Best looking car for £5k?

[Ali_T]

Jam Jr said:

So many good suggestions here. Very tempted by the BMW 3 Series.

Thought you wanted something good looking...?

[Quickmoose]

Very little wrong with an E36 or E46 in the exterior (or interior) aesthetics department.

[Mr2Mike]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Good cars, though not the most reliable and not exactly a head turning design.

[TT Tim]

Dempsey1971 said:

VW Corrado VR6?

The only remaining credible 90's Coupe? And just starting to appreciate too.

RUBBISH!



Classic insurance, great fun. Get an unmolested one and you're onto a car that's only going up in value.

T

[forzaminardi]

Another vote for a Gen 8 Celica, you should get a fundamentally decent one under budget, insurance in my experience is OK even for a 190/Tsport and have a bit left over for a wheel refurb and valet.

[motorhole]

Hyundai Coupe & Celica are both good shouts.

Another negative against buying an RX8. Great car, but definitely not one to be run on a budget. It's thrifty running that results in expensive repairs, which given the value of the car, generally result in a trip to the scrappy - unless intent on keeping it. The reason it's classed as a 2.6 on the V5/insurance, despite having an effective displacement of 1.3 litres is to do with the number of power strokes per turn of the crankshaft on the rotary engine. Essentially, a 4-stroke reciprocating piston engine has 1 power stroke per 4 turns of the crank. A 4-stroke wankel has 1 power stroke per 2 turns of the crank.

Surprised nobody has mentioned a Z3 yet. Budget should be a nice later one, of any capacity (1.9 - 2.8). The 2.2 is a nice drive and reasonable to run. Swap the wheels for some OEM BBS multispokes, throw on a hardtop and it's a very good looking little car. Performance of the 2.8 isn't to be sniffed at and another 20bhp or so can be milked out of them for not a lot of cash.