Citroen GSA Pallas SE, Rover 100 Kensington SE (a gift, honest!), Skoda Fabia 1.6 GLX estate, Land Rover Freelander 1.8 S
Snigger if you like but for £500 it's a bargain
"After my Landie's K Series did the expected thing and died one day (typically about a week after I got engaged), I was left needing a new car with a budget of £500. Any more cash and my new fiancee would not have been happy! As I was able to begrudgingly take the bus to work, I decided to have a good look around to see if I could finally get something that would satisfy a performance car itch I'd been wanting to scratch since I was about 10.
"As my daily driver, it would also have to be reliable, fairly cheap to run and have a decent amount of room inside for any trips to Ikea the other half was planning. For maximum reliability I had decided to go Japanese but unfortunately the obvious (VTEC) choice was too much to buy and too much to insure. Running out of time and ideas, I remembered a friend of mine who used to have a Nissan Primera GT...
"A search of the web over the next few days proved fruitful with a few GTs to choose from. This included a car that looked too good to be true, £500 for a 1997 GT that had done only 45,000 miles when most had over twice that. Unfortunately no pictures were on the ad and I suspected the mileage may be missing a one at the start. A phone call soon confirmed the mileage and gave me a picture of a car that was just used for pottering around, doing shopping and picking up the kids. On the off chance, I used Google Street View to search their address before I went to view and saw the car for the first time. It looked perfect save for some supermarket car park scars. A few days and £475 later it was mine."
Alan was expecting a one before the mileage
"How cheap GTs are so I could have bought one earlier! I'd done my homework before I bought so I didn't have any nasty surprises. Thanks to the guys over at the
Nissan Primera Owners Club
I was aware of the common issues such as water ingress caused by blocked sunroof drain holes, rust around the rear spoiler mounts and more seriously, rotten boot floor, sills, strut towers and front cross members. I made sure mine was free of these and so far I've not had any nasty surprises come MoT time."
Things I love:
"The handling and the engine are hands down my favourite things about the car. Being a GT it has a 2.0-litre, 16-valve SR20DE with 150hp. It loves to rev all the way round to the 7,000rpm redline yet will happily potter about at less than 2,000rpm. It'll even do over 40mpg on the motorway. Although it isn't super fast, more warm hatch than hot hatch, it's just so rewarding when compared to the torque rich but lazy turbocharged engines like on so many modern cars. It helps that the car weighs less than 1,300kg too.
"The steering has plenty of feel that is only very rarely corrupted by torque steer and the chassis has by far the best balance of any front wheel drive car I've had a go in. You get the real feeling that suspension has been set up to quell any understeer with all but the slightest lift needed to tuck the nose in. Push it further and the tail can become surprisingly mobile for what is essentially a 16-year-old repmobile. Still, this is the cheapest car I can think of that was developed by Dirk Schoysman (of R33 GT-R development fame) on the Nordschleife.
BBS wheels a cheap addition, more planned
"I also love the fact that the car was stupidly good value. Not only is it practical, quick, fun to drive and cheap, it has air-con, half leather seats, electric sunroof and a six-speaker stereo. You can't even get the Cup Chassis for a Clio RS200 for £475 and it wouldn't surprise me if the Primera was more involving. It can be frustrating how underrated the GT is but at least it keeps prices of cars and parts low.
Things I hate:
"Just a couple of things really, just after I bought the car I had two instances of people mistaking me for a minicab which was a stereotype I feared. People also assume it's just an old snotter and I've picked up a fair few dings from the supermarket carparks of Brighton. I know it's a shed and that it shouldn't matter but it's my shed."
Costs:
"Errr, not many really. Consumable items are cheap and the support on the Primera Owner's club is fantastic. There are usually cars being broken and the prices asked for parts are very fair. The only problem is stopping yourself when upgrades are offered cheap, hence the stainless steel exhaust fitted to mine! I've also splashed out on some BBS wheels but then they were cheap from a breakers yard on eBay, mainly because they came off an old Volvo S40. Also don't expect too much more than 25mpg around town unless you drive like the accelerator is made of glass."
GT-R man Mizuno-san apparently worked on it
"Not very far unfortunately, the furthest I've been is to visit family in Suffolk. Thankfully there are plenty of good roads in Sussex and a fair few in Suffolk too. A good B-road blast always leaves me buzzing afterwards."
What next?
"As with most things in life, this does depend on money. Although I'd love to drop an SR20VE in it (normally aspirated with 197hp), a six-speed LSD gearbox out of a US Nissan Sentra, uprate the suspension and give a few modern hot hatches a serious fright, I'll be happy just to keep hold of my GT for a few more years. I just can't see the point of buying a nearly new car and losing thousands every year at the moment. Even if I did upgrade I don't think I'd want to get rid of my GT anyway. It will always be my first performance car and the one that made me realise how much I love driving."