[Closed] another middle aged sports car thread with a twist

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:

[url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/partner-wants-a-sports-car-please-recommend-her-one ]Similar thread. [/url]

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...

[url= http://www.autotrader.co.uk/search/used/cars/jaguar/xk/postcode/sw184dj/radius/1501/onesearchad/used%2Cnearlynew%2Cnew/sort/default ]£3k[/url] upwards according to Autotrader.

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

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

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 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.

[img] [/img]

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.

😯 😉

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

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

Alex - I used to own a Cappuccino for about 3 years. I am 5ft 6 though!

Loved it to bits, fast, great handling, superb brakes. Some arse nicked it to get home from the pub, and then smashed it to pieces, writing it off 👿

3 years later I was in the market for a new sports car. Test drove an Elise Mk 1 and Mk 3 MX5, BMW Z4

Elise was brilliant, didn't like the BMW at all, stodgy big car feeling compared to other two. Mrs FD said no to the Elise, so ended up with a Mk 3 MX5 2.0 sport.

Although the handling was sublime, it just had no sole, and didn't engage you as it should. I couldn't recommend it to anyone. I later drove a Mk 2.5 and it was way better.

Not much will match the fun and character of the Cappuccino at the price you want to pay.. Other than an Elise.

If you want to know more about the Mk 3 ask away!

Ta. Shall take you up on that. I know we're going to miss the Cappu, but I really want it to go to someone who'll get more use of it than we will.

hora - Member
The S2000 is lovely but I'd shit myself if I drove it quickly.

Can you fit the equivalent of a works components angle headset to slacken it off???

When I was Elise shopping last year, I went to see a £6k Elise, it looked like it had spent the last 6 months in the North Sea! I ended up spending 8K on a good original one, its a great car, reliable (really) and cheap to run.

I test drove an S2000, 3 series, MR2, SLK, Z3, Z4, Cooper S, Crossfire, Celica, Megane, Pugs, Audi A4 and TT.
Bought this, MX5 Roadster Coupe, 1.8.

[URL= http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a177/midlifecrashes/IMG_20130501_172109_495_zps3bfdc3a9.jp g" target="_blank">http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a177/midlifecrashes/IMG_20130501_172109_495_zps3bfdc3a9.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL]

Hard top folds away in 12 sec. Proper full boot that isn't affected by the folding roof, it has it's own separate slot. Reliability, allegedly 38mpg. Easy to have loads of fun enjoying the handling and the open top without strange handling quirks or twitchyness. Not silly fast to get you into trouble and quiet and comfy round town. Only 5 speed on mine, maybe on the six speed 2.0 you can be quieter on motorway, but don't know. I've had it three weeks and keep finding excuses to go the long way to places. Top has gone down for all but two journeys, the heater is great. It's an 07 and came from a main dealer(not Mazda) for under £6k, and costs £233 a year to insure. Just a great fun car, I didn't want either a hobby or a money pit and lots of the things in my list seemd like they would be horrendous to run. S2000 was nice too, but felt dull at low revs, but to make it fun also made it very illegal most places.

TurnerGuy - made me laugh 🙂

MLC - that's about what we're looking for. I do like the folding roof on yours. Looks like a good price as well, can I ask you the mileage on it?

68000 miles, two owners, FMSH. Mazda has a good service history database you can access if paper docs aren't with a car, but mine had every scrap and receipt.

Can you fit the equivalent of a works components angle headset to slacken it off???

😆 I mean its something to respect on damp roads.

I know what would happen, I'd go shopping looking at all the above suspects and..

I'd comeback with another mk2.5. Slower than probably all the above but **** me its amazing fun.

I still remember the foggy nights driving with the roof down, the roof down at night on the motorway. The best time to drive such a car with the roof down is at night or in fog IMO.

When sunny you'd be baked alive.

Thanks MLC. Gives me something to work on. I do like the idea of the retractable roof. Less of them tho.

Hora - you're a strange one 🙂

Try it, you feel the swirl, the darkness is inky and seems to be on your shoulders/all around you. Its eery- almost like a night ride 8)

The fog feels like you are in a 70's horror film

For trundling to the pub with the top down and the Mrs in tow you want noise and low down grunt, S2000 is great but it's fun in a throw it around way that doesn't endear you to anyone but yourself and other teenage boys/middle aged men.

Something that makes a great noise, mileage is low so fuel consumption barely an issue. The Jags with a straight pipe at the back sound INCREDIBLE, chap on my road has one. Anything else V8 would be good. Any new shape mustangs in budget yet? Z4 with a decent exhaust another good call..

@mlc - I have to say that's a nice car especially with the retractable roof

For trundling to the pub with the top down and the Mrs in tow you want noise and low down grunt

I would say noise and grunt won't endear you to the Mrs in that situation either. Being driven fast as a passenger is not really fun no matter what the car, nor is going fast with the top down.

In that scenario all you need is no roof and no kids in the back 🙂