Jump to content

I might be in the market for...


83C

Recommended Posts

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!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

/\

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 months MOT. Kendal 

 

attachicon.gifPicture1.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...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

 

$_86.JPG

 

This would do the job quite nicely imo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

 

$_86.JPG

 

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?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...