Car advice (7.5K - 9K)

CTRs are lovely cars, well made, good looking, and I think the interiors are decent too.

Only thing is that you have to drive like a tool to get any performance out of it.

My vote would be for the Focus ST. £9K should see you with a tidy example. :)
 
Whats the running costs of Focus ST's like? I understand they get around 25mpg combined? What about servicing?
 
Andr3w said:
Whats the running costs of Focus ST's like? I understand they get around 25mpg combined? What about servicing?
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Admittedly i've not owned one but I did have a look around recently as I was going to try and chuck the idea of getting one at the missus.

Fuel depends on how heavy your foot is. Can range from high teens to low thirties depending on where you're driving and of course the heaviness of aforementioned foot.

They also seem to go through tyres like nobody's business.

Hence me striking them off my list pretty quickly. They're just not practical for a student who's looking to do 20K. Will come back to them when I graduate most probably, I love the look of them.
 
I do quite like the Focus ST, i've not found much on the running costs etc, but I think the combination of the petrol and higher insurance may well rule it out for me.

I absolutely love the RX8, I think it looks great. But low 20's MPG on average, and much lower if you decide to have your fun, it's a bit nasty considering it's only 0-60 is 7.0 seconds! (I know that's not everything).

Fox, i've very briefly drove a Cooper S JCW and was a passenger in it for many miles. No doubt it's fun to drive, but I don't like the looks unless the right colours have been picked and they hold their value pretty well so i'd be looking at a older/higher mileage car compared to the others, and I want something to feel a little newer. Yes I know if they are cared for they could still be in great condition.
 
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ST you can expect low 30's to mid 20's for fuel economy, 0-62mph is 6.5 seconds.

RX8 has poor economy and high maintenance costs (1 litre of a oil every few thousand miles)

ST is insurance group 17, depending on your age/etc it shouldnt be that high. Front tyres will do about 6k miles if your an agressive/heavy footed driver, 10k is possible for "normal" driving.
 
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There's around a £600+ a year difference for me to insure a Focus ST over RX8.

RX8 servicing a pretty cheap, I don't have the figures now but I was pretty suprised. The main cost really is the MPG, which sucks a little for the performance, and after that the oil. Tyres it's up to you, but probably £100-£150 per corner, more if you want to.

I'm not sure what you mean by a ST being cheap compared to an RX8? I would say it is quite possibly more expensive overall.
 
Well not having an ST but very much looking into getting one, i couldnt comment on that just yet, but as a bulk of the parts are the same as your everyday bog standard focus (minus the engine bits ofcourse) they are common and cheap.

Insurance wise for me, the ST is 580 fully comp (driving 1 year with 1 year ncb, age 30) the RX8 was only £30 cheaper.
 
Not really a Golf fan besides the new, still too expensive ones.

Audi TT - I would be looking at a much higher mileage example than the RX8/Focus ST.

LCR is out for me, the interior is poop.

There's nothing decent for sale near me at the moment so it looks like I might have a bit of a trip.
 
TT 225 is group 18 I think, too pricey!

I've decided against the RX8, just too many things putting me off even though I love the styling and the fact it's a low down, rear wheel drive sports car. The range has been discontinued, the engine may well do down that route too (although they have built a new rotary). There's potentially some very exepensive problems unless I get a well cared for version more so than other cars, the economy is naff etc.

So time to do some really browsing.

I've got £9K to spend. I'm going to look again tonight at:

Cooper S
Clio 197 Cup (Would love an F1 but not sure of the cost)
Megane 225 Cup
Civic Type R (Maybe, expensive to insure!!)

Z4 is creeping under 10K now, but i'm not sure how clean these examples are and they are all above 50K miles.

There is a almost new Fiesta ST for sale locally in the budget but I know if I got one, it's pretty slow and i'd probably look to sell it the year later when my insurance would let me pick up something like an S2000 at a decent price.

I've applied for my first credit card with 6 months interest free for new purchases to pay for the insurance rather than paying monthly, will be interesting to see what my limit is like in the current climate.
 
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Isn't the CTR about group 17, though? Surely 1 group up can't make a huge bit of difference.

The best 'prestige' option is the TT. A Cooper S is for girls (no offence, Wardie, or whoever it is that has one on here?), Clios are, well, French, and the Megane suffers a similar fate. And all have the stigma of having a non-performance air around the cars they're derived from. Get a proper one instead of something that's essentially uprated and tarted.

CTR is a bit different to the above, IMO, but again it's not something I'd go for. Probably based on the looks, if anything; it's a bit boring.

Nothing wrong with a Z4 above 50k. Just check for the Inspection 2 date, check its history for spring failures and all the other usuals. There are ones on the forum which are running perfectly at double/near double that.
 
get a cooper S JCW, can't really see the point of the standard one. 163bhp isn't enough if you compare it to the clio, civic, etc
however, at £9k there probably won't be too many about
 
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