enough power and I would imagine reasonable insurance. You can really learn how to drive in one of these. Much better than the fwd diesel options touted.

Ford Racing Puma?

I ran a quote through GoCompare on a Subaru Legacy Spec B saloon and the quote came out cheaper than my 15yr old Octavia diesel estate!

Wife still wouldn’t let me have one – think of the fuel bills! think of the repair costs! Blah, blah, blah!… 😕

Not all modern diesels are nose heavy…

But I still say you’d have to be going a hell of a lot faster in (for example) a current Golf GTD and pushing the limits a lot more for it to become ‘entertaining’, than you would in something like an MX5. And yes, insurance may be cheaper on a modern car, but that’s a bit of a moot point if the car itself costs £20k more!