Upgrading in a few months - ideas?

thom119

As the title says i'm thinking about upgrading from my 1.4 mkIV golf in a couple of months and i'm looking for advice/opinions on a few cars

I'm 23, full license since feb, (hopefully) 1yr NCB come october, no other previous driving experience for discounts, will be doing roughly 10-12k miles per year

I hope to change when i have about 3k or 4k saved up...this includes the money i get from selling the golf

Priorities when looking for a new car are;
A bit more poke than the 1.4 golf (not hard)
Spacious - comfortably fit 2 adults in the back on a long journey
Holds it's value well
Not above 1.8l for tax/insurance reasons (could be persuaded to go to 2l)
I'm not against diesel, just don't think i do the mileage to justify paying the premium on them these days


So far the 3 cars topping my list are

Octavia Vrs (no jokes please )
-quite fast
-practical
-doesn't seem to be as expensive to insure, or carry the same premium as a GTI for example
---would probably look at vagdrivers.net for a well taken care of one

BMW 318i
-alot of bargains to be had as there's lots of them around
-personally i think they're beautiful cars
-if it's well taken care of (F-bmw-SH) should be easy enough to shift on if i get bored

Alfa 147
-would consider saving cash and driving a 01/02 one of these til something big went wrong, hopefully get a year or 2 out of it
-meant to be great fun to drive
-fair bit of power for the size of the engines
-they can be hit or miss and could turn into a money pit

Any more I should be on the lookout for? As i said i'm just in the browsing stage at the moment
I'm not a huge fan of jap stuff - I just don't like the look of them for whatever reason
Also no luxobarges from the bangeromics thread - i can't even comprehend what the insurance would be like on them

Cheers lads

Big Nasty

VRS
M3
MX-5

/thread

EPM

M3 with 1 years NCB is going to hurt!

Add a Corolla TSport maybe?

jaffa20

thom119 wrote: »

Spacious - comfortably fit 2 adults in the back on a long journey

MCMLXXV wrote: »

MX-5

/thread

You might want to rethink that suggestion:)

thom119

cheers for the suggestions
i think m3 and mx5 are out of the question, too powerful, and i need more than 2 seats

I like the look of the Corolla TSport though, couldn't get a quote online with quinn for it though...using them for a rough guide to insurance cost

Are there any big problems or anything to watch out for on a 01-03 VRS?
Seems to be my favourite so far

TestTransmission

thom119 wrote: »

Are there any big problems or anything to watch out for on a 01-03 VRS?
Seems to be my favourite so far

Oil sludge and all that, breather pipes split,central locking,coil packs,arb bushes,levelling motor in the xenon headlight, those are the most common issues.

bazz26

MG ZS, 1.4 litre with 105bhp so still insurance friendly and they are dirt cheap to buy these days:

http://www.driving.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=201126203082849