Worth buying a new car?

motorguy

facade wrote: »

Get one of the souped up Fords, like a focus or fiesta. They go quite well, are reliable, and don't cost the Earth to service & maintain.

Speaking of Fast Fords theres the Mondeo ST220 3.0 v6.

Excellent car, unlikely to depreciate much more and £4K would buy a clean 07 one with decent history.

I have to say its one of the cars thats on my list.

Also on my list is (all of these are petrol variants) :-

Volvo S40 T5 (its the engine in it that Ford use in the Focus ST)
Audi A3 3.2
Audi A3 2.0TFSI (Golf GTI engine)
Audi A4 2.0TFSI
Audi A4 3.0 / 3.2
Merc C350
Merc E350

motorguy

gabitzul wrote: »

That's all fine, but though there is no cambelt, see the many and very expensive chain related issues with the N47 engine.

Don't really know about the petrol engines though, so they might be a better bet.

Their petrol engines - of the era that a £5K budget buys you - are the older non turbo'd and quite asthmatic ones.

Possible exception would be the 320Si which has many mods and engine spec to allow them to use it as a basis for BTCC at the time.

patronniall

motorguy wrote: »

Speaking of Fast Fords theres the Mondeo ST220 3.0 v6.

Excellent car, unlikely to depreciate much more and £4K would buy a clean 07 one with decent history.

I have to say its one of the cars thats on my list.

Also on my list is (all of these are petrol variants) :-

Volvo S40 T5 (its the engine in it that Ford use in the Focus ST)
Audi A3 3.2
Audi A3 2.0TFSI (Golf GTI engine)
Audi A4 2.0TFSI
Audi A4 3.0 / 3.2
Merc C350
Merc E350

From the list of cars, it isn't outright power that I am interested in. More so the driving feel that my Alfa gives me, which I'm sure other car makes can also give. Not really a fan of those listed cars I'm afraid, they're not what I am looking for.

patronniall

motorguy wrote: »

Their petrol engines - of the era that a £5K budget buys you - are the older non turbo'd and quite asthmatic ones.

Possible exception would be the 320Si which has many mods and engine spec to allow them to use it as a basis for BTCC at the time.

I have actually driven the 320si and its exactly the type of driving feel I am looking for. Hopefully there is one under my budget on sale

BeenThroughItAll

If you're only getting 20MPG from your 2.0 Twin Spark, I'd say either you drive like an idiot, you spend 100% of your time in stop-start traffic doing only short runs, there's something badly wrong with it, or it's imaginary.


My money's on the latter two of those being possible (the last only because of the way this conversation was so rapidly steered towards BMWs).

patronniall

I have a heavy foot yes and the majority of my driving is urban. On a motorway I can achieve 35mpg doing 60-70mph. I'm happy with my car but the costs are mounting, and I'm not a fan of beemers but if anyone else could name a car that I'm looking for up to £5k then please let me know

motorguy

patronniall wrote: »

From the list of cars, it isn't outright power that I am interested in. More so the driving feel that my Alfa gives me, which I'm sure other car makes can also give. Not really a fan of those listed cars I'm afraid, they're not what I am looking for.

Yes - I'm more interest in a bit of power in the mix.