New car thoughts

General General Lotus Talk
1

After a year with the Mini GP, it looks like it will be going (for reasons I can’t discuss on a public forum). It is still not certain yet, but if it does I am in the market for another car.
This is to go to the station and has to be as free of depriciation as possible, but it has to start and work or I can’t get to work, finally the running costs can’t be outrageous and the space I have to park in at the station is not huge (Aston Martin Vantage is too big).
Fun is the key here as well, the Mini was a brilliant car and always fun to drive.

Thoughts?

2

Another Exige .

3

Nice idea, not the best for a station car in the winter though :frowning:

4

Something 4wd and as subtle as possible…

5

…with winter tyres. :laughing:

In all seriousness, BMW 335i are a cracking used buy.

6

Had bought winter tyres for the Mini funnily enough, didn’t need them last year LOL.

Having thought about an Audi RS3, seem to have very good residuals so far and debadged hard to tell from a standard car or S3, paint the door mirrors and it’s a street sleeper :wink:

7

big understeery mess though and a chassis old enough to call jesus ‘boy’

8

Old shape Subaru Legacy estate 2.0 diesel with winter tyres. Small enough, quick enough, AWD weatherproof (you probably don’t really need the winter tyres to be honest) and probably cheap enough now.

9

Brompton on the bike to work schema, and save the car parking money for track days.

10

reading your post it sounded like your criteria were the same as mine - ive gone for a £3k clio 172 stripped out, half cage, rock hard suspension, doesn’t matter where i park it, mega fun and corners like crazy

why would you spend 25k more for a lumbering rs3?

11

Biggest issue with Clios is their tendancy to come over all french and just decide not to work, do agree with the idea and thought about a Trophy before i bought the mini

12

You can buy a 197 for about 5k. They are reliable little things and great fun.

13

Gearboxes on the 197 and 200 are fragile. Mine went at 14K. Only then that you hear that a very high percentage have been replaced.
Other than that, cracking little car.

14

Stop fighting it and get a Leon Cupra. Faster round the ring than most other hatch’s in 280 spec. Don’t buy a yellow one though :laughing:

Its like an S3, but without the hate :smiley:

15

172/182’s are way more satisfying than 197/200’s.

16

if i was worried about reliability i’d buy a second clio and sit in in reserve, as opposed to dropping an extra 25k on something more new and less fun

is this car also needed for family trips or something?

17

But they are old and have a huge tendancy to come over all french, I do know they are a great car though, as I drove the Blue one at Anglesey this year and owned the that very car several years ago and sold it to Steve.
But I know how annoying the electrics are on them, my neighbour just had to throw his 172 in the bin due to ECU issues and it failing to start more often than it did run. It needed a new module keys sensors and all sorts. Just don’t want to be in that situation.

18

Already got one car sitting in the garage, can’t have another just in case my daily driver fails to work :frowning:

As for needing to do other family style things, yes it does, Jacqui needs to be able to drive it and not hate it, this is for the times I need the Q3, better than that, if I don’t need to take the Q3 in the first place it would be better.

19

Not such a silly idea that, the new ones aren’t bad looking either.

20

My ex gf had one of them a few years ago , good car , she loved it until someone broke into her house to get the keys and use the car in a bank job .