Son wants car advice 9000 to spend on fun! He wants 10 year old car. HELP :)

Soldato
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Siroccos look like a beetles crashed into a golf and an elephant sat on the back. Never driven one but I'd imagine they're predictable and boring.

Focus St or for a much less refined or practical but fun shout I'd say Abarth 595.
 
Associate
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So many replies...
He now appears to have discounted the Sirocco overnight. We were due to view a Polo GTI at a VW dealership but it sold almost immediately. In response to MX5 suggestions. His mum has one and that puts him off lol!
Looks like the search continues.
 
Soldato
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So many replies...
He now appears to have discounted the Sirocco overnight. We were due to view a Polo GTI at a VW dealership but it sold almost immediately. In response to MX5 suggestions. His mum has one and that puts him off lol!
Looks like the search continues.

Has he ever driven his Mum's car? Might convince him to reconsider.

The Polo GTI is a well regarded thing though.
 
Soldato
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I wouldn't go the GTI route myself – those Polos are pretty drab and uninteresting; I'd go for a Fiesta ST, Suzuki Swift Sport or an older GT86. Far more compelling and entertaining. :)

(Seconding Grudas, I see. :D)

Sciroccos are duller than a dull thing, even in R flavour.

I would recommend he try an MX-5, too. The NC generation isn't particularly thrilling, in standard form, but it's a great platform from which to work from (if that's of any interest). I don't miss mine, that said, and I'd much rather a GT86. Far more of a driver's car out of the box.
 
Soldato
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I wouldn't go the GTI route myself – those Polos are pretty drab and uninteresting; I'd go for a Fiesta ST, Suzuki Swift Sport or an older GT86. Far more compelling and entertaining. :)

(Seconding Grudas, I see. :D)

Sciroccos are duller than a dull thing, even in R flavour.

I would recommend he try an MX-5, too. The NC generation isn't particularly thrilling, in standard form, but it's a great platform from which to work from (if that's of any interest). I don't miss mine, that said, and I'd much rather a GT86. Far more of a driver's car out of the box.

The ND is a lot better I think, but Mazda STILL have bad underside rust issues. Apparently there are areas where they applied no rust protection at all :/

The GT86 I had was still very clean at 7 years old though.
 
Man of Honour
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Gone are the days of spending 200 quid on your first banger and slowly working your way up to something that isn't totally ****. Dont lend him a penny, make him buy his own damn car and make his own mistakes. He will thank you for it later.
 
Man of Honour
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Scirocco is a Golf with some practically removed. Thats about it.

I've not got much experience with the Scirocco but I found the ride felt different to the Golf - for want of a better way to put it it felt flatter on the road, firmer. Though my experience is mostly with older Golfs that tend to flow with the road quite nicely IMO.
 
Caporegime
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So many replies...
He now appears to have discounted the Sirocco overnight. We were due to view a Polo GTI at a VW dealership but it sold almost immediately. In response to MX5 suggestions. His mum has one and that puts him off lol!
Looks like the search continues.

The problem is £9k isn't a lot of money in terms of cars these days and if you want a performance vehicle then there has to be compromises made.

Probably best if he's trying to save money to just buy an old Toyota.
 
Soldato
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I've not got much experience with the Scirocco but I found the ride felt different to the Golf - for want of a better way to put it it felt flatter on the road, firmer. Though my experience is mostly with older Golfs that tend to flow with the road quite nicely IMO.

Scirocco has a wider rear track and adaptive suspension as standard I found it handled slightly better than a MK5 Golf GTI
 
Man of Honour
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Scirocco has a wider rear track and adaptive suspension as standard I found it handled slightly better than a MK5 Golf GTI

In terms of handling I couldn't really compare but I like the way older Golfs tended to flow with a good balance between comfort and feedback while the Scirocco felt like it was trying to cancel out the road too much for want of a better way to put it.
 
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Lot of people giving the Scirocco a hard time. I would've thought a 2.0 TSI with a remap would've been a decent shout?

I've never driven one and I agree it wouldn't offer as much fun as a mini or mx5, but I thought it was supposed to be as good or better than the Mk5 GTi?
 
Caporegime
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I had my s2000 (2001 reg) for 9 years
Took it from 40k miles to 110k

Never failed an mot. Never had a mechanical issue (plenty of rear tyres!)

Never had a car anywhere near as fun.
Got written off last year by an idiot.

As fun goes can't beat an old rear wheel 2 seater.
I loved that car. Having a reliable fun car is hard to come by.
Had that car from 25 years old to 33 years old.

Not saying get one, might be too much on insurance. But so so fun
 
Soldato
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People seem to instantly go in to idiot mode when they see cars like the S2000. If there are any Barryboys nearby you need to give them a lot of space.
 
Caporegime
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The driver?

A 21ish year old new driver in his nans Citroën c3

Yeah drove into the drivers side rear on an empty dual carriage way.
Took out 10 posts on my way through.
I assume he was looking at a phone or something and tried to go round me too late.

Fish tailed me, I went under the wired central reservation, the wire went all way over the car and down the back (lucky I had the roof up)

I ended up on the other carriage way pointing into the incoming traffic.
Luckily I was against the reservation.

Police thought it had been flipped the wire broke the windscreen, ripped the roof, scratched the boot.
Rear drivers wheel was broken clean off and front and back bumper were ripped to pieces

To top it off I was going to an interview the next morning. I had driven from Peterborough to Cardiff and was under 10 miles from my hotel!
 
Caporegime
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A 21ish year old new driver in his nans Citroën c3

Yeah drove into the drivers side rear on an empty dual carriage way.
Took out 10 posts on my way through.
I assume he was looking at a phone or something and tried to go round me too late.

Fish tailed me, I went under the wired central reservation, the wire went all way over the car and down the back (lucky I had the roof up)

I ended up on the other carriage way pointing into the incoming traffic.
Luckily I was against the reservation.

Police thought it had been flipped the wire broke the windscreen, ripped the roof, scratched the boot.
Rear drivers wheel was broken clean off and front and back bumper were ripped to pieces

To top it off I was going to an interview the next morning. I had driven from Peterborough to Cardiff and was under 10 miles from my hotel!

You're a lucky boy! That could easily have been so much worse.
 
Associate
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As said above the fiesta st3 can be had for that money and its a topper, i looked at it the gt86 and mx5 ND when buying pcp a few years back and it was close but the ND nailed it hard with the fun factor - plus its actually faster than the gt86.

I know a mechanic who was a mazda tech and he says the new ND range is far superior with the old rusting sills issue that plagued a lot of the older mk2s especially.

Get him into RWD now and he will be happy for life and have better driving skills, assuming he doesnt put it backwards through a hedge.
 
Caporegime
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You're a lucky boy! That could easily have been so much worse.

Yeah I literally got out the car and was fine.
Yeah could easily have died. Or worse. Paralysed or something.

He was going so fast he stopped so far down the carriage way I could barely see him.

I believe those silver posts were where I went through (coming from direction of lorry

VOwnP4Yl.jpg
 
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