New budget motor for my missus
Turbo Mini Forums

Well seeing as some scumbag twocked our gert's 1997 "India Gold" Corsa we are on the lookout for a new budget motor for her.

There is so much choice out there and we can't decide which direction to go in.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a small/med hatchback?
Engine size isn't really a concern as long as it isn't glacially slow.

Suggestions welcomed for each budget:-

£1000, £1500 or £2000 (haven't decided how much to spend yet)

No prizes for insults about her previous choice of car. Fair enough it was shit, but it was reliable and good enough to be twocked!

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

Toyota Yaris' are insanely reliable. They are far nicer to drive than a Corsa too.

Honda Jazzs are great too. Mitsubishi Colt would be an OK choice, I've never driven one though

On 12th Nov, 2009 Paul S said:

I think Gary OS has taken over my role as the forum smart arse

Seat Arosa, or the VW Lupo are great little cars with great VW reliability

My wife's 04 fiesta was a great car, never missed a beat.

As always in these cases, you know what's available, so keep looking and find the best you can for the money you have.

Fastest 998 mini in the world? 13.05 1/4 mile 106mph

MK 3 Golf. Plenty to choose from in any of your budgets

I have recently been thinking about a Renault Megane Coupe. I don't know much about them, but they are cheap, so I though I would say it.

http://www.twin-turbo.co.uk
http://www.hillclimbandsprint.co.uk/default.asp

A man without a project is like a like a woman without a shopping list.

Our lass is thinking of changing her Fiesta soon, 2001 on a Y, 1.25 16v Ghia so has all the toys (well, all the toys a Fiesta comes with anyway), owned by her brother from brand new and then her.

let me know tom if she decides to change as i would have a look at that.

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

For the 2k I would recommend a mk4 golf tdi.I bought a gttdi for the wife for £2500 a few years back (they seem to under the 2k mark now) and apart from an airflow meter and an egr valve which are common faults it was spot on.

It did about 20k miles with us and never missed a beat,ours had the winter pack with heated seats,mirrors etc.Also it had a bit of go about it and still managed low50/high40 mpg.

Cheers Ross.

I would avoid modern diesel cars as they are expensive to maintain.

As stated, EGR's, flow meter, injectors, turbos ... and if you use them for short distances like less than 20 miles in a row, they carbon up in no time because they don't heat up fast enough and you can't make 'em pull hard to clean up.

Ask me how I know ...

Rusty by nature

How?

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

Well our lass has finally bought a car.

Bit of a change from what she was initially looking for. We were looking at modern small engined cars and over the last few weeks we have looked at Corsa's, Puma's, Fiesta's, Escort's, Tigra's you name it.

However this car caught her eye and she fell in love with it as soon as she saw it.

It's a 1995 MK3 8V Golf Gti in metallic blue (I haven't seen another Gti in this colour)

The car is near immaculate barring a small mark on the passenger sill step a very slight scuff on the rear bumper (only saw it because I was told by its current owner) and the alloy wheels have a bit of lacquer bubbling around the valves.

It has a mahoosive folder full of service history and reciepts. It's almost totally standard save for a stainless CAT back exhaust (this has been custom made to replicate the OE exhaust and is very quiet) and a VR6 front splitter. It even still has the factory fitted head unit and genuine VW floor mats.

Despite having 118k on the clock it drives like new and absolutely everything works.







We viewed the car a couple of weeks ago and left it as it was one of the first cars we looked at. We drove another lower mileage newer Gti for comparisons sake and TBH it wasn't quite as good as this one.

After fruitlessly looking at other cars we went for another look and made a deal on it.

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

I have one in green, but its a fake, 1.6se dressed up! Good solid car though! Good choice

1/4 Mile 14.3secs 96Mph Terminal 10psi of boost.


Fibreglass Parts? - http://www.tdkracing.co.uk/
Split Rims? - http://www.force-racing.co.uk/

i had one in green - nice solid car, but its almost a crime to stick a gti badge on it.. not the quickest of cars..

Best thing i did was get the suspension / alignment set up, handled really well after that.

Dp!

Edited by MikeRace on 25th Apr, 2010.

1/4 Mile 14.3secs 96Mph Terminal 10psi of boost.


Fibreglass Parts? - http://www.tdkracing.co.uk/
Split Rims? - http://www.force-racing.co.uk/

I know what you mean about the performance side. It isn't going to set the world on fire. However it will bimble along all day in 5th at 35mph which is alright for our gert. Anyway to her it's like a rocket in comparison to the 1.2 Corsa.

Hopefully this one won't get pinched like her last one. It has a certified CAT 1 alarm and we have a disklok to go on it.

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

John were you out leeds way in this today?

1/4 Mile 14.3secs 96Mph Terminal 10psi of boost.


Fibreglass Parts? - http://www.tdkracing.co.uk/
Split Rims? - http://www.force-racing.co.uk/

nope sorry mate.

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

So... when are we turboing it?

Never

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

had one in green - was a cracking car - plenty of torque and towed well. only got rid of it for a mk4