Suggest a fun car £1500

[JimVVC]

Yes another one of these...

My friend is after a new car, budget is £1500, 27 with 4 years No claims. He is looking for something fun but also reliable, economical and sensible to insure due to saving for a house deposit.


Ideas?

[RB26DETT]

Ford Cougar 2.5 v6 x-pack. Yes they can be had for £1500 if you look hard enough.

Based on the Mk2 Mondeo St.

[300bhp/ton]

JimVVC said:

Yes another one of these...

My friend is after a new car, budget is £1500, 27 with 4 years No claims. He is looking for something fun but also reliable, economical and sensible to insure due to saving for a house deposit.


Ideas?

ok

What is "fun" to them?
Does it need to be practical?
What is reliable and does anyone ever ask for an un-reliable car?
What is economical, are we talking 25mpg or 45mpg?? Huge difference.
And the same for insurance, partly with getting quotes and knowing all their details it's hard to gauge what is and isn't going to be sensible money. But also without knowing what they are willing to pay it makes it hard to make a call on what is or isn't sensible for them.




Now that, that is out of the way, and not knowing the answers to any of them. Here are some cars I personally would consider fun in one description or another available for around £1500 +-


-MGF
-MX-5
-MR2 MK1/II
-Honda CRX
-Honda CRX del sol
-Honda Prelude
-Triumph TR7
-MG Midget
-Triumph Spitfire
-classic Mini
-Hillman Imp
-Triumph 2000
-Triumph Dolomite
-BMW e30/e36 with an ok engine
-Land Rover Series
-Discovery
-Jeep XJ
-Jimny
-Ford Puma
-Mazda MX-3
-Nissan 200SX s13
-Mitsubishi FTO
-Rover 200VI
-Rover 200 BRM
-MG ZS180
-Honda Accord Type R
-Rover SD1

and an uncountable number of hatchbacks.

[RB26DETT]

Doubt you would get many of those for £1500.

[300bhp/ton]

RB26DETT said:

Doubt you would get many of those for £1500.

Which ones in particular? Think I've seen most if not all for around £1500 +- (making the assumption that most people can find another £200-300 if they really wanted to).

Classic Mini is likely to be the hardest, but they are about. My cousin had a 78 iirc Clubman 1275GT that he paid £1600 for. Not a minter, but looked good and was a blast.

[nogsk]

MX5 - cheap in the earliest form, which I think is tidier with the pop up light, great little car, rear wheel drive, reliable and reasonably idiot proof?

[edo]

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1723937.htm

[schmalex]

Landy Series.

[RB26DETT]

300bhp/ton said:

RB26DETT said:

Doubt you would get many of those for £1500.

Which ones in particular? Think I've seen most if not all for around £1500 +- (making the assumption that most people can find another £200-300 if they really wanted to).


Classic Mini is likely to be the
hardest, but they are about. My cousin had a 78 iirc Clubman 1275GT that he paid £1600 for. Not a
minter, but looked good and was a
blast.

Spitfire and S13.

[anonymous-user]

RB26DETT said:

300bhp/ton said:

RB26DETT said:

Doubt you would get many of those for £1500.

Which ones in particular? Think I've seen most if not all for around £1500 +- (making the assumption that most people can find another £200-300 if they really wanted to).


Classic Mini is likely to be the
hardest, but they are about. My cousin had a 78 iirc Clubman 1275GT that he paid £1600 for. Not a
minter, but looked good and was a
blast.

Spitfire and S13.

Or a decent ATR for that matter.

[AJS-]

I used to ask this question myself periodically, and usually come back to the mkiii Supra, though this is a while ago. And it wasn't that practical or economical, but a lot of power for little money.

If you can find a low mileage BMW 328, I would say they tick all the boxes.

[briSk]

has to be an mx5.

for more precticality maybe try a primera GT (and some cash??).

almost strecths to a xsara vts (looks ste but basically a GTI-'5'!).

a £1500 accord type r will more than likely be a bag of bits bit if you could find a good one (as you can tell i doubt you will!) for that budget they are great.

[300bhp/ton]

yonex said:

RB26DETT said:

300bhp/ton said:

RB26DETT said:

Doubt you would get many of those for £1500.

Which ones in particular? Think I've seen most if not all for around £1500 +- (making the assumption that most people can find another £200-300 if they really wanted to).


Classic Mini is likely to be the
hardest, but they are about. My cousin had a 78 iirc Clubman 1275GT that he paid £1600 for. Not a
minter, but looked good and was a
blast.

Spitfire and S13.

Or a decent ATR for that matter.

Why does it have to be decent? If on a budget you take what you can get or compromise, either on not getting that model car or only getting what you can afford. Simples...

[JimVVC]

[/quote]
ok

What is "fun" to them?
Does it need to be practical?
What is reliable and does anyone ever ask for an un-reliable car?
What is economical, are we talking 25mpg or 45mpg?? Huge difference.
And the same for insurance, partly with getting quotes and knowing all their details it's hard to gauge what is and isn't going to be sensible money. But also without knowing what they are willing to pay it makes it hard to make a call on what is or isn't sensible for them.




[/quote]

Thanks for the suggestions and to answer your questions...

What is "fun" to them?
Good handling, responsive, enough poke to overtake.

Does it need to be practical?
Not really, no kids, no massive shopping runs.

What is reliable and does anyone ever ask for an un-reliable car?
Something that doesn't need constant maintenance, something that is simple to service etc but is known for being reliable. He had a Mk1 Escort that was constantly breaking.

What is economical, are we talking 25mpg or 45mpg?? Huge difference.
30 + mpg


And the same for insurance, partly with getting quotes and knowing all their details it's hard to gauge what is and isn't going to be sensible money.
I suppose the only way is to find a shortlist and get quoting. I would guess < £500

[300bhp/ton]

RB26DETT said:

300bhp/ton said:

RB26DETT said:

Doubt you would get many of those for £1500.

Which ones in particular? Think I've seen most if not all for around £1500 +- (making the assumption that most people can find another £200-300 if they really wanted to).


Classic Mini is likely to be the
hardest, but they are about. My cousin had a 78 iirc Clubman 1275GT that he paid £1600 for. Not a
minter, but looked good and was a
blast.

Spitfire and S13.

Spitfire maybe, would need to check.

I bought an s13 for £250, ran it for a year or so and sold it for £1400.

This one in fact:



But prices may have changed, this was 6/7 years back now.

[Ry_B]

MX5, 106 GTI or Saxo VTS, MK1 MR2

[Matt_N]

Mk2 Golf Gti 16v
Proton Satria Gti
106 Gti
Saxo VTS
E36 328 Coupe

[anonymous-user]

300bhp/ton said:

Why does it have to be decent? If on a budget you take what you can get or compromise, either on not getting that model car or only getting what you can afford. Simples...

What other model Accord Type R is there exactly?

But great idea, here's a starter

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...

[300bhp/ton]

JimVVC said:

Thanks for the suggestions and to answer your questions...

What is "fun" to them?
Good handling, responsive, enough poke to overtake.

Does it need to be practical?
Not really, no kids, no massive shopping runs.

What is reliable and does anyone ever ask for an un-reliable car?
Something that doesn't need constant maintenance, something that is simple to service etc but is known for being reliable. He had a Mk1 Escort that was constantly breaking.

What is economical, are we talking 25mpg or 45mpg?? Huge difference.
30 + mpg


And the same for insurance, partly with getting quotes and knowing all their details it's hard to gauge what is and isn't going to be sensible money.
I suppose the only way is to find a shortlist and get quoting. I would guess < £500

I'd say a ford Puma is probably hard to beat at this money if I'm honest. Although a true average of 30mpg + will depend on their driving style and the roads they use. I can quite believe spirited driving could result in more like 26-28mpg average. But that's probably true of most cars of this nature.

As for reliability, I think it's an overblown thing. Most cars are reliable, but all older cars will need maintaining, performance ones usually more so. Buying by brand will not grantee hassle free motoring, also most reliability claims are based on much newer cars. Once old it's a different ball game.

Most Rover/BL stuff is generally reliable, but parts are cheap and easy to get and usually easy to fix. While some older Nissans, Toyota's and Honda's are far more difficult and/or expensive to get parts for and still have equal opportunity of failing.

[sday12]

Pug 205 no PAS:

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/1771255.htm