Hypothetical 2in1 replacement

[Patrick Bateman]

I say hypothetical as I intend to keep both cars for the foreseeable future (987 Boxster and a Clio 182 Trophy) but having just been informed the shifts at work will be stopping, I'll be around £450 worse off each month soon.

With that in mind, if I was to replace both with one car at some point, what sort of suggestions do folk have?

I'm aware there is the obvious option of keeping one of the cars but the Clio would soon wear thin doing a 50 mile round trip Monday to Friday and maintenance costs on a 12 year old Porsche with limited expendable income could soon see me struggling if a couple of decent bills were to coincide.

Requirements would be the following-

• £15k absolute top whack but the closer to £10k the better
• Fun
• Tolerable for the commute. I'm not talking S-class levels of comfort but to put it simply, I could tolerate the Boxster every day but not the Clio (in 182 guise at least).
• Manual
• Around 30mpg at worst
• Petrol
• Not horrific parts prices (some Porsche prices are obviously rather expensive, limited pattern parts availability doesn't help)
• Nothing typically rusty

A few cars I could throw into the mix myself would be along the lines of- RS Megane 250 or newer, Clio 200 (for a lot cheaper), Z4 Coupé

I'm all ears though.

Edited by Patrick Bateman on Sunday 28th May 21:13

[Patrick Bateman]

Monthly outgoings while running 2 cars will be stretched, 3 is out of the question.

As a rough idea, after absolutely all guaranteed monthly outgoings I'll have around £400-450 left to play with.

[Patrick Bateman]

I get the impression with a lot of the Meganes, unless you're talking about the likes of the Cup-S with Ohlins etc. you're as well sticking with the 250 and getting a remap as they're all broadly the same otherwise.

[Patrick Bateman]

What's different about the suspension on a standard Trophy and a regular Cup?

[Patrick Bateman]

Sounds like a Lux with the Cup Pack would be the one to get for a daily driver. I'll certainly keep it in mind if it comes to making a change.

[Patrick Bateman]

Having had an e39 M5, I know exactly how hard it is to replace a well rounded car, unfortunately.

[Patrick Bateman]

Revisiting this.

Replaced the Boxster with a 7 series which has been a PITA so it'll hopefully be getting sold this summer.

Got the cruise control finally working in the Clio Trophy which makes it much better for dull drives. Still not what I'd call an ideal daily though, a much better car for now and again.

The trouble is, it's rare, great fun when going for it and going up in value. My instincts tell me to just run it on its own for a while and tolerate the mundane journeys that the 7 series was the ideal antidote to. Feels like it would be one of those 'I wish I never sold X car all those years ago' type things.

[Patrick Bateman]

Was it your only car?