I'm now at,
Copen
Alfa 147
Still kinda want a 316/318ti despite the engines being awful.

Mazda 2 Sport anyone? The 2007 onward model. Quite a bit of kit, well reviewed although potentially a bit wearisome on the motorway.

I'll be trying to test drive these locally toward the end of the month. Still on the fence about a 100HP

Didge3 said:

I'm now at,
Mazda 2 Sport anyone? The 2007 onward model. Quite a bit of kit, well reviewed although potentially a bit wearisome on the motorway.

I'll be trying to test drive these locally toward the end of the month. Still on the fence about a 100HP

Click to expand...

Me again...looks like apparently I've driven every car ever..but no 8 years ago I was shopping with an 8 grand budget and similar requirements.

So I have driven a Mazda 2 sport and they are a nice little thing, based on the Fiesta platform. They manage to do the Mazda thing of being firm but well damped, handle well. Seem to remember the electric steering feeling a bit dead..but the Suzuki did as well and it's not unpleasant it's basically class standard level, better than a GP worse than an Mx-5.

They aren't really fast enough to deserve a sport badge, seem to recall even my Suzuki GLX was marginally faster but peppy enough and very robust engines. As you say lots of equipment and it should still work given all the stuff in my 2011 3 works as it did the day it rolled off the line.
Also they have snazzy/infantile black out dials similar to these in my 3
If you like Japanese stuff..the interiors from this era are very Japanese in a Tokyo neon skyline kinda way. Not sure if the 2 gets the laser blue downlighting and orange/laser blue dash lighting but you'd definetly never confuse it for a VW or anything European.

Noise wise Mazdas tend to get slated for being worse than the class average but I certainly can't see it being worse than an HP..worse than a polo but not terrible, seem to recall it being quieter than my Swift. Seem to recall I didn't get one due to the one I was driving having a ridiculous rattle at 4000 miles probably still going strong now but after the Suzuki I'd had enough of dash rattles.

You can't really go wrong with a late 147. It was a very proven platform by the end of the 147 run, with all the niggles properly ironed out. Front suspension bushes are a consumable and TSpark engines need cam belts every 3 years / 36k miles, plus they can burn a bit of oil... but they're a proper raspy old-school 4-pot of the kind you just don't get these days.

The chassis is lovely - the 156 platform was often described as the best handling FWD car ever - and having had 2 of them, I can't really disagree!

StevenRB45 said:

Me again...looks like apparently I've driven every car ever..but no 8 years ago I was shopping with an 8 grand budget and similar requirements.

So I have driven a Mazda 2 sport and they are a nice little thing, based on the Fiesta platform. They manage to do the Mazda thing of being firm but well damped, handle well. Seem to remember the electric steering feeling a bit dead..but the Suzuki did as well and it's not unpleasant it's basically class standard level, better than a GP worse than an Mx-5.

Click to expand...

You do seem to have driven everything!

Lots of sensible choices and good advice but I'm still stuck, I'm going to start looking next month, potentially go for some test drives toward the end of this month. What with the heater packing up in the Saab my "in no rush" clause is slipping away.
Circled back to the idea of a Mito, barely in budget though and I'd only have the 105 or 120hp variants. Worried that the 2 is going to be too slow. Really hard to shop for an economical city car when you've got a 240hp motorway barge...

Didge3 said:

Worried that the 2 is going to be too slow. Really hard to shop for an economical city car when you've got a 240hp motorway barge...

Click to expand...

You do have to remember with these none of them are going to be drag racing machines. But I'd venture you'd probably be pretty happy with 0-40 acceleration due to the lack of weight, none-slipping clutch and initial response you get from a none-turbo as well as having more tyre than power so you can literally just pin the throttle and not worry about spinning up.

If you aren't driving like me aged 17-23 then I would suggest they'll be adequate to keep up with traffic flow generally although you aren't going to be dispatching lines of traffic on national limit roads without pause for thought. With the Suzuki and Mazda it's more about carrying speed not generating it quickly.

Then again I'm currently entirely happy driving a car that's official 0-60 is 12.2..for 3 reasons. 1st the engine is willing and in most circumstances indestructible so you can quite happily rev the knackers off it to generate performance. 2nd it's fast enough not to be dangerous but at least it means you can't accidentally get a tug from plod..there's literally no way to accidentally be doing instaban speeds but it can get there if you decide to. 3rd while the engine isn't any great shakes, the gearbox, steering and chassis mean you can most definitely have fun with it and embarrass stuff that should really walk away from it on paper on a windy road.

So to sum up..it's not how fast it is..it's how fast it feels, so go drive some of your choices and see if they'll do

316-318ti Drift Tax so as well as being crap they are expensive, expansive crap. 325 Compact (E46) are surprisingly good in the dry and surprisingly dangerous in the wet.

One more the 147 camp'. Slightly bias as you well imagine. If you want a degree of economy JTD engines are bombproof and tunable. If I could stand the smell of modern diesel I would have one.

The JTD is a lot easier to unlock than the Twinspark.

To be honest I don't really need much power, just enough that its not out of breath on the motorway and can overtake on a hill really. As I said its just a bit scary to go to a car with less than half the power I have now even though I basically never use the power in town and thus makes it quite boring to drive on my commute.
It's definitely all about the feeling of going fast as Steven said. I had a Twingo GT a few years ago, 1.1 turbo, 100hp and its was a really lovely engine surrounded by a pretty dull car so I'm sure if an engine of similar power in a more entertaining car I'd be alright.
Saying that the Copen is the one that excites me most still with its modest 68hp!
Dropped the Civic idea again as I see them everywhere, everyday.
Sadly dropping the E46 idea due to poor reliability.

Test drive list stands at
Copen
147
Mazda 2

I'd suggest having a look to see if you have any where local that carries Copen bits. While the whole "overnight parts from Japan" thing is cool in movies, the reality of owning a low volume Japanese built car can be waiting 6 weeks for a relatively minor part to cross the sea in a container having paid 6x the part price in shipping.

Something like a bumper, headlamp or a rear screen can take the car off the road for weeks if it's not available locally. There must be copen owners club some where, maybe just check in and see how they find it. Especially as they stopped selling cars here in 2011, oh and check for rust.

StevenRB45 said:

I'd suggest having a look to see if you have any where local that carries Copen bits. While the whole "overnight parts from Japan" thing is cool in movies, the reality of owning a low volume Japanese built car can be waiting 6 weeks for a relatively minor part to cross the sea in a container having paid 6x the part price in shipping.

Something like a bumper, headlamp or a rear screen can take the car off the road for weeks if it's not available locally. There must be copen owners club some where, maybe just check in and see how they find it. Especially as they stopped selling cars here in 2011, oh and check for rust.

Click to expand...

I've already joined a Copen forum when I first came up with the idea. Quite a comprehensive buyers guide and a list of suppliers

http://www.kkitp.com/ also worth checking out for general Kei car goodness.

Well I've concluded the car I wan't doesn't exist...
I've realised I can't manage a 2 seater, too impractical.
It needs to be fast enough but not too fast so I can enjoy revving it out.
Fairly uncommon, hate seeing the same car 50 times a day.
Small enough for town maneuverability.

This doesn't seem to exist under £1800.
The mk2 Punto 1.4 sporting, despite its shortcomings was a strong contender but its impossible to get one with aircon.
I've even started considering 2006 onward Polo's! Shame about the lacklustre engines.
C4 VTR/S is probably my next runner up, comes with loads of spec but interior a bit drab.
Alfa 147 still stands but I'm not hugely taken by it.

If the Saab weren't 25ft long I'd just keep it at this point Ahhhh

EDIT: Literally just found one on Autotrader that looks to have aircon (low res pic can't be sure). If I can scramble the funds this month then its a good option and I'd be back in the Fiat fold

If the C4 is anything like the C2 vts...it'll be an nice idea ruined in the execution. So nice engine, terrible gearbox, brakes and steering that remove all resemblance of sportiness.

Mazda 3 2.0 sport has the engine that went to the old Fiesta ST, a sportier version of the mk1 focus chassis and lots of gear. Can get the significantly less rust prone face lift in the mid to late 2s on reasonable miles for age.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classi...d=New&onesearchad=Nearly New&onesearchad=Used

If the sporting doesn't work out obviously.

For the record, my Mk2B Sporting had aircon ... it never worked, but it was there

Yeah I'd looked at C2's but they appear as a cheap hatch with a good engine plonked in. Not sure if the C4 is better but its a more grown up car at the least. Never liked the 2002-2007ish Fiesta's annoyingly as they're good cars. Having further trawled through gumtree and facebook market I've found a few more mk2 Sportings. I need to drive one and see if its held up as awfully as our 2002 mk1a which is a shambles in every way except the engine which is somehow still sweet as despite years of neglect.

Why can't I buy a mk1 Punto 3 door 1.6 with air-con? That would solve my problems....

Didge3 said:

Never liked the 2002-2007ish Fiesta's annoyingly as they're good cars

Click to expand...

The engine in that car made it into the Fiesta ST.

But I was suggesting one of these:

I finally bought something.