Where have all the new cheap fun cars gone?

[ukaskew]

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

[ukaskew]

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.

[ukaskew]

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.

[ukaskew]

s m said:

105bhp in an MG3 Sport for £9549? Wrong badge/image I suspect.....

I drove an Ignis Sport for a few years, and I'm now 32 and drive a Sportka...image is not something that concerns me!

I've never seen nor heard of the MG3, and my nearest MG dealership is several counties away by the looks of things!

Edited by ukaskew on Wednesday 16th April 14:57

[ukaskew]

morgrp said:

Seat Ibiza 1.4 FR ACT - Can be had new for 15k - 140bhp, 50 odd to the gallon, 0-60 in 7.8secs and low road tax - whats not to like?

I looked at a newish Fabia VRS as they can be had very cheap on the used market, however a quick google led to me to the Briskoda site and horror story after horror story regarding the 1.4 TSI. There are some good ones out there, but it's like Russian roulette. The FR is not immune either, after a quick nose around.

I wouldn't touch one without a very significant comprehensive warranty, and as my budget is £10k, thus needing one a few years old, it's not on my radar.

[ukaskew]

s m said:

Or the Fiat 500 Abarth for £14,205

It's probably always been the case, but why does the 'Sport' model have to = loaded with toys? They are always near the top of the pile when it comes to trim, electric gubbins and unnecessary add-ons. If I could take a Suzuki Swift Sport at basic 'SZ1' Swift spec with no AC, wind up windows etc I would be all over it.

Maybe there just isn't a market for it, but if Fiat/Suzuki etc could take a leaf out of the Clio 172 Cup book, build the 'Sporty' version but raid the parts bin of the base spec standard car they could probably reduce the price by a grand or so and make it more profitable.