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OT: WOOHOO

Okay then. Using Parkers to check prices, and frankly, I think Parkers is a load of crap. We'll use the 'good private' prices.

406 Coupe SE - your £5K will get you a P-plated, 60,000 mile V6 Manual. Tellingly the owner reviews give it 2 stars out of 5 for costs, 3 for reliability.

Rover 200 Coupe - yes, seriously. They're not bad looking, have Targa glass roofs (T-top style) and are quite quick. Your money will get you a

40,000 mile 1999 T-plate, and probably one of the best at that, with the 1.8 VVC engine (160bhp, not bad for the car).

VW Corrado. 1996 N Storm 2.9 V6, should be the best available, too.

BMW - Yes, amazingly even Parkers agrees - BMW 328i Coupe, 1996 N, 70K £5,000 is trade price, so find a good private one and haggle.

Fancy something with real grunt? Admittedly LHD, but a Camaro (official import, not a private one) from 1998 with the 5.7 V8 can go as low as £5K - go for a better condition one with higher miles.

There's that Accord Coupe again - the V6 Parkers reckons should be around £5K for a '98, which ties in with the X-reg I found at a dealer for £7ish.

Parkers seems to think that you can have a Jaguar XJS V12 Coupe (final edition) from 1996 for a smidge over £5K private...

Mazda MX-6 V6, last off the line 98, well within budget.

The Nissan 200SX - a real driver's car - should be a 1999 S for your money. Amazing value...

Finally, the Calbra V6 SE9 - last one, 98R, is cheaper than your budget.

This is just coupes, and not looking at other cars which might have

200bhp (I know many of these don't have that much, but I've also driven Peugeot 200bhp and Subaru 200bhp, and I know which feels like real bhp ;) ). Volvo C70 T5 isn't quite within your reach yet, but only £1-2K off.

Out of those, I reckon I'd go in this order:

Nissan 200SX - admittedly it's 'only' 197bhp, but according to most owners - some of the most fun you'll get for the money.

Jaguar XJS - oh, come on! You can't fail to fall in love with the V12, even if it would be ruinous to run. If you're going to make an expensive mistake, here it is. But you'll enjoy every minute of it.

Chevy Camaro - with the V8? Yes please. I'd have an auto though, a manual + LHD + good ol' yank chassis would make British roads a little too stressful.

Honda Accord, as late as possible. I like the US-made Accord Coupe, and the reliability appeals.

Rover 218 VVC Coupe (or whatever it's actually called) - low power, but it's FWD so it should be 'about right', and it's got that glass roof. Rare, too, and quite pleasant styling. Dealers are usually alright.

VW Corrado - just because. The Storm is a future classic.

Peugeot 406 - yes, of course I count it. It does look stunning. How many

504 Coupes do you see these days?

BMW - I'd place it above the Peugeot, Corrado except I personally can't stand BMWs.

Mazda - again, would be above, but I'm not wholly convinced that Mazda do anything better with the 2.5V6 than Ford did in the Probe. Actually, I wonder if a Cougar would be in your price range...

Calibra - not bad reputation for reliability and is totally worthy of direct comparison.

Get the 200SX. You will enjoy driving it, it will teach you so much more about handling a car, break down less, probably cost less or the same to service, depreciate less (if anything, the 200SX is going to be the AE86 Corolla of the 2010s - and those fetch nearly as much as a mid 90s 200SX gets now), and is highly unlikely to fall apart. And no-one who knows about cars will accuse you of being a hairdresser (says the man who wants an MX-5).

Note that none of these options include imports or significantly older cars than the 406 you could get. And there are some nice machines, like the Mitsubishi GTO, that could be within reach...

If you do go for the 406, I can understand the looks overriding everything else; I've owned plenty of inadvisable cars. However, I've also learned that financing inadvisable cars is, well, inadvisable, and indulge in such cars on a banger-money level now. Having bought a similar age of Volvo 480 (similar market of car), lost £4,500 in 18 months, I will never do that again. Many people would have said "don't", but I liked the look of the 480 - it just coincided with the used car price crash, the import rules changing, etc, when it became the case that instead of a good banger costing £1,000, they cost £100 - and everything fell accordingly.

Richard

Reply to
Richard Kilpatrick
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Heh, what's your current car? A Peugeot 406? And how many miles has it done?

I see elsewhere you're looking at a 73K 406, presumably V6. Now - think of Peugeots reputation for diesel reliability, compared to petrol. I invite you over to the Citroen XM mailing list - ask about V6 engine reliability in the XM, and yes - it /is/ the same 24v V6 in the (IIRC)

1996-> XMs, and Xantia Activa/V6...

In 18 months or so, your 73K, presumably P-plated 406 will probably have nearly 100,000 miles on, or just over, and will be nearly 10 years old - and being a French Coupe, it'll be worth under a grand trade.

Richard

Reply to
Richard Kilpatrick

A half decent Low pressure Turbo Saab 9000 with about that mileage and velour interior from between 94 and 96 will still fetch that at second hand dealer. and an Aero will get somewhere arround £4-6k privatley even with lods more miles.

Reply to
MeatballTurbo
1.9tdi - 162k miles, turbo starting to whine now

Still, i like the coupe, looks etc. Anything goes wrong, ill just fix it.

`-'\_)Morticia

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Reply to
Cheater2k

Define decent. You can get a mint 309 GTi for £500. Thats a pretty decent car to me. Unless by decent you mean 'expensive', and the 2 certainly arent the same!

Reply to
Carl Gibbs

yeah yeah, whatever :p

Reply to
Carl Gibbs

Whilst that may be the case with Alfa Romeo, it isnt with most other marques. They've come a long way. Compare a 1992 Ford Sierra 2.0 Ghia (£500) with a 2002 Ford Mondeo 2.0 Ghia X. The latter is considerably more comfortable. It's the same with almost all modern equivilents.

Reply to
Michael Rodgers

I think that's more to do with mainstream cars being particularly crap

15 years ago. I mean, the Sierra was never a great car, neither was the Cavalier. However, the 75 had a pretty sophisticated chassis / drivetrain and engine that still holds it's own against more modern cars.
Reply to
SteveH

Very similar to the C900 then. On a side point are there any main stream production cars that have double wishbone front suspension, a turbo'd 2litre lump with ability to run of fuel as low as 92 octane and leather/leccy's for under 40K?

Matt

Reply to
**-**

Doubt it.

Can't say the 75 is quite as sophisticated as that, mind.

However, it has very odd torsion beam front suspension (saves space and weight), De Dion rear suspension, transaxle under the boot floor which gives near-perfect weight distribution, Recaro interior, loads of (fully functioning) electrics, majorly advanced engine with variable timing (150bhp from an 8v 2lt. Nice).

Cars just aren't built by engineers anymore.

Reply to
SteveH

New 407 has wishbone suspension all round and a 250bhp 3.0 V6, and will be a DAMN site less than £40k. So, soon, the answer to your question will be yes :)

Reply to
Dan405

In article , snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk spouted forth into uk.rec.cars.modifications...

Nah, they are created by accountants, and built by robots.

Somewhere the design and engineering seems to have gone out of car building (in the total mainstream anyway).

We are now sold new car designs. Rather than saying "I must get myself one of those", it's a case of "You must get yourself one of those".

Reply to
MeatballTurbo

Note he said _double_ wishbone - as in the same set-up as you see on an F1 car. Loads of cars have single wishbone suspension..... but the 900 is pretty unique in terms of ordinary hatches that it's suspended on double wishbones at all 4 corners.

Reply to
SteveH

I think it is double wishbones, i remember that was the selling point 'F1 technology blah blah, but i can't be arsed to check because i don't really care :)

Reply to
Dan405

Pussy! Come on lad, get some fight in you! If you're short on facts, slag off wales or Italy or something!

(c:

Douglas

Reply to
Douglas Payne

Sorry, it without a doubt has double wishbones, and will last longer and drive better than any pile of wop s**te and not make you look a wanker like a beemer.

There :)

Reply to
Dan405

leather/leccy's

So ?

As the Saab 900 has no reputation for handling whatsoever, it clearly doesn't matter one jot whether your car uses double wishbones or not.

Or to put it another way : Of all the "normal" cars regarded as having the "best handling", approximately 0% use double wishbones.

Reply to
Nom

There's no point - if the double-wishbone setup was any good, then it would have made the Saab 900 into a great handler !

Reply to
Nom

No.

It's decent now, because you can't afford anything better. Five years from now, when you're earning reasonable money as a graduate, and can actually afford a good car, you won't think a 309 GTi is decent enough to warrant owning.

No, by decent I mean modern - not necessarily expensive.

Reply to
Nom

Who the hell buys em ?

More then 100,000 miles means it's worth no more than £1000 tops to me.

Reply to
Nom

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