Fun-ish car over the summer

Ev0

Ev0

Ev0

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Ok so it's going to be a few months until I get my company car sorted, and my options in the mean time are to take a temporary hire/lease car from work or buy something to use.

If I go the temp route it's going to cost me around £400 a month as they take all my allowance for it, and I get stung for CC tax on a car I have no choice in. Only thing I know is it'll be a medium size car, 1.8 and have aircon, great :(

So rather than do that I'm thinking I can have something fun for a few months which has lead me to an S2000.

Have seen a nice one for sale locally on an 02 plate with 65k on the clock for £6k and just wondered if there was anything in particular to look out for?

It'll be doing one longish trip a week, 150 miles or so each way down some A roads with little motorway driving (devon to portsmouth) and not much else apart from any weekend driving.

What are they like real world mpg wise, say sitting at 60/70 in 6th?

At the start of the year it was fully undersealed, had new Bridgestone RE050A on the rear but has some Kumho Ecsta on the front, also had a new Honda clutch September last year. It's totally standard and looks in decent condition in the pictures.

So basically am I nuts for thinking I can get this, run it for 4/5 months and then sell it and it say not cost me the earth?

Work mileage is covered, and I guess as long as it doesn't cost me more than the cost of the temp car I could get over the period I'm ok.

Insurance wasn't too bad, looks to be about 400 for me and the wife.

The other car I've seen is a V reg Mazda MX5 in Sport trim. It's a limited edition thing, basically a 1.8 is with bodykit and 2 tone leather.

Looks ok but obviously not as good as the Honda, but it is half the price and potentially cheaper to run.

But my heart/more manly side says the Honda is the way to go.

Any comments/thoughts? :)
 
Evo, search my nick as poster and s2000 in content, I've done probably 15-20 posts with loads of s2k detail in. At the 6k point for that age you can certainly get a good car.

Try on S2Ki if that one up close isn't any good.
 
You probably won't lose any money on the car if you're keeping it for a few months only. A good choice of car. Be careful, you might end up keeping it longer! When did glass rear screens come fitted to these?
 
It's got the glass rear screen :)

Yeah cheers Gareth, know it's been asked a bazillion times on here about buying them, I guess I'm also after a bit of a sanity check as to what I might do as well as the raw buyers type guide.

Will have a good search tomorrow though and read up a bit :)

Hah it'll have to be sold once my lovely diesel arrives as won't have room for it, plus would like to move house later in the year and could use that cash to go towards it :p

Or we may end up keeping whatever I buy and sell the wife's car instead :)
 
Devon to Portsmouth is such a great drive. One of my favourites. The right blend of all sorts of road type :)

Go via Crewekerne and Chard for more fun.
 
Yeah it's not bad, I've been having to do it on a friggin' train the last few weeks, that is not fun!

As it's not your usual sit on a motorway for hours trip I thought something like this would make it a bit more fun, especially on the summer nights :)

And who knows, if I do get something and like it could end up keeping it and just taking the money from work lol.
 
I would say a a jag XK, plent about, just seen a 4ltr supercharged one for £6 with 87,000.

If not then maybe a M5, S2000, Impreza, Evo or even a Honda Type R.

Dan
 
Just sold an Impreza WRX, and going for an STi is pushing it on running costs for what I really wanting to spend.
 
tom_nieto said:
You probably won't lose any money on the car if you're keeping it for a few months only. A good choice of car. Be careful, you might end up keeping it longer! When did glass rear screens come fitted to these?
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Pretty sure Glass rear screen was 2002.... if not definitely 2004.

With the right tyres, and the geometry set up, early cars... IMO, are much more fun to drive than the newer cars. Honda made various revisions over the years making them 'softer and softer' until in 2008 they went back to the original settings when every car had VSA (I think this was standard from 2006 on). Speaks volumes ;)
 
[TW]Fox;21910649 said:
Devon to Portsmouth is such a great drive. One of my favourites. The right blend of all sorts of road type :)

Go via Crewekerne and Chard for more fun.
Click to expand...

I plan on doing this in the summer with (hopefully) a TT. Down to Salcombe to visit the winking prawn!

I vote S2000. Curveball audi tt mk1 3.2 v6?
 
I have looked at TTs as well, but don't think they will be suitable for what I want.

Something for a few months that'll be cheap enough to run whilst still being fun and not lose too much ££ in that time.

The TT whilst nice won't be nice on fuel and just got a nagging feeling there's higher potential costs sitting there. Still nice cars though :)
 
Ev0 said:
I have looked at TTs as well, but don't think they will be suitable for what I want.

Something for a few months that'll be cheap enough to run whilst still being fun and not lose too much ££ in that time.

The TT whilst nice won't be nice on fuel and just got a nagging feeling there's higher potential costs sitting there. Still nice cars though :)
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I don't think an s2000 is much different to be honest
 
Yeah there's not much in it really, if there was one close by for the right price I'd probably go have a look but there isn't :)
 
Off to see it this evening :)

It's got the factory aero kit on it as well so it's got the little lip spoiler and also the rear one, looks alright.

I do keep wondering off looking at 2004+ models as if I was buying for longer term it'd be one of those without a doubt, but keep telling myself this is just a quick bit of fun for the summer :p
 
Are you sure going the company car route at all is right for you? You will end up with a slow eco-friendly car that you are paying a fortune for in tax and allowance. Can you not take a cash alternative instead and put it into running a car?
 
This is one way for me to find out :)

There are other benefits to the company car for us, but will see how things go.

In the grand scheme of things the allowance itself once it's taxed won't go far to buying anything relatively new, getting a brand new 3 series for a cost of say £350 a month to me all in doesn't seem too bad a deal all things considered.

It's not just about the raw numbers/cost which in a way makes it harder to decide! But that's another thread in future....
 
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Company car has always worked out for me over cash too- people seem to forget that unless you get a stonking car allowance the after tax sum is all too often nowhere near enough to buy, insure, maintain and run the same class of car that you'll get by taking the car - particularly if you get personal fuel.

If the car you get bores you £2k will get you something that's plenty of fun for the weekends anyway. It won't be newish but it wont matter if it only moves a day a week
 
Well the wife has a car as well, so the plan is get the co car, I use it the 2 days a week I need to and she has it the rest of the time.

This means the second/her car can be something a little bit more fun than her existing Yaris that we both like.

So we'd sort of be having 2 cars to share rather than mine/yours type thing.

S2000 is a little too much in the fun direction for her though lol, although she might warm to it :p But can see us ending up with something like a CTR as the second car anyway.
 
Brookert said:
I plan on doing this in the summer with (hopefully) a TT. Down to Salcombe to visit the winking prawn!

I vote S2000. Curveball audi tt mk1 3.2 v6?
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I was at the winking prawn 4 weeks ago, and lovely it was too! I love Salcombe but the hills are definitely not for walking up :p
 
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