LG John

There has been a fair bit of jiggery-pokery in my life of late and I've poured a lot of money into doing up my flat. Once all is said and done I expect to have £10,000 to spend on two replacement cars for me and the other half.

We car share to work and clock up at least 50 miles a day so we need a workhorse car to replace the current 1.25 fiesta we have for this roll. This vehicle must meet the following critieria and roughly in this order of importance:

1. Be economical - 40mpg+ or 30mpg if LPG
2. Be reliable and/or cheap to repair
3. Have basic amenities (PAS, ABS, CD player, air-con)
4. Be practical for carrying people and luggage
5. Be easy and comfortable to drive
6. Preferably not be absolutely ancient, look utterly w@nk and pref not wild mileage.

My dad is considering selling his astra 1.6 sxi lpg 2002 car for £3,250(ish). With 56k miles, FSH, etc it ticks a lot of the boxes. What puts me off is that £3k takes it out of the 'bin it if something goes wrong' category. If you had an £800 repair you kind of have to pay it. With an older £1500 car an £800 repair and you'd ebay it or split it and replace with another car of the same value. I'm thinking a french turbo diesel such as a 406 or xantia for this workhorse roll - these would have the added advantage of easy torquey power delivery.

The second car is the fun car and is for weekends/fun evenings only. It's criteria are as follows:

1. Must be fast. No slower than 14s to 100mph from rest and preferably faster than my s2000 which was around 13s.
2. Must be RWD or 4WD
3. Must be fun and/or crazy to drive
4. Must not be too old or tired and must be fairly reliable. I really don't want this weekend car to be giving me continuous grief.
5. Must have that 'something' - you know, that makes you smile or shake your head when you step out of it.
6. Would be nice if it sounded good as well

My current thinking is £1500-2500 for 406 2.1TD or 2.0HDI(110) and the remainder on an STI-5 (pref type R, RA, V-limited). With the STI I'd want a full decat + remap + appopriate monitoring.

Anyone got any other combinations to suggest?

James Neill

iTrader: (1)

Renault 19 for work. You can remove random parts from the engine and it'll just keep going.

Obviously an Impreza for fun. But then you already knew that.

LG John

LMAO

air.mech23

Or have an impreza for work. I use mine every day for work

LG John

I used to do that but the running costs p*ssed me off. I couldn't drive it sensibly so would get low 20s mpg and would have to service it 3-4 times a year!! I also felt like it was wasted hacking around on the bypass!

James Neill

iTrader: (1)

I use my scooby (STi 6) to go to work. 196 miles each day I'm in the office Makes going to work so much more fun?

Costs aren't a problem as it's expensed. But I do realise I can't keep doing this. I've done 14,000 miles since I got the car in July

cottonfoo

You've already had an Impreza, how about an Elise? Obviously not as quick but still jolly good fun, more so in fact

LG John

My problem with the elise is that my budget puts me in 120bhp S1 territory and they are sh*t slow from 60 upwards and have reliability issues! My mate has one and has had no end of trouble. I'd probably have one but I'd rather have more money to spend on a nicer and newer example with more power

cottonfoo

Fair enough, an S160 makes the budget a bit tight for the workhorse

Christ

ITR and 306 D Turbo ??

The Integra isnt RWD but will tick the other boxes...

Chris

LG John

As good as an ITR is it would always feel like an FWD S2000 without the folding roof and therefore 'flawed'.

Christ

Good point.. how did I forget you had an S2000

Dont you feel like youve done the "Impreza" thing though ?? How about an M3 or Mit Evo?

LG John

I feel you get more Impreza for £8k than you get EVO and I don't like the old M3 (looks wise, age wise). I take your point regarding the Impreza thing but I've read a lot of peeps on here saying the jap sti's are a totally different experience to the UK 2000s so I'm hoping for something a little more. Also, if I can achieve a good 320bhp it would be about 50hp more than my scooby with shorter gearing

LG John

Lets see some suggestions guys - you usually have plenty of opinion on these sorts of matters. There must be some obvious cars I've not though of

imlach

Move up the property ladder. End of.

Something cheap and fun? Unless you're mechanically minded and can do your own major repairs, it's gonna be a money pit. Mate runs older perf cars on the side (Nissan 200SX, Mitsubishi 3000GT's etc). However, he's quite adept at replacing an engine/gearbox here & there, let alone the minor things.

Why not spend your £2k/year on the Edinburgh car club, Classic Car Club Edinburgh
You could be driving a Delorean FFS, as well as porkers, cobras, TVR's etc every month. I'd say it's a good way to spend £2k - and no other bills!

....you get a special drive every few weeks to 'get it out of the system'. If that's not special enough, heaven help you!!!

AudiLover

Nissan 200sx for workhorse. 2grand for a 50k mileage model if you look hard enough.

LG John

Correct me if I'm wrong but a 200sx is the turbo-charged rwd nissan? Is it not doubtful that would achieve even 30mpg, let alone 40!

DarkForce

Workhorse - 2000 Citroen Xantia HDi - about £1500 should buy you a decent 70k miler with plenty of life left.

Toy - Robin Hood kit car fitted with a Rover 2.0 Turbo engine tweaked to ~250bhp

http://community.rhocar.org/index.ph..._gallery&id=62

Dracoro

SB, get yourself a westfield. The right one wil be well built and as they are so simple, reliable and cheap to sort if not. Cheap to insure too (I pay £150 fully comp). You won't get anything that's more fun for the money. You can possibly get a 2L for £8k which will be FAST. They don't depreciate much either. I paid £10k for my 2.0 16v with all the trimmings and it's prob worth £9k and I've had it almost 3 years too. However, you have to do your research and check them out right but they are great cars.

As for your beater, look for Omegas/Vectra diesels. Cheap parts and cheap to run and many are reliable if treated ok. Because people 'look down' at the badge, this is a good thing as it makes them so cheap, top value for money.

LG John

I probably should have said but westie/caterham type cars are a no-no just now as I don't have a garage and they are not the sort of car I'd like to leave outside. Never thought of diesel vectra's - good suggestion