Renault Sport Clio, Megane, Leon FR, VX220 or something else

[danyeates]

Hi,

Bit of a strange one. My brother is currently overseas and is saving hard! When he's back he's mentioned he would like to buy a new car, possibly one of the aforementioned.

What are your thoughts on these? I know they're all quite similar, except for the VX220. He currently has a Hyundai Coupe 2.0 and is looking for more power and performance, but with similar or better fuel consumption. It's the 2.0 litre and is pretty gutless and juicy for what it is. He commutes 100 miles a day so fuel consumption will have a bearing on the price.

He has lots of experience of the VX220 as I’ve had a few, as has my dad. He’s done track days in ours as well, but he’s not had to live with one from day to day! But he’s young, will enjoy driving something very different, it’s light and therefore very efficient on the motorway and he’ll be able to have fun on a trackday with it.

The Leon FR could be a petrol or a diesel. I’ve had a Skoda Octavia VRS TDi and whilst it was a lovely car, it was no sports car or hot hatch. It really needed the petrol engine. But having said that, I was using it for short runs through the New Forest. He’ll be sitting on the motorway for an hour.

What do you think? He’ll be 22, budget of probably £7,000 or so, got to be fun, quick and reasonably economical.

Dan

[tangerine_sedge]

Vx obviously.

[Boydie88]

I do 60 miles a day in my VX. Love it - although this extreme cold is very testing - thankfully my heater is capable of producing some warm air.

If he can tolerate those miles, surely you and your dad would say its the best option too?

[danyeates]

Boydie88 said:

I do 60 miles a day in my VX. Love it - although this extreme cold is very testing - thankfully my heater is capable of producing some warm air.

If he can tolerate those miles, surely you and your dad would say its the best option too?

I'm not sure. I've since had a BMW Z4 M Roadster and it's lovely having the power and creature comforts! I used to commute quite a long way in my VX220 and I loved it, but it was a pain in the winter. The VX220's are such good value for money now though. It would probably be the most economical if driven carefully on the motorway I presume.

[danyeates]

I'd say go for something in between the hot hatches and back to basics VX220. Something like an early BMW Z4 3.0, but fuel consumption would jump up considerably. And I don't think it's worth going for the 2.0 4 cylinder Z4.