Car recommendations

[masonmart]

Just scrapped my runaround car (VW Polo) as it faced a big bill and has no value and am going to sell my "good" car which is a Porsche 911 on the basis of not enough use now and market is good. I'll replace them with something with performance but reasonably modest in other respects, very important will be reasonably low depreciation and the normal low mileage as it'll be a ten year keep. My immediate go to is a Golf GTI but I'm just not a car person and I realise that there are many other brilliant cars around now. I like the modern kit like hands free, GPS, sensors etc., decent go when needed but efficient under normal conditions. Depending on what I sell the porker for I may be able to spend around £20k but that would be the top line. Any helpful guidelines appreciated.

[stirling11]

I don’t think you could go wrong with anything out of the VW or Audi stables

A mate has a Tiguan and an EOS and loves both

[andy748]

Hi Martin, i've just bought a 5 series estate M Sport, G31 2.0d, 2019 and is excellent on fuel, goes well in sport mode, can't recommend it enough. Andy.

[tony2stroke]

I was sort of con'd into a Seat Leon 2.0 TDI 2009 model four years ago, didn't really want it, but it was my only option, I soon grew to love it, to the point I just bought another, 2.0 fr model with tec pack this time, these cars are excellent, and the torque is awesome, fast enough and doesn’t shout look at me, everything you could want inside, nice comfy quiet car.

Take one for a test drive if you can.

Excellent stereo too, which is important to me, and fuel consumption is up to you pretty much, as it has economy, normal, sport and configure yourself, I don't understand all that and use one of the 3 presets, I get between 30 lead foot and 45 mpg fairy foot round town.


O and it sticks to the road like the proverbial.

It is basically a golf gtd with a different dress on.

[steve h]

After clocking 191k in an astra, my Mrs has bought a new Dacia Jogger, more room for dogs or beehives than any of the other estates we looked at, slightly higher too which is a plus for old farts like me. It's also a more square shape over other estates with their "aerodynamic" space loosing designs.
PS the astra has been retaxed and is on the road again!
The renault dealer offered £50 for it on a trade in....so we sold it to we buy any car for 5 times that amount.

Seems like a good motor....but has a silly little button in the roof..... and when this silly old tosser was looking for the interior light switch and pressed it......a voice came from somewhere asking what the emergency was??? WTF was that all about!!!!

[arrow]

2 litre petrol, Skoda Octavia would be my shout.

[abar121]

The Seat Leon Cupra is the same car as the Golf, but cheaper.

It's better too, to drive, so a no brainer really.

[stirling11]

I was thinking Seat, we hired one many years ago, a diesel, and were mighty impressed

So much so I tried to buy one here, no joy

The local constabulary here now run around in Skoda Octavia’s Superb estates, turbo petrol AWD, I have a Scooby Outback 2.5L AWD petrol and the Skoda left me for dust

Skoda, Seat, VW and Audi are stable mates that all run the same chassis and engines, so I doubt you could go wrong with those offering

[masonmart]

Jun 9, 2024 15:57:11 GMT 1 andy748 said:

Hi Martin, i've just bought a 5 series estate M Sport, G31 2.0d, 2019 and is excellent on fuel, goes well in sport mode, can't recommend it enough. Andy.

Andy, my missus has a 3 series M sport 335 estate and it is incredible.

[masonmart]

All of the suggestions above would be great and thank you. Seems like VW variants are a good buy but I always look for depreciation which can be the real cost. I know that Golfs are premium price but they are also good value holders?

[urbantangleweed]

Anything German derived is boring! 

My last 2 cars have been Alfa Giuliettas with the petrol Multi-Air engine and TCT gearbox (the Alfa equivalent of VW's DSG). 170bhp from less than 1400cc, really low emmisions (£35.00 a year road tax) and both were ultra reliable in a very non Italian kinda way. The first one I kept for 4 years and chopped it in for the next one at 110,000 trouble free miles. The second one I've had for 7 years now and has a shade under 90,000 on the clock (my business travelling days ended when COVID happened and I'm happy to say, never started again) and nothing has gone wrong with this one either.

I'm going to hate it when the time comes to swap it as Alfa stopped making the Giulietta and Mito a few years ago.

Here's a thought, why not go full-on mid-life crisis and get an MX5? 20 grand would get you an incredibly good and late model one 'o them.

[murp]

For the last 2 years I've been running my vw up gti.... Its such a fun fantastic frugal car, and reasonably practical too... I find myself just going out for a drive, just for the fun of it, more often than i ever did...... I traded a gr yaris in for it back in February 2022... You might think I'm mad, but i prefer the up....

[masonmart]

Jun 11, 2024 6:53:36 GMT 1 murp said:

For the last 2 years I've been running my vw up gti.... Its such a fun fantastic frugal car, and reasonably practical too... I find myself just going out for a drive, just for the fun of it, more often than i ever did...... I traded a gr yaris in for it back in February 2022... You might think I'm mad, but i prefer the up....

I don't even know what the up is , please educate me.

MM

[murp]

990kg 115bhp, easily remapped to 150bhp.... Spiritual successor (same weight and power) as original golf gti... Great fun to drive, pretty rare, you don't see many out and about.... Fantastic fun car

[masonmart]

Never seen it before murp.

[stirling11]

Looks kinda like the Polo

Never thought about the GR Yaris, ask JonW, he has one

Torsen diffs front and rear, the last car I remember with them was the Audi Quattro rally cars from about 1987

Bucket loads of power, AWD in an Up size package

Not cheap, at least not here, and possibly not easy to get hold of

[masonmart]

The GR is little bit to the extreme end of the spectrum much as I'd like one. Definitely not if JonW has one too.

[arrow]

What about one of these then? Mk4 Fabia.

[masonmart]

Is there anything that doesn't depreciate severely. I hardly do any miles and the cost per mile can be obscene.

[arrow]

Th Skoda's are now excellent in that respect. Especially as the last of the petrol small cars, before it's all electric.

[urbantangleweed]

Jun 11, 2024 16:40:01 GMT 1 masonmart said:

Is there anything that doesn't depreciate severely. I hardly do any miles and the cost per mile can be obscene.

Bicycles?

[murp]

My up gti was 16k new in march 2022.... Still probably worth near that now

[donkeychomp]

I always wanted to buy some decals that say 'yours' for every time I saw one of those. Don't get me wrong I like them a lot and will probably buy one if and when my car pops it's clogs.

Alex

[shaunthe2nd]

Jun 11, 2024 16:40:01 GMT 1 masonmart said:

Is there anything that doesn't depreciate severely. I hardly do any miles and the cost per mile can be obscene.

The secret, no its common knowledge, is buy a 3-4 year old low mileage car that you want that has ditched the depreciation mostly and keep for 3-4 years before you repeat. Surely?

[masonmart]

Murp, the up sounds amazingly popular in reviews and the prices are amazing really for what it is but it's a city car really. In a world tat you can't do over 70 though it's probably a great car. I'd be thinking of a Fiesta ST though.

[arrow]

An up gti can cruise at 100mph all day, no problem.

[arrow]

And nor will it be screaming it's head off. They are very high geared.

[murp]

Jun 11, 2024 21:57:17 GMT 1 masonmart said:

Murp, the up sounds amazingly popular in reviews and the prices are amazing really for what it is but it's a city car really. In a world tat you can't do over 70 though it's probably a great car. I'd be thinking of a Fiesta ST though.

Its a fun nippy small car.... It is good in town.... Its element is fast a and b roads, but will cruise all day long at 80 on the motorway at just over 3k rpm quietly in 6th gear if you want

[masonmart]

They look great and for some reason they all seem to have very low mileage on them. The thing is that if I really look at my needs rather than wants it is probably perfect but there is a downer in that they are manual only and I prefer automatics. That in itself isn't a killer but my wife is a committed automatista now and she needs to be able to use it. What was the but about upping power to 150 bhp or is that PS

Getting the wheels done on my Porker tomorrow so the clock starts then.

[murp]

Stage 1 remap takes power up to about 145 bhp.... I've not done it, so I can't really give an opinion