What warm hatch?

[bremb0]

Right long story short, I need to save some money, and insurance is what path I'm going to take.

I currently drive an evo, I have gotten quotes on clio 182s, cooper s, civic type-r, and all are much more than I want to pay.

Put it this way for the little difference it costs between say a civic type-r and evo, I'd rather keep the evo.

So I need something that looks the part more than performance, what comes to mind is something like a suzuki swift sport, I'm yet to get insurance quotes on the suzuki but will be tomorrow, any opinions on them?

Anything else to consider?

It must have four seats, be in a lower insurance group than a cooper s, and look "warm", I'm not bothered whether it's diesel or petrol. And I'm not expecting blistering performance, just something with a bit of poke that's fun to drive.

Oh and be about 6 grand, it will be my daily driver and I will be picking up another mk1 mx-5 as a track toy (wasn't going to after I had the dreaded crank wobble but I drove one recently again and loved it - I'll just be avoiding pre 91 ).

Cheers

Edited by bremb0 on Tuesday 22 March 19:29

Edited by bremb0 on Tuesday 22 March 19:31

[bremb0]

dibbers006 said:

Fiesta ST?

I haven't really looked at them, I assumed (perhaps wrongly) that they are in a high insurance group despite not really having the performance to match.

[Spedz]

Citroen C2 / SportKa / Panda 100BHP?

All around 6/7 insurance group, good enough handling and warm poke for the price?

[nammynake]

Fabia VRS
Focus ST170
Puma 1.7

[EDLT]

An Octavia VRS is quite reasonable on insurance, although they are a bit bigger.

[Steve_F]

Diesel Leon Cupra, or the 180 petrol one, or the Octavia VRS?

Something older and save more for insurance, 306 GTI-6, Golf GTI or loads of other options.

[AMST09]

bremb0 said:

I haven't really looked at them, I assumed (perhaps wrongly) that they are in a high insurance group despite not really having the performance to match.

Not bad to insure to be fair, quite nippy, a bit gutless at higher speeds
Can be rectified with a couple of small mods

Same performance as the ST170

Would personally get clio172 I think

[ludicrous speed]

Having owned an ST170 I would have to recommend one, an absolutely brilliant car imo.

[geeteeaye]

306 Gti-6 if you want to save a lot of the cash difference as well as insurance difference. Performance IMO isn't that great but looks clean and subtle, better than most modern cars, just make sure its a post-facelift model, clear light clusters and repeaters (after early 99 something like that?).

[tyranical]

If you like the Suzuki then look at Yaris t sports, I had one it was an awesome little car and the sport ones look sporty too, for a yaris.

[cris654321]

renult twingo gt
group 5

fiat grande punto sporting (the 1.9 deisel),
citreon c2 gt,
hyundai getz sport,
ford ka sport,
all group 6

saxo vtr,
fiesta zetec S
group 7

c2 vts
group 8

also the suzuki ignis sport not sure on the insurance group but cant see it being much and they seem be liked

all sub 10 seconds to 60

Edited by cris654321 on Tuesday 22 March 20:02

[paulmoonraker]

I had an 04 ST170 in imperial blue. Looked tidy and was a nice drive. However, the insurance was high but I did have business mileage (20K per-year)...

I think they were a bit of a misunderstood car. Reviewers etc complained about performance but round the country lanes, with that sorted chassis, it was brilliant. It was also a nice place to be when doing big runs (far nicer than my current car)...

[bremb0]

Thanks some good suggestions.

A few I'm definitely not interested in would be the sportka, I don't like the styling at all. And I want to get a fairly modern car, so a 306 would not be on the list unfortunately. Also I'd imagine there isn't much difference between the 172 and the quote I got for the 182 so that's off the list.

Again hadn't thought of the ford st170 as once I got quotes on the cooper s, clio 182 etc I just imagined the st's etc would be just as high.

I'll try getting a quote on a cupra, leon and ibiza but again I imagine prices will be high. Likely that the skoda equivalent vrs would be cheaper to insure.

Out of interest is parkers a reliable source for insurance groups? Hmmm probably not as even insurnace companies use different insurance groupings amongst themselves.

And am I depriving myself by automatically writing cars off that are a certain insurance group? I often hear that insurance groups don't always tell the whole picture and have heard of cases where people have bought left field cars in high insurance groups but had cheaper insurance than popular lower grouped cars.

I shold also have mentioned that I'd like a car with cheapish running costs, and reliable too.

Yeah I know it sounds like I want something that probably doesn't exist

edit:WOuld also love to hear a few "odd" (or rather less common) choices, such as the hyundai getz sport, yaris sport) they are the type of cars that I'm sure will be cheaper to insure

Edited by bremb0 on Tuesday 22 March 20:04

Edited by bremb0 on Tuesday 22 March 20:12

[Rouleur]

Another vote here for the ST170, they're very good cars if you're not hung up on straight line performance. Insurance isn't cheap though as they're 15E IIRC.

[robsco]

Fiat Panda 100HP for me please.

[Trikster]

Lupo Gti?

OK, perhaps artificially holding their prices, but a real hoot, and only (old) ins group 11 iirc

[Typhoon2]

500 or Grande Punto Abarth? Both look the part but they only have 1.4Turbos so can't be too high on the insurance, the punto would be your better bet if you wanted more space though

[bremb0]

Straight line performance definitely isn't a concern and most of the choices would feel slow compared to what I drive at the minute.

Main concern is insurance, then styling, then performance, I know some would say why not just get a low performance car, but the styling tends to be bland for me personally, which is why I want something a bit "stylish" if you know what I mean.

Again don't like the styling on the lupo, would love a 500 abarth but my 6 grand budget won't get me one.

Is the group 15 for the focus the new grouping or old grouping?

I'll be getting quotes tomorrow when calling insurance companies, as I find confused etc aren't usually cheaper than phoning direct

Thanks

Edited by bremb0 on Tuesday 22 March 20:25

[Diabolik]

IIRC the ST170 seems to have hot hatch insurance prices, the Fiesta ST was far more reasonable on quotes for me.

[bremb0]

Diabolik said:

IIRC the ST170 seems to have hot hatch insurance prices, the Fiesta ST was far more reasonable on quotes for me.

That's what I thought which is why I scratched it off the list, as I said from when quotes for clio 182s etc were higher than I wanted to pay I automatically ignored what I would class as similar cars.