Going from a Golf to something more exciting

[OrangeWarrior]

Hello all,

What are your thoughts on my decision making process for my next car? I am a 25 yr old going from my current car (VW Golf TDI) to something I’m hoping will be much more engaging and fun to drive. My criteria are:

- Something which costs me no more than £15k or £300pm (bank loan or lease options) excluding vehicle maintenance/tax/insurance etc.
- As mentioned in the title, something which is fun to drive and “fast”. Remember I am coming from something which gets to 60 mph, eventually…
- Decent mpg (40+ if possible) as I do circa 18k miles per year.
- Space/seats are no issue as it’ll just be transporting myself most of the time.
- Some nice to have features would be; decent auto box and parking sensors.
Some cars I have considered (haven’t test driven all yet):
- Audi A5 3.0 tdi Quattro
- Jaguar XF S
- Golf GTI
- Audi A6

All the suggestions above would be purchased as either £15k used car or lease for the ones outside the cash budget. I would appreciate your thoughts on this.

Cheers

[duff]

Personally I wouldn't class any of your suggestions as being fun to drive. If space really isn't an issue you could get a nice Mini Cooper S for your budget and it'll do 40mpg.

[marathonic]

Considered a Toyota GT86?

[cbmotorsport]

You wont get 40mpg from a Golf GTI. If I drove mine like a saint, I'd get 33-36.

[HJMS123]

Neither the A5 nor the A6 will be fun to drive so I'd discount them.

BMW M135i manuals must be getting clsoe to £15k now?

[marathonic]

At £1.16 per litre, a gallon of fuel costs £5.27. 18k miles at 34mpg uses 529 gallon and 18k miles at 40mpg uses 450 gallon.

In other words, the difference in cost would be about £416 per year. This is nothing in comparison to the depreciation on a £15k car, which is likely to be about 7 times that figure.

I'm only saying this because I see a lot of requests for suggestions from people who place too much emphasis on mpg and cut out a whole segment of the market - in most cases, the better segment

[OrangeWarrior]

duff said:

Personally I wouldn't class any of your suggestions as being fun to drive. If space really isn't an issue you could get a nice Mini Cooper S for your budget and it'll do 40mpg.

Fair point. I think what I mean is "more" fun to drive than my current setup. Thanks for the suggestion

[OrangeWarrior]

marathonic said:

At £1.16 per litre, a gallon of fuel costs £5.27. 18k miles at 34mpg uses 529 gallon and 18k miles at 40mpg uses 450 gallon.

In other words, the difference in cost would be about £416 per year. This is nothing in comparison to the depreciation on a £15k car, which is likely to be about 7 times that figure.

I'm only saying this because I see a lot of requests for suggestions from people who place too much emphasis on mpg and cut out a whole segment of the market - in most cases, the better segment

So are you suggesting that I shift my focus from mpg to residual value?

[hornetrider]

The Leon Cupra 300 is dirt cheap to lease at the mo. Keep your 15k in the bank.

249 a month with three months down. Job done.

[Liggle]

Which era Golf do you currently drive? There's a huge difference between the MK4/5/6 and the latest MQB platform cars in how they drive.

2013-2017 Octavia vRS DSG (petrol or diesel will do 40mpg+ on a run) would be my biased suggestion.

I've got a late pre-facelift MK3 vRS (66 plate) Tdi in manual and its never dropped below 50mpg and is still as much fun to drive as you want for a daily without comprimising on ride quality and comfort. Full of toys too which is great when covering 25k a year.

[johnwilliams77]

cbmotorsport said:

You wont get 40mpg from a Golf GTI. If I drove mine like a saint, I'd get 33-36.

Very close to it
I got 39mpg today on a long trip (150miles), not hanging about

[tallpaul26]

hornetrider said:

The Leon Cupra 300 is dirt cheap to lease at the mo. Keep your 15k in the bank.

249 a month with three months down. Job done.

Plus the £1,600 in excess mileage charges when he hands it back with 20k excess miles... But still, it's relatively cheap motoring for a £30k RRP car.

[CYMR0]

hornetrider said:

The Leon Cupra 300 is dirt cheap to lease at the mo. Keep your 15k in the bank.

249 a month with three months down. Job done.

1 month down in fact.

http://www.seatwarrington.co.uk/newcars/details/se...

£6k over 2 years, so very likely to be within the ball park for depreciation on any £15k car.

[marathonic]

OrangeWarrior said:

So are you suggesting that I shift my focus from mpg to residual value?

Residual value is almost impossible to predict - especially now, given the extreme volatility in the british pound.

I'm just saying not to place too much emphasis on an area (mpg) that's likely to represent less than 15% of the total cost of ownership. If you see a car that you are extremely interested in, but it fails to meet your mpg requirement, don't be too quick to rule it out.

[hornetrider]

tallpaul26 said:

hornetrider said:

The Leon Cupra 300 is dirt cheap to lease at the mo. Keep your 15k in the bank.

249 a month with three months down. Job done.

Plus the £1,600 in excess mileage charges when he hands it back with 20k excess miles... But still, it's relatively cheap motoring for a £30k RRP car.

Good point but it's half that if you pay half way through, so only 800 extra in total.