Time For The 205 To Go?

[ORB 227 1 Cars]

Well, I have owned an M3, a Lancer Evo 8 FQ and an Impreza P1

 

They are all great cars.

 

 

A car that I really like when I take one in as a part exchange is this:

 

 

Behold the Audi S4 (B5)

 

2.7 Twin Turbo V6

Quattro

All the toys

Good looking

 

Drive one, you will love it.

[GLPoomobile 958]

Sorry to be completely boring Ian, but it kind of sounds a bit like you want to have your cake and eat it I suppose I'm splitting hairs slightly as you've already acknowledged that you can get an Imprezza, which is obviously what you want, for £3k, which when it's in your £5k budget then what's a grand either way? But I'm just sitting here reading this and wondering, why agonise over it? You said you want to free up funds, so do you really need to keep £5k aside when you can get a 2nd car that'll do the short term duty of being transport, which is what you need, for much less?

 

Can you seriously not live for a short while with out any sort of performance car in your life? Maybe a break would be a good thing, as you'll be even more fired up when your business is a success and you have lots of money to invest in something interesting.

 

I'm just trying to put some perspective on it, as it's so easy to just fire suggestions that meet your criteria, but no one has really questioned the criteria. Maybe I'm being pragmatic because I've sort of been down the same road to some extent (I'm sure most of us have) where I've burned money on cars that I needn't have. When I look at the thousands I've spent on 205s since I've lived in London, none of which have been used or enjoyed as they should have been, and for the most part I wasn't even using them as basic transport. Could I have put that money to better use? f***, yeah! And all because I kept telling myself I couldn't live without a car, and I wanted a fun car.

[SurGie 54]

I'd be inclined to agree with Anthony! I'd certainly have one for that engine note

 

The subaru one doesn't really do it for me, it grates after a while! I'd be on the lookout for an equal length manifold!!

 

 

And here's me thinking it was the valves that made the scooby engine note not the manifold, after being told that on here .

[Alastairh 47]

I also agree with Anthony about the ATR. My brother has one. Its a very useable weapon. He recently offered it to me for brothers rates. But i can't justify a saloon with non folding rear seats over my hatchback Primera

 

Dam fun cars to drive though

[mickie 3]

buy a 323 gtr

 

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1867081.htm be different

[Richie 32]

I also agree with Anthony about the ATR. My brother has one. Its a very useable weapon. He recently offered it to me for brothers rates. But i can't justify a saloon with non folding rear seats over my hatchback Primera

 

Dam fun cars to drive though

 

I was under the impression the ATR was a dull drive. Purely based on things i've read, i'd quite like a blast in one. They are good value for money.

[damien 22 1 Cars]

ive always been intrested in a non turbo impreza estate, but the image has always been off putting closely followed by the running costs.

[maturin23 10]

Thanks for all the suggestions - the Audi and the Honda do look interesting and I hadn't previously considered either. I'm really not sure about the 323 though - think I'm a bit old for one of those

 

Steve, good points as always. I do like to have my cake and eat it (never sure why that's a bad thing!) but the way I see it is that as a family we do 'need' two cars - for instance Deb and the boys are spending all of August in Devon and I'm going down at weekends. I can train it to Devon but I need a car for work during the week.

 

I can either run a 10 year old sub-£1k shed or a 10 year old £3k well-looked after car. The price is not massively impacted by performance (seems like the insurance/fuel costs put people off) so the way I see it I might as well get a 'future classic' like an Impreza that is relatively quick and not depreciating. If it has an intrinsic value I find it easier to spend money on maintenance.

 

I could have a 'break' and drive round in a s*itter but I don't see what it would achieve. I get a lot of pleasure from my cars, and my kids seem just as keen. When I got married my best man said I was defined by my three main passions - playing music, cooking good food and driving fast cars.

 

If I hit the skids then for sure I'll cut my cloth to suit, but until then I'll keep hold of my Gibson, my Fender AND my car keys :P

Edited July 27, 2010 by maturin23

[AJA_GTi 0]

Neither of which are the much classier, less ''look at me i'm an M3-driving cock'' saloons like Andrew suggested!

 

Yes yes they may both be coupes but both are way more classier than a scooby imo.

 

I have owned a JDM WRX and didnt rate it to be fair. Now whenever i hear a burble coming down the road, rather than looking admiringly I expect to see a chav in a burberry cap and diy tatoos behind the wheel.

 

PS - P1's still do things for me though

Edited July 27, 2010 by AJA_GTi

[maturin23 10]

Steve - reread your post - I'm not agonising, really, although I feel I should be. It's more that I'm almost looking forward to getting rid of the Pug and that's something I never thought I'd feel. Like most of these types of posts I've already pretty much made up my mind and I'm looking for verification

 

I have owned a JDM WRX and didnt rate it to be fair. Now whenever i hear a burble coming down the road, rather than looking admiringly I expect to see a chav in a burberry cap and diy tatoos behind the wheel.

 

I can remember when I was a kid a slightly older mate of mine being given a mint (25k miles) bubble-arched yellow Mk1 Escort Mexico for his 17th birthday by his Dad.

 

Although he was grateful for the gift and the effort that had gone into sorting it he was mortified because it was truly THE most chav car you could drive back in the late eighties - definitely not the car for a Grammar School boy. Even less cool than a Scooby is now. He sold it for peanuts and bought a Fiat Uno Turbo.

 

When cars are cool again, you've missed the bottom of the market!

[AJA_GTi 0]

Steve - reread your post - I'm not agonising, really, although I feel I should be. It's more that I'm almost looking forward to getting rid of the Pug and that's something I never thought I'd feel. Like most of these types of posts I've already pretty much made up my mind and I'm looking for verification

 

 

 

I can remember when I was a kid a slightly older mate of mine being given a mint (25k miles) bubble-arched yellow Mk1 Escort Mexico for his 17th birthday by his Dad.

 

Although he was grateful for the gift and the effort that had gone into sorting it he was mortified because it was truly THE most chav car you could drive back in the late eighties - definitely not the car for a Grammar School boy. Even less cool than a Scooby is now. He sold it for peanuts and bought a Fiat Uno Turbo.

 

When cars are cool again, you've missed the bottom of the market!

 

Very true i'm sure 205's went through a chavvy period when prices reached a level. I'm sure people look at them still as chavvy too

[d7ve_b 44 1 Cars]

A car that I really like when I take one in as a part exchange is this:

 

 

Behold the Audi S4 (B5)

 

2.7 Twin Turbo V6

Quattro

All the toys

Good looking

 

Drive one, you will love it.

 

I don't think the car pictured is a B5, IIRC that's a B6 and has a downtuned (from the RS4) 4.2 V8 in it. This is a B5.

[kyepan 291]

Nissan Pulsar GTI-R, very cheap to buy, with bumpsteer kit + quaife gear set + decent clutch they are pretty as bomb proof as a turbo car gets, there is not really any lag on the standard turbo and the way they come on boost is less like acceleration and more like explosion.

 

Will make most stuff look foolish, and on 1.0bar of boost it will keep up with Ferraris off the lights.

 

Warning - get a bad one and it will be a money pit,

 

Get a good one however and you'll love every minute of people not knowing what the hell your driving, I had a red one, and you would cruise behind people on the motorway, and they would just move over without a moments hesitation.

 

A fairly standard one

A fairly savage one

 

bearing in mind, i paid 5500 for mine back in 2004 and it was standard bar a few minor tweaks.

 

J

Edited July 27, 2010 by kyepan

[AJA_GTi 0]

God I love these threads...

[maturin23 10]

Hi Justin

 

Always thought the Pulsar was a quality car, but I know the wife would cringe.

 

I'm sure I'm completely kidding myself, but to me there's something fairly sober looking about a totally boggo UK Impreza in dark colours that none of the other quick Jap stuff seems to manage (Accord Type R excepted) - am I the only one who sees a difference?

[MrG 3]

Warning - get a bad one and it will be a money pit

 

I think that goes for the majority of performance orientated cars. so whether the OP buys a scooby or not the it pays to buy the best that can be afforded.

 

My personal opinion would favour the M3, I had one for 5 years, know them quite well (was the car clubs registrar for a number of years) however it has a smallish boot (dependent on whats to be carried) and they need looking after, but a good one will show a clean pair of heals to the average scooby of a similar age, look better (IMO) and tend not draw too much attention (unlike a scooby with that off beat note), but at high revs the straight six sounds wonderfull. Either that or an AMG merc e55.

 

However saying all this, it looks like the decision is to be an early sccob, they do look good, but I find that very rarely does a car once loved live up to the memories when revisited.

 

So is this to be a family transport/shopping car etc as well as a weekend blaster or will the 7 remain to fulfil the later suggestion?

[AJA_GTi 0]

Always thought the Pulsar was a quality car, but I know the wife would cringe.

 

I'm sure she could be tempted by this little number?

 

[happygoron 2]

If you don't need 4 seats there is plenty out there other than an impreza.

 

Left field choice:

 

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1843354.htm

 

Up to £5000 but ideally less - I know it's over budget but may be able to find a higher milage one for less, I didn't look hard.

definitely not FWD - Definately not.

not an E36 BMW - Definately not.

relatively quick, certainly no slower than the Mi16 (180 bhp/ton +) - Fecking quick

safer than the Pug in a crash, - Not hard

at least slightly exciting to drive - RWD, V8, bingo.

it also needs to be reliable. - Bombproof engine.

ideally at the bottom its the depreciation curve. - Not too far off I expect for a v8 model.

[kyepan 291]

Always thought the Pulsar was a quality car, but I know the wife would cringe.

 

It's a Nissan sunny.

 

Its an ugly Nissan sunny.

 

It might not be the looks that sell it, but i'm fairly certain the sound of a slightly fruity pulsar with a mongoose exhaust coming on boost through those quad throttle bodies is enough to make her loins spontaneously burst into a fountain of applause.

 

if you'll pardon the expression.

 

I would own another in a heart beat but like the simplicity / cost / performance per pound of the 205 too much, and don't feel that a healthy MI with sorted suspension is that far off it, when you're on it.

[SurGie 54]

And the blocks are not the strongest ones and are prone to cracking.

[richsmells 2]

If I hit the skids then for sure I'll cut my cloth to suit, but until then I'll keep hold of my Gibson, my Fender AND my car keys

 

I'd recommend a PRS personally!

[kyepan 291]

And the blocks are not the strongest ones and are prone to cracking.

 

Not in the three years that I was on the scene did I hear of a block cracking. They are cast iron with steel liners pressed in, although several put rods through the block during violent engine failures as the result of less than adequate (inept) rebuilds.

 

You must be referring to the aluminium ca18 engine found in the early s13s that does suffer from cracked blocks...

 

The SR20DET is pretty bomb proof, apart from if you run lots of single injection nitrous where it seems to fill cylinder one more than the others, run lean and destroy the ringlands, or way too much boost and blows holes in the pistons. Additionally the pulsar sr20 had a larger exhaust housing on it's turbo than the other sr20 engines and solid lifters.. ripe for high revs and a set of fruity cams.

 

With the correct fuelling / cooling you can run 1.4 bar of boost on standard pistons, although standard fuelling is safe to a 1.0 bar, standard is boost 0.6 bar.

 

 

J

Edited July 27, 2010 by kyepan

[maturin23 10]

MrG - Caterham is also going. It'll be mainly for pleasure, but practical enough for the wife and kids to use occasionally. Given the comments on here I think I'll have a look at an M3 or two, but I'd definitely want a saloon and preferably a non-VANOS engine.

 

I'm promising myself I'll actually go and try a few cars out rather than just buy the first car I see (which is normally the case for me!).

 

Neil - I secretly love those V8 Rover estates. Maybe in a couple of years, I reckon they'll drop further yet.

 

Rich - PRS is next

 

AJA/Justin - nice imagery - I'll show her that picture and keep an eye on her clapping loin fountain.

[CaptainK 11]

Neil - I secretly love those V8 Rover estates. Maybe in a couple of years, I reckon they'll drop further yet.

Same here, I've got my eye on one of those as well. Problem is only 30 ZT260-T (V8 estates) were made, so the estates will hold their value nicely. Then there is around 700-800 normal saloon ZT260s that were produced. I'd want the estate model even though the 0-60 is slower at 6.3 compared to saloon of 6.2, as it has all the extra space and thus I can claim to my missus that it'd be good for the kids.

There is relatively good news though is that if you can put up with it just being a standard V8 Rover 75 then I believe more numbers were produced in both saloon and estates, so you might be able to find one there for less money. I've not looked into that side of things myself though as if I was going to have one it'd have to be an MG one to at least keep a little bit of street cred.

[maturin23 10]

I'd like a green or brown Rover one with the 4.6 Supercharged engine from the Mustang SVT Cobra and uprated brakes/suspension.

Whilst driving I'd wear a hat at all times.