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WhyNotEh

Original Poster

120 posts

90 months

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Friday 27th December 2019

Hello. I'm currently leasing a Leon Cupra 300 which goes back in March. It's cost me approx £7600 to lease for 35k miles.
A new Cupra lease at 30k miles would be £8700, and although its convenient, I'm not sure it's the best option because I'll be buying a house soon.

Therefore I'm considering purchasing a car outright where my budget is up to £14k.

I know the cheapest option is to get a 2k diesel Civic, but my car is my only hobby/outlet so it needs to be enjoyable to drive and possibly something more focused because it will also be used for weekend drives. I can't run 2 cars because insuring something as mundane as a diesel Civic/Focus costs me £1k+, so the cost benefit of having an economical daily driver and a separate fun car is already written off.

Requirements:
- 16k miles a year, 50% motorway
- Reliable
- Decent handling (but will sacrifice this for waftiness/comfort)
- 250bhp+
- Capable of 32+ mpg on a run
- Don't need 4 seats

My dilemma is, the Cupra has been perfect, savage handling, very quick, and capable of 45mpg on a run. I can't think of anything that beats it for under 14k, unless I get a 2014 Cupra 280.

So far I'm considering:
Seat Leon Cupra R mk1 - Had one of these previously at 260bhp and in hindsight shouldn't have got rid. Getting on a bit now though.
Seat Leon Cupra 280 - would get a DSG one as a nice change. My current one is manual.
Renault Megane RS250 Cup
Honda Civic EP3 Type R (~240bhp N/A or ~300bhp supercharged) - Absolute laugh to drive, but I'm not sure about daily driving something this old.
BMW 330i E92 LCI - rare, but the engine is meant to brilliant.
BMW Z4 Coupe 3.0si - Same engine as above

Wildcard:
Mercedes E350 CDI - Considering this for comfort only.

Any advice? Anything I may have missed?

joropug

3,042 posts

218 months

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[news]

Friday 27th December 2019

I'd be looking at 6 cylinder diesels that respond well to remaps.

My 530d was around 270bhp and bags of torque, would do 50mpg on the motorway, 30 around town and went like hell.

A 535d or 335d remapped is 300 plus bhp of twin turbo fun.

You'll save on fuel and have the benefit of a dynamic RWD car that will handle

ZX10R NIN

30,522 posts

154 months

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Friday 27th December 2019

Mr Tidy

31,215 posts

156 months

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Sunday 29th December 2019

I just noticed this thread.

The E92 LCI 330i doesn't have the same engine as a Z4 Coupe - the Z4C has the same engine as the pre-LCI E9* models. And it is a great engine - I've got a pre LCI 330i with it and had a couple of 3.0Si z4 Coupes.

But you might find a Z4M Coupe towards the top of your budget - I got one just before Christmas. But you won't see 30+ mpg!

Happy hunting anyway. thumbup

Edited by Mr Tidy on Sunday 29th December 22:52

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