Opinions on various hot hatches

jigger

jigger

jigger

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28 May 2007
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I'm helping my Nephew to find a new car. We have looked at a few and he has made a list of what he likes and wants to look at, but I have no experience with three of them so I'm after some helpful opinions.

Ford Racing Puma.

Toyota Corolla T Sport. Both the 190bhp and 215bhp models.

Late model Ford Focus ST170.

Cheers.
 
Why are there no hot hatches in his list?

The Puma is pretty good but very niche and VERY expensive for what it is. The Corolla is crap. The Focus is a fantastic chassis with the wrong amount of power.

There are far better hot hatches.
 
The Corolla is far from a crap car but in the same sense i dont think i'd class it as a hot hatch either.

Need the budget really but im sure he can end up with something more interesting/just better than those
 
I would be willing to bet one of my testicles that Fox has driven neither of those cars.

My mate had an ST170, he paid out for a new clutch which was very expensive (Dual Mass IIRC) and had major problems with the cooling system plus it wasnt very quick at all

I have the Corolla and have owned a fair few performance hatch backs over the years, mostly Honda, people like to think the Corolla is crap for two reasons. They dismiss it because its not down with the kids who will go for the CTR which is admittedly the better hot hatch and because the prefacelift was spoiled with crap suspension and bracing it kept that reputation, this was sorted on the facelift

A few points on the Corolla, for the money it has a much nicer interior, much higher kit level, easier to find a good one even though its much rarer and cheaper meaning you get a newer and better example for less money compared to the competition and cheaper insurance plus no one has a clue what it is therefore you get to surprise people and it gets barely any unwanted attention

Best thing to do is dimiss the prefacelift Corolla unless he plans to mod it and above all drive as many cars as possible including the CTR as in that price range if he is wanting the best hot hatch for that kind of money its the best option however he will have to hold out for a good one

Let the arguments from people who have no experiance with said cars begin
 
You need to get a Corolla OP, I've heard some underground tests (very hush hush) had it beating a mapped 335d in every way :eek:





Just keep it on the low though, you didn't hear this from me.
 
The Ford Racing Puma price has dropped like a stone in the last few years and they are nice cars, but just not that quick (150BHP) & quite expensive to maintain.
 
I have driven the Focus and Corolla and neither are hot hatches or worth having, as great as the Ford Racing Puma is at some things, its massively under powered. If this is his first car, then maybe its a good option, tiny bit more pokey than a 1.2 corsa that most kids have and very special in other ways. If he is after something genuinely good stay away from the 170 and Corolla. The Clio 182 is probably the way forward as suggested. Depends on what his budget is?

I have to confess that I do not know if the Corolla I drove is the facelift or not, but I find it hard to believe that it changed the car that dramatically.
 
Civic EP3
Clio 172/182

Corolla Compressor, the standard 190 is crap.
Celica if he wants to be a poser.
 
Leon Cupra R ;)

Has all the best bits of all the cars listed. Superb brembo 4-pot brakes (ala Ford Racing Puma), powerful forced induction engine (like the higher powered corolla, but far nicer to drive, better power delivery), and the day to day reliabilty and usability of the Focus.
 
What an odd list of hot hatches!

Think the Corolla being crap is a tad harsh, it's not thattttt bad.. It just does have a whiff of oap/last quick-ish car before I die, about it.
 
If you drive the corolla and then a Civic you its quite a stark difference imo, if you've never driven anything better the corolla is a really good car. But as a hot hatch the civic does everything several notches better. The K20 in the civic for starters is an amazing engine and i always found the 1.8 vvtli engine in the corolla to never quite 'get there' and always felt a bit annoying to drive tbf, hard to keep in the power band and not that rewarding when its in it :(
 
paradigm said:
Leon Cupra R ;)

Has all the best bits of all the cars listed. Superb brembo 4-pot brakes (ala Ford Racing Puma), powerful forced induction engine (like the higher powered corolla, but far nicer to drive, better power delivery), and the day to day reliabilty and usability of the Focus.
Click to expand...

But doesn't have the handling finesse or feedback as some of the competition unfortunately.
 
As noted an odd list

The ST170 is not that quick for the running costs, neither is the racing puma.

The Corolla, whilst as exciting as an off-cut of mdf, is a solid car although the 190 isn’t that quick.

I assume insurance isn’t a problem on these.

What is the budget?
 
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