2nd car, Celica? MX5? something else??

[jtaylor94]

Right so I've had a Seat Arosa (basically a Lupo) for the last nearly three years, now im 20 and want an upgrade but something affordable, am thinking a Celica 7th gen, did look at a RX8 but can't afford or be fussed with the oil so maybe a mx5 instead and by a hardtop for it?
Any help or suggestions for something similar would be great
also don't want to spend more than £2500 on the car
Cheers!

[TheVole]

1.7 Puma.

[vtecyo]

FWIW the 140 Celica is rubbish. Nice enough car let down catastrophically by the engine.

[steviegunn]

Hyundai Coupe?

I'm on my second not a bad drive, bullet proof reliability, well specced if you go for a 2l and cheap to insure.

[JDMDrifter]

I had that choice recently arbeit with less cash. I went for an mx5, for £2500 you'll get a nice spec mk2. May be worth looking at Mk2/Mk3 MR2's?

[klunkT5]

If you go MX5 try and get a solid NA (MK1) NB's (MK2) suffer with the same rear sill rot/Arch issues as NA's but with the added problem of rotten front chassis legs due to them being laminated to meet crash regs, Ive seen shocking images of NB chassis rot, Theres a sticky i think on the MX5 owners forum, NA's arent laminated and are not affected by this generally.

[DoubleTapThat]

Earlier Mk3 MR2 would be an awesome choice. 2500 would get you a decent example. I paid 3500 for mine, 04 plate, 60k miles, red leather and AC.

Things to watch for: Exhaust manifold should ideally be changed, especially on pre-03 models, the precats in the stock manifold had a nasty habit of breaking up and destroying engines. Rear crossmember rots through from the inside (circa £250-£300 to replace), other than that reliability is good.

Insurance is not bad (paid 600 fully comp for mine last year for a 20 year old with 2 years NCB), and the car is genuine fun to drive.

[Rickyy]

£1500 should get you a decent MK1 MX5, the remaining grand could be spent refreshing it.

[jtaylor94]

Thanks for all the replies
If I went for a celica i'd probably go for the 190 but I don't need too much power really.
I do like the mk1 MX5s but I dont wan't to have to restore one and I need reliability too as im a student