Hot hatch for >£5k

dhill

dhill

dhill

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Currently knocking the idea around in my head of replacing my existing Mk3 Mondeo TDCI Ghia-X Estate with something a little sportier.

I'm only doing 10 miles a day to and from the local train station, so fuel economy isn't going to be much of an issue. Insurance isn't hopefully going to be to be to much of an issue either as I'm 37 yrs old in a B rated post code area and I have 4 years no claims with no points or claims.

The only real prerequisites that I have are as follows:
  • Up to £5k budget
  • Petrol
  • Up to car tax band K, or a car registered before 23rd March 2006. I refuse to pay more than £285 per year for road tax!
  • Prefer manual gearbox
  • Must have 5 doors
  • Reliable & easy to self maintain

So far I've been throwing around the following ideas:
  • Ford Mondeo ST220 (Hatch/Estate)
  • Volvo V70 T5
  • Volvo V70 R
  • Mazda 3 MPS
  • Volkswagen Golf R32
  • Ford Focus ST

I've ruled out Subaru Impreza's as I believe the rear seats are fixed and can't be folded down to increase boot space, is that the case?

Bit of a mixed bag above really (especially with the Volvo's thrown in lol but the 300bhp in the V70 R is very appealing). Is there anything else that I should be thinking about and/or discounting at all?
 
Seats in the back of the wagons fold flat - you don't have enough for the newer hatch anyway. Wrx with either the prodrive stuff or otherwise mildly tuned would be fine and should be well under budget. Dunno what r32 you're expecting for 5k but its probably not really worth buying.


The volvos don't fit, nice engines handling well below par ( for what you're after)

Best thing you can do is go and look at/try them all are what you think.
 
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Can't imagine you'd be getting a great R32 or ST for that budget. Not sure about the rest but I'd definitely be looking to increase the budget and trying both. The ST will be a nicer place to be on the assumption you're looking at mk4 R32s (otherwise your budget is wildly off).
 
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@ OP. Why do you need the rear seats to fold?

Edit.

I'm guessing you take a bike to the train station or similar.

Could you not get a Scoob/Evo and a roof rack or trailer rack thing?
 
Focus will be bottomish of the market at the minute at will likely need some money spending on it to put it right. Namely the front bushes as they tend to fail before 50K. If you're not modding it then they're fairly reliable once the common faults have been replaced (Oil filter diaphragm & Alternator, both revised in 2008). You just have to keep an eye on the inner CV boots as they tend to pop and if you're not careful you'll end up needing a new driveshaft at £170 for a refurb, £400 for a Ford part or £1,000 for a pair of uprated.
 
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