Nearly new hot hatch - £15K..

[thenortherner]

Due to a change in job and no longer doing 110 miles round trip to work each day, I no longer need to drive a diesel!! I've had loads of hot hatches over the years, with the latest being a Fiesta ST Mountune. I'm not really interested in another - the dash layout and design is awful and the engine doesn't sound all that great at higher revs. But worst of all the seats gave me serious back ache. Shame because it ticks all the below boxes.

I'm looking to change to another hot hatch. Criteria is:

Max £15K
Ideally no more than 18 months old
40 MPG fairly easily when needed
Decent reliability
Won't fall apart in after 3 years
Will cope with the odd track day

I can get delivery miles 208 GTI Prestige with pretty much every bit of equipment you'd need for bang on budget. The only thing that puts me off is the resale values are pretty poor.

I could play it safe and get a 2016/1 Cooper S but it'd have covered more miles than I'd like.

Leftfield choice is a 595 Competition 180 bhp but again it'd be an older car

What do you reckon?

[thenortherner]

Not much in the way of spec though unfortunately... I'd ideally like nav. This is a bit better but still not sure of the premium over the Peugeot..

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

[thenortherner]

g7jhp said:

I'm doing a 104 mile round trip and considering a Golf R or GTI.

Per year it may be more than a GTD, but offset v running costs and diesel depreciation will it differ?

I'd say so, yes. Fuel bill will fairly easily be double that of the GTD compared to an R. So maybe an extra £200 a month. Really adds up over 3 years. GTD resales are rock steady too, so not sure the depreciation factors comes into it.

Fair play though! Just couldn't face emptying my wallet to the tune of £500 a month for petrol.

[thenortherner]

g7jhp said:

Might offset by buying an earlier mk7!

Cheating, maybe but fun is important!

Go for it. I agree. The diesel Mini Cooper D chucks out 60 MPG without any real effort but can't say it's too much fun. Relieved to be in the position where the commute's cut down to a round trip of 38 miles and can now entertain buying something more fun.

[thenortherner]

MrGTI6 said:

Three years old but only 7,500 miles for £15k. Loads of spec and 270bhp.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Looks really good but I'm really wanting something that's got at least half of the manufacture's warranty left. Shame as I do quite like those.

[thenortherner]

Nick-ST said:

Shame you are ruling at the Fiesta ST as it really does tick every single box but I do know where you are coming from with regards to the back ache. It was one of the contributing factors to me getting rid of mine as well.

Would a BMW M135i be within budget?

Or some kind of Megane RS 265/275? I currently have a Megane RS250 with cup chassis and it is light years ahead of the Fiesta ST in pretty much every single way bar fuel economy. 40MPG would be a tall ask! 35mpg on a run is comfortably achievable but I didn't buy it for the economy.

The Fiesta was spot on other than the seats. Annoying as it's the sort of thing you don't pick up on a 30 minute test drive.

The Megane is a great car but just doesn't quite hit the balance between economy and age of car I'm looking for. Shame as the Clio 200 I had was absolutely brilliant - much better drivers car than the Fiesta - and can only imagine the Megane takes it to another level.

[thenortherner]

Back on track...

I've been to a dealer and bartered them down to 14.5k for an 18 plate with 5 miles on the clock. Seems a very decent price for the performance and kit on a brand new car. That said they gave me a crap px valuation.

A little bit disappointed by the car itself. The interior felt a bit on the discount side of things but worse than that was the seat height. Even on the lowest position it felt like I was sat far too high.

I'm not sure it's a goer. The Cooper S is probably what I'll go for and just accept it'll maybe be a couple of years old.

[thenortherner]

Thanks guys.

The BMW is too high a mileage and age for what I'm looking for and won't hit the required economy.

I like the Polo - I had a 6R GTI DSG in 2011 for 3 years. The interiors just not changed at all! Not sure whether that's a good thing or not. The only thing is that none of them seem to have nav. I'm tired of sticking my phone to the windscreen and the continual 'GPS signal lost'.

[thenortherner]

After a lot of sodding about I've bought a 3 month old pre reg 208 Gti Prestige with 20 miles on the clock.

I got it for 14.7K in the end. And I managed to get 7K px for mine. Most dealers only offered 5.6k including one in Bolton who valued it in person. One in Notts hung up on me when I said I'd like 7K! WBAC valued it at 6K and I reckon I couldn't have gotten much more than what I achieved if I'd sold privately. I can't understand why the px values varied wildly against brand new cars listed at pretty much the same price.

In the end there was so little difference in value between a new one it wasn't worth getting one with a year's warranty left and 20k miles worth of farts on the drivers seat.

I'm picking it up on Saturday.