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Maximum budget £5000. Could be a 4x4, a 2 seater or a hot hatch, Not interested in a saloon.
Don't care about fuel costs so the stupider the engine the better (it'll only do 2-3000 miles a year).
Shoot!
Mazda RX-8
You can pick them up for buttons.
Don’t care about fuel costs so the stupider the engine the better (it’ll only do 2-3000 miles a year).
Engines don't come much more stupid than a ****el Rotor
Mazda MX-5
In the usual STW recommend what you have mode!... FN2 Type R?
Prices are pretty much stagnant at the minute and not really dropping. £3.5k will get you an OK one, £5k should get you a tidy one. Parts aren't too expensive either.
Revving to 8000rpm never gets boring. And adds fun at low speeds too. 🙂
Link for illustration purposes, not a recommendation of a specific car!...
Having owned one for a decade until early this year, ep3 type r. They're appreciating now and are great fun as well as very reliable so if you keep it in good shape you'll be unlikely to lose anything
Can't do a mx5 - too slow and too small, I'd love a r8 but I do feel like it'll crap itself quickly! Also the car could be sat around for months on end as I'm out of the country a lot.
My last silly car was a 06 3.2 v6 quattro a3 - I sold it for £3500 and it was top spec everything so with the current prices I'm sad I let it go a few years ago!
ep3 type r is high on the list - any thoughts on how fun these are vs a focus st (although the st looks a bit mcdonalds car parky to me!)
Everything is mad money at the moment, so £5k won't get you far.
MK3 MR2s are great to drive, but useless from a practical point of view.
What do Subaru WRXs go for these days?
Lada Niva.
VW Sharan VR6
Volvo something T5 or R - C30, V50 etc
Think a wrx is in budget too but for the miles maybe an engine risk. Niva - would be fun but I don't want a project.. I only want a silly car whilst my knackered 74 s3 land rover is being built backup then I'll just run that.
Cars are mad money right now - maybe too mad to justify my idea.. the Civic seems the best spec for 5k so far though and probably way more engaging to drive than my a3 was
Mk3 mr2s are too ugly - I really like the older ones but cant justify them sadly
3 litre z4?
3 litre z4?
Shame the coupe is out of the price range, I'd love to have one at some point. They can't be losing much in value now.
haha I'm not buying that sharan!!!
Get yourself a mk1 TT.
Cabrio/ Roadster will be cheap this time of year.
If you want a roof, seems to be a fair few in the 3-4k range.
That's what I say when I'm about to buy something daft.
i'd personally go rwd, but if that's not needed, clio 1x2 is a good shout. porsche 924 or ratty 944 is probably in budget, as is an early boxster
No soft tops - the coupe would be nice but they are pretty much double the cost.. getting into porsche caymen territory
R53 Cooper S?
A barrel of laughs to drive, can pick them up for a couple of grand and pretty easy to squeeze a bit more power out of them- this is putting out 204bhp on th dyno and owes me about £3.5k but you can pick up tidy examples for around the £2k mark. The supercharger whine is addictive! 
^ What Mattbee said up there. I've had a R53 Cooper S, an R56 Factory JCW, now on a F56 MCS with JCW pro tune kit, Very fun cars to drive once you've got them sorted and the early gen cars do need maintenance so factor that in.
R53, look out for Power steering pump which goes and needs replacement, coolant reservoir replacement (they go brittle & crack) amongst other things.
Or you could go R56 cooper S - Factor in timing chain/tensioner kit for this generation of mini as they are a weak spot and need regular oil change plus topping up on the N14/N16 engines.
Nissan 350z?
@mattbee change of pulley etc? R53 doesn't have reach adjust steering is that right? One I tried in our work car park didn't, I guess could fit an afttermarket wheel as I would need the seat miles back.
I have thought about one as well. What is the whine like, turn up the stereo and you can't hear it so it's not always there when you aren't in the mood? I heard parts were quite expensive for them in general?
Had a few daft cars in the past but most are now way north of that budget, including a FD3S RX7 that cost me bang on £5k about 10 years ago 🙁
Still in budget that I have experience of would be:
EP3 Type R - absolute hoot of a car to drive whilst still being reasonably practical
MX5 mk1 - classic, reliable soft-top RWD motoring, lots of fun but pretty basic inside
MR2 mk2 - really, really well put together car, handled great, surprisingly useful boot, you'll only get a n/a for your budget but still well worth a look
RX8 - bonkers engine in a good way. The horror stories are almost entirely from people who bought and expected to be able to treat them like their previous 4cyl rep-mobile. Look after them and they're amazing cars.
And my current 'toy' car - Mk1 TT 225 Quattro. Probably the nicest place to sit of all the cars I've owned. Pretty quick even by today's standards. Drives nice, looks good from almost all angles, potentially a future classic.
On the other hand, £5k would get you through your A1 bike license and set you up with decent protective gear and pretty much any early 2000s bike of your choice.
Nissan 350z?
Aren't they crazy money for VED?
r53s look quite nice - there is one for sale around 5k online but he linked to a thread on a forum of what hes done to it and he was in 15k in a short period of time so I figured they were probably fairly unreliable - does anyone have any comparison on their drive vs a civic? I'm assuming more go karty but slower?
Kind of getting into clio 200 territory now too?
”change of pulley etc?”- mine has a 17% reduced pulley, cold air intake, bigger intercooler and a cat-back Scorpion exhaust.
“R53 doesn’t have reach adjust steering is that right?” - nope, just height adjust. I find the driving position fine at 6’2” with 34” inside leg. Not got as much rearward seat movement as std seats with the buckets fitted to it currently.
“What is the whine like, turn up the stereo and you can’t hear it so it’s not always there when you aren’t in the mood?”- Only really noticeable when you plant your foot, or at higher revs, certainly not intrusive even though the modified air box/cold air intake makes it louder than standard
“I heard parts were quite expensive for them in general?”- not found that myself. It’s packaged in such a way that you do sometimes need to do a fair bit of dismantling to get to bits though so can be time consuming for maintenance.
MGB GT
VW Beetle
Lada Niva
, obviously
Those Civics are ace. Had the 2.2l diesel for a few years. Mate had one too and reckoned there wasn't that much difference performance wise from a TypeR. But I'm ready to be shot down on that
However you can save at least a couple of grand on the 2.2 compared to the TypeR. They handle great, very reliable, and are a great bike owners car with the fold flat seats and class leading space
whats the aversion to soft tops? Lots of them (mx5, s2000, boxster, etc) can be had with a solid roof that bolts on if its a security or noise thing.
are crossfire srts in budget? they're not flawless but they are seriously rapid
mattbee thanks
Soft top - fine as long as I can get a hard top easily.. but mainly I dont want to come back to the car after 6 months to find a leak in the roof if I had to leave it outside.
Never heard of a crossfire.. I'll look! **edit - far too ugly!**
VW Phaeton
Haha Phaeton no way - was on the list years ago though 😀 well my mates list! a porsche cayman cayenne would be more fun
There can be only one option - how many cars are as high as they are long?
This is ex-Andi off of here's wheels. 100 thrusting throbbing horses, with roof bars and rack.
As above, R53 Mini. I absolutely love mine. I like Minis anyway with an R55 on the driveway already and having previously owned an R50 so when I wanted a bit of a toy/project then an R53 was the logical option. Considered various other stuff (Lupo GTI - more expensive/slower / mk1 TT - just didn't really do it for me etc).
£5k should easily get you into a nice JCW or £3k will get you into a tidy standard facelift with money to put on some decent suspension, upgraded pulley/IC/plugs/exhaust/manifold etc.
+ should add, the JCWs especially are only going one way in terms of price.
I have a basic R52 Mini which is a fun little car, only posting to say that its driving/handling make it feel much quicker than it actually is, so I imagine the R53 must be a lot of fun!
if you're happy with a bolt on roof, boxster has to be the prime candidate.
Our neighbour’s partner has a Panda 100hp. He says it is right laugh to drive. He has a Subaru Legacy 3.0 outback estate. Flat six, manual gearbox, go anywhere ( within reason) and few people know what it is.
Legacys are nice but not sure they hold their value that well.
The r53 is interesting but things like this put me off.. £3k recently spent and its for sale for £3k.. hmm:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/294567975983?hash=item44959e9c2f:g:NwMAAOSw3g9hmoau
e has a Subaru Legacy 3.0 outback estate. Flat six, manual gearbox, go anywhere ( within reason) and few people know what it is.
Deffo an option, not truly sporty but with 245bhp a creamy smooth 3.0 flat 6 (that corners better than it should due to the low C0fG) they're great cars. Loved mine, just didn't love the impending big bills and the 25mpg at best fuel economy!!
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Best thing about it was setting off from the lights in the pouring rain, 4 up... basically floor it and no loss of traction, nothing, just off into the distance 😀
Only thing that puts me off and other v6 is that they aren't very tuneable so it is what it is.. which is a pro and a con. Wonder if it'll feel a bit like a heavier a3 3.2 v6 though? and slightly less traction than the quattro?
Civic type R
Mini
Early MX5, slow but do go sideways quite easily if that's your bag.
Leftfield suggestion, Westfield 7, who needs a roof or a heater or indeed any kind of creature comforts whatsoever:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284558052674?hash=item4240fb4d42:g:cJYAAOSwXsVhrm87
will definitely hold value.
350z tax is £280
360z tax is £500
Roughly,
Clio 182,
Megan 225
Golf gti
Boxster 3.2s
Focus st
Audi S4, maybe out of budget