Where have all the new cheap fun cars gone?
Discussion
Where have all of these gone? If we assume up to £10k new is a rough baseline for cheap new car car these days that will cost very little to maintain, why aren't there many/any fun ones around that price bracket, or am I looking in the wrong place? It doesn't have to be fast, 100-110bhp or thereabouts, enough power for a bit of fun whilst keeping emissions/costs low.
VW were going to build the UP! GT, but apparently couldn't justify a business case for it, Citroen/Peugeot/Toyota flat out refuse to make an even vaguely warm C1/107/Aygo, despite shifting thousands of the things and being popular with precisely the market that would love a 'sporty looking one'.
Rewind a few years and we had a few cheap to buy and cheap to run options, the Sportka, Ignis Sport, Panda 100hp and probably a few more I've forgot, all in the 100bhp region, light and great to drive.
Now we have the Suzuki Swift Sport at £14k and not a lot else, the Twingo has been culled, Ford haven't done anything interesting with the Ka etc etc.
As you might be able to tell I'm shopping for a new motor, I've owned the Sportka, Ignis Sport etc and had an absolute blast in them, I was hoping to find something a little newer/safer that is cheap to tax/insure (either brand new or a few years old), but keep drawing a blank aside from the Swift Sport
VW were going to build the UP! GT, but apparently couldn't justify a business case for it, Citroen/Peugeot/Toyota flat out refuse to make an even vaguely warm C1/107/Aygo, despite shifting thousands of the things and being popular with precisely the market that would love a 'sporty looking one'.
Rewind a few years and we had a few cheap to buy and cheap to run options, the Sportka, Ignis Sport, Panda 100hp and probably a few more I've forgot, all in the 100bhp region, light and great to drive.
Now we have the Suzuki Swift Sport at £14k and not a lot else, the Twingo has been culled, Ford haven't done anything interesting with the Ka etc etc.
As you might be able to tell I'm shopping for a new motor, I've owned the Sportka, Ignis Sport etc and had an absolute blast in them, I was hoping to find something a little newer/safer that is cheap to tax/insure (either brand new or a few years old), but keep drawing a blank aside from the Swift Sport
I think you're budget is rather low - the entry point into the KA range is nearly 9k these days so you're probably not going to get 100bhp in that sort of car for an extra grand.
Having said that, there's still not really much around. I guess the market for bigger engines in cars that small just isn't there?
How about the Suzuki Splash SZ4? That's got 92bhp for <£12k.
Having said that, there's still not really much around. I guess the market for bigger engines in cars that small just isn't there?
How about the Suzuki Splash SZ4? That's got 92bhp for <£12k.
Edited by kambites on Wednesday 16th April 08:21
forzaminardi said:
I think inflation might have the answer.
The Ignis Sport and 100hp were £9995 if memory serves, so say £13k now, even so there is very little around that price bracket aside from the previously mentioned Swift Sport.With a £10k budget and happy to go up to a couple of years old that should pull in anything that was £12-13k new, there is still pretty much nothing on my radar worth shouting about.
I did find the standard Up to be quite good fun. I guess the same applies to the Skoda and SEAT versions. It depends what sort of driving you're going to be doing. My test drive was all urban roads and it was fun trying to keep the little engine on the boil and the car generally felt very chuckable. Might not be so much fun on the open road I suppose.
ukaskew said:
The Ignis Sport and 100hp were £9995 if memory serves, so say £13k now, even so there is very little around that price bracket aside from the previously mentioned Swift Sport.
With a £10k budget and happy to go up to a couple of years old that should pull in anything that was £12-13k new, there is still pretty much nothing on my radar worth shouting about.
105bhp in an MG3 Sport for £9549? Wrong badge/image I suspect.....With a £10k budget and happy to go up to a couple of years old that should pull in anything that was £12-13k new, there is still pretty much nothing on my radar worth shouting about.
Sounds like I'm preaching to the converted but my girlfriend bought a nicely specced ex demo Swift 1.2 for £8k last year.
Only 94bhp but low weight and gearing make it great fun around town. Actual 0-60 is around 10.5sec (manufacturers figure is v. pessimistic).
It's so good I'd be tempted by a 1-2yr old Swift Sport for myself, if ClioSport 200s weren't so little more..
Only 94bhp but low weight and gearing make it great fun around town. Actual 0-60 is around 10.5sec (manufacturers figure is v. pessimistic).
It's so good I'd be tempted by a 1-2yr old Swift Sport for myself, if ClioSport 200s weren't so little more..
Gad-Westy said:
I did find the standard Up to be quite good fun. I guess the same applies to the Skoda and SEAT versions. It depends what sort of driving you're going to be doing. My test drive was all urban roads and it was fun trying to keep the little engine on the boil and the car generally felt very chuckable. Might not be so much fun on the open road I suppose.
The Up/ Citigo/Mii are top of the list at the moment, particularly as it's mainly town driving, low on power but good fun. That aside were struggling to find any alternatives.danp said:
Hopefully renault sport will work their magic on the new twingo.
This.The new Twingo definitely looks sporty in the official pictures. Hope there is at least a "warm" model in the line-up. When's the launch date? Q3 this year, right?
http://www.renault.com/en/vehicules/aujourd-hui/re...
mcflurry said:
Chicane-UK said:
It does seem pretty insane but the Fiesta ST seems to be about the best "cheap" fun you can have, at £16k :|
£16000 for a Fiesta? The world's gone mad 
A Fiesta RS Turbo was £11k in 2001. 50% inflation in 13 years averages out at 3.1% inflation per year.
AudiWurst said:
mcflurry said:
Chicane-UK said:
It does seem pretty insane but the Fiesta ST seems to be about the best "cheap" fun you can have, at £16k :|
£16000 for a Fiesta? The world's gone mad A Fiesta RS Turbo was £11k in 2001. 50% inflation in 13 years averages out at 3.1% inflation per year.
http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C490314
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