Which hot hatch/coupe/saloon for £8k?

[skene]

Hi guys,


Basically as the title says I'm looking for a car to replace my Vectra CDTi and have about £8k to spend. Being 20 my insurance isnt insignificant but it generally isn't an issue. I'm wanting something petrol as I'm only a 20mile round trip from my work. Not too bothered about it being overly practical, I.e I don't need a pick up truck 300bhp/ton

A couple cars I have thought of already are the mk2 pre facelift focus st, and the 350z. With the lack of being able to up the horsepower of the 350 without serious cash kinda putting a dampener on that.

So,
Something petrol,
deally 60k to 70k miles
Around about 8k

Any ideas?

[lewisf182]

130i?
Z4 3.0

[astirling]

lewisf182 said:

130i?
Z4 3.0

Neither of these will give more power without big spending - see the OP's post above.

[GAjon]

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/m...

[Coldfuse]

is 8K also part of the budget for insurance as well?

[Parsnip]

Not sure I follow you - you don't want a 350Z because getting big power out of them is expensive (which it is) but you are also thinking of a Focus ST?

One is a 2 seater, RWD sportscar. The other is a warm, practicalish hatch - sureley you must have a rough idea what you want?

[AC43]

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2013...

[AC43]

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2013...

[skene]

Coldfuse said:

is 8K also part of the budget for insurance as well?

No the insurance isn't part of the budget, also I'm not sure why there is a sad face beside the title haha

[Coldfuse]

skene said:

Coldfuse said:

is 8K also part of the budget for insurance as well?

No the insurance isn't part of the budget...

Fair play, i guess how much you want to spend on a car should really be determined if you can insure/run it. What sort of things have you got insurance quotes on up til now. When i was 20 (27 now) i wouldn't have dreamed of insuring something any more powerful than my 1.6 civic.

What do you need the car to do?

[essIII]

MK5 GTi (or Leon Cupra) - bags of (350hp) potential in that 2 litre turbo.

VX220?
Monaro?
B7 Audi S4?

Pretty broad requirements you've given!

[Pazuzu]

CLK55 is nicely in budget and sounds awesome.

Phil

[RCBRG]

Megane R26? Glorious liquid yellow one on ebay at the moment comfortably under budget. Brembos, Recaros, LSD and a turbo so more power is easy

[300bhp/ton]

skene said:

Hi guys,


Basically as the title says I'm looking for a car to replace my Vectra CDTi and have about £8k to spend. Being 20 my insurance isnt insignificant but it generally isn't an issue. I'm wanting something petrol as I'm only a 20mile round trip from my work. Not too bothered about it being overly practical, I.e I don't need a pick up truck 300bhp/ton

A couple cars I have thought of already are the mk2 pre facelift focus st, and the 350z. With the lack of being able to up the horsepower of the 350 without serious cash kinda putting a dampener on that.

So,
Something petrol,
deally 60k to 70k miles
Around about 8k

Any ideas?

So are you wanting something to tune and make faster then? Not sure I really follow your logic with the 350z and ST. Sure the ST is a nice car, but even "mapped" it'll still be less bhp than a 350z and it'll still be a fairly blobby FWD hatchback. Given the choice of the two, I'd take the Nissan every time.

That said I'd much rather a Focus RS Mk1 over an ST Mk2. This sort of money also opens up the doors to things like a DC5, although I'd personally prefer a mint DC2.


Alternative to the 350z could be a Crossfire. Not bad performers in standard trim and there is a supercharged SRT-6 version available too.




Other alternatives could mean a TVR of some kind, or maybe something older and Japanese such as a very tidy 300ZX Z32.

[skene]

Coldfuse said:

Fair play, i guess how much you want to spend on a car should really be determined if you can insure/run it. What sort of things have you got insurance quotes on up til now. When i was 20 (27 now) i wouldn't have dreamed of insuring something any more powerful than my 1.6 civic.

What do you need the car to do?

I need it to take Me to work and back basically, other than that there's no steadfast rules it has to adhere to. Although insurance isn't an issue, the suggestions of RS4s and Monaros are unfortunately uninsureable for me. Quotes on a 350z was under the 1000 pound mark. With the ST even lower for the poster who asked. I have a good job and the car will be funded and run by myself, but I'm not worried about mpg etc.

Thanks for some decent suggestions already!

[300bhp/ton]

Coldfuse said:

skene said:

Coldfuse said:

is 8K also part of the budget for insurance as well?

No the insurance isn't part of the budget...

Fair play, i guess how much you want to spend on a car should really be determined if you can insure/run it. What sort of things have you got insurance quotes on up til now. When i was 20 (27 now) i wouldn't have dreamed of insuring something any more powerful than my 1.6 civic.

What do you need the car to do?

Insurance might have changed over the years. But sticking to a 1.6 Civic at the age of 20 is just plain boring. And arguably not really in the PH spirit.

£8k can buy one heck of a lot of interesting motorcar and many can offer very reasonable insurance.

[kambites]

If your primary aim is power and tunability, how about a 335i? Not the most exciting of cars, but being reasonably large capacity and turbocharged I guess it should be fairly tunable?

[Ali_T]

I win

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2013...