£3000 - £5000 2nd Car for 23 year old, 6k miles a year?

£3000 - £5000 2nd Car for 23 year old, 6k miles a year?

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Delta-Tango

Original Poster:

70 posts

89 months

Wednesday 18th January 2017
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I work 9 til 5, so it's for commuting as well as weekend fun. Work is a mere 7 mile journey but deal with heavy traffic. Currently drive bog standard Astra H 2004 and I'm bored of it.

Was hours away from getting an MR2 TF300 with 80k miles for £3k, perfect paperwork n MOT history just needed to visually inspect everything. But, this is gonna sound stupid - I hated the colour and lack of spoiler (not every car needs one, just the mr2 imho). Had to be honest with myself.

Whilst I'm waiting for more MR2's to show up (I've gone through them all on ebay, autotrader, here, MR2 specialist forums and gumtree) I want to be looking at alternatives.

Looking at Japanese or German cars mainly. BMW Z3, or a Coupe or Saloon (I'm not familiar with model numbers but was told to avoid 123d). Audi hatchbacks are not my cuppa tea at all.

Would get something tuned n remapped, but insurance would take me for a ride as I'm only 23 and been driving since 2011.

Want to avoid "hairdresser's" cars really, don't mind hot hatches so much.

No Porsches - they're too high profile for me.

No Lotuses - I can't afford them.

Wary of oil and petrol drinkers, but would probably make an exception for Z3 - I've been in love with the look of it since I was a kid.

Need leather seats.

Timing chain rather than a belt would be cool.

Alex_225

6,233 posts

200 months

Wednesday 18th January 2017
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Keep hunting for those MR2s mate.

It sounds like ideal hot hatch territory but if Jap or German is your preference hunt down your perfect MR2. If you could get your hands on an S2000 that'd get my vote but might tick the hairdresser box. Personally I love a nice perm! hahaha

SonicShadow

2,452 posts

153 months

Wednesday 18th January 2017
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The higher end of your budget will get you a very decent Rev 3 (late 1993 - early 1996) MR2 Turbo.

Delta-Tango

Original Poster:

70 posts

89 months

Wednesday 18th January 2017
quotequote all
There is a fully tuned/remapped one but insurance don't know about it as he owns his own company that mods cars/bikes. Is it worth the risk buying it and not telling insurance about the mods?

I wouldn't tell insurance anyway about a scrape or anything as it's cheaper in the long run to sort it out myself.

james_gt3rs

4,816 posts

190 months

Wednesday 18th January 2017
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You could get a nice E36 328i sport for that money. If you can find one!

Delta-Tango

Original Poster:

70 posts

89 months

Wednesday 18th January 2017
quotequote all
Bit too boxy looking for me. I'm sure the mechanics are amazing on it though