My next car.. what to buy?

[Zico]

Im trying to decide what car to buy next, it will be a used car, I'd like something Rwd, with reasonable power, a drivers car.. fun to drive (driftable) reliable, not too expensive to run and preferably something not too large and heavy. Am I asking too much for a £8k budget? :D
Im considering a Beemer 325ti (compact) a Nissan 200SX or maybe even a Honda S2000... well thats what the mrs wants me to get :/

Which of these 3 options do you think would offer the best blend of value and fun?... any others I should consider? What would you buy and why?

[slorydn1]

Im trying to decide what car to buy next, it will be a used car, I'd like something Rwd, with reasonable power, a drivers car.. fun to drive (driftable) reliable, not too expensive to run and preferably something not too large and heavy. Am I asking too much for a £8k budget? :D
Im considering a Beemer 325ti (compact) a Nissan 200SX or maybe even a Honda S2000... well thats what the mrs wants me to get :/

Which of these 3 options do you think would offer the best blend of value and fun?... any others I should consider? What would you buy and why?


I was kinda hoping for the Bugatti Veryon myself....but since i don't have over a Million dollar budget, I guess I can't have what I want :p

I got my eye on the new Mustang coming out that has 400+ horsepower. That should be a hoot to drive.....

As for your call....one can NEVER go wrong with a BMW :D (except for Sauber, maybe, but thats a different story) :p :

[EuroTroll]

How about a Toyota? I hear they're fast. :p :

The Mazda MXs are fun to drive I hear. Nimble and good torque throughout, thanks to the rotary engine.

[Jag_Warrior]

Im trying to decide what car to buy next, it will be a used car, I'd like something Rwd, with reasonable power, a drivers car.. fun to drive (driftable) reliable, not too expensive to run and preferably something not too large and heavy. Am I asking too much for a £8k budget? :D
Im considering a Beemer 325ti (compact) a Nissan 200SX or maybe even a Honda S2000... well thats what the mrs wants me to get :/

Which of these 3 options do you think would offer the best blend of value and fun?... any others I should consider? What would you buy and why?

In addition to your other criteria, reliable AND not too expensive to run? I'd probably go with the Honda S2000 out of that list.

[driveace]

Who said BMW's were reliable?
I travel all over Europe,and on the A8 that runs past Munich,Stuttgard,and on towards Vienna I see lots of very Fast cars passing me,as I tow a caravan.Mercs,Audi's VW's and BMW's,BUT the cars I see most with hazard warning lights on,stopped on the hard shoulder are the BMW's.
i feel here in the UK ,cars are not stressed as we have an overall 70MPH speed limit,but on German Roads where speed limits can be unrestricted,then higher speeds are achieved,and cars stressed more,thus becoming more unreliable,and breaking down more,
Go for the Honda!

[Mark in Oshawa]

I was going to suggest the Honda S2000, but test drive a Mazda Rx8 as well. The only down side with it is it can be thirsty and use a bit of oil. Rotary's are great motors for revs and being fun to drive, but they are not torquey. The motor in the Honda is similar in that tho, so drive both.

Since you are wanting Rear Wheel Drive only, well, it really makes it a narrow field isn't it?

[Malbec]

If you want a driftable car why not go for something a little slower? I wouldn't want to push an S2000 or an RX8 to the point it drifted on a public road, if things went wrong then the car would be going so quickly it would definitely end in tears.

How about a Mazda MX5? For your budget you could get a decent one, they are pretty torquey and responsive and you can tinker with them to your hearts content. You can also get the tail to step out without having to hit "sorry officer I didn't realise how quick I was going" speeds. Amazingly reliable too. I have a 19 year old Mk 1 and the most work I've ever had to do to get it to pass its MOT is to drive it to the garage.

[Mark in Oshawa]

MX5's are great fun, but if this fellow is my size, it wont work... Iam 6'2" and 250lbs. I sat in one with the top up and found it ....um tight.

Personally, i think drifting is something best done with a torquey motor on a race track, in which case go for a light Nissan 240sx and just put money into the motor.

Is this going to be a drifting oriented ride?

[Captain VXR]

Buy a cheap small hatchback for daily driving and a 200sx/bmw/volvo 340/toyota ae86/skyline gts/mk2 escort/sierra/mx5/soarer for drifting, all of which are commonly used

It is better to have two cars because crashes are common in drifting, as with any other high speed use of a car. Hope this helps. :)

£2k for the hatch, and £6k for the drifter would work, in my opinion - most of the cost would be tyres + drift days

examples of what you could get as a drift car:
http://i519.photobucket.com/albums/u354/S80NSY/Sism3.jpg
£5500
http://www.driftworks.com/forum/drift-cars-sale-private-sales/109364-bmw-m3-evo.html

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y250/skipp123/027.jpg
£2750
http://www.driftworks.com/forum/drift-cars-sale-private-sales/108950-mx5-mk1-s-ltd-2750-ono.html

http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs435.ash1/24016_362698305027_509125027_3786276_1173489_n.jpg
£3000
http://www.driftworks.com/forum/drift-cars-sale-private-sales/109293-gauging-interest-red-s14-drift-ready.html

Have a look around these links:
http://www.driftworks.com/forum/drift-cars-sale-private-sales/
http://www.japimportsuk.com/
http://drift.skayltd.jp/?q=taxonomy/term/3
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/list.asp?s=119
http://www.severnside-imports.co.uk/arriving.htm

[Rollo]

A Ford Puma 1.7 ST160?

If you don't like the engine, it can be swapped for a turbocharged 2L jobbie pretty easily. Those engines can be turned into something quite potent indeed.

[Macd]

Puma is FWD

Supra turbo, 200sx, A nice old escort :) or a bimmer would be my thinking.

[Daniel]

Captain VXR, I believe there's a huge difference between actually buying a drift car and getting something that's driftable.

Personally my reccomendation would be an MX5. Reliable, fairly cheap to run and good to drive.

[wedge]

Toyota MR2

Mazda RX7/RX8

[Captain VXR]

Captain VXR, I believe there's a huge difference between actually buying a drift car and getting something that's driftable.


I know, I just personally think its better to have an econobox and a specialised drift car rather than a car that will be compromised at both

[Daniel]

I know, I just personally think its better to have an econobox and a specialised drift car rather than a car that will be compromised at both
But perhaps he doesn't want to drift around corners like crazeeeeee. Perhaps he wants something which has polished handling but which is able to have the back end pushed wide with a bit of power.

[Zico]

Sorry for not getting back to my thread sooner, I've been away for a while, cheers for all the replies!

Im not looking for an out and out drift car.. just something that handles really well, something that I can have fun with when the hooligan in me arises :/ My ultimate weapon would be a Noble M400 but I cant quite stretch to anything like that just yet. :(

I had thought of an mx5 actually despite the ribbing I'd take for having a hairdressers car etc ec.. Im 6ft tall and 15 stone but I didn't find my old tiny 106gti runabout too uncomfortable which was a fantastic little car btw!.. so maybe I should still keep it as a possible option.

As has been said, RX8's are pretty thirsty and unfortunately the rotary engines have quite short life spans in comparison to 'conventional' engines before the rotor seals need replacing requiring a costly full rebuild.


A 200sx would probably be great fun I just find them pretty ugly.

An older M3 would be nice, classic car inurance would probably have to be the order of the day though... a 95 E36?

A Supra?.. hmm.. not quite my kind of car, too big, heavy and has a bit of an image problem imo...


Yep, there just isn't much to choose from maybe I shouldn't be limiting myself to rwd as there are loads of great options if I drop that requirement. Evo3.. Integra Type R?

Decisions decisions..

[pino]

If I were you I would buy an Alfa Romeo Giulietta :D

http://www.carsuk.net/alfa-romeo-at-geneva-motor-show-alfa-giulietta/

[Daniel]

If I were you I would buy an Alfa Romeo Giulietta :D

http://www.carsuk.net/alfa-romeo-at-geneva-motor-show-alfa-giulietta/
Something about that car just leaves me cold Pino :mark: The back seems to look like a Golf and the rest if just not up to usual Alfa standards although to be fair as always I do like the interior.

[pino]

Something about that car just leaves me cold Pino :mark: The back seems to look like a Golf and the rest if just not up to usual Alfa standards although to be fair as always I do like the interior.

You're too picky Daniel, I love everything about this car, although I didn't had the chance to drive it yet, but I trust Alfa Romeo :D

[raybak]

The Alfa looks pretty good. Wouldn't mind one myself.

Ray

[Captain VXR]

E46 Coupe?
Something Alpina maybe?

[Malbec]

Integra Type R?

Decisions decisions..

I had a DC2 Integra and bloody hell was it worth it! The engine revs to a mere 8700 and sounds and feels fantastic above 5500, I say 'mere' because I later drove an S2000 which goes all the way to 9000 and I have to say the 2l engine feels far more civilianised and dull despite its extra revs.

Handling again was far sharper than on the S2000, I guess Honda knows that only true fanatics go for Type Rs while the S2000 might end up in the hands of beach cruisers as much as proper drivers and needed to play safe.

Getting the back end of the 'teg to step out was pretty easy too, lift off oversteer was always there but never as full-on as it was in the old Peugeots.

Reliability, running costs blah blah, usual Japanese car rules apply. Just don't get one if you need to cruise on the motorway much or set up an in-car paracetamol drip, the noise can be pretty harsh.