What's your minimum car spec?

It depends entirely on the cars use and the budget for said car.

I jumped on my ED30 because it had xenons, cruise and satnav. I could have bought one without any of that, and retrofitted it all though. I'd probably not retrofit xenons though personally. But I could have lived with retrofitting cruise and satnav no problems.

My alhambra doesn't currently have cruise, but that should hopefully get retrofitted this weekend.

I guess essentials for me are cruise, and bluetooth. But the bluetooth requirement only extends as far as being reasonably easy to retrofit it. So the ability to swap headunit if it isn't standard.

On a newer car (= worth reasonable money, say £10k+), I probably wouldn't entertain not having xenons and cruise at a minimum. Satnav I can live without, depending on the car. But I would try to look explicitly for it to be there if I could. I just wouldn't discount an otherwise cracking car for not having it.

Gearbox, manual or auto I am easy. I'd prefer an auto most likely now, but then the cars I'd be interested in would likely have a reasonable auto box anyway.

As for performance. That depends entirely on the projected use profile. For the daily driver, I'd really want 40+ mpg averaged out with my driving profile. For a more fun car, I don't care if it does 15mpg, so long as it's worth it. That doesn't mean it has to do 0-60 in under 4 seconds, my P38 certainly didn't. But it was still worth that fuel economy for what it gave me. My 330i's / Golf 4mo's / R32's on the other hand, were not worth the 25-28 mpg, to me. My S4 (4.2 V8) was worth the 23mpg though. For a small to medium sized car, 300+ BHP seems about right for mid 20's average fuel economy.
 
The next car must have a cup holder. The 911 doesn't, well it did some time in the past but they clip into air vents either side and are broken and it's the only thing that does my head in. Where am I meant to put my coffee on a long journey?

Other than that cruise, all electrics and a decent nav/entertainment are essential. Must also be comfortable and have decent driving dynamics.

My little clio has all sorts of toys and also has the most useless toy in the world, a speed limiter as well as cruise. I used the limiter once... totally useless.
 
An engine.

And to add to that plenty of boot/trunk/bed space so you can put whatever you want in it, plus an engine that has a bit of oomph, even when fully loaded.

Plus a reasonable bluetooth system to listen to music, and Air conditioning.

Not bothered with Satnav as none are as good as Google maps, especially if it's not a generic residential address.
 
200+bhp
0-60 in under 7 seconds so it's at least fun to drive
Sporty looks with big alloys. Nothing spoils a car more than tiny little sofa casters that are passed off as wheels on most PoV spec cars.
Air con and aux connection for my iPod.
Anything else is not necessary if you enjoy driving!
 
If I'm looking for a new car then for the most part, everything that my current car has at any given time. When I was changing cars a few months back it made things a bit more difficult because my 2007 Mazda3 was, in some respects, better-specced than a lot of equivalent cars that are a couple of years old. Xenons, LED rear lights, climate control, convenience open/close windows all-round etc. Granted, they're not all deal breakers but it seemed silly to spend a lot of money changing cars only to lose features. Fortunately the Leon had it all and then some.
 
A practical boot size (ie no smaller than your average hatchback)

A respectable engine to car ratio, for example in a saloon no less than a 2l, in a hatchback no less than a 1.6 etc (having driven a 1.3 mazda 323 with a 0-60 of twenty minutes longer than your journey time and a wonderful 21mpg to show for it)

Good tyres

Not fwd unless i have another non fwd car too

Aircon

Comfy seats and good interior (ie armrest and at least one good cupholder)

And most importantly a radio, or the ability to fit a radio with good bluetooth music playing, i will literally get rid of a car if it cannot do this.

Also not a cream interior, previous motor and current both have cream interiors and its getting old
 
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Must:
Bluetooth
Good audio system (stock audio, even the''upgrade'' with factory subwoofer, is quite rubbish), first thing I do when I get my new company car is 1000+ euro's of audio in it.
Not too slow

Audio system + being able to drive nippy makes up 90% of the driving experience for me.



It depends of course what price, I ordered a new company car and with the tax/money I have to pay, I wanted at least:

Cruise control
Dual zone CC
Leather + heated seats + comfy armrests
PDC + reversing camera


Settings like adaptive cruise are nice, but utterly useless in busy traffic.
Xenons aren't neccessary, They're nice, but a good classic setup is fine, as is a good Full LED setup.

Otherwise I don't really mind, I hate slow cars and crap audio systems, otherwise, I like driving pretty much everything. Give me a nippy late 80's/early 90's car with no power steering/abs/etc over any modern eco city ****box any time.
 
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- Nav
- Bluetooth
- Xenons with LED DRLs
- Some degree of electronic seat adjustment
- Auto

Not much to ask and fairly standard stuff these days :)
 
Must:
Bluetooth
Good audio system (stock audio, even the''upgrade'' with factory subwoofer, is quite rubbish), first thing I do when I get my new company car is 1000+ euro's of audio in it.
Not too slow

Audio system + being able to drive nippy makes up 90% of the driving experience for me.



It depends of course what price, I ordered a new company car and with the tax/money I have to pay, I wanted at least:

Cruise control
Dual zone CC
Leather + heated seats + comfy armrests
PDC + reversing camera

Give me a nippy late 80's/early 90's car with no power steering/abs/etc over any modern eco city ****box any time.
And how many late 80's & early 90's cars came with Bluetooth, A Good audio system ,Dual zone CC , PDC + reversing camera ...:p
 
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