Another car thread… Clio 172

you do need to drive both if they’re on the list. They are so different though that one of them will be off the list as soon as you drive the other.

MX-5s feel fast, then you look at the speedo and realise you’ve not even cracked the limit. Clios can really ‘make progress’ when you let it rev.

Never mind the fact that you can get your biking kit in one of them (without using the passenger seat), and the other is a 2-seat drop-top

Aye I agree Flange (re the buying a cheap car, I’ve no experience of Alfas!), was more curious about what folk think of the Clio. Been as it’s gonna be an everyday motor, I’m thinking upping the budget a bit might be a better investment.

*edit* And yup, I realise they’re VERY different cars, my criteria is… odd, I guess. Basically, I want something fun that I can live with every day. Biking kit isn’t really too much of an issue, we’ve got another car for that – I’ll probably never do track days, but I like to have a bit of fun driving on the road.

but I like to have a bit of fun driving on the road

got to be the MX-5 then, anything else is against the STW rules of slowness.

I’ve got another car for biking too, but every-so-often the road to the trails is a bit tempting……….

Depends what you mean by upping your budget really – its all a bit of a gamble. Spending £1500 on a ‘better’ Clio might mean you’re buying a nicer car, or you’re buying one thats £700 over priced.

Drive one and see what you think. I thought mine was a cheap car that was a laugh to drive. If I was doing 30+ miles to work each way then I’d probably get something else. It was also very ‘french’ in its build quality and sometimes I didn’t want to rev the knackers off it to get somewhere, at which point it was a bit of a chore. For £800 you’re not going to worry about chucking a mucky bike in the back of it either.

One more thought – I used to use my car every day and would have been buggered without it. Hence I had a derv BMW that was pretty dull but never failed me. I get the train now and ride to the station so a car for me is a nice to have. Therefore I’ve got a V8 petrol thing that if it breaks, I can still get to work so it doesn’t matter.

Depends what your priorities are I suppose…

Sadly car or bike is the only way to get to work, and whilst the 40 mile round trip is nice once in a while, I’m not fit enough (and too stinky without a shower) to do it every day. Well, if I want to be productive at work, anyway. So something reasonably sensible is important. That said, *most* of the time I’ll be able to drive the Yaris to work and drop the Mrs off, just sometimes she’ll need a car during the day so I’ll need to drive myself. So it doesn’t need to be too sensible.

Buying a cheap second hand car (or indeed any second hand car. Or car, let’s be honest) is ALWAYS a gamble. Part of the fun innit 😀

I suppose i can add a bit more to this thread, not only have I had a 172 Cup, but a 182 Trophy, and an MX5.

The MX5 is slower, girlier, as rusty, leaky, but much more fun, and far better built.

Spend 1500 quid, get a 1.8 with an LSD and drive the nuts off it, then sell it for what you bought it for.

Post Pics!

Ok heres another- I had a 1999 Puma Yahama 1.7 back in 2011 for a year for £900. It had full main dealer history and the liners were good as it loved to be revved and driven. You could get a bike inside and it looked abit different. Like the MX5 it aint as fast as a Clio but boy its fun.

Drive a MX5 though. Then drive a Clio.

Looked at Pumas, I’m not averse to them but in the end I decided that I want something *completely* different to the Yaris, and that I really wanted rear wheel drive.

Not sure where I got the Clio idea from, probably because I saw one cheap and I get easily distracted by shiny things.

How about a MR2? Slightly quicker feeling than the MX5 but I’ve no idea how you’d get a bike on it.

Not too keen on the MR2, the mid engine apparently makes it a pain to work on and there’s the square root of bugger all luggage space (I know there’s not loads in an MX, but there is a bit).

Off to look at what looks to be a nice one at the weekend, but now super paranoid about chassis rail issues.

Anything of that age and price will probably have some rot on it. Mk1 MR2’s will be riddled with it, similarly to an MX5.

Nothing wrong with cheap. You’ll be more willing to drive a £800 car harder than a £2500 one, less to lose. Equally, if its something you intend to keep, you’ll have to replace all those regular bits anyway, may as well have it done to your choice. My cheap old Octavia has had most of its front end polybushed by the previous owner and feels a lot better than newer, lower mileage cars – little things like this can make quite a difference.

Nearly bought a 172/182 as a stop gap after our MX5 got punted down the motorway by a van. But as a stop gap hot a Corsa as less to go wrong and easier to sell on as there is a big demand from new drivers for them. Lost no money on it.

172/182 is one of the few French cars I’d buy, but we had other long term replacement plans (944).

I had a full fat Clio 172 & loved it.
Fab handling & brakes (especially after I fitted Eibach Pro springs).
It had loads of grunt low down & revved hard too. Went like stink.
I never had any electrical or mechanical issues with it in four years of ownership other than the common airbag warning light issue which was a cheap fix.
It’s a big engine in a little bay so labour fees add up with any work as the front often needs to be removed so its often worth getting jobs done at the same time ie aux belt & water pump.

Alittle leftfield, how about a Impreza Sportswagon WRX?……

I’d quite like an Impreza, though I think I’d probably end up in a ditch (to be fair, I would with a Clio too) but any in budget seem to be getting to the age and mileage where they’re likely to be going horribly and expensively wrong.

The appeal of the MX and the Clio (and the Puma is on the list too) is that they’re pretty simple if something does go wrong.

Some people struggle because they automatically lift off when a AWD slides….

You can put any car into a ditch- its speed/aggressive steering input etc combined that put you there.

@titusrider- how does a magazine editor afford all that?

Any thoughts on MG TF 160? Seen a decent one locally, 58k, headgasket and all belts done (I believe the headgasket was a problem on K series engines)

had a tf 160 for a few years from new. Cost a fortune and sold it 5 years later for 2800!! gutted i did as i spent thousands on it as well.

rubbish as anything other than a fun car. you need to press on with them though else it doesnt work. I would have another but loosing all that brass always makes me shy away now.

Is it the 1.8? I thought it was the 1.8K series that had the HG issue?

I don’t see a problem with that car- EVEN with the HG issue, I’m sure they brought out a redesigned HG template? Also- EVEN if it did go again, theres alot of garages well-versed in changing them bringing the price right down.

As transport it aint a bad car.

Yup the TF 160 is still a 1.8, but the one I’m looking at has had the HG done recently anyway, looks quite tempting. Gonna see if I can get a test drive I think.

If i was spending £800 on a car i would look at a Toyota Celica,

I’ve looked at some Celicas actually, kinda decided to up the budget to 1.5-2k now. New kitchen can wait 😀

TBH it depends on what you need from a car. For me, key was tip-trips, carrying bikes, camping gear and a 4yr old and a car ASAP that was cheap and could easily sell on (as it was a stop-gap)- I got a 07 Xsara Picasso for 1,500. It took me to Belgium/France and back and tbh apart from being absolutely butt-ugly I struggled to fault it.

If I was spending 2k again I’d look at the older Subaru Foresters

No one ever wanted these but it is very cheap

No kids and we have a Yaris for when we need to transport stuff (it’s amazing what you can fit in that thing) so it’s a second car really – commuting on nice days and when MrsMonkey needs to drive to work. If we can cram enough stuff in for a roadtrip to Europe then all the better…

Fun to drive is the main thing; fast isn’t that important or I’d buy an old BMW.

I did look at 206 GTis, I’m just not keen on them… But that is silly cheap.

2k gets you a (good) mk1 TT. If you get the right car, thats a bargain.

I looked at TTs as well actually, but I’ve not had the best experience of 1.8T engines (I killed one in a Passat) and the Quattro is a lot to go wrong as well. Lovely cars though, an ex MrsMonkey used to have one.

No kids and we have a Yaris for when we need to transport stuff (it’s amazing what you can fit in that thing) so it’s a second car really – commuting on nice days and when MrsMonkey needs to drive to work. If we can cram enough stuff in for a roadtrip to Europe then all the better…

TBH I’d focus entirely on one car then as a full element to counter/compliment the Yaris in the household- the MX5. Be prepared to travel, both drive up in the Yaris. Aim for a 04/<60k MX5 and go and see it on the rainest/horrible day possible and suck your teeth and wipe the water off the hood as you look concerned…

If you didn’t have the Yaris I’d say go look at at MG but you don’t need any practicality- saying that the MX5 has a decent boot and a Saris Bones easily sits on the boot for bikes…

I’d have thought the TF would be even less practical than the MX5 if anything, it’s got the engine in the middle!

My A3 1.8t has the same engine. Good engine, chain driven (so no timing/cam belt), but need to have regular services. So a good history would be ideal. I have had no issues, and local servicing is cheap. No experience with a quattro tho, mine is regular fwd. i think the mk1 TT is a future classic.

Another to consider is the BMW 3 series compact. My neighbour has an 02 reg one, mint condition. Not sure what engine but he loves it.

😯 for some reason I had that hatch Rover/MG in my head before – oops 🙂

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201410027881859/sort/atcustom/onesearchad/used%2Cnearlynew%2Cnew/model/3_series/postcode/ch71gu/make/bmw/keywords/Compact/quicksearch/true/page/1/radius/1501/usedcars?logcode=p

k series gets a bad rep.

if you accept that the HG is a consumable and changed them as you would a cambelt they are a damned good engine.

easy to work on and a hoot in the right car – and with a mechanically sympathetic driver – warming up and cooling down not redlining from the start and just turning the key off after a good thrashing.

my mates lotus is a scream – only issue with working on it is storing the clamshell without damaging it – and if you dont take it off access is helish.

Found a screwdriver from the factory in the clamshell foam the first time it came off.

another mate had a TF160 -it was a poor mans lotus , also great fun but no where as sure footed- but given the lotus was circa 12k and the tf160 was circa 1.2k….its close enough for me. – in the really bad winter a few years ago he got caught out nursing a HG failure – he had topped up the water too often and diluted the Antifreeze – the pipes that run from the rad at the front to the engine at the rear had frozen he isnt exactly sympathetic – cooked engine.

“2k gets you a (good) mk1 TT. If you get the right car, thats a bargain.”

as long as you are prepared to walk away from that 2k should anything go wrong – 2k doesnt get you alot of PARTS – never mind labour for a mk1 TT

I’m morally against any BMW with less than 6 cylinders (except maybe the E30 M3 which I *think* was a 4) and it’s the same potential issues as the TT mentioned above – maybe cheap to buy, but a good chance of ending up silly expensive.

The TF160 I’ve seen has just had the HG done, by the time it needs doing again (I guess about 30-40k?) I’ll probably need something big and sensible anyway.

“The TF160 I’ve seen has just had the HG done”

thing is – who did it . how did they do it , and why was it done

was it done because it had failed and cooked the block . was it skimmed or has it been thrown back together with anew gasket to disguise the fact its ****.

was it done because it was starting to burn a little oil/use a little water

or was it done as a precautionary measure.

if it was me with a tf160 i was selling and id paid for it to be done proper id have it all documented in reciepts…

no reciept no buying- a new HG on a (not horrendously)warped head will hold good enough to sell… .3 months time – yay another HG.

Good advice – reckon I’ll go have a look, but with that in mind.

Pfft, MX5 not practical?

What about a wedge shape Honda Type R?
The Wife has one and scares the bejesus out of me regularly.
Its pretty economical, handles well and is plenty quick enough. Not bad boot space with the seats folded either.

My 1.8T Vrs was a 20v belt driven engine. No chain driven camshafts on that engine. Needs the belt and water pump changing every 60k or 4yrs really. Have they changed the 1.8T?