£2k. Something fun. Must have heated seats.

[Bowlers]

R53 Cooper S (Supercharged), with heated seats can be found easily under £2K.

[rustyuk]

Bowlers said:

R53 Cooper S (Supercharged), with heated seats can be found easily under £2K.

I didn't believe this so checked on Autotrader and you are indeed correct!

[zixujo]

An ST220 could be a good shout.

I've driven an IS200 and wasn't excited in the least.

Oyster card? You're assuming I need to get around London.

RX8 possibly a good shout. They are getting on now, how do they fare in old age? Engines are bit gutless from what I hear?

Caelite that might work. I've also been looking at the bottom end of mk3 sports. They're stretching the budget at £2.5k though. Just how bad is the cheapest mk3 likely to be?

R53 is also an interesting proposition. Thirsty apparently.

[Chestrockwell]

What do you currently drive?

An IS200 is fun if you drove a Toyota Corolla before, but won’t be as fun if you already have a competent car.

[caelite]

zixujo said:

Caelite that might work. I've also been looking at the bottom end of mk3 sports. They're stretching the budget at £2.5k though. Just how bad is the cheapest mk3 likely to be?

Mx5s are very hit and miss in my experience, mk3s suffer from the same sill rust as the older ones, but to my understanding the issue is less frequent as their roof drain design is better than older shapes.

With that being said, I never found the mk3s particularly enjoyable to drive, the Mk1s and 2s (which share essentially the same chassis and motor) have a raw feeling to them, they feel a lot more go-kartish in comparison to the mk3 which feels much more like a refined modern car.

The issue you get in your price range is that there really is no such thing as a cheap Mx5 anymore, you could get lucky and snag a garaged or well repaired mk2, but clean Mk1s are hitting classic terratory and it isn't uncommon to see good ones shifting for £5k. In mk2s, again in my experience there is no parity between the price they are selling for and the actual condition of the vehicle, so many 'near death' examples about with folk demanding top dollar for them.

[FK]

Chestrockwell said:

What do you currently drive?

An IS200 is fun if you drove a Toyota Corolla before, but won’t be as fun if you already have a competent car.

This exactly!

Everything is relative, you will not notice the difference in fun between two cars you've never driven, but you will absolutely notice any improvements/deficiencies against you current motor.

[zixujo]

I currently don't have a car. The previous was an E class 3.0 diesel, and before that was an Audi S4.

[DoubleD]

Most cars will feel fun after those

[jjwilde]

zixujo said:

I'll look into the smart roadster. Seems a bit underpowered though?

You can pretty easily mod them over the top stock 101bhp (just a software mod, plenty for sale with it already done) and they are incredibly fun on twisty roads, had some serious fun in the lake district. Oh and they have heated seats and as a little bonus are convertibles.

Also really cheap to look after. You do get used to the weird flappy paddle gearbox.

[egor110]

mk 6 fiesta st , they had heated seats .

not the fastest thing ever but good on a b road if your willing to use the revs and not rely on loads of torque.

[zixujo]

I'm leaning towards the TT 225. Mainly because of cruise control for those motorway journeys. What are peoples thoughts on these? I know audi messed with it and ruined the handling, but I remember reading a while back that it can be fixed...

I've also been looking at RX8's. For a grand they seem tempting. What can I expect for that sort of money? Is it guaranteed to blow up as soon as I buy it?

Edited by zixujo on Sunday 23 December 16:05

[egor110]

zixujo said:

I'm leaning towards the TT 225. Mainly because of cruise control for those motorway journeys. What are peoples thoughts on these? I know audi messed with it and ruined the handling, but I remember reading a while back that it can be fixed...

I've also been looking at RX8's. For a grand they seem tempting. What can I expect for that sort of money? Is it guaranteed to blow up as soon as I buy it?

Edited by zixujo on Sunday 23 December 16:05

There's a recent readers rides of a tt in the end he sold it because the endless faults , and lots of the stuff he fixed on the driveway.

Rx8 , you need a compression test to see what condition the engines in and then your always going to have crap mpg .

For 2k i'd go for a clio 172/182 , the engines are pretty robust , they handle like a go kart , have cruise control and the mpg is half decent .

[ElectricSoup]

zixujo said:

No to the saab 9-5. A friend had a 9-3 aero 2.8t and it wasn't anything special, I doubt the 9-5 would be any better. I certainly wouldn't call it a 'fun' car. Why would you even mention that?

Because it's my idea of fun and many have heated seats. Is that allowed? Any need to be quite so snippy?

Sounds like you've got all the answers anyway so good luck in your search.

Edited by ElectricSoup on Monday 24th December 10:26

[DoubleD]

You try and help and this is the response!

[FK]

Chestrockwell said:

FK said:

Afternoon all,

How about an old BMW 330i?
Or a large engine Mondeo?

This is a market I'm looking into myself honestly, as I would like a bit more power!

Good luck with the BMW, heated seats on old BMW’s are rarer than hens teeth

This is true, to be fair. I've hardly found any!

[FK]

DoubleD said:

You try and help and this is the response!

I completely side with this!

[kuro]

jjwilde said:

You can pretty easily mod them over the top stock 101bhp (just a software mod, plenty for sale with it already done) and they are incredibly fun on twisty roads, had some serious fun in the lake district. Oh and they have heated seats and as a little bonus are convertibles.

Also really cheap to look after. You do get used to the weird flappy paddle gearbox.

As an owner of a Brabus roadster coupe. Yes, a lot of fun to drive but I wouldn't say they are cheap to look after. A small car that has the potential to throw up some fairly hefty bills.

[Big GT]

Volvo 480ES

Fun

Heated seats

and pop up headlights!

because that's what you wanted right?