Obviously there aren’t enough active car threads so here’s another 🙂

I’m toying with spending top end e-bike money on a fun car for hi days and holidays that might appreciate in value.

I’m thinking Boxster – not sure which model
Or a Z4 or maybe an Alfa of some description.

A cayman would be nice but out of price range.

What would you have?

Slightly different idea, ep3 Civic Type R. Relatively cheap to run, great to drive and reliable as you can get. If you can get an unmolested one and keep in good condition then it’s unlikely to drop in value.

A mk1 TT quattro 225 well looked after, low mileage etc etc surely has to be a good shout… just had a look on auto trader and theres one for £5k with 67k on the clock

Classic Impreza. Very hard to find a clean one but might be worth the hunt. They’re the only iconic rally car that haven’t absolutely rocketed in price yet.

I’d love a 2 door Sti but they’ve already rebounded quite a bit. 4 door GC8 in a nice colour would be the one.

Old, clean mx5. 350z, boxster isnt a bad shout, z4 still has further to go. 924 & 944 porsche, can get a bike in the back then. Integra in budget?

Depends on if you’ve time to repair and to what degree. I’d probably go for a poor condition focus RS mk1 to fix up, or a Clio 200 Cup. Both great track cars.

Edit: forget about the RS, even crap ones are going for over £15k..bonkers

Toyota Celica, bulletproof and you’ll get a near minter for a lot less than £5k.
I paid £1700 for mine with 100k on the clock it was a beauty.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133421415497

Dear God, a nova with a 2l engine in it would be a death trap.
the entire car was considered the crumple zone so putting more power in it would be lethal.
Having said that, I bet it would be amusing / terrifying to drive for the few minutes until you put it on its roof

EP3 Civic is a good shout, but it would have to be an untouched one.
You might, might just squeeze an S2000 for £5k and if you do it is guaranteed to be an investment, prices are only going up on those now. Even worth buying one in not great condition and getting it sorted out.
The other cars I’ve seen appreciating pretty rapidly are the 90s Jap turbos like the MR2 and Celica GT4. You might get one for £5k if you’re lucky, and I can say from experience of the MR2 Turbo that they are exceptionally quick, very well handling cars for the money.

You may get a boxster for less than 5k but the bills to keep it running will be huge.

I bought a boxster s with 60k on the clock for significantly more than 5k. It’s an absolute money pit. The clutch went, and by the time I’d replaced it, thrown in a new ims bearing and some other bits and bobs, it cost me 3k.

Great cars, but I would be wary of spending 5 grand on one.

I have a Cayman gen2, and a mate has a Z4 2.5, and another has the new Mx5. The Z4 was less than a third of the cost of my Cayman, and he has a great time in it! Newer MX5 similar price, but slower, not as practical, but still must be great fun.

Personally… if you’re spending 5k, don’t expect anything to appreciate unless it needs a lot of work and money spending on it! Else we’d all be buying them.

Boxster/Cayman is practical with frunk and boot, you’ll get way more in than almost any other 2 door sports car. Mine is my only car and has bikes on the roof most of the time with room for tons of stuff inside.

For £5k I’d get an old Mx5 of Z4 if you don’t mind the increased fuel bill.

And make sure you’re able to do any work on it yourself.

What sot of fun?
Old Landies seem to be going up in price for some reason

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133421415497

That’s spooky! My first car was a 1985 (B reg) Nova in that blue – China blue apparently.

Z4 or TT are looking favourite.

Old Landies seem to be going up in price for some reason

Old landies are stupid money. You can restore one from a V5 and a rust stain in a field and make a proffit. For £5k you would be buying an unpopular model with a coin toss over the condition of the bulkhead.

Speaking of rust, I reckon MG Midgets and Triumph Spitfires seem to have lagged behind their bigger brothers like TRs and MGBs. They’ve gone up about 50% in the last few years but not by the multiples some models have.

Leftfield suggestion and I’ve never owned one but what about a Fiat Barchetta?

Both a z4 and a tt will depreciate more in coming years. They’re neither rare nor special enough to have bottomed out – once they start getting scrapped in big numbers they’ll go up again, the fact you can buy a z4 for barely over a grand should tell you where they are going next

You may get a boxster for less than 5k but the bills to keep it running will be huge.

Agree, I sold one for £5k a few years ago after using it for 60,000 miles. Was great at start but the last few years where it had 80,000 miles on were a monthly bill of £500+ and something was always going wrong with it.

How is an old Nova £5k?!

You mean why has someone gone to the trouble of engine swapping a Nova and they haven’t used the C20XE for a minimum 150bhp? What a waste.

How is an old Nova £5k?!

Every single person with an old car thinks they’re selling the crown jewels.

I’d say s2000

Classics are going for silly money post lock down people are bored, and the weather was good. Look on glenmarch.com for completed auction prices. Pistonheads classic forum has some educated comments on why the market is where it is.

For 5k I would get a classic beetle, pre 1980 so tax free, ulez exempt, 100 quid insurance. I have had a few and never lost money on them.

Or an e30 3 series bmw, decent ones can be had for 5k if you look hard.

I’d go Honda- less chance of massive bills : )

You can only buy very leggy, very rough, poverty spec Z4s for much less than £4K.

Decent 3.0SE with less than 70k, decent spec and condition are over £4K and will be the ones that remain so as the rest start to get scrapped.

Find one with heated sports seats, the roof motor done and the run-flats gone and you’ll be onto a winner.

Similarly, if you can get a 3.0si Sport Auto Coupe – these are quite rare.

A girlfriend of mine had a Nova van with a GTE engine crowbarred in. Odd driving position (legs way left of the steering wheel and ridiculous torque steer with the big engine. Great fun until a con rod blew through the side of the engine… 😊

Arent Barchettas LHD only?

I’d vote Boxster. Low service intervals (2 years or 20,000 miles) and a big service is only £300 or so. Boxsters aren’t going to get much cheaper either. Oh, and they’re fantastic fun, especially if it’s just a weekend car. Mine’s done 10,000 miles in three years and (after new tyres and a bit of sorting initially) only really cost me fuel.

I could be talked into letting it (04 Boxter S) go though, as I never drive it…

Both a z4 and a tt will depreciate more in coming years. They’re neither rare nor special enough to have bottomed out – once they start getting scrapped in big numbers they’ll go up again, the fact you can buy a z4 for barely over a grand should tell you where they are going next

Z4’s aren’t rare enough, or special enough yet for sure… You can buy a good one for £5k and enjoy it, and it shouldn’t cost a ridiculous amount to run if you buy wisely, but it won’t appreciate…

The right mk1 TT will though… Trust me! They’ve already been scrapped enough in big numbers, TT breakers are buying good cars specifically to break, cos they’re worth more in spare parts (the Z4’s aren’t). This is a good thing for enthusiasts, because it means a ready supply of spare parts at good prices, but also it means that good ones are becoming harder to find. I bought a 225 TT Roadster with 96k on the clock back in October, it has just shy of 99K on the clock now and I’m confident I could sell it for £500 more than I bought it for already… I’m not saying it’ll fetch silly money (you need a 240 Quattro Sport for that, they’re now over £8k for higher milers, and mint low milers are naming their price already, when even 12 months ago £5k got you a reasonable one and £8k was the best of the best!).

The other thing in the TT’s favour, was what counted against it when it was new. Other than how it looked, it was decidedly un-special. Based on a mk4 VW Golf Platform, and sharing many common parts with other VAG cars, it was a style icon but not a driving sensation. This helps the values for sure, as a 3L Sport Z4 is a much better drivers car, but a TT is the one that’s going to appreciate…

You can only buy very leggy, very rough, poverty spec Z4s for much less than £4K.

Not so… I’ve seen decent 2.5 and 3L cars for less than this, not stupid miles, and usually good history too. Yes, if you want a facelift 3.0si with low miles, you best be prepared to shell out £8k or more, but I’ve seen good early 3L Z4’s go for under £3k now.

I could be talked into letting it (04 Boxter S) go though, as I never drive it…

Talk to me Chipps! 😛 I’m still not convinced on Boxster’s long term running costs, but I do know they’re a lot of fun, and their values can’t really go any lower or they’ll all get broken for spares!

Or an e30 3 series bmw, decent ones can be had for 5k if you look hard.

He wants a useable classic, not a lifetime quest! ANY E30 is going to command silly money now, they are a cult icon. Only ones worth owning were M3 (obviously), 325i sport, and the 318is. I’d warrant that hens teeth were now more common than an affordable E30!

A mk1 TT quattro 225 well looked after, low mileage etc etc surely has to be a good shout… just had a look on auto trader and theres one for £5k with 67k on the clock

Too many miles to be a proper collection piece, and too few to be a bargain. Sadly, unless you actually want to use it and just enjoy it and don’t care that it will go down in value (albeit slowly), that’ll be one to avoid. The money is to be made in finding a good one with 100k for under £2k and waiting for values to go up slightly, or drop £15k on a showroom fresh ex press car that’s done about 8k miles from new and stick it in a hermetically sealed bubble.

Remember that whilst you’re considering how to “invest” £5k of your hard earned on an appreciating classic, the traders have been doing it on a daily basis for a long time. So unless you have a time machine, you’re not likely to make much money if anything. In many cases the best you can hope for, is at least getting your investment back after you’ve used it slightly…

Is the fact we are beginning to get to the end of the internal combustion engine era going to have an impact on prices in the future? Which way if so?

Is the fact we are beginning to get to the end of the internal combustion engine era going to have an impact on prices in the future?

It already is… Cars aren’t designed with the same flair or individuality now as they were decades ago, because of the impending death of the i/c engine, which has driven the values of anything collectible up.

Which way if so?

It won’t be universal, there will be a lot of polarity to it. The closer we get to the death of the i/c engine, we’ll see values of almost everything start to drop off a cliff, but the true collectibles, the minimal mile garage queens will start to skyrocket in value, almost regardless of what they actually are! But anything that was a real icon will go through the roof, as they become actual museum pieces rather than just metaphorical ones.

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/list/96/cappuccino/

“Top end” eBike money is £12.5K, not 5K, jus’sayin’…

Clio Trophy if you can find one.

VW Lupo Gti.

Mx5 na or nb…

Bought the GF’s nb four years ago for 3500. If we were selling it now (which e considered doing) we could put it on for 4k.

Not selling it. Recently had the main frame rewelded and the sills done. 600 and 700 respectively.

Great motor for the lanes. Bit leaky, tbh. Need to replace the rubber gubbins as water is getting into the boot and a rear shelf….

Not selling it, am I?

I’d go for a Volvo C30 T5 in Polestar Blue with manual shift, and get the Volvo approved Polestar remap.
250BHP in a relatively small car and the 5 cylinder engines are supposed to sound great.
They didn’t sell many so there’s a chance they may be collectable sometime in the distant future (although the Ford Focus association may hinder that?)
Usable, fun car in the meantime though!

A busso engined Alfa would be a good shout. Revered engine amongst petrolheads and never sold in great numbers (unlike a boxter or Z4) so more likely to gain classic status.

GT or GTV. Running costs won’t be insignificant tho.

Fast Ford? Seen the price of a xr3i?

If you can find one a s2000 would be a good idea.

How long are you planning on keeping it? As that makes a difference.

MK2 focus st. Prefably 3dr, orange in st3 trim.

Why?

Look at the prices of older fords. They only go up.
This is the “asbo” and is critically acclaimed. Might be entering dustbin territory but now is the time to buy. £5k will bag a nice one.

Ok so it’s not German or jap but you watch, it’ll climb in price.

Not so… I’ve seen decent 2.5 and 3L cars for less than this, not stupid miles, and usually good history too. Yes, if you want a facelift 3.0si with low miles, you best be prepared to shell out £8k or more, but I’ve seen good early 3L Z4’s go for under £3k now.

Only the manual – the auto is holding its value better and is rarer – 4:1 maunual:auto with only about 400 autos left. for the SI Auto Coupe – that’s more like 110. Get one in the right colour, spec etc and it should be a winner.

Also, you’ve got to take into account where the TT and the Z$ sit within the product lineup. The Z3 is keeping the Z4 market buoyant and the newer Z4 is more of a cruiser than a sports car as it’s soo much heavier. the TT was replaced by an all round better looking, better driving model, the Z4 wasn’t. The Si Coupe is the rarest of the lot, never replaced and still very pretty and distinctive.

MK2 focus st. Prefably 3dr, orange in st3 trim.

Nowhere near rare enough yet. a £5k one probably still has £2-3k of depreciation before it bottoms out. The Fords going for good money now, and the ones that are appreciating were much rarer, like various flavours of the Focus RS or the Ford Racing Puma

EP3 Civic was a good shout, finding one not “garryed” within an inch of it life might be tricky though

Alpin, is there something special about your nb? Rust free ones are only £2.5k around here last time I looked. I bought mine for £1400 last year and yet to spot any rust…

That said it does look like they are on an upward trend compared to last year