All-weather fast saloons | Six of the Best
Few cars gel with Britain as agreeably as AWD saloons. Here are the choice cuts for when the going gets tough
Audi RS4, 2006, 91k, £17,995
While the concept of the crushingly fast all-weather saloon didn’t start with Vorsprung durch Technik, Audi was certainly among the first to properly harness the appeal of performance-orientated all-wheel drive. Partly thanks to its prowess in international rallying, but also because it fitted seamlessly into the technically advanced image that Audi liked to project. The B7 RS4 obviously wasn’t its first go, although with its 4.2-litre V8 it was arguably its most charismatic and remains a pleasure to drive to this day. In fact, with a chunky manual ‘box and a very beguiling sense of mechanical cohesion, the experience has probably improved with age. Assuming you can find a good one and are not won over by the marginally better-looking wagon. This one looks in decent nick and has fewer than 100k on the clock.
BMW M5, 2021, 11k, £57,950
These days, of course, every premium manufacturer worth its salt sells an all-paw missile posing as a muscular exec car. The current M3, equipped with BMW’s rear-biased xDrive system, is the perfect example - but who doesn’t love the way that depreciation is ceaselessly making the outgoing M5 so much more accessible? Especially when it’s a) better looking than the M3 and b) endowed with a lovelier engine. You can get one for less than £40k, although we’d recommend buying younger on the basis that the car got better after its 2020 facelift. Here’s one to die for in Alvite Grey with very few miles. It’s hard to imagine ever getting tired of it. In fact, if we were forced to choose a saloon to go in our ‘forever’ garage, it might be this one.
Ford Sierra 4x4, 1993, 31k, £12,500-£13,500
You’ll definitely be wanting a garage if you decide to give the Sierra XR4x4 currently working its way through PH Auctions a go; if only to keep it in such splendid condition. It’ll help to have the nostalgia goggles welded to your head, too - but if you’re looking to preserve one of the early attempts to bring all-wheel drive usability to the masses, you could do a lot worse than a car which features a 150hp 2.9-litre Cologne V6 and a five-speed manual lashed to a 4WD system which defiantly favoured the back axle over the front. Never a legend in the Cosworth mould (and technically a five-door hatchback, too), the XR4x4 offers a reasonably affordable way into a classic Fast Ford, and (at the time of writing) was already halfway to its guide price. Best not hang about then; the auction ends on Sunday night.
Subaru WRX STI, 2013, 48k, £16,395
If the thought of a 30-year-old Ford is too flagrantly leftfield, you could play it straight down the park with a Subaru Impreza - virtually the go-to all-weather car for an entire generation of JDM fanatics. The WRX STI reigned supreme in the hearts and minds of anyone who thought a muddy B road was the perfect place for dropping the hammer. Slightly controversial to pick one from the anodyne-looking third generation perhaps, but memory of the launch still looms large, most notably a day-long, ducks-and-drakes blitz through a sodden German countryside. There would’ve been classier, quicker and more incisive ways to do it, though precious few would’ve conjured the gristle or the grin-factor of a hard-driven flat-four. It’s not exactly a Q car without the rear spoiler, but it is affordable, feisty and fun. And already a throwback.
Brabus 800, 2017, 22k, £89,950
If that all sounds like a bit too much roughage, then how about the steroidal pleasure of a Mercedes-AMG E63 remade in the Brabus style? You don’t strictly need the 800hp supplied by the makeover - in case you hadn’t heard, the 612hp delivered by the V8 in ‘standard’ format is plenty quick enough - although since when has car buying been about what we need on PH? Any stripe of Brabus is very much about how much you want it, and this car, in characteristic Designo Night Black Magno and on polished 21-inch monoblock wheels really does take the biscuit. Probably you’d need to be Tony Soprano to live up to its genuine sense of menace, but the 800 is also the sort of tricked-out prospect that seems to transcend anything as mediocre as a journey. It’s an event in its own right. For £89k and a-l-o-t of V-Power.
Mitsubishi Evo IX MR FQ-360 HKS, 2007, 25k, £64,900
Finally, as there had to be, there’s the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo. Much like the Impreza - although probably more so - it helped refine what otherwise humdrum saloon cars were capable of if you were inclined to get very creative with the undersides. We seem to have talked a lot about the IX MR FQ-360 by HKS recently (in case you missed it, Matt B drove one just a few weeks ago) but we make no apologies for returning to it here. Firstly, because this two-owner example in Flame Red looks particularly good, but mostly because it represents the high watermark for the Evo in general, by being hugely powerful yet also captivating to drive. In that respect, even nearly 20 years later, there are very few cars that measure up to its pound-for-pound brilliance in the real world. Which goes some way to explaining the £65k asking price.
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