Evening all,
As some of you may already know I was recently very close to part exchanging the GP for a Panda 100HP. After taking one for a test drive I was thoroughly impress with how much fun it was to drive based on cost however I felt that for me it would be more of a daily driver making room for a weekend car sat at home. Unfortunately I can’t afford to have more than one car so I’ve got to put all of my eggs in one basket so to speak.
With this in mind I have decided that a ‘hot hatch’ will be more suited to my needs since my annual mileage has dropped to under 10k miles a year.
Come February I turn 22, I will have had the GP for a year, my insurance is up for renewal and all being well I will have 3 years NCB at my disposal. So February is the time but I need help in deciding the car.
The criteria are a hatchback because size isn’t a problem due to me rarely carrying more than 1 passenger therefore more space is just unnecessary weight. A 0-60 time of circa 7 seconds and the ability to cruise at 80mph on the motorway while retaining composer and enough power to overtake in a split second. Handling must be precise and the chassis must be nimble with the ability to out-run most average cars and bahn cruisers around the twisties.
Insurance must not exceed group 17 (lower would be better but IG17 is manageable). Tax must be in the region of £200/year (so no £300/400/year tax band performance cars). Servicing costs can’t be much higher than the GP as I would say circa £150 (minor) and £300 (major) is reasonable for servicing and finally it must be able to average 30+mpg without too much effort. I fully accept that a hot hatch isn’t about economy but the car has to have the ability to break 30mpg if taken easy around town or cruising long distance motorways/duel carriageways.
The car must be as new as possible for my budget with as low mileage as possible - I’m capping it at no older than 2002 and no higher mileage than 60k miles, obviously the newer/lower mileage as possible, the better.
As I will be selling a 2 year old car for one that is most probably going to be out of warranty reliability is an important factor. I know all cars have their problems but I need something that I can trust on a daily basis.
The budget is mainly based on whatever I can sell the GP for in the private market +/- a bit of cash from my savings so I want to cap the search at circa £7k.
Right so onto the cars, joint top of my list and both scoring a theoretical 9.5/10 are the RenaultSport Clio 182 (with both Cup packs) and the Gen1 Mini Cooper S (with Chilli pack).
My budget will stretch to a low mileage (sub 30k) 182 with both Cup packs on a 05/55 plate where as the Cooper S would probably be a 52/03 plate example with approximately 40/50k on the clock and the Chilli pack. Both cars have huge followings and both get very good reviews from the people who know their stuff (Evo mag, Performance Car mag, etc). Both have the ability to average above 30mpg (the Clio seems to do this a bit easier) and both are apparently pretty well screwed together (apart from your usual squeaks and rattles).
I’ve had a bad experience with Clio reliability in the past which makes me somewhat weary but this was an old mk1 Clio with high mileage and I would image Renault screw them together a bit better these days (at least I’d hope). As for the Mini, it carries with it the BMW tag although people say that they’re prone to rattles and less than expected build quality.
Overall the Mini apparently only suffers from the odd electrical glitch and quick wearing suspension components whereas reports of the Clio mainly list electrical glitches with sensors and air flow metre issues on cold start-ups.
The Clio and the Mini pretty much tick all of the boxes but I’m fully aware that there are other (possibly better) hot hatches that tick most of my criteria such as the EP3 Honda Civic Type R however word of mouth is that tax costs and fuel economy fall a fair bit outside of my requirements.
At the lower end of the scale are things like the Fiat Panda 100HP and Suzuki Swift Sport but I don’t think either of these cars would last long with me before I felt the need to eek more power or sharper handling out of them. In between these two and the proper hot hatches falls the Ford Fiesta ST150 which I highly considered as the GP’s replacement but I felt the performance and fuel economy didn’t represent the car’s lack of ability (compared to its competitors) and by the time you’ve tuned the performance and handling to compete with the 182/Cooper S cost of parts/insurance increase would surpass the initial insurance outlay for the Clio or the Mini.
...........
Ok so I’ve had my say (sorry for the essay) but now I need your opinions, reviews if you’ve test driven any of the above and furthermore any alternatives that I might have overlooked.
I look forward to your input.
Thanks all,
Si
As some of you may already know I was recently very close to part exchanging the GP for a Panda 100HP. After taking one for a test drive I was thoroughly impress with how much fun it was to drive based on cost however I felt that for me it would be more of a daily driver making room for a weekend car sat at home. Unfortunately I can’t afford to have more than one car so I’ve got to put all of my eggs in one basket so to speak.
With this in mind I have decided that a ‘hot hatch’ will be more suited to my needs since my annual mileage has dropped to under 10k miles a year.
Come February I turn 22, I will have had the GP for a year, my insurance is up for renewal and all being well I will have 3 years NCB at my disposal. So February is the time but I need help in deciding the car.
The criteria are a hatchback because size isn’t a problem due to me rarely carrying more than 1 passenger therefore more space is just unnecessary weight. A 0-60 time of circa 7 seconds and the ability to cruise at 80mph on the motorway while retaining composer and enough power to overtake in a split second. Handling must be precise and the chassis must be nimble with the ability to out-run most average cars and bahn cruisers around the twisties.
Insurance must not exceed group 17 (lower would be better but IG17 is manageable). Tax must be in the region of £200/year (so no £300/400/year tax band performance cars). Servicing costs can’t be much higher than the GP as I would say circa £150 (minor) and £300 (major) is reasonable for servicing and finally it must be able to average 30+mpg without too much effort. I fully accept that a hot hatch isn’t about economy but the car has to have the ability to break 30mpg if taken easy around town or cruising long distance motorways/duel carriageways.
The car must be as new as possible for my budget with as low mileage as possible - I’m capping it at no older than 2002 and no higher mileage than 60k miles, obviously the newer/lower mileage as possible, the better.
As I will be selling a 2 year old car for one that is most probably going to be out of warranty reliability is an important factor. I know all cars have their problems but I need something that I can trust on a daily basis.
The budget is mainly based on whatever I can sell the GP for in the private market +/- a bit of cash from my savings so I want to cap the search at circa £7k.
Right so onto the cars, joint top of my list and both scoring a theoretical 9.5/10 are the RenaultSport Clio 182 (with both Cup packs) and the Gen1 Mini Cooper S (with Chilli pack).
My budget will stretch to a low mileage (sub 30k) 182 with both Cup packs on a 05/55 plate where as the Cooper S would probably be a 52/03 plate example with approximately 40/50k on the clock and the Chilli pack. Both cars have huge followings and both get very good reviews from the people who know their stuff (Evo mag, Performance Car mag, etc). Both have the ability to average above 30mpg (the Clio seems to do this a bit easier) and both are apparently pretty well screwed together (apart from your usual squeaks and rattles).
I’ve had a bad experience with Clio reliability in the past which makes me somewhat weary but this was an old mk1 Clio with high mileage and I would image Renault screw them together a bit better these days (at least I’d hope). As for the Mini, it carries with it the BMW tag although people say that they’re prone to rattles and less than expected build quality.
Overall the Mini apparently only suffers from the odd electrical glitch and quick wearing suspension components whereas reports of the Clio mainly list electrical glitches with sensors and air flow metre issues on cold start-ups.
The Clio and the Mini pretty much tick all of the boxes but I’m fully aware that there are other (possibly better) hot hatches that tick most of my criteria such as the EP3 Honda Civic Type R however word of mouth is that tax costs and fuel economy fall a fair bit outside of my requirements.
At the lower end of the scale are things like the Fiat Panda 100HP and Suzuki Swift Sport but I don’t think either of these cars would last long with me before I felt the need to eek more power or sharper handling out of them. In between these two and the proper hot hatches falls the Ford Fiesta ST150 which I highly considered as the GP’s replacement but I felt the performance and fuel economy didn’t represent the car’s lack of ability (compared to its competitors) and by the time you’ve tuned the performance and handling to compete with the 182/Cooper S cost of parts/insurance increase would surpass the initial insurance outlay for the Clio or the Mini.
...........
Ok so I’ve had my say (sorry for the essay) but now I need your opinions, reviews if you’ve test driven any of the above and furthermore any alternatives that I might have overlooked.
I look forward to your input.
Thanks all,
Si