What is out there?
Discussion
Long post incoming, apologies.
The balloon is due on my current car in February and I'm toying between paying it off or moving on to something else. What i'm really struggling with at the moment is just how little there is out there that's actually worth buying compared to when I was looking a few years back.
When I got my current car there seemed to be plenty of RS Megane's around, quite a few CTR's - BMW had the M140, M340 etc for decent deals, there was a strong Peugeot Gti offering or two, etc etc. Now there appears to be little to nothing new or nearly new that's worth bothering with at all, and examples of the above are (a) few and far between, (b) higher miles than I'd like and (c) expensive.
We have an aging Jeep GC for big trips / daily family duties / etc. Mine is the fun car. In an ideal world I'd settle in to a Cayman or an Alpine A110, but as an only car that needs to do family duties a 2-seater is off the table (and no, not doing the snotter and a separate toy thing, not enough driveway and no desire to own three cars). I do just under 6k miles a year. Fuel consumption, insurance costs, etc are not a concern and don't factor in my thinking.
Requirements:
- Driver engagement
- Four seats (i'm often ferrying at least two kids around) - ideally four door but a two door not a problem
- Ideally manual, ideally RWD. Not a deal breaker though.
- Fast 'enough'
- No SUV's
- Massively detest the 'ipad stuck to the top of the dashboard' infotainment thing but not a deal breaker for the right car. I don't care about that - I tune to radio 2 and then turn the screen off. Would rather not have a screen at all.
- In line with the above, Mercedes' more recent 'inspired by a strip club' interiors are horrible, which puts recent *63 offerings off the table for me.
- Not that it's really going to impact what is out there - COLOUR. I don't do black, white or silver cars. Life in 2025 is bland and boring enough without buying a car in a bland and boring colour to sit amongst a bland and boring car park. Interesting colour availability is a must.
Now, here's the hard part. Current car is an Alfa Giulia QV, owned from nearly new. 30k miles. If i'm going to swap out I'd want to ideally have similar or lower mileage and either feel i'd made an upgrade, or at least found a really fun car with a manual box. The QV is pretty much perfect but misses a third pedal...
I'm not a total luddite btw. I tried a Tesla M3 Performance out the other day and totally see why they are liked, but couldn't stand the bland interior, nor the touchscreen, and the driving experience (post the WHOA torque shenanigans
) left me totally cold. It was a bland, uncommunicative thing to drive. I may as well have been sat on the Playstation. Also going to try out a Polestar 2 which I am told are more 'drivery', and am looking at the new Alpine A290 with a certain amount of lust - the interior is also amazing - but can't help but think i'd be underwhelmed and frustrated coming from the Alfa.
Budget would be around 30k - could stretch to about 40 with the right PCP deal. Really like the look of the GR Yaris, but from a finance perspective they seem to have low residuals for some reason which makes the finance deals on them look very expensive.
So, I throw myself at your mercies. Suck it up, pay the current car off and resign myself to that being the last car I buy - or find something else to have a pleasant change, in a market where it seems all the good stuff is gone? What is out there?
The balloon is due on my current car in February and I'm toying between paying it off or moving on to something else. What i'm really struggling with at the moment is just how little there is out there that's actually worth buying compared to when I was looking a few years back.
When I got my current car there seemed to be plenty of RS Megane's around, quite a few CTR's - BMW had the M140, M340 etc for decent deals, there was a strong Peugeot Gti offering or two, etc etc. Now there appears to be little to nothing new or nearly new that's worth bothering with at all, and examples of the above are (a) few and far between, (b) higher miles than I'd like and (c) expensive.
We have an aging Jeep GC for big trips / daily family duties / etc. Mine is the fun car. In an ideal world I'd settle in to a Cayman or an Alpine A110, but as an only car that needs to do family duties a 2-seater is off the table (and no, not doing the snotter and a separate toy thing, not enough driveway and no desire to own three cars). I do just under 6k miles a year. Fuel consumption, insurance costs, etc are not a concern and don't factor in my thinking.
Requirements:
- Driver engagement
- Four seats (i'm often ferrying at least two kids around) - ideally four door but a two door not a problem
- Ideally manual, ideally RWD. Not a deal breaker though.
- Fast 'enough'
- No SUV's
- Massively detest the 'ipad stuck to the top of the dashboard' infotainment thing but not a deal breaker for the right car. I don't care about that - I tune to radio 2 and then turn the screen off. Would rather not have a screen at all.
- In line with the above, Mercedes' more recent 'inspired by a strip club' interiors are horrible, which puts recent *63 offerings off the table for me.
- Not that it's really going to impact what is out there - COLOUR. I don't do black, white or silver cars. Life in 2025 is bland and boring enough without buying a car in a bland and boring colour to sit amongst a bland and boring car park. Interesting colour availability is a must.
Now, here's the hard part. Current car is an Alfa Giulia QV, owned from nearly new. 30k miles. If i'm going to swap out I'd want to ideally have similar or lower mileage and either feel i'd made an upgrade, or at least found a really fun car with a manual box. The QV is pretty much perfect but misses a third pedal...
I'm not a total luddite btw. I tried a Tesla M3 Performance out the other day and totally see why they are liked, but couldn't stand the bland interior, nor the touchscreen, and the driving experience (post the WHOA torque shenanigans
) left me totally cold. It was a bland, uncommunicative thing to drive. I may as well have been sat on the Playstation. Also going to try out a Polestar 2 which I am told are more 'drivery', and am looking at the new Alpine A290 with a certain amount of lust - the interior is also amazing - but can't help but think i'd be underwhelmed and frustrated coming from the Alfa. Budget would be around 30k - could stretch to about 40 with the right PCP deal. Really like the look of the GR Yaris, but from a finance perspective they seem to have low residuals for some reason which makes the finance deals on them look very expensive.
So, I throw myself at your mercies. Suck it up, pay the current car off and resign myself to that being the last car I buy - or find something else to have a pleasant change, in a market where it seems all the good stuff is gone? What is out there?
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