Recommend me a car.

[Afromonk]

First time poster, long time lurker.
21 Years of age and moving onto my third car (second was a 1.6 Astra).

Have a budget of around £3000.
Interested in something more performance and fun orientated, Saloon, Hatchback or coupe.
Preferably 0-60 in 6 seconds ish, already looked at Toyota corolla t sport( 7ish seconds i know), Seat Leon cupra r's, Audi S3 (early 2000's) Audi 3.2 V6 (now excluded due to timing chain problem)and BMW E46 330i's. ETA have also looked at Mondeo St220, Fiesta ST and focus ST.

Insurance for me is about £650-£800 and I don't do many miles, about 3000 max a year but decent MPG is a plus.
Knowing what PH is like I will come out straight away and say I don't like Alfas, French marques or MX5's

Would love some other recommendations/ideas, and personal experiences on any of the above cars, thanks

Edited by Afromonk on Wednesday 2nd October 11:15

Edited by Afromonk on Wednesday 2nd October 11:18

Edited by Afromonk on Wednesday 2nd October 11:19

[Afromonk]

Looked at CTR's along with the Corollas, similar to each other in loads of aspects but the Civic had slightly higher insurance, and higher cost of car to mileage .
The general consensus is you have to rev the nuts off them to have fun, rather have decent torque and therefore some nice low down power.

[trickywoo]

MR2 Turbo?

[Afromonk]

Which one? MK3? They look like decent cars and I wouldn't mind owning one but I need a boot and probably rear seats.
I should have put that in the original post, will update it now.

[Bigcarper]

Seat Leon 1.8 tsi very good car

[Bigcarper]

Golf gti

[matsoc]

Afromonk said:

Looked at CTR's along with the Corollas, similar to each other in loads of aspects but the Civic had slightly higher insurance, and higher cost of car to mileage .
The general consensus is you have to rev the nuts off them to have fun, rather have decent torque and therefore some nice low down power.

I remember driving a friend's Corolla tsport once. It is a bit distant memory, like a decade ago, he bought it new but I clearly remember it was a pretty poor car in every aspect, it didn't feel even fast despite the 190hp. TypeR are way better in steering, gearchange and chassis behavior over bumps.

[Afromonk]

The Seat Leons are quite good value by the look of it, can pick up a nice mileage one for £1500ish.

The Golf is a mixed bag, the engines are decent but people always critique the handling and they are everywhere, next door neighbours got one and I feel its just a bit of a grey mans car however I will look into them along with the rest

[Afromonk]

matsoc said:

I remember driving a friend's Corolla tsport once. It is a bit distant memory, like a decade ago, he bought it new but I clearly remember it was a pretty poor car in every aspect, it didn't feel even fast despite the 190hp. TypeR are way better in steering, gearchange and chassis behavior over bumps.

Ahh thats interesting, a lot of people seem to think they were evenly matched maybe Toyota bias? lol
The Type R's look and sound better but the cost - mileage isn't great for its performance and the insurance runs a few couple hundred quid more, probably due to the "bad boy racer" persona they had.

I've almost discounted the Corollas anyway because there seems to be very few of them and the parts seem pretty expensive for what it is, if the right one came up I would have a look though.

[Brabus Jord]

clio 182

[RobM77]

Afromonk said:

Looked at CTR's along with the Corollas, similar to each other in loads of aspects but the Civic had slightly higher insurance, and higher cost of car to mileage .
The general consensus is you have to rev the nuts off them to have fun, rather have decent torque and therefore some nice low down power.

Depends if you get your fun in a straight line or in the corners...

[Afromonk]

Majority of my driving is suburban, occasional dual carriageway but I would be tempted to seek out some B roads maybe Cotswolds way infrequently.