1500£ to buy a practical, but sporting car.

[Sir Thomas]

Hi there,

I've recently started saving up for a used 911. This is unfortunately going to take a quite a few years to do with my finances, so in the mean time I'm looking for a sub 1500£ car that is preferably rear wheel drive and fits two tiny kids (still in baby seats) in the back. Oh, and since I'm trying to save some money for the 911 it shouldn't cost me hundreds of pounds a month to run either.
I've been looking at BMW 328i's , but I'm sure I haven't considered all the options. What would you guys buy?

Cheerio!

Tom

[traffman]

Porsche 944. Maybe?

[twazzock]

If you can get a decent E36 328i(S) for that money you are winning. There's not much else to compete for the same money.

[Ephraim]

traffman said:

Porsche 944. Maybe?

Can't get a baby seat in the back of a 944 unless you are prepared to hunt down a secondhand Porsche one. I'd not trust a used baby seat myself. This was one of the reasons I got rid of my 944

[Ephraim]

On a slightly more helpful note if I were you I'd be looking for a Lexus/Toyota Soarer, a Nissan 200SX or mebbe even something like a Vauxhall Omega, C class merc or some sort of jag. Personally I intend to solve a similar car choice with an RX-8 (which given their current rate of depreciation may be in your budget by next week!)

[ambuletz]

6th gen and 7th gen celica. dont rear wheel drive though. Sporty, and practical.

[Robb F]

Not rear wheel drive but Alfa 156 2.5 V6's are nice for the money

[veevee]

Clio 172

/thread?


VAUXHALL OMEGA? JAG? C Class? He said sporting.

[GC8]

Ephraim said:

traffman said:

Porsche 944. Maybe?

Can't get a baby seat in the back of a 944 unless you are prepared to hunt down a secondhand Porsche one. I'd not trust a used baby seat myself. This was one of the reasons I got rid of my 944

Not really correct, although I realise that they can be difficult to track down and that different ages present different problems.

A friend recently bought a couple of different Britax models which fit perfectly. It certainly used to be true that only Recaro manufactured Porsche seats would fit, but this hasnt been the case for several years.

[davepoth]

But I think a BMW is going to be the thing really, you could even go for an estate...

[g3org3y]

twazzock said:

If you can get a decent E36 328i(S) for that money you are winning. There's not much else to compete for the same money.

Agreed, 328i in touring flavour worth a look.

[NSFW]

For not a lot more I have a 528i Sport that I could be tempted to part with... In all seriousness though I bought it on a whim and love it so would recomend one of those.
Doesn't cost a fortune to run and returns about 24mpg in town.

[Captain Muppet]

One of the most fun cars I've had was a £300 E34 535i. Loads of room, loads of engine, loads of sideways but loads of petrol.

My little brother used a £600 FC RX7 for moving his two small children around. His oldest son does this great impression of pop-up headlights on "daddie's noisy car". made the 535 look ecomonical though.

veevee said:

Clio 172

/thread?


VAUXHALL OMEGA? JAG? C Class? He said sporting.

Clio? He said RWD.

Edited by Captain Muppet on Friday 27th January 08:51

[Sir Thomas]

Thanks guys,
there's some good ideas here that I hadn't thought of. I'll be expanding my search a bit and let you know how I get on!

cheers

[redgriff500]

I was going to say I wouldn't want to put my kids in a £1500 car if I could afford a better one.

But actually an E36 328 is a great choice and I would happily drive one.

[300bhp/ton]

veevee said:

Clio 172

/thread?


VAUXHALL OMEGA? JAG? C Class? He said sporting.

lol, he also said RWD

[300bhp/ton]

Sir Thomas said:

Thanks guys,
there's some good ideas here that I hadn't thought of. I'll be expanding my search a bit and let you know how I get on!

cheers

Sticking RWD will sadly limit your options pretty much to a BMW of some kind.

That said £1500 or there abouts can buy most of these:


-Prelude 2.2
-Celica 2.0 GT
-Puma
-Rover Tomcat 220 Turbo
-Rover 200 BRM
-MG ZS 180
-Nissan 200SX S13
-Mitsubishi FTO (just)
-ratty Impreza Turbo 2000
-RX-7 Gen 1 or 2
-Porsche 924

[mat205125]

Nothing's going to beat a 300ZX or 3000GT from a pound per performance point of view, however they will be fearsomely expensive to maintain and fuel (as a proportion of their purchase cost), and aren't pretty.

What kind of Supra will £1500 buy? I'm guessing not a manual turbo

[mattyn1]

Mk4 Golf GTi 1.8T?

[EDLT]

mat205125 said:

What kind of Supra will £1500 buy? I'm guessing not a manual turbo

I think you could get an old pop-up light model for that, maybe even with a turbo, but probably not a twin-turbo.