Warm/Hot hatch for under £7k.

maniac886

Hi All,

Finally got some cash saved up and am looking to buy a hot hatch of some description so I am going to start test driving a few cars over the next couple of weeks.

My Criteria is as follows:

• Close to 180bhp
• 6k budget
• Nothing too thirsty 35mpg+
• Petrol
• Fairly comfortable ride
• Decent looking
• 2004 reg onwards

I have written off getting a diesel purely because I do less than 10K a year. Also a majority of my miles will be on the motorway so the car has to be fairly comfortable.

I have come up a couple of cars that seem to fit the bill:

Honda Civic Type R
Leon Cupra R (02-05)
Renaultsport Megane 225

What are your thoughts on the above cars and can you suggest any others?

Thanks:money:

davemorton

Personally I would not have a Renault. Out of the 3, the Civic would be my favourite, but I do know people that have been very happy with their Cupra. Have you considered a Skoda?

mickymellon

supercharged / turbo Mazda mx5

bennybroadbean

I would go with the Type R but you will probably be looking at an early version with high miles. Have you thought about an Ibiza Cupra? I had the diesel version (160BHP) and it was a hoot to drive!

maniac886

davemorton wrote: »

Personally I would not have a Renault. Out of the 3, the Civic would be my favourite, but I do know people that have been very happy with their Cupra. Have you considered a Skoda?

I have already taken the Fabia VRS out for a test drive, fairly nippy but the handling was not the best IMO..also looks a little outdated.

maniac886

bennybroadbean wrote: »

I would go with the Type R but you will probably be looking at an early version with high miles. Have you thought about an Ibiza Cupra? I had the diesel version (160BHP) and it was a hoot to drive!

I have seen a few facelift type Rs(2004 +) within my budget with around 60K on the clock which is fine. My concern is that to get a decent performance you have to rev the nuts out of it and I reckon that will become tiresome especially on a long motorway journey. Also I don't think I will get close to 35MPG.

Was the Ibiza Cupra the latest shape one...what was the ride like?

BillScarab

maniac886 wrote: »

I have already taken the Fabia VRS out for a test drive, fairly nippy but the handling was not the best IMO..also looks a little outdated.

A Fabia vRS is a diesel with 130bhp so fails to meet two of your requirements. How about an Octavia vRS? The petrol version has 200bhp, somewhat staid looking but very practical and reliable, not as exciting as a Civic Type R though.

movingforward2010

I don't usually hear the words 'Diesel' and 'sporty' used together............

If you want something 'sporty' don't get a diesel, people look ridicolous trying to race off from the lights in an oil burner.

maniac886

wxmlad wrote: »

I don't usually hear the words 'Diesel' and 'sporty' used together............

If you want something 'sporty' don't get a diesel, people look ridicolous trying to race off from the lights in an oil burner.

Some diesel cars can be remapped to improve performance but the thing that's putting me off is repair costs esp when DMF or the turbo etc fails.

movingforward2010

I know a few people who have tuned their diesel 1.9 16v engines (- (mind you the 1.9 16v vxl engines are crap ) only to have problems later on. Everytime you increase the perfomace with extra mods you reduce reliability - thats what someone who tunes cars told me.

BenL

Focus ST170?