RE: PH Service History: Living the dream

[Ed69]

For the money you should get a decent x350 xjr. I have the money, I also have two daughters at nursery. Perhaps I could persuade their mother to take them for an extra day each week.

[B'stard Child]

10K - I'd want at least 5 cars for that much money - but then I've never managed to find a single car that did everything I wanted so for me it's better to have a few that all do something different well.

My 10K Garage when 100K garage was a thing

[SidewaysSi]

Problem with a lot of £10k cars is they will need a lot spending on them to drive properly (again) if you care about such things.

This old E36 328i would have set me around £10k when finished but it will be completely sorted /upgraded and IMO will drive brilliantly.



I think a £10k M3 for instance would need at least £5k chucked at it to get it up to scratch.

As for the Boxster, for this money I think they are good value as a do-it-all car but not sure they are the most fun this budget will get you.

I had a Cayman GT4 and found it somewhat disappointing on road. The Boxster is more accessible and for the money, easier to make excuses for.

[Honeywell]

I have a 2007 RangeRover L322 3.6 Diesel Vogue SE that has 135,000 miles on the clock bought three years ago for £12k at 99,000 miles now worth maybe £7k. Its a lovely thing, dark with tinted windows, biscuit beige interior, xenons, Harmon Kardon, chilled seats, TV, lots of bells and whistles.

Its needed one precautionary full transmission service for £850 flushed and fluids.

Then Two turbo hoses, one brake line, one failed rear caliper, two gas struts and nothing else other than an annual 12,000 mile service at my local Indy for £300. Oh and a new battery (it was 7 years old). The three services add to £900 and the failed bits and the battery came to lesss than £1000. Parts are cheap, independent garages are everywhere, most will work cash in hand. I pay £45/hr locally for someone who does a good job.

Personally for the amount of metal you get, the driving experience and the class of the thing I have never owned a more satisfying vehicle. Its covered in mud, hay, dog hair, kids fingermarks, more mud and it tows 3.5tons regularly. I love it. I don't think its expensive to run because the depreciation and non-fuel running costs have been over three years £900 in maintenance and £1700 in depreciation. So £2,600 a year plus tax insurance and diesel to run around in a twin turbo V8 go anywhere machine loaded with kit that looks really classy. Which beats leasing 1.0 Corsa...

The L322 RR was a good machine designed by BMW but with a compromised engine until the 2007 facelift. After that they really are quite special and quite well made machines. The equivalent Discover 3/4 were and are utter money its by comparison....


Quite fancy a 987 with the later trouble free 2.9 engine. Still high teens though and barely depreciating..

[GranCab]

samoht said:

GranCab said:

Best car for £10K ?

Easy ... the one with a manufacturer's warranty and zero miles on the clock ...

e.g. https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/...

"Living the dream" indeed. The word 'car' means different things to different people. To some people, it's just a means of getting to work or Tesco's. With that definition, a pre-reg Astra is indeed, the best 'car'.

To others, a car is a means to enjoy the process of driving, feeling the process of flowing down the road. It can also be a shortcut to communicating your interests and character to others. If this is what a car means to you, a pre-reg Astra is in many ways almost the worst possible £10k car - arguably even a perpetually borked Merc, sat beached on your driveway on its collapsed air suspension, is a better use of ten grand.

I posted that as a wind-up / counterpoint to the article ... I bet most of the tasty-car-driving fantasists on PH would actually plump for that pre-regd. Astra or a brand new MG for their real £10k ...

[B'stard Child]

SidewaysSi said:

Problem with a lot of £10k cars is they will need a lot spending on them to drive properly (again) if you care about such things.

This old E36 328i would have set me around £10k when finished but it will be completely sorted /upgraded and IMO will drive brilliantly.



I think a £10k M3 for instance would need at least £5k chucked at it to get it up to scratch.

I disagree - I like all my cars to drive like new despite the miles - I've very very rarely bought bad cars but that's because I spend as much time assessing the owner as I do the car - on the second hand market the price differential between a well maintained and cherished car and a absolute hound that is gonna be a money pit is a few quid at most

I'd rather pay a few quid more for a cherished car than buy a hound and save a few quid on the initial purchase but end up spending a lot more getting it up to scratch

[C2james]

I’m looking at £10k M3s right now too and I don’t think you’d need to spend several thousand to get it out n order, granted it may be slightly tough but there’s several cars out there for the budget that will be good!

[ahenners]

Hairymonster said:

Golf Mk 6 was hellishly unreliable, though not sure whether that's just the diesels.

The GTI MK6 had problems with the chain cam tensioner which can have pretty catastrophic results.

[Notanotherturbo]

If your feeling brave Maserati Quattroportes with reasonable mileages and history are available around 10k. 2005 are cheap to tax too. Might not be the best driving car for the money but surely the coolest saloon

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

[DanielSan]

C2james said:

I’m looking at £10k M3s right now too and I don’t think you’d need to spend several thousand to get it out n order, granted it may be slightly tough but there’s several cars out there for the budget that will be good!

12k doesn’t guarantee you’ll find the right M3 at the moment just lower miles. You can end up with one that still needs the boot floor reinforcing, head gasket or bearings needing sorting out. It just takes time

[jakesmith]

My 987s is a very well sorted car. Bought from a forum member. They’re the best cars generally. It’s had a lot of work recently including tyres and discs and pads all round. I’d be disappointed if it costs me £5k over the next 1-2 years! Spent a long time waiting for someone I trusted to come along with a high spec car for sale

[C2james]

DanielSan said:

12k doesn’t guarantee you’ll find the right M3 at the moment just lower miles. You can end up with one that still needs the boot floor reinforcing, head gasket or bearings needing sorting out. It just takes time

Yeah very true, and every other dealer I ring they don’t have a clue what those things are. One claimed he had never heard of the head gasket and didn’t think it was an issue........

[Niffty951]

Perhaps I'm getting old and reminiscing about the good old days but is seems to me like sports car prices have risen more than salaries in the last 10 years and 200hp/ton is getting a lot harder to achieve for sub £10k.

Especially if driving thrills like a manual box, rwd and lsd are on the list. I've bought E36, E46 m3's an E39 M5, several modified 944 turbos, and a multitude of others at closer to 5k than 10k over the past 10 years not to mention the £5,500 850i manual and many others I didn't choose for similar prices.

The list above (well chosen as it is) just leaves me a bit dry compared to those drivers cars.

Additionally, I've just remembered I got my favourite all time drive for 10k. My 500 (ok 498.2hp) 2.7tt Audi RS4. Load lugging, motorway cruising, welsh road blasting, giggle of a car with light touch controls, surprisingly nimble handling, comfortable seats and an accelerator pedal, which fired you bacl into the seat like a landmine

Edited by Niffty951 on Sunday 4th February 21:48

[ianwayne]

A good call on the SLK350. I'm watching them myself. And I have a 350Z, tipped on future classic Friday by honest john (the Daily Telegraph) and EVO magazine recently. Although £10k isn't necessary, only about £5k. A 370Z will soon be that value, but £555 to tax after April. Blimey!:

http://www.evo.co.uk/nissan/350z/20359/nissan-350z...

I'm a bit disappointed these weren't on the list. Actually going up in value now but just about doable at £10k:

https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds?Category=u...

I'm on my 3rd Chimaera but there's a very big range from excellent condition to total money pit so you have to be careful. Probably too much to cover in a short article, like the huge variation in condition of Subaru WRX and Mitsibushi Evo cars.

[RyCliff]

2 years ago I was in the fortunate position of having a budget around this and ended up with a k series Caterham. It's absolutely brilliant fun and a driving experience that I'm not sure is replicated in any other car (colleague of mine has a Westfield of similar spec but admits Caterham is a much sharper steer)

[jakesmith]

ianwayne said:

A good call on the SLK350

They are very plasticky inside
The manual box gets a poor writeup although I haven't driven one
The SLK55 looked interesting to me but they are really more like £14k and main issues are no manual and traction can't be turned off

[Patrick Bateman]

I hadn't seen the manual get a poor write-up, quite the opposite in fact.

[Niffty951]

jakesmith said:

ianwayne said:

A good call on the SLK350

They are very plasticky inside
The manual box gets a poor writeup although I haven't driven one
The SLK55 looked interesting to me but they are really more like £14k and main issues are no manual and traction can't be turned off

I drove one of these in manual a few years back. The interior makes a sulo bin look luxurious, the build quality of the example I drove did not fill me with confidence, with squeaks and rattles like an R53 mini but the engine is note worthy and handling was a lot more playful than I had dared to expect. I can't remember the feel of the gearshift for positive or negative, but that's probably a sign it was fairly good.

Edited by Niffty951 on Sunday 4th February 22:07

[SidewaysSi]

B'stard Child said:

SidewaysSi said:

Problem with a lot of £10k cars is they will need a lot spending on them to drive properly (again) if you care about such things.

This old E36 328i would have set me around £10k when finished but it will be completely sorted /upgraded and IMO will drive brilliantly.



I think a £10k M3 for instance would need at least £5k chucked at it to get it up to scratch.

I disagree - I like all my cars to drive like new despite the miles - I've very very rarely bought bad cars but that's because I spend as much time assessing the owner as I do the car - on the second hand market the price differential between a well maintained and cherished car and a absolute hound that is gonna be a money pit is a few quid at most

I'd rather pay a few quid more for a cherished car than buy a hound and save a few quid on the initial purchase but end up spending a lot more getting it up to scratch

Believe me, I do the same. But any car over 10 years and 50k miles will need some work - springs, dampers, bushes, maybe steering rack etc. Cherished cars with full histories are well and good but not sure if that level of work will necessarily be done.

Of course, some won't be bothered but I tend to need to do this and probably upgrade those bits as well to sharpen the whole car up. Add a full cavity waxing and replacement of a few other bits e.g. upgraded brakes etc and it all adds up.

An E46 M3 etc running original suspension will probably drive pretty poorly.

But appreciate some people won't be too bothered.

Edited by SidewaysSi on Sunday 4th February 22:27

[KingDanHF]

156 GTA Sportwagon.