Warm/Hot hatch for under £7k.

Shatners_Bassoon

sebdangerfield wrote: »

The only diesel I had was the 335 and it was immense. It pulled and pulled but it's no more than the old version RS4 I had.
.

What the B5? If your RS was running right (no boost leaks or MAF problems) then it should have wiped the floor with an oil burning 335d! It's a different league.

deano19690

TYPE R.... but not the latest one, previous one was much better

AUDI A3...

sebdangerfield

Yup, the first one. If you follow back through the conversation, we were talking about how overated the new diesels are and many people seem to think a new 'performence' diesel will beat anything.
I was just giving my views of both, specificaly when the diesel has 35% more torque than the petrol. It's still a long way from true performence!

TwoEnigmas

Considered a golf R32?

maniac886

OK I am definately going to test drive the CTR and LCR. I had a look at a couple of E46's today as well..and I quite like them. I am not sure if I should look at getting a fairly low mileage E46(under 50K) or a high mileage E90 with motorway miles. I admit I prefer the looks of the E90 but don't want to buy something thats going to cost me £££ in repairs.

BTW many thanks for all your comments and suggestions so far. Much appreciated!

maniac886

A mate of mine has suggested an Alfa GT.....they look pretty damn stunning...tempted to test drive one but unsure about reliability!

sebdangerfield

Not quite a hatch!

It's based on the 147 which I have and reliabilty is far better in my 147 than for any other Alfa i've owned. Over the 18 months i've owned it it's needed a new battery and new cats but thats hardly a reliabilty issue as both are items you expect to wear at some point. The cost of original parts and fitting are something else though! I've managed to find a fantastic specialist who's taken over all the servicing.

The only one worth having is the 3.2 and it's very very thirsty! Even the 2.0 twin spark engine is ridiculously thirsty and not particularly quick but it sounds ace for a four pot.

Residual values are awfull for such a decent car, probably partly the unfounded reliability issues and partly the fuel cost but that just makes them really cheap secont hand.

Just remember, to be a real petrol head you must own an Alfa at some point in your life! Why not start with a pretty one.

nickmack

maniac886 wrote: »

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?

I used to have the Megane R26 which is the 230HP version of the 225 but also with LSD. The handling and power were great, it would stay glued to the tarmac no matter what you threw at it. Not once did I feel it was out of control. I averaged about 30mpg, but I did often get stuck in traffic and then open up on NSL roads.

Apart from a couple of small issues covered by warranty and the traditional squeaky Renault dashboard, I didn't have any issues with quality.

However, eventually I found the ride was a little too hard for a family car, however it was better than the Civic Type R GT I had on test. I found the Honda suspension too brutal for my liking.

If you want to do motorway miles, maybe a warm saloon BMW would be better, IMO most of the hot hatch suspensions are too sporty to be comfortable on long drives.

maniac886

nickmack wrote: »

I used to have the Megane R26 which is the 230HP version of the 225 but also with LSD. The handling and power were great, it would stay glued to the tarmac no matter what you threw at it. Not once did I feel it was out of control. I averaged about 30mpg, but I did often get stuck in traffic and then open up on NSL roads.

Apart from a couple of small issues covered by warranty and the traditional squeaky Renault dashboard, I didn't have any issues with quality.

However, eventually I found the ride was a little too hard for a family car, however it was better than the Civic Type R GT I had on test. I found the Honda suspension too brutal for my liking.

If you want to do motorway miles, maybe a warm saloon BMW would be better, IMO most of the hot hatch suspensions are too sporty to be comfortable on long drives.

Yes that could definitely be a possibility, I am just trying to decide which is the best 3 series to get.

Shatners_Bassoon

sebdangerfield wrote: »

Not quite a hatch!


Just remember, to be a real petrol head you must own an Alfa at some point in your life! Why not start with a pretty one.

According to noober Jezzer that's fine but he's hardly the bible of Petrolheads.

If you want a car that will let you down then buy an Alfa!