Discussion
Criteria:
RWD
Manual
Fun handling
Any amount of seats considered (minor bonus for child-friendly rear seats)
Light
Smallish
Minimal depreciation
£15k-ish (£20k tops)
Reliable, and/or not too maintenance heavy (will be DIYing the latter)
VED under £300ish
Unimportant:
Fuel economy
Outright grip/speed
I'm selling an old thing which scores well on many of these but I don't have sufficient time to look after it. Will be used for pissing about and track days, but it has to cope with driving out/in London in each case.
Current considerations, and any hesitations:
MX-5 - would want an ND, but depreciation unappealing
GT86/BRZ - bit of a nearly car
Elise - not sure if the mid-engine chassis is as immediately exploitable/easy to have fun in compared to a front-engined car
Caterham - current favourite, but concerns over noise levels and reliability
Any further suggestions, or comments on my comments welcome.
RWD
Manual
Fun handling
Any amount of seats considered (minor bonus for child-friendly rear seats)
Light
Smallish
Minimal depreciation
£15k-ish (£20k tops)
Reliable, and/or not too maintenance heavy (will be DIYing the latter)
VED under £300ish
Unimportant:
Fuel economy
Outright grip/speed
I'm selling an old thing which scores well on many of these but I don't have sufficient time to look after it. Will be used for pissing about and track days, but it has to cope with driving out/in London in each case.
Current considerations, and any hesitations:
MX-5 - would want an ND, but depreciation unappealing
GT86/BRZ - bit of a nearly car
Elise - not sure if the mid-engine chassis is as immediately exploitable/easy to have fun in compared to a front-engined car
Caterham - current favourite, but concerns over noise levels and reliability
Any further suggestions, or comments on my comments welcome.
Elise. Just done the same, albeit at a slightly higher budget. Also deliberately bought the best of the lowest power (134 BHP), as I wanted a car I could have fun in without being stupidly illegal.
The handling is phenomenal, and very close to the single seater feel a Caterham gives you, but with enough practicality to make it a bit more usable.
I’ve had 2 MX-5’s before (NC, and Mrs currently has an ND RF). Both great, but an Elise is a totally different league. For an everyday driver though, I’d have the MX-5.
The handling is phenomenal, and very close to the single seater feel a Caterham gives you, but with enough practicality to make it a bit more usable.
I’ve had 2 MX-5’s before (NC, and Mrs currently has an ND RF). Both great, but an Elise is a totally different league. For an everyday driver though, I’d have the MX-5.
Edited by ChevronB19 on Wednesday 2nd September 21:23
I’m in London and have a Caterham and it takes commitment, and flexibility! For the drives to track days or good roads, you want the roof on to avoid head shaking turbulence and you’ll need earplugs.
Once you’re at the destination they’re obviously awesome. And they’re fun around town, your kids will love short passenger rides and they get an amazingly positive reaction from the general public. I would not be worried about reliability.
Elises are more biddable than you might think if you stick to the standard suspension.
Once you’re at the destination they’re obviously awesome. And they’re fun around town, your kids will love short passenger rides and they get an amazingly positive reaction from the general public. I would not be worried about reliability.
Elises are more biddable than you might think if you stick to the standard suspension.
Thanks for all the replies. Will look into the 124 options, though an excessively raucous exhaust does not appeal.
I'll perhaps add a 987.2 to the list but think it's probably a bit heavy for my liking.
TVR a mixture of too old/unreliable.
Mustang I drove in the US but couldn't bring myself to have one here.
The main takeaway thus far is that I shouldn't bother with the softer Jap options but look at the Elise and Caterhams. The latter seem spectacularly poor value for what you get to me, but are saved by their minimal deprecation.
I'll perhaps add a 987.2 to the list but think it's probably a bit heavy for my liking.
TVR a mixture of too old/unreliable.
Mustang I drove in the US but couldn't bring myself to have one here.
The main takeaway thus far is that I shouldn't bother with the softer Jap options but look at the Elise and Caterhams. The latter seem spectacularly poor value for what you get to me, but are saved by their minimal deprecation.
Edited by Durch on Thursday 3rd September 14:18
braddo said:
I’m in London and have a Caterham and it takes commitment, and flexibility! For the drives to track days or good roads, you want the roof on to avoid head shaking turbulence and you’ll need earplugs.
Once you’re at the destination they’re obviously awesome. And they’re fun around town, your kids will love short passenger rides and they get an amazingly positive reaction from the general public. I would not be worried about reliability.
Elises are more biddable than you might think if you stick to the standard suspension.
Thanks for this too, can I ask if you feel you should always use earplugs, or is it just above a certain speed where wind noise is problematic?Once you’re at the destination they’re obviously awesome. And they’re fun around town, your kids will love short passenger rides and they get an amazingly positive reaction from the general public. I would not be worried about reliability.
Elises are more biddable than you might think if you stick to the standard suspension.
It sounds like you don't find the trek out of London too awkward, do you go to any lengths to avoid the traffic though?
I just use earplugs for the motorways and pull them out once I've hit the fun roads. Both Elises and Caterhams are louder inside with the roof on! With the Caterham roof off (and 'doors' on) on the motorway, the earplugs help avoid buffeting that can whip around your ear.
For enjoyment on roads I head out of London very early on a weekend so that the fun roads are still quiet. Worth the early start for me.
Caterhams are expensive to buy but so ridiculously cheap to run, especially for track days. You just have to think of the purchase price as an odd place to have parked some cash but that you'll definitely get most of it back when you sell.
For the amount of reliable performance you get on track, the all-in ownership cost of a Caterham is unbeatable.
For enjoyment on roads I head out of London very early on a weekend so that the fun roads are still quiet. Worth the early start for me.
Caterhams are expensive to buy but so ridiculously cheap to run, especially for track days. You just have to think of the purchase price as an odd place to have parked some cash but that you'll definitely get most of it back when you sell.
For the amount of reliable performance you get on track, the all-in ownership cost of a Caterham is unbeatable.Durch said:
The main takeaway thus far is that I shouldn't bother with the softer Jap options but look at the Elise and Caterhams. The latter seem spectacularly poor value for what you get to me, but are saved by their minimal deprecation.
I've had most elise and exige variants, a Caterham R300, a bike engined Westfield, a 987 Spyder and some other more exotic Italian stuff. There have been plenty days where I''ve walked past convertible Ferrari's and Porsche's in the garage to jump into an MX5. I think my current ND model sits in a great place and gives a huge percentage of the grin factor of the others but with a multiple of the practicality that can mean actually using the car often and having a bit of fun without it all being so much about the car that it gets a bit of a hassle.Gassing Station | Car Buying | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff