What would you buy as your only car for £20k?

[white_goodman]

Browsing through Autotrader the other day, it became quite apparent that you can now get some quite taste everyday wheels for £20k but if you were given a (hypothetical) £20k, what car would you spend it on?

Rules:
1. Can be new or used
2. Only one car
3. It's your only car to use every day (so no toys and you can't keep your diesel ecobox)!

Here are a few ideas (which I might consider):

Audi RS4/RS6
BMW M3 (E90/E92?)
BMW M5 (E60)
Porsche 911 Carrera (997 just in budget?)
Jaguar XK
Ford Focus RS
Maserati Quattroporte
Alfa Romeo Brera V6 S (Prodrive)

What would you choose and why?

[sparks_E39]

E39 M5. It does everything brilliantly, the only downside is fuel consumption. With £20k you can get a great one for £10k, and £10k to maintain it for a few years.

[Luke.]

Cayenne Turbo

[Debaser]

V8 M3

[crazy about cars]

wow..can you really get all the cars listed @ £20k now?

[shirt]

hypothetically, a tvr t350c, accepting it will likely need a little tlc.

why? because if they made them in lhd, i would already have one.

accepting it has to be lhd, a rolling resto pre-73 911.

why? because i want one and wouldn't mind long periods of hire car/taxi use to make it so. i am getting dangerously close to doing this the more i mull it over.

[Dangermouse58]

Honda nsx. All the car you will ever need!

[Dave Hedgehog]

rs4 avant

[SirSamuelBuca]

Tvr Cerbera or 996 turbo

[white_goodman]

crazy about cars said:

wow..can you really get all the cars listed @ £20k now?

I believe so, yes!

[Tegis]

911, m3, rs4 avant depending on how much room for stuff you need.

[Jaffo]

My Saab 93 aero sportwagon ttid hirsch used and a skoda Octavia vrs estate if I was buying new( only because I can't buy a new Saab now)

[otolith]

Last time I had to make do with a one-car solution, I had a hot hatch. Back to that, I suppose, or an estate car. A poor substitute for having a few cars, IMO.

[V8Triumph]

If I had £20k to spend on only one car it would be a Jaguar E-type Series 2 2+2.

[gazchap]

E60 M5. Until I got mine a couple of weeks ago, I had a variety of cars for doing different things, not at all convinced I need any except the M5 now though!

[Benbay001]

996 C4S

[AudiSport]

Didn't take long for the M5's to come up - they sure have a big following on here! I think I would have to go 997 though.

£20,000 purchase price is just half the story though... Lots of great performance cars are available at silly prices these days, and has to be one of the few benifits to this financial doom and gloom. However the real question is, how much budget do we have freely available to maintain the car?

This is an issue I'm currently pondering over, as my current 10k budget to replace my current car will get me some serious fun - and maybe some serious bills too!

[Papa Hotel]

M5 Touring, one on AT now for £19,995.

[Raize]

Porsche 928 for 5k and the rest on expenses. Alternatively BMW 840 or 850 for roughly the same price.

[ConorE]

Maserati Gransports drop under 20k occasionally, four seats, brisk performance and that Ferrari v8! What else could a man ask for?