Which would you choose on a £20K budget?

[KurtB]

Hi Folks,

I'm in the position where I drive a Fiat Panda 100hp on a daily basis and my Wife has a Passat Estate as her daily. In the garage is a S1 Lotus Exige with a Scholar tuned 1900cc 218 bhp engine. This is my dream car. It is the latest in a long list of cars (57 in fact) that I have owned in 23 years of motoring. As you can probably tell, I'm fairly fickle when it comes to cars and notable favourites have been:

Golf GTI Mk1/2 (total 8 seperate cars)
Westfield SE
Delta Integrale 8v
1969 Lotus Europa S2
1999 Elise 111S
2000 Exige

I'm about to retire from the RAF after 23 years as an aircraft engineer, to take on being a full time dad to our 7 month old daughter. I'm so looking forward to the new challenges and joy that being a FTD will bring :-)
Being car fickle, I recently started considering options. Keeping the Panda is looking doubtful. Although I love it's poise and tenacity in the twisties, the ride is a little harsh for our local roads, so I'll probably replace it with something softer riding, IF I decide to run a second car....

So, with my day mainly looking like a trip to the shops, take the dog for a walk, taking Amy to baby/toddler groups, I'm not that worried about mpg etc. What I am considering is to stick with the Exige and buy a replacement for the Panda (my wife favours a Mk5 Golf GTI ), or sell it AND the Exige, spend £20K on a fun daily and funds left over for the stereotypical kitchen upgrade!

The best cars that spring to mind as that "do it all" car are:

2009 Jaguar XFR (5.0 Supercharged V8 goodness with eye watering acceleration, at least to me!)
Delta Integrale Evo 1 or 2 (For real world road holding tenacity allied to those looks!)

So, what option do you think is best and why?

Thank you,

Kurt

[harryowl]

Keep the Exige, there only going up in value.

[Hitch78]

Agree - keep the Exige if you're fickle. You'll miss it within days of it going and whilst the performance of say the Jag might match(ish) numbers wise the experience will be a world apart.

Mk5 Golfs are very good for relatively normal speed daily drivers. I had a Mk6 for a while and loved its chuckability when pressed but ease of driving when doing the family duties. I had DSG too which was an absolute revelation for me and I'd have it again.

[Hitch78]

Just to add - cars get scuffed by kids, both inside and out so that should also be on your mind. Not so much of an issue on something like a Golf but more so if you've just dropped 20k on something special.

Facts of life unfortunately!

[Dave Hedgehog]

harryowl said:

Keep the Exige, there only going up in value.

especially when lotus finally give in and go bust

i would get the europa because they look fab, literally, you could put Thunderbird 4 stickers on a yellow one

[danp]

Keep the exige, sell the panda and buy something cheap and cheerful instead, leaving some money towards the kitchen fund.

A grand or two buys plenty of fun dailies, from hot hatches to fast barges, and you can chop and change them as a bit of fun!

[Chr1sch]

Hitch78 said:

Just to add - cars get scuffed by kids, both inside and out so that should also be on your mind. Not so much of an issue on something like a Golf but more so if you've just dropped 20k on something special.

Facts of life unfortunately!

This, our A4 has been utterly trashed by our 2yr old, I'm constantly cleaning up dried up juice, biscuits, raisins etc, you'll fight it for a bit but you will cave lol

[KurtB]

The advice seems to be edging one way! Hmm I'd not considered the detritus and perhaps I wouldn't want to do that to a £20K car. Imagine it if I had cloth trim in an Evo and got it trashed?!?

Hmmm....

[jimi]

Chr1sch said:

This, our A4 has been utterly trashed by our 2yr old, I'm constantly cleaning up dried up juice, biscuits, raisins etc, you'll fight it for a bit but you will cave lol

Absolutely this.

We have a cheap, disposable family wagon which we are happy to have trashed by the little monsters and a nice car for all the other times.

In your situation I would keep the Exige for you and get something reasonable that you dont mind being trashed. You have a couple of years before they start doing the real damage in my experience. Mine are 6, 4 and 2.