Alternatives to a 200 Vi for £1500?

Kingy

Kingy

Kingy

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
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Location
Leicester
Now that my old Rover is junk, I need a new car, and would like to take the opportunity to step up, rather than simply sideways. Not an easy task for my budget. I liked my Rover, and have a feeling I'll like it more with a quicker engine. However my choices are limited by insurance. I can insure a Vi for £360 more than my 216, which I can stomach, but when I looked at things like a Primera GT a couple of months ago, the insurance was about an extra grand.

Any suggestions?
 
£1500 would have me exclusively looking at E36 325i's with a new MOT. Superb chassis and almost 200bhp, very reliable and dont look too bad. They have an image problem, but very few cars for this kind of budget wont, and virtually none will be anything like as good. Insurance seems reasonable too, running a quote for me at 21 years old and 1yr NCB, social only, TPFT, its about £600, which is stomachable given its pretty good performance.
 
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Jez said:
£1500 would have me exclusively looking at E36 325i's with a new MOT. Superb chassis and almost 200bhp, very reliable and dont look too bad. They have an image problem, but very few cars for this kind of budget wont, and virtually none will be anything like as good. Insurance seems reasonable too, running a quote for me at 21 years old and 1yr NCB, social only, TPFT, its about £600, which is stomachable given its pretty good performance.
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I can live with people thinking I'm an old man, I get by on the sleeper thing with the 200, but imo a £1500 3 series is playing at it. I don't mind the people thinking you're a dick or whatever, but I personally think that people that spend that sort of money on a clapped out BMW are doing it to make the world think they have money, when they so don't.
 
We were looking at Rover 200vi's for my other half. It was a compromise between a car that she liked, plus a bit of performance for when I have to drive it.

We looked at a few, then we tried a 218sli. It was visually identical with all the same kit, and on driving it, it felt every bit as powerful as the Vi.

It still feels bloomin slow compared to my coupe or gsxr, but it is liveable. :p
 
Jez said:
£1500 would have me exclusively looking at E36 325i's with a new MOT. Superb chassis and almost 200bhp, very reliable and dont look too bad. They have an image problem, but very few cars for this kind of budget wont, and virtually none will be anything like as good. Insurance seems reasonable too, running a quote for me at 21 years old and 1yr NCB, social only, TPFT, its about £600, which is stomachable given its pretty good performance.
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any ideas of running costs of such a car?
 
Virtually nothing, all parts are cheap through indi's and they arnt too complicated to work on. Very reliable in general.

So just standard stuff which you would hit on any car
 
I truely cannot think of anything better, the image is wrong i completely admit (although they are rare as anything in this area so i guess they dont look too bad)

I cant think of anything which will come with both a very good engine, and a very good chassis, and overall be as good to drive, and be as bareable day to day.
 
dilated said:
Honda Prelude 2.2 ?
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^

Very fast, handles, still looks great, and is incredibly reliable which is amazing considering the power. I would bother with an old E36, there are too many dogs around, due to people trying to run a BMW on a fiesta budget. 95% of the sub £1.5k E36s will need some serious work soon.
 
Mondeo? You can get the top end 2.5 v6 / 2.0 Ghia X for that money. Would be better than the BMW in my opinion, also if anythign does go wrong it won't hurt your wallet so much.
 
saitrix said:
Mondeo? You can get the top end 2.5 v6 / 2.0 Ghia X for that money. Would be better than the BMW in my opinion, also if anythign does go wrong it won't hurt your wallet so much.
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Wouldn't get an ST24 or ST200 for my money, plus, insurance is likely to be similar to the Primera GT, ie, too much...
 
id check out the primera SRi, and get a quote from Admiral/elephant.

get a car for £1500 or so (easy to get a good SRi at that price), and cover it TPFT, im sure it would be doable.

the SRi is well specced, 2.0 SR20de engine. its upgradeable to GT spec with GT cams, header/exhaust i thinl, which should move it from 136bhp to 148 bhp.

edit: they ahve really good handling, are generally fine reliable cars.
 
saitrix said:
Good thing then I didn't mention the ST24 and ST200 then, wasn't it.
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Indeed. It was unreasonable of me to assume that by 'the top end 2.5 V6' you meant 'the top end 2.5 V6, that isn't the ST24/ ST200'.

Care to enlighten me on what you were suggesting?
 
Kingy said:
Indeed. It was unreasonable of me to assume that by 'the top end 2.5 V6' you meant 'the top end 2.5 V6, that isn't the ST24/ ST200'.

Care to enlighten me on what you were suggesting?
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The 2.5 v6 Ghia X. Hense the "/" used between the two engine capacities.
 
saitrix said:
Mondeo? You can get the top end 2.5 v6 / 2.0 Ghia X for that money. Would be better than the BMW in my opinion, also if anythign does go wrong it won't hurt your wallet so much.
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Hardly in the same league as a drivers car though is it?
 
Jez said:
Hardly in the same league as a drivers car though is it?
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I have re read the OP, I don't see where it mentions anything to do with drivers car. Therefore it can lead me to beleive he wanted to step up in different ways.
 
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