£3000 to spend on a new car, but what to get?

Septh · 21 May 2007 at 14:40

Hey all,

Well my current car is broken beyond the point of an economical repair, going to be sad to see it go, loved that car

So I need a new car and I have £3000 (maybe a little bit more) to spend on it, what would people recommend me?
I like it to be sporty, good chuckability, less than 10 seconds to 60, and a bit different not just some bland boring german looking thing. and fairly modern.
Been looking around for cars but there isn't much in this price range

Looking at MR2's atm but was wondering if its that practical?
Also looked at a vectra sri, they seem quick and fun, but a bit common?

Help me please

Mac

kaiowas · 21 May 2007 at 14:45

Septh said:
Looking at MR2's atm but was wondering if its that practical?

What kind of practicality do you need? If you need to carry more than 1 passenger or lots of big stuff about then they're not practical enough but in all other regards they're no more impractical than anything else.

[TW]Fox · 21 May 2007 at 14:47

Septh said:
a bit different not just some bland boring german looking thing.

Also looked at a vectra sri, they seem quick and fun

that made me laugh

Well if you like Vectras, then why not get something similar thats actually good - Mondeo 2.0 Zetec-S? Could also get a nice 2.5 V6 ST24.s

Septh · 21 May 2007 at 14:50

[TW]Fox said:
that made me laugh

Well if you like Vectras, then why not get something similar thats actually good - Mondeo 2.0 Zetec-S? Could also get a nice 2.5 V6 ST24.s

lol I did actually make my self laugh as I wrote that, was thinking of the mondeo, i dont like vectras, they just seem cheap for the quick ones, probably a reason for that tho lol

Septh · 21 May 2007 at 14:52

kaiowas said:
What kind of practicality do you need? If you need to carry more than 1 passenger or lots of big stuff about then they're not practical enough but in all other regards they're no more impractical than anything else.

Don't normally give people lifts over than my girlfriend.
I mean can you fit in a shopping load and stuff in them? or a PC and monitor etc?
Anyone got get an pics of the boot or loading spacing in a mr2?

kaiowas · 21 May 2007 at 14:56

Septh said:
Don't normally give people lifts over than my girlfriend.
I mean can you fit in a shopping load and stuff in them? or a PC and monitor etc?
Anyone got get an pics of the boot or loading spacing in a mr2?

Don't know whether you're looking at mk1 or mk2 but me and the GF will do a weeks camping in a mk1. You've got a reasonable boot for bags and shopping etc (although it's not terribly long so large objects don't go in it. If I need to carry something that doesn't fit in the boot I use the passenger seat (and in extreme cases have been known to remove the seat beforehand which allows me to carry pretty much anything I can fit through the door.) There's also quite a bit of room behind the seats for stuff. From what I know the mk2 has a slightly larger and more useful shaped boot but with less space behind the seats.

Septh · 21 May 2007 at 15:00

kaiowas said:
Don't know whether you're looking at mk1 or mk2 but me and the GF will do a weeks camping in a mk1. You've got a reasonable boot for bags and shopping etc (although it's not terribly long so large objects don't go in it. If I need to carry something that doesn't fit in the boot I use the passenger seat (and in extreme cases have been known to remove the seat beforehand which allows me to carry pretty much anything I can fit through the door.) There's also quite a bit of room behind the seats for stuff. From what I know the mk2 has a slightly larger and more useful shaped boot but with less space behind the seats.

kool cheers for that,
I'm thinking of the 1990-2000 model, might go test drive one tomorrow, theres a few near me on the autotrader, see how I like it behind the wheel, the clocks look a bit dated, but I expect they can be livened up a bit with a white dial kit.

ci_newman · 21 May 2007 at 15:03

Septh said:
Don't normally give people lifts over than my girlfriend.
I mean can you fit in a shopping load and stuff in them? or a PC and monitor etc?
Anyone got get an pics of the boot or loading spacing in a mr2?

If you've got a flat screen monitor and a shuttle PC, then an MR2 boot is plenty big enough.. however you'd never fit an 19" CRT anywhere other than the passenger seat. If it wasn't raining outside, I'd go and grab some pictures of the boot space..

For chuckability, I'd imagine the MR2 is far more practical than a V6 Mondeo however the mondy is going to crunch up the motorway miles a lot better than an MR2 will..

We need a sub-forum in motors... BMW owners, Mondeo owners and MR2 owners

[Edit] As for a 2000-reg mk2 MR2- it WILL be a real dog for that kinda money in that age range. £3k is t-top rev3 / early rev4 MR2 money

(like mine)

Septh · 21 May 2007 at 15:10

Are they not fun for the motoway then? as I go to uni like 250miles from home, and 120miles of that journy is motoway, but having said that I only do that journey like 6 times a year.
I'll have to give one a good test drive and a good look over.
Any other suggestions?

ci_newman · 21 May 2007 at 15:13

Septh said:
Are they not fun for the motoway then? as I go to uni like 250miles from home, and 120miles of that journy is motoway, but having said that I only do that journey like 6 times a year.
I'll have to give one a good test drive and a good look over.
Any other suggestions?

My car is quite happy on the motorway, however you don't get the luxury of an arm chair in the MR2

That said. I've frequently driven my car 200 miles in the last 10 months of ownership and never suffered a sore back / neck afterwards.

The car certainly isn't a happy car in traffic though...

Septh · 21 May 2007 at 15:16

ci_newman said:
My car is quite happy on the motorway, however you don't get the luxury of an arm chair in the MR2 That said. I've frequently driven my car 200 miles in the last 10 months of ownership and never suffered a sore back / neck afterwards.

The car certainly isn't a happy car in traffic though...

Not happy in what way? overheats or is just not fun to queue in cuz of a hard clutch or something?

ci_newman · 21 May 2007 at 15:23

Septh said:
Not happy in what way? overheats or is just not fun to queue in cuz of a hard clutch or something?

It doesn't over heat

Just heavy clutch work. Maybe it's just mine!

Septh · 21 May 2007 at 15:24

Oh and what is considered high milage for an MR2? as the milage on the ones on autotrader seem to vary a lot between 45k and 160k?
whens all the cam belt changes and major services need to be done?

Cheers

ci_newman · 21 May 2007 at 15:35

Septh said:
Oh and what is considered high milage for an MR2? as the milage on the ones on autotrader seem to vary a lot between 45k and 160k?
whens all the cam belt changes and major services need to be done?

Cheers

It all depends on the age of the car. 100k miles appears to be the average now (which is to be expected with a car with an average age of 10 years). I don't know of any suffering from major engine problems. An ex-work mate had one at 140k miles and it still pulled well.

As for servicing, other than an oil / filter change every 6k miles / 6 months the intervals are the same as most other cars. What kind of power under foot do you want? The N/A is around 170BHP in that age bracket and the turbo is ~250BHP.

The mondeo talk appears to have ceased for now!

Septh · 21 May 2007 at 15:41

I got a 90bhp feista at the moment so anything more is a bonus!
The info on parkers makes it seem as if the 'Sports' model is 120bhp, assuming thats an N/A, and the turbo one is the GT Sports which is 170bhp.
http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/specs/Data.aspx?model=894
Probably the 2.0litre would be fine for me to be honest if it has 170bhp like you say, anymore and I'd probably kill my self, and the efficancy etc etc.

Serj · 21 May 2007 at 15:48

The 120bhp version is the very early N/A version, the 170bhp are the later (1992+ iirc) versions of the N/A engine. The turbo is 220/240bhp but isn't on Parkers as it's an import only model.

I frequently drive back and forth from uni and home (250 miles each way, about 170ish of motorway driving) and i have no problems at all. And that's saying something as i have an ongoing back and neck injury from whiplash. I can do that journey on a friday afternoon and quite happily go out friday night as normal.

Oh and i manage to fit all my stuff in my car when i come back from uni, including monitor (allbeit an LCD), tower and a bag full of pretty much all my clothes.

Septh · 21 May 2007 at 15:55

Serj said:
The 120bhp version is the very early N/A version, the 170bhp are the later (1992+ iirc) versions of the N/A engine. The turbo is 220/240bhp but isn't on Parkers as it's an import only model.

I frequently drive back and forth from uni and home (250 miles each way, about 170ish of motorway driving) and i have no problems at all. And that's saying something as i have an ongoing back and neck injury from whiplash. I can do that journey on a friday afternoon and quite happily go out friday night as normal.

Oh and i manage to fit all my stuff in my car when i come back from uni, including monitor (allbeit an LCD), tower and a bag full of pretty much all my clothes.

Cheers for the info there! Probably look for a 170bhp n/a then

should be more than enough for my needs and insurance costs, so when I'm looking for one do I want to look for a GT or a Sports or a GT Sports? or does it not really matter? I'm assuming its a GT Sports looking around

You have pretty much the same uni stuff I have there so thats ok

spaceman · 21 May 2007 at 16:11

Septh said:
Cheers for the info there! Probably look for a 170bhp n/a then should be more than enough for my needs and insurance costs, so when I'm looking for one do I want to look for a GT or a Sports or a GT Sports? or does it not really matter? I'm assuming its a GT Sports looking around
You have pretty much the same uni stuff I have there so thats ok

you'll need to look for a uk gti or jap g-limited L reg upwards if you want the 170bhp model (some rev2's are also on L reg - 158bhp) look for one with round back lights, single piece spoiler etc.. that will be a rev3 with 170 odd bhp. the egine's look different anyway

GT and GT-S are both jap turbo's

have a look in the 'know ** 2' section on www.mr2oc.co.uk

ci_newman · 21 May 2007 at 16:17

spaceman said:
you'll need to look for a uk gti or jap g-limited L reg upwards if you want the 170bhp model (some rev2's are also on L reg - 158bhp) look for one with round back lights, single piece spoiler etc.. that will be a rev3 with 170 odd bhp. the egine's look different anyway

GT and GT-S are both jap turbo's

have a look in the 'know ** 2' section on www.mr2oc.co.uk

Alternatively, look here :- http://www.imoc.co.uk/forums/kb.php?mode=article&k=48

The Uk model is known as the Gti-16, the import Japanese model is the g-limited

Ignore what parkers tells you!

Septh · 21 May 2007 at 16:35

Cheers for all the info and help guys