Will someone please take my car and my cash off me!
 

I'm sick of trying to decide what car to replace my Bora (Boring) TDi with. I've been considering replacing it for 2 years now and still haven't made my mind up so will someone please take my car and cash and come back with a suitable replacement?

I've got £5000 worth (px value) of Bora TDi 130 Sport plus £4k cash.

It's replacement needs to be (in order of importance):

FUN
fast-ish (anything sub 7 to 60 will probably do)
big enough to put a baby seat in the back
not common
fairly economical (30mpg?)
Not silly money to insure (no grey imports, I can't be arsed using specialist insurers)

9k would get you a reasonably tidy 52 plate LCR. You might even get 30mpg if your not hooning it, which wont be very often :p.

Get the Bora Chipped !

I could but it still won't handle and the steering will still be wooden and it'll still be dull as ditchwater. I don't have a problem with the performance, just it's lack of any fun factor whatsoever. ;)

Hmm not a bad idea, I do like the LCR in black. Someone's got one in work though, so that'd be enough to stop me buying one (sad, I know)

Civic Type R? Accord Type R?

You could get a very very clean ATR.

Scoda Octavia VRS?

I think you need to work on your sales pitch!

OK, I've got a shortlist:

1) MG ZT 260
Pros: V8, RWD, a lot of car for the money
Cons: MPG, MG went bust, probably need to add some more cash

2) Honda Civic Type R
Pros: Cheap, quick etc.
Cons: Not sure I could live with that redline for long, someone at work has one

3) Alfa Romeo 166 3.0 Super Lusso
Pros: Beautiful, nice place to be
Cons: Question makr over reliability, depreciation

My uncle has the ZT 260, he loves it, you can get one for 11 grand, possibly less, ok MG went bust but the engine is Ford, the Gearbox and back axle are Tremec, so all the important bits are still in production. He has put new exhausts on it and it sounds amazing, it doesnt fit your fairly economical crtieria very well, high teens around town, short runs, with 26 ish on longer runs, cant imagine the Alfa is much better though, the Civic will be but not by that much if you use the revs.

Yeah, I think the ZT is the favourite at the moment. I don't do short runs very often, a lot of my driving is M'way or A road so it shouldn't be any worse than 20mpg as an average.

I also considered an XJR but they seem to be financial ruin on 4 wheels as far as I can make out plus they're a bit too big, really.

Actually, one more question:

My Bora is due a service according to the trip computer plus it's reporting "check pads". This service needs the cambelt doing so it isn't going to be cheap. The car has full VWSH so if I service it, I don't want to go to an independent.

Given that ideally I'm looking to p/x the Bora (I hate it so much I couldn't possibly sell it to anyone in good conscience) so should I service it i.e. is the £500 the service is going to cost going to affect the p/x price?

I've got a Civic Type R, and I'd never even consider putting our baby in the back of it, the ride is far to harsh IMO mate.

You sure the Bora is worth £5K? As they are fetching way below book price at the moment.

Which is why I just picked up a 3year old V5 with all the extras for £3800 LOL

You wont get the £500 back on p/x - the dealer wont even care - if you're p/xing they tend to look at book price not how well its been looked after :( although full vwsh will help a bit

The VRS would get my vote

vRS remapped to 220ish bhp. Your list of requirements is similar to what I wanted when I got rid of my scoob and the vRS won hands down out of all the cars I considered. The only reason someone wouldn't want one would be purely because of the badge which I think is now an attitude that is very out of date.

Legacy 3.0R? Only thing is I'm not sure if you'd get one for £11k ish that has been mentioned.

Otherwise another vote for the vRS.

Another possible is a Saab 9-3 Viggen. These are pretty quick (2.3 full pressure turbo) and decent size. Needs to have the Abbott Racing "Rescue Pack" to handle the torque steer and twisties though.