Wanted I might be in the market for...

[83C]

Something interesting.

I have a spare insurance policy running, rather than cancel it I’m tempted to buy something for a bit of fun. Think B-road blaster rather than motorway mile muncher, or maybe something 4x4 that I can go green laning with. 

Budget - sub £850, the lower the better. Location fairly unimportant. At least a couple of months test would be good.

I was looking at an E46 Compact 318Ti, but had no response off the owners.

Before anyone says it, I know the Min would be an obvious answer but I really don’t have time to mess about with it.

Cheers!

 

Edited to reflect changing the goalposts!

[320touring]

A word of advice for your quest - Stay the fuck away from e46 318ti - crap cars with engines that suffer from myriad problems.

 

An E36 318Ti, however, could be a nice thing:)

 

Good luck:)

[John F]

Something interesting, B road blaster, German...

 

 

Might be out of your price bracket though

[gadgetgricey]

If you can find one for the price (probably with starting issues)

Mazda RX8

[Sigmund Fraud]

Not much fun in that price range... You may be able to get a crispy MX5 or a scruffy MGF with a bit of test, but nothing that would go through another MoT easily.

[The Moog]

12 months MOT. Kendal 

 

[Cavcraft]

/\

That MX5 is a bargain. You'd get £450's worh of fun out of that in the first couple of months, never mind a year.

 

Still, I suppose if someone really wanted a metallic green sports* car, the thinking* man's choice would be a Golf GTi.

[garethj]

Still, I suppose if someone really wanted a metallic green sports* car, the thinking* man's choice would be a Golf GTi.

Wow, if only there was somewhere that a person could go to buy such a marvellous vehicle, that would be a coincidence

[Supernaut]

Still, I suppose if someone really wanted a metallic green sports* car, the thinking* man's choice would be a Golf GTi.

Aye, but not a MkIII, they're shit!

[83C]

12 months MOT. Kendal 

 

Picture1.png

For £450 that’s an absolute barg. However, i’d need to budget another £450 for one to fit the other foot. Mk1 MX-5s weren’t built with fat six an’ arf footers in mind - this along with the RX-7 are two cars that I dearly wish I could fit into. Weirdly I fit fine in an MGF, hence the ticket in PBK’s roffle.

 

As for E46 318Ti’s, I drove one a few years back and thought it a pretty good steer, but it was only 5 years old at the time. What issues do they suffer? Can’t be that much to go wrong on a little four pot lump?

 

As for Mk3 Golf GTI, I’d actually consider it if it were very cheap. Is there one? I may have missed it on the forum if so...

[83C]

Hang on, I’ve just spotted its Billy who mentioned Golf GTIs.

 

Marches off in search of Cavcrafts Cacophony of Crap thread

[FakeConcern]

I will just say I had a Mk3 Golf GTI from 1997 to 2005 and loved it. After the diff exploded it had a diff & gearbox from a MK2 GTI with lower gears and it was much more fun!

[320touring]

Timing chains and head gaskets are a couple of the problem areas..

 

Give it a read up

[Cavcraft]

MX5s aren’t actually too bad if you’re fat and tall.

[83C]

MX5s aren’t actually too bad if you’re fat and tall.

The Mk1 I tried at an old workplace wasn’t - I had to move it across the car park with the door open in order to accommodate my right knee. That would be inconvenient on the open road.

[The Moog]

Armrest removal sorts that issue

 

 

If I had the money that mx5 would be sitting on my drive. They aren't going to get cheaper.

[gadgetgricey]

Thinking about it a Pooma probably fits the bill better

[sporty-shite]

For the love of God, don't buy an E46 316ti.

 

They're so shit it defies belief.

[Tamworthbay]

Thinking about it a Pooma probably fits the bill better

I bang my head every time I get in and I’m only 5’11”

[83C]

I can fold myself into a Puma quite well actually. I thought all the cheap ones had rotted away by now?

[John F]

A Puma occurred to me ealier, there were a couple on ebay at a few hundred quid but they've got ages to run & no test.

 

Some chancers are already after £shitloads for tidy (i.e. tarted up) ones, but I reckon they're still way too early for the OSF madness.

[Cavcraft]

They're defo starting to creep up in value now.

[Ghosty]

450? Get a Rover R8 216/416. I prefer the auto, manuals are OK but need to be driven hard or are no fun.

I know it sounds daft but they're an absolute hoot on B-roads (geared more for that than motorways where they're sort of buzzy), about 100bhp/ton, nice acceleration and handling, smooth, comfy, practical, easy to work on, cheap to run and maintain (though it's easy to get carried away), cheap as chips for now, and I think the time is coming that they'll start to appreciate. Super unassuming too, great fun for pissing off BMs and Audis, and a fraction of the price of an equivalent EF Civic or something.

You can get them for £300 all day at the moment but those examples are fast ending up with enthusiasts.

 

https://www.gumtree.com/p/rover/1992-rover-416-sli/1302592674

 

 

This would do the job quite nicely imo.

[Steve79]

For £450 that’s an absolute barg. However, i’d need to budget another £450 for one to fit the other foot. Mk1 MX-5s weren’t built with fat six an’ arf footers in mind - this along with the RX-7 are two cars that I dearly wish I could fit into. Weirdly I fit fine in an MGF, hence the ticket in PBK’s roffle.

 

As for E46 318Ti’s, I drove one a few years back and thought it a pretty good steer, but it was only 5 years old at the time. What issues do they suffer? Can’t be that much to go wrong on a little four pot lump?

 

As for Mk3 Golf GTI, I’d actually consider it if it were very cheap. Is there one? I may have missed it on the forum if so...

Had a 52 plate 318ti which was actually a pretty nice drive, but smoked like a bustard. Main issues with these are the ccv needs replacing around every 80k as it gets blocked. Most haven't been changed because it seems that bmw built the engine around it.

 

It requires a lot of disassembly just to get to it which I've had quotes of between £200-£350 to do the work. I think the autodata job time was around 6 hours.

 

The other issue is that when looking at the front of the engine block you will probably see oil everywhere. This is cause by the O-rings failing on one or both of the vanos valves. They're pretty easy to replace with only 2x 10mm bolts and a multiplug holding these in. BMW charge £5.00 for the set.

 

However, on mine one of the vanos valve had seized through lack of lubrication which led to sluggish performance at the lower rpm range and shite fuel economy.

 

You have been warned!

[83C]

450? Get a Rover R8 216/416. I prefer the auto, manuals are OK but need to be driven hard or are no fun.

I know it sounds daft but they're an absolute hoot on B-roads (geared more for that than motorways where they're sort of buzzy), about 100bhp/ton, nice acceleration and handling, smooth, comfy, practical, easy to work on, cheap to run and maintain (though it's easy to get carried away), cheap as chips for now, and I think the time is coming that they'll start to appreciate. Super unassuming too, great fun for pissing off BMs and Audis, and a fraction of the price of an equivalent EF Civic or something.

You can get them for £300 all day at the moment but those examples are fast ending up with enthusiasts.

 

https://www.gumtree.com/p/rover/1992-rover-416-sli/1302592674

 

 

This would do the job quite nicely imo.

That’s an interesting suggestion. Wonder if I could find a 3-dr (not a tomcat) in budget?

[Ghosty]

Nah, they're pretty uncommon these days - and mostly if not all 214s as well I think.

More door is better for being unassuming though

[83C]

In a search on eBay for ‘Rover’ budget £450, no distance limit there is just one R8!

[Ghosty]

In a search on eBay for ‘Rover’ budget £450, no distance limit there is just one R8!

Keep an eye on Gumtree and C&C too. You get as many on there as eBay.

There's almost always one for sale, you just have to be patient and not massively picky (except with galloping rot and possibly HGF).

Maybe sign up to the owners club forum too (free) if you're seriously interested as a lot come up there, they have an eBay watch subforum too.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

In a search on eBay for ‘Rover’ budget £450, no distance limit there is just one R8!

They are getting rare now which is sad.

 

Sent from my F3211 using Tapatalk

[83C]

I’ll have a think about it, I had a 214SLi years ago which was a hoot. I suppose that’s the biggest thing against one is that i’ve already had a couple of R8s, which is why I’m not really looking at the 200/400/ZR/ZS.