Quickish hatchback around 3500, good on fuel

[hoax]

Car needed:
- Hatchback
- 30mpg around town
- Reliable and cheap to run
- Pedals that can easily rev match

Cars considered based on research of this forum:

Suzuki swift sport 2009+ £190 road tax.
- Can't find a reasonably priced model with the lower road tax. They all seem to be low mileage, wonder why?

Renault Clio 172/182
- Can't find a decent one near me. Only one is a 93k mile blue one for £2500. Do not want to spend more than £2500 on a clio.

Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart New shape
- There is a 5 door a distance away but I want a 3 door.

Ford fiesta ST Mk6
- loads near me. They seem to drink fuel though.

Cars I'm not interested in: Renault twingo, panda 100hp, fiat cars, volkswagens.

Any ideas or advice?

[culpz]

Not exactly a big surprise from me but id' definitely go for the Clio 172/182. Should be plenty for less than £2500 in decent nick. My budget for one is more like £1500 - £2000, less if possible.

Search using all the usual sites like Gumtree, Ebay, Autotrader, etc. I'm sure you'll find something soon.

Good luck on the hunt.

[egor110]

Aim to spend £1500 on the clio then another 500-600 getting the cambelt done .

As long as the clutch feels healthy it'll be fine .

[luckystrike]

Clios do seem a little thin on the ground atm. I wonder if the sheds have been crashed or scrapped by the ‘don’t give a toss’ brigade and the caring owners are holding on to the good ones that are left. Still, the Cliosport forum is a really good place to look - seems to be mainly genuine enthusiasts who care about the cars, so most of the ones for sale are fundamentally sound.

How quick does it need to be? They’re nippy at best, but a MK6 fiesta zetec s is a sublime car to thread down a B road. It’ll be great for fuel around town too, but 3.5k rpm at 70 will kill that on the motorway.

I’d still probably say on balance that a clio 1*2 is the target to be aiming for.

[hoax]

I have been looking for a car since December. I have been checking ebay, autotrader, gumtree evey hour of every day.

I have already owned two mk6 Ford fiesta zetec s cars. Last one was a special model but had strange problems that the garage couldn't diagnosis so i ended up selling it quickly with profit.
I lost to a very large van and knew then that the car is too slow.

[ZX10R NIN]

1.6T Astra Coupe

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Alfa Mito Veloce

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Corsa VXR

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Focus ST-2

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Civic Type S GT

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

RS Clio but the 197 which is a bit more robust

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

All the above are good cars that fit your brief but here's a word of advice which is don't be afraid to travel as it limits your options & means you could be missing out on good cars.

When going to look at a car I'll take the day off have a list of 3 or 4 that way if my first option doesn't meet expectations.

[hoax]

That blue clio is 17 miles away from me. I'm not sure about the 197 as it's mpg will give me anxiety attacks.

All in going to be doing is driving around town and on dual carriageways.

The three cars I'm stuck on;
Clio sport
Mitsubishi colt ralliart
Suzuki swift sport
Or back to the fiesta zetec s.

[ZX10R NIN]

The 197 won't be significantly worse on fuel than the 182 but it will be a nicer place to be on the Dual Carriageway/Motorway.

[culpz]

ZX10R NIN said:

The 197 won't be significantly worse on fuel than the 182 but it will be a nicer place to be on the Dual Carriageway/Motorway.

I'm note sure about that. They're pretty abysmal compared to the 172's/182's.

Also, bear in mind that the 197 gearboxes are probably more prone/well-documented to going bang in comparison and also have more expensive suspension and engine bits that can go wrong.

Edited by culpz on Thursday 8th February 13:47

[Drew106]

What about an EP3 Civic Type R?

That's what I'm considering for my next car with around your budget.

I'm sure it'd manage 30mpg? Not sure about the pedals as I've not driven one yet.

[awlp16]

ZX10R NIN said:

The 197 won't be significantly worse on fuel than the 182 but it will be a nicer place to be on the Dual Carriageway/Motorway.

Worse than you'd think, it really surprised me when I went from a 172 to a 197. In fact, on a run to the Ring, it was celebrated by the 1*2's I was with when I finally managed to hit 30mpg...

It's by far a nicer place to be, and is an awesome car, but you struggle to see over 30mpg daily driving. My 1*2's always did well on fuel, and were far cheaper to run, parts, fuel, servicing etc.

[hoax]

Anyone know much about the colt ralliart?

Found this one: https://www.gumtree.com/p/mitsubishi/mitsubishi-ra...

[aka_kerrly]

Drew106 said:

What about an EP3 Civic Type R?

That's what I'm considering for my next car with around your budget.

I'm sure it'd manage 30mpg? Not sure about the pedals as I've not driven one yet.

Good shout, I picked one up a couple of weeks ago and it's great fun.

Tbh the mpg doesn't interest me in the slightest and I don't understand why people obsess about a difference of 2 or 3mpg but don't consider that one car may cost 500quid a year in servicing and another only 100quid. In the real world the difference between a car doing 28mpg versus one doing 35mpg is barely a fiver a week of fuel based on an average 10,000 miles a year

[browna]

I can heartily recommend the swift sport for around town/dual carriageways, really good fun to chuck about and rev match, good steering feel and feels nippy and connected. so far been very reliable and not bad on mpg I get about 32 mpg around town and I "don't spare the horses", I've not driven (couldn't live with the reliability worry of) a clio, but swift been the most purely fun hatchback, ive driven in a long while, reminds me of my old MK2 gti, not fast, but feels like it is

[browna]

I thought it was funny how the ep3 doesn't even have a MPG computer lol... but yeah not a car to have to really worry about fuel, you want to enjoy hitting the revs regularly

aka_kerrly said:

Good shout, I picked one up a couple of weeks ago and it's great fun.

Tbh the mpg doesn't interest me in the slightest and I don't understand why people obsess about a difference of 2 or 3mpg but don't consider that one car may cost 500quid a year in servicing and another only 100quid. In the real world the difference between a car doing 28mpg versus one doing 35mpg is barely a fiver a week of fuel based on an average 10,000 miles a year

[luckystrike]

I had an ep3 type r for a while and managed low 30s mpg from it. It was used for A road/motorway commuting, but hit the redline (when warm) on every slip road.

The handling was good on decent rubber (Goodyear eagle f1 asymmetric 2) and the feel through the seat and tyres more than made up for the slightly anodyne electric PAS so it never felt poor handling, but the party trick was the engine and gearbox. The gear change is one of the most mechanically satisfying interactions of any car I’ve driven.

It’s quite a strange quick point-to-point car though. You have to take it right to the redline to avoid falling out of vtec on upshifts, so the only driving modes are either normal pootling or full bore kamikaze death wish. Great on sweeping A roads, less so on B roads. The broader spread and tractability makes something like a Clio 1*2 or fiesta a more rewarding car to drive at 75-80%.