New budget, £10k, 5 seats, bit of poke again

MissChief · 6 Oct 2016 at 19:06

Ok, so have a new budget of £10k, must have five seats, three door is ok though. Nothing truly mental as needs decent running costs and ideally 40MPG on a run. Sadly this means no AMG's or M cars. Most of them don't have five seats anyway so as much as I'd like an E46 M3 it is only a 2+2. And M tax scares me! Also, 2008 or newer would be good too.

Obvious option is Golf GTI Ed. 30 or Pirelli (and there's a nice blue one up on AT ATM) but is there anything else? Civic Type R doesn't really interest me in all honesty and while there are quite a few Imprezas they fall foul of the mpg requirement, as does the Mazda 3 MPS and Focus ST.

LiE · 6 Oct 2016 at 19:38

Here you got. A little over budget but a very decent all round car.
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201610068486261

xs2man · 6 Oct 2016 at 19:57

That blue Pirelli. Nice.

BurningHorizons · 6 Oct 2016 at 19:58

BMW 130i? I loved mine. Can get them up to '09. Low tax, bomb-proof straight-six engine, very reliable, good mpg, and the most amazing soundtrack.

Diagro · 6 Oct 2016 at 20:01

LiE said:
Here you got. A little over budget but a very decent all round car.
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201610068486261

I want

DB_SamX · 6 Oct 2016 at 21:22

2010-2011 Octavia vRS

Example: http://www.christchurchmotorcompany.co.uk/used-SKODA-OCTAVIA-Christchurch-Dorset-838519

Only criteria it doesn't strictly meet is mpg (38 average) but it does have more power than the Leon.

LiE · 6 Oct 2016 at 21:29

DB_SamX said:
2010-2011 Octavia vRS

Example: http://www.christchurchmotorcompany.co.uk/used-SKODA-OCTAVIA-Christchurch-Dorset-838519

Only criteria it doesn't strictly meet is mpg (38 average) but it does have more power than the Leon.

so old compared to the Leon I suggested.

MissChief · 6 Oct 2016 at 22:06

BurningHorizons said:
BMW 130i? I loved mine. Can get them up to '09. Low tax, bomb-proof straight-six engine, very reliable, good mpg, and the most amazing soundtrack.

There's one on AT but it only has four seats so isn't suitable.

BurningHorizons · 6 Oct 2016 at 22:26

They do come in 5 seat form too.

MissChief · 6 Oct 2016 at 22:42

Need something relatively quickly so that blue Pirelli, which is apparently an exceedingly rare colour going by the mark5gti list, is looking better and better. I'm just not entirely sold on DSG, I've never had an automatic other than a Pug 5008 MPV diesel rental!

MissChief · 6 Oct 2016 at 23:13

A shame I'm about £1,500 short of a new shape Focus ST.

rodenal · 7 Oct 2016 at 04:38

DB_SamX said:
2010-2011 Octavia vRS

Example: http://www.christchurchmotorcompany.co.uk/used-SKODA-OCTAVIA-Christchurch-Dorset-838519

Only criteria it doesn't strictly meet is mpg (38 average) but it does have more power than the Leon.

Nah, not for ten grand - you'd be forever disappointed with yourself every time you tried to go round corners if you've driven anything a bit less soft (and don't need to make the big boot 5 door compromise) or when you see what else ten(ish) grand can buy you.

If the likes of the Leon really is achievable it's well worth considering, fire a remap onto it and you've got a relatively modern, nippy car that looksngood for reasonable money

MissChief said:
Need something relatively quickly so that blue Pirelli, which is apparently an exceedingly rare colour going by the mark5gti list, is looking better and better. I'm just not entirely sold on DSG, I've never had an automatic other than a Pug 5008 MPV diesel rental!

Pirelli editions are nice, but you just need to accept you're buying into what is an older car now becuse of it being a limited run. I love the seats. R.e dsg, console yourself woth the thought that if it goes really wrong it's "only" a £1500 fix rather than new engine time for an early tsi with tensioner issues.

MissChief said:
A shame I'm about £1,500 short of a new shape Focus ST.

I went to look at a couple of focus ST estates recently and tbh i am majorly out off by the ore facelift interior. Doesn't help that it looks like our fiesta inside (which I hate the interior of) but the likes of the Leon or even the right mk5 golf looks much better and less cheap inside (even if that's not actually the case) - depends what really matters to you I suppose

LiE · 7 Oct 2016 at 09:31

Most definitely remap the Leon

http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=394240

The handling is pretty sharp on the MQB platform.

chroniclard · 7 Oct 2016 at 09:37

DSG/automatics are decent for wafting around and ease of use. Unsure its really the right setup for hot hatch though. Definitely not as involving as a manual.

rodenal · 7 Oct 2016 at 13:36

Tbh for road use I disagree with that r.e dsg

Outside of any slight confusion the box has when slowing down / deciding to move off quickly again at really low speeds a dsg driven quickly in "manual" mode produces great shifts every time where you're average driver simply won't. Its not like you're leaving it to select gears at will

SC0TTRS · 7 Oct 2016 at 13:44

Audi S3

Golf R32

I'd question the 40+ mpg but 30 is do-able

Heck! why have a car like this if all ya doing is 40+mpg!

chroniclard · 7 Oct 2016 at 13:51

rodenal said:
Tbh for road use I disagree with that r.e dsg

Outside of any slight confusion the box has when slowing down / deciding to move off quickly again at really low speeds a dsg driven quickly in "manual" mode produces great shifts every time where you're average driver simply won't. Its not like you're leaving it to select gears at will

Didnt mention any of that, just driver involvement. Manual gearbox in a hot hatch is much more fun, for the 5% of the time you could actually use it properly.

I do love the auto box in our car and cant fault it really but there are just times I would have liked a manual.

xs2man · 7 Oct 2016 at 15:40

I kinda wished mine was a DSG rather than manual.

Whenever I hoofed the 5 series, I could use the flappy paddles, and felt almost as involved anyway. Easy to select whatever gear you wanted for whatever exit speed you were looking at. With all the advantages of having both hands firmly on the steering wheel throughout any turning / braking.

Sure, it might take a bit of getting used to, but I wouldn't necessarily say it was any worse than a manual motor with more modern DSG type 'boxes.

Janesy B · 7 Oct 2016 at 15:58

I think a Fiesta ST will be the only car that will meet your MPG requirement, simply because it's a smaller/lighter car - I can get 40-45mpg on a run easily. I suspect it's too small for what you need, even if it has 5 seats. Leon is a good shout.

Hedge · 7 Oct 2016 at 16:05

Megane RS250.

35mpg on a run.