Wednesday 20th August 2014

£100K Garage: Mike Francis

Rear, front and four-wheel drive, petrol and diesel, Mike's five cover plenty of bases

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Name: Mike Francis
Previously owned: SEAT Ibiza TDI, Ford Fiesta SI, Peugeot 106 XSI, Citroen Saxo VTR, Renault Clio 172 Exclusive, VW Polo, Vauxhall Astra SRI
Currently owned: SEAT Ibiza
On the shortlist: "Fun(ish) commuter, something for SWMBO, something slightly off-road and to tow, a track toy and a weekend machine."

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BMW 335d M Sport Coupe
Cost: £19,995
Balance: £80,005
Why I chose it: "This would be my daily drive. Currently using a SEAT Ibiza for the commute which does the job well but this would mean a fair amount of fun can be had to brighten the commute. It ticks all the boxes with decent economy, an auto for sitting in traffic and cruising motorways day to day and not in resale grey or black!"

All 335ds for sale on PH here. You'll need to go elsewhere to have it mapped...

Nissan GT-R Black Edition
Cost: £37,950
Balance: £42,055
Why I chose it: "Since the day my boss turned up in his new GT-R and passed me the keys for the day I fell in love (with the car not him!). For me, its the ultimate toy - this one is perfect in black with black wheels for the stealthy look. I would probably look for a Y Pipe and rear light conversion to be done fairly sharpish too."

Another £100K Garage, another GT-R! R35s for sale on PH here.

Mini Cooper S JCW
Cost: £12,995
Balance: £29,060
Why I chose it: "This one is for the better half. The actual car we have been looking at after I had been nagged for a Mini for almost a year now. Love the colour and spec but would get the stripes removed pretty swiftly. She would be happy and I wouldn't argue if i had to drive it home after a night out/trip back from the out-laws."

Take a look at all Mini JCWs for sale.

Toyota Hilux Invincible 3.0 D4D
Cost: £17,495
Balance: £11,565
Why I choice it: "We shoot a fair amount of land and use a friend's Forester for getting about most of this. The Hilux has been something I've looked at before after spending a small amount of time in and would be great for what we need, plus with a tow bar it can be used to take the track car to and from whilst having load space for spares/bits that fall off."

Need a do-it-all pick up? Hiluxes for sale here.

Vauxhall VX220
Cost: £9,995
Balance: £1,570
Why I chose it: "This would be my track toy. I love the colour and its had a fair amount of work done. Already have access to a trailer so would look at spending the remainder of budget on some breathing mods and maybe sourcing a spare set of wheels/tyres for the car".

All Vauxhall VX220s on PH right here!

 

 

[TNH]

Nice selection and all bases covered. Would probably rather have a used V8 Vantage rather than the GTR but I can see the appeal.

[deltashad]

Like it, I have the D4D as my company car and I love it. Also an Elise (kind of VX220). Nice choices

[chrisemersons]

I agree a nice selection and interchangeable, you could use any of those as a daily if the mood took you, well realistically maybe apart from the vx220, that may be hard work on 200 mile motorway day !

[Ryvita]

Nice mix. Well done on "tetris"-ing in all those different categories.

- FWD / RWD / 4WD
- Daily / Trackday / Occasion
- Estate / Coupe / Open-top
- Brit / Jap / German
- Turbo / NA / (Missing a supercharged?)
- 4-cyl / 6-cyl / (Missing a V8 surely? )
- Manual / Auto

My own real and hypothetical garages revolve around the same combinatorical problem. Getting all of those into the minimum number of cars results in some fun combos.

[cheese]

Good choice and a nice well thought out selection. I had a bogo Cooper S with an Evolve remap (about 205bhp) which was surprisingly quick. According to the advert for the Mini listed here it's running at 265bhp. That will be a fast and fun car.

[iggletiggle]

Cheers - thought long and hard on this!! Haha..
The only thing missing really is a V8 but didnt see anywhere to shoe horn that one into the mix as well..

I'll let you know how fast the Mini is, planning on going to look at it next week all being well.

[Prawnboy]

well, i like the nissan.

[Axionknight]

A good, broad set of choices there, I'd be happy with all of them - although my missus has a Fiesta ST2 at the moment which she loves, so if this was a start from scratch exercise I'd swap the Mini out for one of those as she adores the thing, I hardly get a chance to take the keys!

I'd possibly look at an Aston V8 in place of the Nissan too, but I'm not sure what reliability/borkage are like at that price point with the Aston, then again, I suppose the Nissan could produce a few eye watering bills.

[900T-R]

Sod having a spouse as an excuse, the Mini JCW would definitely feature on my list, too!

[smilo996]

Nice list. The GT-R is very good value.

The Hilux I would not have but can see the specific reasons for it.

Clearly no children eeding to be towed about each day.

Interesting choice VX220 as a track tool. On the road it seems too impractical but as a cheap track tool, fun.