5K fun car

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There is a certain joy of thrashing a light and modestly powered car to its limit and never being outside the speed limit! If it benefits from no roof, a sporty exhaust and a well setup chassis, all the better! You really need to get yourself an MX5.
 
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There is a certain joy of thrashing a light and modestly powered car to its limit and never being outside the speed limit! If it benefits from no roof, a sporty exhaust and a well setup chassis, all the better! You really need to get yourself an MX5.

Oh definitely, most of the most fun cars I’ve had have been fairly low powered, the 2 MX5s I had, the Mk3 MR2 (that car was utterly hilarious but not very practical), Puma, Mk2 Golf GTI etc. If I get another MX5 it’ll be my third though! And although I do like thrashing low powered cars, if I did that again I’d want something with bigger power for once.

TBH if GT86s were cheaper it would be a no brainer as my next car.
 
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My S2000 was fine on the limit (I knew when to drive it on the limit). It tried to kill me on a slight bend at 50 mph (60 limit) which I could have taken at well over 100 mph in my evo 8.
Terrible car in my opinion. There just wasn't any notice. It was all grip, grip.... No grip, you're going to die.
 

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My S2000 was fine on the limit (I knew when to drive it on the limit). It tried to kill me on a slight bend at 50 mph (60 limit) which I could have taken at well over 100 mph in my evo 8.
Terrible car in my opinion. There just wasn't any notice. It was all grip, grip.... No grip, you're going to die.
An evo and s2000 need completely different driving techniques. Well, with an Evo there is no technique really haha

Not my cuppa tea ^
More like this?

T7a3gl8m.jpg

;)
 
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I’ve never really liked that particular model Fiesta - and that one looks a bit chavved up, I would probably rather go for another Clio over one of these or even a Swift Sport. In fact, I’d probably rather save up a bit more and go for the Mk7! Thanks for the suggestion though :)
 

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Up the budget a little and get a supercharged 350Z? Most fun car I've ever driven, but I like almost dying :D
 
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Quite a bit of love for 350Zs, even amongst my mates. I do still like them I must admit, and there aint many 6 cylinder, mechanically reliable RWD coupes around for under 5K these days. The SC could come later :D
 
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An evo and s2000 need completely different driving techniques. Well, with an Evo there is no technique really haha

;)

An evo isn't an autonomous car like most claim. It still needs to be driven to get the best out of it.
I actually sold the evo 8 as I didn't like it. I had an evo 5 for 3 years before the evo 8. I didn't like it so thought I'd go for something different. Got the S2000 and kept it for 9 months (same time I had the evo 8). I replaced it with an Evo 5 that I kept for nearly 7 years.
I actually replaced the evo 5 with an evo 10 :)
Got rid of it after 2 years and 52000 miles!!
 
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Just want to point out that while the gt86 is brilliant and i like it loads......
The mk4 mx5 is faster, and after the refresh the 2019 is even swifter.

Not by much though.
Er.. carry on :p

Yep, but you also can’t get a Mk4 MX5 2.0 for £10K - and nor do I have £10k to spend let alone the £20k I’d need to find for one of those.

And if I had £20K to spend on a car, I guess I could get something FAR nicer than an MX5.

However, as this is just going to be a bit of a toy / plaything / hobby of sorts, then I can’t really justify spending much more than the 5k I’ve given myself, even though it is annoying to see my mates buying brand new M3s, JCW MCS etc on faceache lol
 
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I recently bought a cheap car to get to and from work in - Clio 182.

It is an absolute hoot to drive. Plenty of power, light weight, practical, etc. Even has stuff like xenons, climate.

Mine has absolutely tonnes of history, but has 5 previous owners and 99k miles, so was priced accordingly.

I haven’t bought mine as something that will magically gain value - it needed less owners and miles to do that - but it’s mechanically brilliant. I spent less than half of your budget too.

5k would probably get you a decent 182 Trophy which will grow in value.
 
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I recently bought a cheap car to get to and from work in - Clio 182.

It is an absolute hoot to drive. Plenty of power, light weight, practical, etc. Even has stuff like xenons, climate.

Mine has absolutely tonnes of history, but has 5 previous owners and 99k miles, so was priced accordingly.

I haven’t bought mine as something that will magically gain value - it needed less owners and miles to do that - but it’s mechanically brilliant. I spent less than half of your budget too.

5k would probably get you a decent 182 Trophy which will grow in value.

I must admit, having owned a couple (a Phase 1 172 and a 182 FF), I always kind of felt they were somewhat overrated.... then I drove lots more cars, and realised that actually they were pretty darn good after all. Not really far off my DC2 Integra Type-R in many respects - probably about as fast overall, and although not as special or as well made, easier to live with - they don’t attract lots of attention.

Mine were not very reliable though, but I do hear a lot of owners say they are actually pretty reliable, so perhaps I was just unlucky. However, I do find myself looking at them again, 172 Cups and Trophys. Incidentally, the 172 Cup and 182 Trophy (as well as the 200 Cup) were all in the top 10 best hot hatches as voted by pistonheads recently. So there’s obviously something in it...

I still dislike the awful steering wheels though :D

Edit: just looked and the only 182 Trophy on PH is £8750, so quite a long way above what I would be willing to pay, particularly when you can get a tidy 182 for £2500 and retrofit the wheels and seats if you really felt the need (I’m aware of the sachs dampers but still), I’m sure the Trophy is excellent, but really is it worth over 3x the price? I very much doubt it?
 
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Soldato
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I still dislike the awful steering wheels though :D

They are terrible steering wheels, When I had my old 1.2 it felt like I was trying to steer a bus, the wheel was that big haha, Sometimes I do still regret not going for a 172/182 like I intended to after my clio, but at the same time, upgrading to a 3.0i Z4 ain't all bad that either haha.
 
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Soldato
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My S2000 was fine on the limit (I knew when to drive it on the limit). It tried to kill me on a slight bend at 50 mph (60 limit) which I could have taken at well over 100 mph in my evo 8.
Terrible car in my opinion. There just wasn't any notice. It was all grip, grip.... No grip, you're going to die.

As a previous S2000 owner, with respect, you either:
- didn't know how to drive it
- had awful tyres on
- hadn't had the suspension alignment sorted out

Doing those three properly and its an incredibly good car.

I must admit, having owned a couple (a Phase 1 172 and a 182 FF), I always kind of felt they were somewhat overrated.... then I drove lots more cars, and realised that actually they were pretty darn good after all. Not really far off my DC2 Integra Type-R in many respects - probably about as fast overall, and although not as special or as well made, easier to live with - they don’t attract lots of attention.

Mine were not very reliable though, but I do hear a lot of owners say they are actually pretty reliable, so perhaps I was just unlucky. However, I do find myself looking at them again, 172 Cups and Trophys. Incidentally, the 172 Cup and 182 Trophy (as well as the 200 Cup) were all in the top 10 best hot hatches as voted by pistonheads recently. So there’s obviously something in it...

I still dislike the awful steering wheels though :D

Edit: just looked and the only 182 Trophy on PH is £8750, so quite a long way above what I would be willing to pay, particularly when you can get a tidy 182 for £2500 and retrofit the wheels and seats if you really felt the need (I’m aware of the sachs dampers but still), I’m sure the Trophy is excellent, but really is it worth over 3x the price? I very much doubt it?

Mine has the Speedline wheels, I guess I could get the recaro seats if I absolutely had to, but the standard ones are good IMO. A previous owner fitted the Ktec racing coilovers (same time as their intake and exhaust) and whilst I'm sure its great on a track, its simply too hard on the road. When you're pushing on over undulating roads its constantly revving up as its fighting for traction. With a decent Bilstein setup I doubt there'd be much in it between mine and a trophy - and as you say, at a fraction of the price.
 
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I've been considering cars around this price point too whilst I await the sale of the 135i and i'm drawn to something along the lines of a 197 f1, prelude motegi, EP3 or something. Just can't really make my mind up!
 

Ev0

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Loved my phase 1 172, only things I remember going wrong in the 5 years and 70k miles were a snapped spring and the original exhaust rotting (common issue).

Also had two S2000s, a 2002 and a 2004 facelift.

I much preferred the earlier 2002 model and covered 20k or so in the year I had it (and it only tried to kill me the once!).

The 2004, whilst being a second car this time unlike the 2002, I just didn’t gel with, didn’t feel nice to drive and I sold it a year or so later having only covered about 200 miles in it!

Not sure what 5k gets you now though, guessing a very early one with high miles.

A previous owner fitted the Ktec racing coilovers (same time as their intake and exhaust) and whilst I'm sure its great on a track, its simply too hard on the road. When you're pushing on over undulating roads its constantly revving up as its fighting for traction. With a decent Bilstein setup I doubt there'd be much in it between mine and a trophy - and as you say, at a fraction of the price.

I ended up with some Eibach pro-line springs with fresh standard shocks on mine and the ride was lovey, highly recommend if not wanting to spend on a Bilstein set (this was when the standard Renault parts were cheap, no idea if they still are!).
 
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