mynickers

OKAY gentlemen,

We’ve had many a debate about who makes best, who prefers what, which ones offer more on one thing than another, and which ones offer better value than others.

But which manufacturer / dealer offers the best compromise on absolute bargains (on a montly basis) whilst not compromising too much on great performance, leaving aside for a moment boring stuff such as depreciation, street cred, and status. Obviously you could do better with a second hand car, but then you have the pain of researching, checking, looking, possibly getting stung, and almost defiantly spending at least some money on up-keep. So for this discussion at least, we’re talking brand spanking new cars, or nearly new cars, that they’ll sell with the same deals as the new ones (which they do very, very occasionally). For those that want the piece of mind of a new car in terms of wear and tear, safety, and mod-cons and carefree motoring for at least a year !

Not that long ago before the C2 was launched the Saxo VTS which despite it’s total appreciation and adoption by the maxpower / chavers crew who mupetise them with ironing boards on the roof for spoilers (like a hot-shopping trolly that spends the vast majority in lines of traffic in greater London needs down force on the back wheels you donuts) and more than 2 exhausts stuck out the rear – yes, a few days a go, I drove several miles behind a Saxo with the most heinous body kit, in a disgusting matalic purple shade of puke (fast and furious silver crome wheels), a stupid spoiler that actually vibrated / bounced over bumps, and looked like if you got above 100 miles an hour the only time downforce might make any difference, it might just rip off the roof. If that wasn’t enough, this particular donut, had made a huge whole in the bumper of his lowered body kit skirt, in order to put no less than four exhaust pipes, like the Zonda maybe - groan, although I have a strong suspicion only one was actually releasing by products from the combustion process, and the rest were their just to remind the world what a dick the driver is. F*ck me, someone introduce this man to beer – what a waste of money. Anyway, these mupets aside, Saxo’s were a fantastic wee sports car, based on the fabulous 106gti/raylle, I drove a VTS on a few occasions, it was rapid, chuckable, a little bit of a brut, but for the money a really good fun car.

Now back to the question at hand after that rant, at one point they were flogging these for peanuts (£10k I think), with ‘free insurance’, when I went in to do the math, it worked out I believe at about £200 a month all in, which really is a very good deal all things considered. I think they would even give you cash back, which essentially meant you didn’t even need a deposit, you just walked in off the street, signed up to the finance, and drove back out with your new car.

The replacement for this is the C2 VTR which IMO is a piece of ‘****’ which a crap electronic gear box, I haven’t driven one, and really don’t’ intend to. They do however, sell the rally homologation special the GT, at around £10k again with free insurance, which probably works out at a similar price. These are also given with cash back, and free insurance, according to my local dealer, which means pretty much the same deal. It’s very small, practially a two seater, however that does make it very light, weighing in at just over a ton, which makes it just over 100bhp per ton, giving 0-60 in 8.7 secs, and onto 121, not blistering, but by all accounts, it a pretty good car, with slightly crap steering, but generally good – insurance group 6 makes it affordable too.

Similar money gets you an MG ZR105, not as bad as most people think, but still not as good as most of the competition. This one is probably about the same performance give or take a few things as the C2, similar weight, similar power out put etc same money practically, but a bigger car these guys more than anyone must be desperate to sell motors! Free insurance? Free finance?

OK a few grand more, and minimal monthly increase in finance payments would get you the much better and more capable Clio 182, with cup sus, Seat Ibiza TDI, Skoda Fabia TDi to mention just a few, however, depending on your insurance situation a fairly hearty insurance bill on top. In the price range you’ve got various other hot hatches, but generally the dealers don’t’ want to do deals on such cars, for a variety of reasons. The most obvious, they’re more desirable, so people will buy these regardless, and the kind of people that buy these cars are generally the kind of people that REALLY want them, and thus will be more easily swayed into spending their money on a car. This seems to be especially the case if they’re very good such as CTR or Leon CR, Clio etc, so they don’t’ need to offer 0% finance or insurance deals to get them out the showroom. Plus I suppose it sends out a bad signal that your despereate if you’re trying to throw cars at people, Citroen and MG have less choice The other I would imagine is that no self respecting car manufacturer wants to be subsiding the insurance of one of the most likely groups to cause accidents – the hot hatch brigade (us) or shall we say car / motorsport enthusiasts, as I like to define myself.

So quite a long winded question, but does anyone know any good deals, the major focus being on free insurance, and if there is such a thing, free finance, basically for the poorer folk, what is the absolute cheapest way to get a brand new fast(ish) car?

Not overall value of long term investments, etc but in terms of how much do you actually have to pay monthly?

Civic Type R

I suggest you buy a push bike and get rid o' that energy my friend That is some post.......dunno the answer but my CTR is rapid and sounds amazin'

Brendan Hughes

I'd expect this kind of post about an hour after the pubs close. What time zone are you in?

Muffleman

Checkout www.Motorpoint.co.uk, for example:

Impreza WRX £16,599, delivery miles only
Focus ST170 £11,599, less than 10k
MG ZR 1.4 £7,999, delivery miles only
Clio 182 £11,699, delivery miles only
Skoda Octavia 1.8T RS £12,999, delivery miles only

Food for thought eh ?

Matt

what would scooby do

CTR - leave the french crap to the chavs

IWatkins

C2 VTR = Big pile of poo. Looks OK but the auto, flappy paddle gear thingy saps the power and is fairly poor to drive. 10.5 secs to 60 (if you are lucky).

C2 GT = Not quite as flash looking as the VTR, but has white alloys (rally thing) and a sweet manual gearbox. No air con, no front fog lights, no VTR bodykit, no spare wheel (foam instead), etc. Highly chuckable, mind blowing brakes and just under 9 seconds to 60. Test drove it, bought one. (I work from home and basicaly only need something to nip to the shops in, something to play with etc. Use the other car for holidays, shopping, tip run etc.). Also, engine is very tunable

Got the C2 GT in metallic Blue for £9250 on the road with the cash back + discount. List is £10500 + £400 for metallic paint. Free insurance wasn't of any interest to me as fully comp with NCD protection etc. and all the bells is only £210 a year for me from DirectLine.

C2 VTS is due in the autumn sometime. Will look like the VTR, will have optional air con etc. but will have a manual gearbox (hooray) and around 125bhp.

Cheers

Ian

LG John

The VTS towards the end of its life has been a total steal! The free insurance alone saves you a fortune and the fact that they give you a massive bonus at the end of the year allowed me to buy my Impreza when my actual 'real' no claims was just the 1 year. There is defo a great incentive to get into one of these deals and its on ly now (3 years on) that I feel my quotes are starting to be uncompetative and will consider changing.

The VTS itself was and still is a great car offering a lot of fun but it really is old now! Its closest relation has to be the Clio cup, no frills, engine, handling, light, fast, fun. None of this air-con bollocks, etc - just a good fun hot-hatch. If you can find anyway to stretch to a nearly new cup or maybe a 182 then I'd go for that.

mynickers

Welcome to the world of freelance, and northern lights!

mynickers

That's some bleeding good prices Mat.. Cheers...

cheddar bob

If your earn enough money to be spending over £10k on a hot hatch IMO (providing your not either under 21yrs old, have had driving bans/convictions, taking 10 yr finance out or all of the above) what's upto £1k a year in insurance?

Unless your insurance would be sky high your not actually gaining anything out of free insurance anyway, these 'deals' are factored into the price of the car, if your insurance is only £3-400 then it's not much of a discount if you think of it that way.

I know you explained new car, mod cons, piece of mind etc but I will never buy brand new again unless I am gauranteed not to lose money the moment I drive out the showroom, Mini Cooper S is the only current hot hatch which demand outways supply +CTR maybes too. I lost £6400/over 50% (inlcuding finance, and I won't say how much insurance I was paying AFTER the 1yr either ) after just 3½ yrs in my last new car. I now own a 14yr GTi which I won't lose a penny on provided nothing major goes wrong although parts are v.cheap anyway, this way I can save up for my 3 year old coupe I am hoping to buy soon (which incidently has lost £12000/over 50% since new ).

I've seen a few newish/facelift Saxo VTS with 1 owner low mileage etc for under £6k which means someone else has taken the biggest depreciation hit.

stu_5

For what you get for your cash, a new clio 182 for just under 12 grand has to be the best value new hot hatch option out there.

R1916v

If you are going new and want cheap have ot agree, 182 can be had V cheap.

Or even cheaper, some places still have new 172 cups for around 10,500.

Wild Mark

Christ I got bored before the second paragraph!

mynickers

LOL:

Well I am 27 with no convictions or points, however, also no ncb, insurance is weird for me, I got a quote of £1700 for a freaking Porker 968 clubsport, but a Fiat Coupe 20vT was £2500, and a Clio 182 around 2k, the same for CTR and Leon CR. If I am going to pay insurance over £1k, then I would get a DC2 for 10k - no questions. But my monthly outgoings are stupid, I have 30k student debt, and I drink as much beer as a scooby drinks Optimax.

If finance on a £10k car is roughly £200, and an insurance bill in the region of £2k, I won't have the cash upfront for insurnace so will need to pay that monthly, takes the whole thing way over £300, which is untenable for me living in London saddled with Student debt sadly! :S

However, I just did this:

http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/showthrea...83#post3559583

And have no decided, I am going to buy a Spec C, and live in it - f**k renting! Not sure where i would put my surround sound though!?