'Special' daily driver for £20K

[the_ferret82]

daz4m said:

SWoll said:

OP said

3. Must have clean styling. I really hate tacky bodykits and massive spoilers. Don’t mind subtle lip spoilers but want to avoid big side skirts and anything OTT



Subtle? Clean styling?

Erm, you've chosen a modded one to prove your point. They are not all like that.

there is not styling mods on that car. its 100% standard body shape. the 05 cars where made to look like this from factory to satsfy the american market. the 04 made cars are much "cleaner" but not by much...

[the_ferret82]

lee st said:

Good luck getting 25mpg from a monaro

WHS i own a monaro and have done for a number of years 25+ figures are only possible on long motorway runs. if your convered about MPG then a monaro is not for you.

[Granby]

daz4m said:

SWoll said:

OP said

3. Must have clean styling. I really hate tacky bodykits and massive spoilers. Don’t mind subtle lip spoilers but want to avoid big side skirts and anything OTT



Subtle? Clean styling?

Erm, you've chosen a modded one to prove your point. They are not all like that.

E46 M3, 335 or 135 would be my suggestions, not amazingly special but will perform well in eitehr scenario.

Thats not modded but a standard VXR Monaro, i average about 23/24 in my one but that doesn't include much town driving

[TTwiggy]

SWoll said:

kambites said:

Ecosseven said:

Same issues as the 996 engines have. The gen 2 997's didn't come out until 2009 and these are well over budget.

Ah OK. Didn't realise that.

Still, I'm not sure that there's anything else on the market that meets all of your criteria and from my experience, "common" engine failures are generally nowhere near as common as you'd think from reading the internet. People rarely complain vocally that their car is working perfectly.

Agree with this. cant think of anything else that meets the OP's brief as well.

Choose wisely (loads of buyers guides/advice around), have a look at a few and get a feel for the car, have a specialist inspection done and a get decent TP warranty.

If you want a 997 plus peace of mind, then look up a company called Hartech. They will inspect the car and offer a warranty/service plan, that covers things like IMS. They also rebuild engines with parts designed to reduce the risk of one going pop.

[hornetrider]

kambites said:

hornetrider said:

E92 M3?

E46 M3 CS?

I can't believe either of them fit the criteria of "25mpg minimum"?

I suppose a 911 might get close (it would probably need to be a 997 C2 to meet the mpg requirements, can you get one of them for 20k yet?)

You're probably right, however if the initial budget is '20k' then there's got to be some flexibility over mpg given you can get lots of the suggested for 15-20k. Life's too short to worry about 2 or 3 mpg on average miles, right?

At 12k per annum the difference between 20 and 25mpg presuming £6 per gallon is £720.

[daz4m]

Granby said:

Thats not modded but a standard VXR Monaro, i average about 23/24 in my one but that doesn't include much town driving

Fair enough my point still stands though not all Monaro models are dressed like that.

[kambites]

hornetrider said:

You're probably right, however if the initial budget is '20k' then there's got to be some flexibility over mpg given you can get lots of the suggested for 15-20k. Life's too short to worry about 2 or 3 mpg on average miles, right?

At 12k per annum the difference between 20 and 25mpg presuming £6 per gallon is £720.

I agree, although it would be a moot point for me because with the OP's criteria I'd rather have a 911 anyway.

[Petrolhead95]

E60 M5?

[Matt UK]

Matt UK said:

How's about a nice £10k e39 BMW M5 and a £10k war chest?

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3580787.htm

[Regiment]

20k will get you a very well equipped Renault Sport Megane 250 Cup.

Great daily driver for shopping
Can beat pretty much all of the current list of suggested cars around a track quite happily.
More aggressive looking than the standard Megane without being the Ford Focus RS.
Averages around 30mpg with a mix of motorway and town driving, you should get 25 easy with purely town driving.
Remapped easily and reliably to 300bhp which will beat any front wheel drive car round any track any day of the week.
Mine has started first time every time for the last year, rain or shine.
Ride isn't too bad but avoid the pot holes but motorway driving is very comfortably.

[ITP]

If its something 'special' you want does that mean rare or a bit different from the norm?
Your 25mpg minimum will knock out most 6 or 8 cyl cars apart from some modern BMW 6cyl's, which can't really be described as 'special' in the fact there are loads of them everywhere.

911 is the obvious one but will be 8/9 year old 996 for 20k. I'm with you with the jag though, there would be one on my drive now if they did a manual.

Stretching your 25mpg again how about a Brera 3.2 SV6, the prodrive one. Looks great, rare, manual, sounds good, very nice interior (for the front seat passengers) and you'll get a sub 10k miles 08/09 car for about 15-16k. Never mind its not as fast/economical as a 135i, you have a caterham, and its a more 'special' car for sure.

If the mpg is just too low you could go nearly new Guilietta cloverleaf, much more rare than golfs/A3's/BMW's etc and can be mapped to 280/290bhp. Will be some depreciating to do though being nerly new.

[DriverNo1]

I think you might like this:

http://pistonheads.com/sales/3409220.htm

Not sure about what MPG to expect but this is where my money would go. Plus you'll get £6000 change.

[Willy Nilly]

Keep the Mondeo and your lump sum but do more miles in the Caterham.

[Dalto123]

I've done my best to keep to the list of prioroties, but there were some very nice cars out there! Though one is over budget and the rest probably wont hit the 25mpg!:


http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2012...

1. E55 AMG - 17,000 miles - £19,950. High spec, nice colour combo, the MPG will be likely be crap. But its a low mileage AMG merc for under £20k!


http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2012...

2. M5 V10 - 27,500 miles - £22,000. Over budget but was the cheapest/ low mileage car imo.


http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2012...

3. Passat R36 - 36,500 miles - £14,495. The cheapest of the cars and probably the rarest. Nice 300bhp engine


http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2012...

4. S4 Cabriolet - 15,500 miles - £16,000. Wasnt sure if you had considered a 4.2 V8 cabriolet. A nice looking car in my opinion.


http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2012...

5. 335i Coupe - 31,000 miles - £18,000. Wasnt sure if this is a car you would like. It's got a Heritage body kit doesnt look bad, and has been remapped to 370bhp (0-60 in 4.8 seconds...apparently).

[versus]

I'll take the M5! I think thats a very good price too because a friend of mine bought one recently with 70k miles on for the same price.

MB would also be fantastic. The only thing is that it looks slightly old man-ish compared to the BMW.

I wouldn't touch the Audi.

[SWoll]

Granby said:

daz4m said:

SWoll said:

OP said

3. Must have clean styling. I really hate tacky bodykits and massive spoilers. Don’t mind subtle lip spoilers but want to avoid big side skirts and anything OTT



Subtle? Clean styling?

Erm, you've chosen a modded one to prove your point. They are not all like that.

E46 M3, 335 or 135 would be my suggestions, not amazingly special but will perform well in eitehr scenario.

Thats not modded but a standard VXR Monaro, i average about 23/24 in my one but that doesn't include much town driving

Didn't think I had, thanks for confirming it though chaps.

[andye30m3]

If you could find an extra couple of thousand I'd go for an M3 CSL and justify the extra outlay on minimal depreciation.

I paid £22k for a 50,000 mile one, used it everyday averaging 26mpg on a motorway run 30 was easy and 35 not difficult to achieve. At the end of the year sold for £22k having covered 13,000 very enjoyable miles.

[SWoll]

andye30m3 said:

If you could find an extra couple of thousand I'd go for an M3 CSL and justify the extra outlay on minimal depreciation.

I paid £22k for a 50,000 mile one, used it everyday averaging 26mpg on a motorway run 30 was easy and 35 not difficult to achieve. At the end of the year sold for £22k having covered 13,000 very enjoyable miles.

Certainly fits the "special" requirement, although no manual gearbox and the ride is rather hard.

Superb car though.

[hotmelt]

New Clio 200(with either suspension settings), no doubts about it.

[TTwiggy]

hotmelt said:

New Clio 200(with either suspension settings), no doubts about it.

He meant 'special' as in 'makes you feel good'

not 'special' as in 'needs'.