Spec me a car? £6-9k

[Trif]

Basically, I'm looking for a car. I sold my VX220 6 weeks ago and getting a bit tired of waiting for a good example of my current choice of replacement to appear on Pistonheads/Autotrader (going to purposely not mention it to see if anyone else recommends it).


Budget: £6000 - £9000
Age: 2006 - ~2008
Petrol
Manual or torque converter auto (no DSG etc)
Reasonably quick <9s to 60
around 30mpg is OK
Prefer tax to be band K or lower
More comfortable, warmer and quieter then my previous VX220
Quite fancy a saloon this time round but the form factor or the car is flexible
I will do less then 6000 miles a year

I'll be interested to hear what you can come up with!

Thanks.

[Matt UK]

Well if you'll go to a 2005 I might let you offer me on my Jaguar XJ! <pics in profile garage>

[LocoBlade]

BMW 130i (or 330i if saloon is critical)

Edited by LocoBlade on Friday 25th October 13:22

[mmm-five]

3.0si Z4 Coupe (35mpg on a run).

Would also have suggested a Z4 M Coupe (30mpg on a run), but it's in band M.

[callahan]

A 2004 Jag X Type sport 3.0 manual estate sounds like it fits the bill perfectly. Well, it would make me happy(if you bought mine).

Some kind of Impreza? Type R? Z4?

Can I be the first to say MX5?

[MPoxon]

[Crusoe]

E46 M3 if you push the date back a little and can stand a 26ish mpg average

An early 2006 S2000 woudl fit the bill on all counts and still be fun after the vx220.

330i bmw or Mazda Mps?

[scarble]

Trif said:

Manual or torque converter auto (no DSG etc)

Why?
In what way is a slush box better than a robo-manual?

Anyway, I think the correct answer to this thread is S2000.
eta: quick google shows that a >2007 s2k is band L (only just one higher than K ) but you get an 06 and you're sorted

Or, spend the lower end of your budget on the car and use the remained to subsidise the increased tax?

Edited by scarble on Friday 25th October 13:52

[Trif]

Matt UK said:

Well if you'll go to a 2005 I might let you offer me on my Jaguar XJ! <pics in profile garage>

Have had a passing temptation with a XJR that was parked in the car park the other week.

LocoBlade said:

BMW 130i (or 330i if saloon is critical)

Was tempted by a 130i LE but am not sure if I am overly bothered about owning a 1 series as I borrowed my Dads 120D a lot when he had it. I'm not sure if I could live with the back end of a 3 series.

mmm-five said:

3.0si Z4 Coupe (35mpg on a run).

Would also have suggested a Z4 M Coupe (30mpg on a run), but it's in band M.

I am tempted by a Z4, inlcuding the convertible. My mate has one and I do very much like it.

scarble said:

Why?
In what way is a slush box better than a robo-manual?

I'm a little unconvinced about the reliability of them if I'm honest. What happens about clutch replacements too? Aren't they a little rubbish around town?

scarble said:

Anyway, I think the correct answer to this thread is S2000.
eta: quick google shows that a >2007 s2k is band L (only just one higher than K ) but you get an 06 and you're sorted

Or, spend the lower end of your budget on the car and use the remained to subsidise the increased tax?

I do love the S2000. I'd begrudge the cost of insurance though. Most cars are around £500 a year but the S2000 is twice the price. I'd also rather not give more money then is necessary to the government. I won't change the budget for the car though, but is a concern about the difficulty of selling it on.

MPoxon said:

Stunning.

[james_gt3rs]

350Z?

[lewisf182]

MPoxon said:

This was going to be my suggestion as soon as I finished reading. a 3.2 Ti with an after market exhaust- gorgeous.

[Krikkit]

Trif said:

scarble said:

Why?
In what way is a slush box better than a robo-manual?

I'm a little unconvinced about the reliability of them if I'm honest. What happens about clutch replacements too? Aren't they a little rubbish around town?

I can't say about clutch replacement, but I can't see reliability being much worse than the usual auto box.

Town work with a dual-clutch is easy enough once you get used to the small time lag while it takes the clutch up to biting point from neutral (lots of complaints of the DSG box are focussed around this, from people used to the instant reply of a torque converter, it's just a quirk of the clutch control). Single clutch systems can be jerky around town, but again a lot of that can be down to the user not adapting their style.

[kambites]

lewisf182 said:

This was going to be my suggestion as soon as I finished reading. a 3.2 Ti with an after market exhaust- gorgeous.

If you get "around 30mpg" from a V6 159, you're driving it very wrong.

[neil_bmw]

E60 530i SE or sport would be on my shopping list.

[lewisf182]

kambites said:

lewisf182 said:

This was going to be my suggestion as soon as I finished reading. a 3.2 Ti with an after market exhaust- gorgeous.

If you get "around 30mpg" from a V6 159, you're driving it very wrong.

he did say "around" . But granted it's probably low 20's around town. 2.4JTDM may be worth a look, meant to be rapid with a remap?

[TREMAiNE]

MPoxon said:

Porn really should be banned in these forums...

I knew I should have taken a spare pair of boxers to work today!

[scarble]

Trif said:

I'm a little unconvinced about the reliability of them if I'm honest. What happens about clutch replacements too? Aren't they a little rubbish around town?

I do love the S2000. I'd begrudge the cost of insurance though. Most cars are around £500 a year but the S2000 is twice the price. I'd also rather not give more money then is necessary to the government. I won't change the budget for the car though, but is a concern about the difficulty of selling it on.

Fair comment on the reliability but afaik there aren't any massive issues, couldn't comment on cost of replacement clutches or on wear rate vs. manual clutching. Wear depends on the system / driver I guess.
What Krik says is largely correct too, BMW's SMG was known to slam home quite aggressively (might be more refined on later cars?) though not heard that it did any damage particularly, just a bit of an "NVH" issue (but NVH is for girls). Someone will be along shortly to tell us how PDK (dual clutch) is perfect though.

Speaking of Porsche, you wont get a boxster in your age range in your price range will you? I think it's only the very early ones that suffer from rubbish cylinder liners?
It's that or a renaultsport clio

Z4 I have mixed feelings about, not sure why. Might just be the looks now that I think about it. If I were you I'd shortlist it, drive one.

Left-field would be an A3 3.2 quattro. Fat and ungainly but a bit nippy in a straight line and a sleeper to boot. Just remember to badge it up as a base level (I think they go as low as 1.2 )

The last year of the Alfa 916 spider was 2006
V6. Stunning looks.
Tin tops stopped in 05. But you could get one of them cup ones and feel special
Front drive though.

long post is long :/

Edited by scarble on Friday 25th October 16:30

[turboteeth]

[Trif]

scarble said:

Speaking of Porsche, you wont get a boxster in your age range in your price range will you? I think it's only the very early ones that suffer from rubbish cylinder liners?

A boxster/Cayman is a very logical choice of next car but unfortunately budget will not permit it this time round.

scarble said:

Z4 I have mixed feelings about, not sure why. Might just be the looks now that I think about it. If I were you I'd shortlist it, drive one.

I drove my friends Z4 roadster a couple of years ago and very much enjoyed it, love the styling too. I was holding out for the new one but my budget isn't as big as I was hoping it to be at this point in time.





Which TT is that? Those seats are very buckety.

[rotta]

Which TT is that? Those seats are very buckety.

its the quattro sport special edition.