A friend of mine has come up with the idea of going on a touring/camping/driving holiday this summer – obviously you want a suitable car if you’re going to do that, and he already has one – a 1972 Hillman Avenger 1600. (which he has up to now also been using for autotests and navigational scatter rallies).

I wouldn’t fancy taking a boring, modern car, and my 2nd car (1990 205 xs) is stage rally prepared, with full cage, seats, harnesses, extinguisher, hard as nails suspension etc, and at 60mph in 5th sits at about 3,000 rpm…………..

So, if you had the choice, what would you go for? Nova/205 seems obvious, if a little bit new/conservative, and I wouldn’t want to spend very much money on anything. £2k tops.

I’m thinking maybe something that is reasonable money now but will appreciate in value.

Any ideas?

something you could actually kip in, take bikes, won’t break down and hold it’s value e.g. old Toyota Hiace

Standard answer to ‘what ace but definitely not new car’ quastion – mk1 RS2000.

edit, probably blows your budget though, duh!

Decent 205s seem to be increasingly in the not-as-cheap-as-they-used-to-be category. Novas still plenty cheap, but good luck finding a good one – beige, low mileage, low spec saloons with one previous (now deceased) owner seems the best bet.

For a proper bargain though, I’d go Japanese – get a Corolla or a Sunny or something of that ilk.

EDIT: Think you edited as I was writing – £2K is a bit more than I thought you had in mind.. depending on whether you want something in tip top condition, either a Porsche 924 (you should be able to get an excellent one for £2K) or a 944 (you might get a reasonably okay one for £2K if you shop around and know what you’re doing).

VW Polo GTi. This vintage…

Mrs Binners has had one the same as that one for years. She won’t get rid of it, as she’s very attached. A great car to drive. Like a rocket powered roller-skate. Bloody great fun! And can be had for around your budget. Though they’re now hitting that tipping point where the prices are going up.

Sorry for stealth edit! £2k would be absolute limit, hopefully much less than that in reality!

106 rallye’s are getting really hard to find at sensible money, most are dogs, and a lot of the 205’s for sale under £2k are badly modified for track use, unfinished projects etc.

p.s. eBay scouring is most frustrating as some arsehole has listed a shit load of brake pads (for every car ever made) at £2.5k – nice.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Suzuki-Ignis-Sport-No-Reserve-12-Months-MOT-/121306546510?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item1c3e6f014e

I think the Ford Puma will be a future classic, not that many were made and loads are being scrapped. Lovely little car, quite powerful, great handling and relatively easy to work on. Most of the bits are compatible with a Fiesta so parts are easily obtained.

You can pick them up pretty cheap too (£200 – £1k).

I actually have one of these as a track car. 😉

something you could actually kip in, take bikes, won’t break down and hold it’s value

Or how about a Saab 900? Reckon that ticks all avontyrell’s (and your) requirements

Yes, puma is lovely, one of the best compromise cars ever.
i.e. combination of price/economy/room/handling/speed/etc.

Absolutely loved mine – took it for 2 weeks in south of france and italy, then children came and I moved to a focus. Complete bag of rubbish compared. Couldn’t believe people raved about the handling of the focus!

Last time I looked, you could still find 1-owner versions around what looked reasonably un-ragged.

On the M1 on Sunday I pass a burgundy Ford Zephyr with an older rastafarian gentleman driving it.

I was looking around for the film cameras as it was so classic a scene.

rubber bumper mgb?

+1 Puma. I would have said Racing Puma, but you won’t get one for your budget.

The Puma is ugly!

seosamh77 – Member
The Puma is ugly!

In your opinion…

MX5 with a luggage rack?

I agree that it looks a little odd and a little on the feminine side. That one above has the rear suspension lowered – it’s an odd gap on an untouched one.

But from behind the wheel, it feels great – small, low and very nippy.
The fact that all four wheels break at the same time (rear ever-so-slightly-first) is no mean feat on a fiesta-based FWD car.

Look out for rust. I only had mine 2 years from new, but the bottom of the doors were going on the inside.
There’ll be loads of info on what to look for on old ones online.

It’s the MX5 of the hatch world

Why not Think outside the box a bit 😀

Puma’s are renowned for rust, and I’m not really that keen on them…….

The Puma is known for rust on the arches, but it’s also quite easy to fix. I don’t think they are known for rust elsewhere, unless I seem to have an absolutely amazing 100k one that I got for free 😯

Any 80s hot hatch. Won’t go down in value now, but a nice one might be above budget

£1990

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/used-cars/alfa-romeo/166/used-alfa-romeo-166-3-0-v6-24v-super-turismo-4dr-woodford-green-fpa-201311210054880?logcode=p

No thanks, not worried about carrying bikes, and thinking more, lightweight, not huge power, nimble/nippy sort of thing???

£2250 just over budget but JTS engine so more power/torque and only 42k

http://www.autovillage.co.uk/used-car/alfa-romeo/156/sat_39_82602774

Touring Europe in a 12 year old Alfa? What could possibly go wrong? 😆

core – go and drive a puma before you discount it. Must be easy to find one on a forecourt

Yeah! Alfa 156 or GTV 🙂

Touring Europe in a 12 year old Alfa 2k car? What could possibly go wrong?

FTFY 😉

Alfa GTV 2k Offer! 🙂

Practical classic for touring?
W123 spec Merc estate, diesel if you can find one! It’ll outlive you.

Touring Europe in a 12 year old Alfa 2k car? What could possibly go wrong?

FTFY

yes – when I had my first 156 it caused a bit of trouble – but the guy at the garage said the VW passats were the most troublesome car that the group franchise sold.

roll forward to my last service of my 3rd alfa and they guy was saying how his mate was rebuilding about 2 VW diesel engines a week that had only reached about 50k.

You’d seriously set off around Europe in something over 10 years old that an Italian had wired up? 😯

Avoid the TS engines before about V reg I reckon – my V reg was solid as a rock, but went better…

You’d seriously set off around Europe in something over 10 years old that an Italian had wired up?

was molgrips old passat wired up by an Italian – you know – the one that wouldn’t turn off.

You’d seriously set off around Europe in something over 10 years old that an Italian had wired up?

Most Alfa issues are annoying rather than terminal when it comes to the wiring. Random lights on the dash for example and things not working quite as they should.

Early Alfas rusted, but had fabulous engines. Later Alfas were a lot better, still had fabulous engines but suffered from annoyances. Owning one was/is a labour of love and you have to forgive many idiosyncrasies, but I can think of nothing better to tour Europe in.

Celica? Or is that too modern…

Loads for under 2k

A celica today!

I recently bought a Renault super cinq Monaco, 1.7lt engine loads of nice interior kit and only cost £1k for a mint 36,000 mile example. The engine is the same as the GTX version so almost as quick as the turbo but without all the issues and the silly prices.

There’s one on eBay at the moment at about £850

I like the Alfa GTV. Always had a soft spot for them.