£4500 to spend on a hot hatch??

[daniel-5zjw7]

Not sure what your preferences are in terms of driver involvement vs comfort, power vs mpg etc, but you could look at;

MK5 Golf GTI
Audi S3
Astra VXR
Peugeot 207 GTI (OK maybe not the best thing ever but you'll get an 09/10 plate car within budget iF newer matters to you)
Fiat Abarth Punto
Seat Leon Cupra
Mini Cooper S (v.nice R53 or OK R56)

It should be possible to get a fairly decent example of any of the above for your budget.

[AH33]

g7jhp said:

Golf GTI (Mk4) 1.8T with 46k miles at £4,150 on AT.

Reliable, nice interior and it's not going to lose much in value.

£415 surely!

[raceboy]

Someone's having a giggle with that Mk4 price, mine was a moneypit and slow, the Mk4 didn't deserve to be badged GTi.
The Mk5 looks a lot better bet at £4k
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/v...

[nottyash]

does it have to be a hatch? A Subaru Impreza WRX is a cracking saloon for that money

[Deebo007]

Have a look at a Fiat Bravo Sport 1.4T. I had one for a while and they are a great car with excellent performance.

[jonwm]

Mark 1 Leon Cupra R, 225 bhp standard with some change left for a cheeky remap

[caelite]

If you are not a fan of the renault, £4k buys you a lot of its unloved neighbour, the Peugeot 207 GTi, its handling is good but the clio RS edges it(and almost everything else) in go-karty feel, the 207 does feel a bit more heavier, yet more planted. The engine in the 207 is a peach, the same motor that is in the mini cooper s r56. It does have some reliability niggles but they are easy to spot and cheap to rectify if you get them early, in return you have a real lively little 1.6turbo lump that pulls like a truck from low down, and returns 40+ mpg when driven carefully.

Edited by caelite on Friday 21st October 15:58

[Deebo007]

jonwm said:

Mark 1 Leon Cupra R, 225 bhp standard with some change left for a cheeky remap

Agreed, this is where my money would go.

[masermartin]

My 147GTA was £4k, but that was probably a one off. Prices seem in general to be quite a bit higher, mainly because most of them don't have the healthy 158k mine does on the clock. But I've just got back from 1200 miles in and around Wales over the course of 5 days and it was absolutely brilliant. Right combination of comfort and power, plenty of grip with the Quaife diff and recent Conti's all round, and it sounds amazing. Clio Cup or similar would probably be quicker on the limit, depends whether your boat is floated by crushing roads at 8/10ths or tripoding around corners at 10/10ths I guess.

[kpb]

Leon FR with the 2.0 TFSI?

Again, very quick with a remap (mind the chocolate clutch though)

[Toyoda]

OK, so you like Jap cars with lift. How about we throw a supercharger into the mix, factory fitted, come out with 215bhp and with plenty change from your £4.5K. 3 keys and a pretty decent MOT history.

http://tinyurl.com/j7rwulj

[cat220]

Given you're well versed on Honda reliability, how about an Dc2 Integra?

[marcusgrant]

Lupo GTI

[RedWhiteMonkey]

DNB DJ said:

Captain_Chaos said:

BMW 130i?

no chance for that price.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search?sort=price-asc&radius=1500&postcode=sr31uf&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&make=BMW&model=1%20SERIES&price-to=4500&minimum-badge-engine-size=3.0

[rich85uk]

I find my FN2 great fun, but at that budget I would be tempted by an EP3 and flashpro/ cams/5.1 final drive depending how much change you have left

[ZX10R NIN]

DNB DJ said:

Its going to fuel thirsty and a dog for that money. Also I think they suffer with block problems.

The highly boosted ones suffer block problems but yes they're more thirsty than a 225 Megane for example but it'll be far from a dog & then there's that 5 cylinder loveliness to come out to every morning.

2006 Focus ST-3 88k
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

2006 ST-3 90k Full Service History
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

Or the Megane R26 is an option.
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...