£1k challenge

zegna

zegna

zegna

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31 Oct 2011
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655
Location
London
Ok, so I'm having a slow weekend!

I'm currently car-less and I've been looking at the most powerful, fairly reliable car, that I could buy for a budget of £1k. It can drink fuel because I drive 5k a year and will be used as a weekend toy. Insurance isn't a problem.

I'll actually be going through with buying something, so it's not theoretical.
My postcode is E14 9PL and it must be within 30 miles (ideally in London ~10 miles).

So far the best value car I've seen today is a 2004 1.8t Saab 9-3 which has done 131,000 miles, which I can get for £1050. Apparently can be remapped to 195bhp quite easily and cheaply and its still fairly modern.

Some 2.0 Alfa Romeos are on autotrader which could be interesting.


Suggestions welcome!
 
My brother picked up a (claimed) 360BHP Pulsar GTI-R about 2 years ago for £750, just needed the rear n/s quarter respraying and an MOT

That thing was unbelievably brutal! It wasn't all that reliable though :D
 
Some kind of Skyline/Supra/3000GT?

[Edit] Forget that, seems they go for way more than I think.
 
There are a few near you that could potentially be interesting.

First is a 535i with " 115k "
There is a stagea too, but it must surely be borked for £1k
A remapped a3 1.8t with 140k
V6 156 for a grand

If you were feeling brave a couple of mgf's, one might even be a 160
A galant v6 - that could actually be worth looking at
A 2.4t s60
A t5 v70 - looks quite nice actually but you'd want them to mot it

Oh a fiat coupe turbo, its £1.5k and would ruin your life, but they're bloody quick

That's all I can really see to to about 40 miles and £1.3k ( assuming you could easily knock them down to a grand)
 
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Look out for Mitsubishi FTO's they are reasonable cheap, and not a bad motor at all.I've seen them as low as £500.
 
This is true actually, if you can actually find a manual they're pretty quick, don't weigh much (1.1t i thinks) and 200bhp even though people will tell you they're "slow"

Comedy insurance mind
 
rodenal said:
Oh a fiat coupe turbo, its £1.5k and would ruin your life, but they're bloody quick
Click to expand...

They are pretty quick and really quite comfortable for long trips but having one myself while it's been reasonably reliable in an overall sense there's been a fair few little niggles with it over the two years which has cost a bit to fix. Not the end of the world if you can afford it or are happy to have a go at fixing it yourself but something to be aware of. Also has the approximate turning circle of a barge so you'll inevitably look incompetent at parking in confined spaces.

I've looked at different times and seen a few at £1k or below but there doesn't seem to be much choice at the moment.
 
I have a £750 MG ZS180, it's been great so far. Just had to do the cambelts, which was a sod of a job. :o
I've also had a £950 MG ZT190 (handy if you need something a bit bigger) which was also pretty reliable, there's a thread on here about it somewhere.

Both were great fun, quick enough (7.3 and 7.7 to 60) and haven't cost me the earth to run. They're both a 2.5 V6.
 
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