Can't wait until summer for that £30K Civic Type R? Here are some hot hatch hero deals from less than £20K
So Honda says that the new
Civic Type R will cost £29,995 when it goes on sale in July. That's towards the top end of the current tranche of hot hatches, but Honda's headline-grabbing sub-£300 PCP monthly payment (on a 30 per cent deposit) has got me thinking.
Plenty of deals if you fancy a fast Juke
Honda is very definitely taking a leaf out of VW's book, which was extremely successful with a similar £300 PCP deal on the Golf R - a deal that's now ended, incidentally (although there are plenty of contract hire deals on the Golf R at well under £300). If you can't wait till July for the Type R to satisfy your hot hatch cravings, what are the best deals on similar cars right now?
We're reserving judgement on the new Nissan Juke NISMO RS until we've tested it (coming soon), but it's definitely leftfield of the hot hatch mainstream. Nissan's list price is £21,650, but add on the Tech Pack (£900) and Recaros (£1,300) and you're looking at nearly £24K. But you can get a new NISMO RS with Tech Pack for a much more appealing £19,490 from Evans Halshaw in Leeds. The same dealer also offers finance at £299 per month with a £999 deposit over 36 months. Get Recaros as well on this £20,999 NISMO RS from another Nissan dealer, or £22,490 for a 4x4 Xtronic from Nissan Ilkeston.
A Megane 265 for £20K? Go on then!
We've just done
a story on Subaru BRZ and Toyota GT86 deals (under £20K new, or £299 a month through Subaru dealers). Also at very near the £20,000 point is the Renaultsport Megane 265, which remains one of my favourite current hot hatches. £20,999 seems very solid value for this delivery mileage
Liquid Yellow example. Aren't Meganes troublesome, though? Not according to most of the latest surveys, which say Renault reliability is in a totally different league these days.
I'm not a huge fan of the current Vauxhall Astra VXR but Evans Halshaw Vauxhall in Middlesbrough has a delivery-mileage example for £22,160. Hard to justify a VXR when, for barely any extra, you can have a brand new, just-facelifted Ford Focus ST-2, UK dealer supplied, for £22,495, some £1,200 off list.
Unassuming, very fast and good value too
Up the budget slightly to £23,970 and you can have a 23-mile
SEAT Leon Cupra 280 from a SEAT dealer in Cardiff. If you want your MQB platform to wear VW badges, a delivery-mileage
Golf GTI 5-door with DSG is up at Inchcape Volkswagen in Colchester for £25,008 or a broker can source a nine per cent discount on a build-to-order
Golf GTI 3-door DSG for £25,545. And if the same platform must have four rings on the grille, the same nine per cent discount applies to a new-order
Audi S3 3-door, which comes in at £28,230.
And if you'll only contemplate rear-wheel drive, BMW's M135i (with a few extras and the manual gearbox) costs a bargain £27,790 from Cooper Teesside BMW.
Conclusion? The hot hatch market is hotting up - and with so much talented competition out there, some scorching deals are there for the taking.
