£4,800 a year sounds like it is already draining money more than most 10 year old cars would if I'm honest... On most 10 year old cars the majority of depreciation will already be done so the only costs is servicing and the odd repair etc, you'd have to be seriously unlucky to be burning through almost £5k a year in running costs on a £10k car.
Edit: Should probably clarify, the 'newest' car I've owned was my 2009 Audi S3, drove that for about 5k miles, put 4 new tyres on it and sold it for what I paid for it.
When you put it like that it makes a lot of cars seem cheap to run in comparison. I appreciate that doesn’t take into account the capital outlay for the car, but a lot of cars will suddenly seem very cheap to own if that’s the expected outlay.
I think we can all agree that a 2.0 scirocco is not a fun car!
You’d get into some seriously fun driving machines for £9,000. I’m very biased, but I’d be in a S2000 for this cash. They’re getting on a bit, and perhaps I got lucky with mine, but apart from routine maintenance and a snow related ding it didn’t cost me anything. I lost £1,000 in depreciation in 5 years and that was with a trader part exchange value (and double the mileage!).
How much practicality does he really need?