£2500 Fun hatch, spec me?

You could get an early EP3 now I suppose as said.

Forgot about the GTI-6, good shout :) Do the cambelt straight away for peace of mind and rag it about!
 
Dont appear to be many ep3s in my price range, i drove a fn2 and was a bit disappointed. Gti 6 looks a good shout but looks like many shoddy ones about.
 
GT3 said:
I'm going to get a serious hammering for this but...

I've recently got to properly drive a Clio 182 as I've always fancied one and I don't understand the hype. Sure it has good handling and goes ok but the crap seating position takes the fun out of it, along with the bus sized steering wheel, transit van gear throw and useless brakes. They are terribly unreliable with dampers and exhausts being consumable items, gearboxes and de-phasers not much better. Horrific costs for the very regular cambelt changes.

For £2.5k I'd plump for a mint 306 GTI-6 and keep the change to give it a good going over and replace any age related tired parts. Older but a hell of a lot more robust, great engine and gearbox, more fun handling, better driving position etc I could go on!
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Yep, pretty much bang on, but that's why they (especially 172s) are so cheap.

Some of it is easily fixable, like the brakes which are cheap to upgrade, and other things will be done already. I doubt you could find an RS Clio with an original exhaust, and most have been replaced with stainless anyway.

The seating position and steering wheel are poor, but then it depends what you want. For every day usability the leather, climate control, auto xenons, auto wipers, CD changer and (in the 182) cruise control all make up for sitting a bit high.

For the money they are hard to beat. But clearly, as with most things, spending more will get you something better.

Oh, and I would hardly call 72k miles 'very regular' :p
 
Surprised you say the brakes were poor, even in standard trim they are known to be very good.

I remember the old Autocar 0-100-0 test where the 172 (a phase 1) beat most things going from 100 down to 0.

I had mine for 5 years and covered over 70k in that time, was a great car and was cheap to run.

But it just goes to show you've got to drive things to see what you prefer, I test drove a CTR and really didn't like it, but others will rave about them.
 
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If you find the brakes poor then they are cheap to upgrade. For road use the standard brakes are great. On a track however the benifit from an upgrade.

Depends what you want to do.
 
Well yeah as soon as you start talking track then a standard road setup won't last, but tbh not many standard hot hatches will.

Found the old article, stopped from 100 in 3.99 secs "beating cars including Ferrari 360 Modena, Lamborghini Diablo GT, Caterham Superlight R500 at 450kg, and Porsche 911 Turbo." lol.

Mine were great even with just standard discs and pads, and were even better with uprated pads/discs/lines.
 
The brakes are pretty damn good for a standard car, shouldn't ever find a limit on the road. The clio 197/200 are an even bigger leap. I've got track discs and pads, braided lines and cut slicks on my car, and with the amount of weight i've removed, it stops veeeeeeeeeeeery well indeed.

The exhausts are made out of cheese, but like skeeter has said, most have been replaced by the previous owners, if not, decent S/S exhaust are available for £300ish with life time warranty.

The seats do sit very high, and the steering wheel is large, but it didn't seen to bother me enough to really notice? I did end up replacing them for different reasons though.

Leaky shocks can be a problem, but mine were fine at 50k, and cheap to replace. Also wouldn't say the cambelt was that expensive, or regular?

GTI-6 is a great car, i almost bought a rallye a couple years ago ( decided i couldn't actually afford it at the time ) but if i had the two to choose from at the same time, the clio would be my choice every time.
 
See this thread it turning into a "Clio Vs GTi6/Rallye" thread. My vote goes to the Rallye after owning 2 and being in countless clio's. Sure, the clio is a great car but out of the box, it doesn't match a GTi6/Rallye IMHO. Also, they are much rarer and more appreciated.

Just take one for a blast and it will make sense. :)
 
But that's the difference. What if most of its driving life won't be 'going for a blast'. For day to day usability the added toys in the Clio win it for me.
 
Due to a bit of good luck my budget could stretch to £3500 max, anything else to consider at this price?
 
Steve_bullockuk said:
See this thread it turning into a "Clio Vs GTi6/Rallye" thread. My vote goes to the Rallye after owning 2 and being in countless clio's. Sure, the clio is a great car but out of the box, it doesn't match a GTi6/Rallye IMHO. Also, they are much rarer and more appreciated.

Just take one for a blast and it will make sense. :)
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I don't get how it doesn't beat a GTi6? They are up in power, defined as one of the best handling hot hatches at its time. They are raved about by every reviewer that has been in one.

So yeah, in what way does a GTi6 'beat' it?
 
 
Im tempted to look at those civics as they are local. Not sure what to make of the vrs or if they are dynamic enough to drive. I sold my 328 sport today hence the new car search :D
 
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