Spec me a fast small family car

Associate
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25 Sep 2016
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Looking to replace my TT with something that has 4 doors.
I’ve got a short list but wondered if Motors has any suggestions I’ve overlooked.

Requirements are...

few years old
4 doors
Smallish
Fast (current car is 360hp)
No worse mpg than my current 29mpg (all urban)
Budget is £20-25k

Think I’m leaning towards a m140i (with plans to add a map and LSD)

Anything else I should be looking at??
 
Associate
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Golf r 7.5 is another solid contender, less power but with haldex, would have to be leather interior though

cupra 300 is with fwd or an ugly estate to get haldex as far as I’m aware.

S3 I like a lot but it’s much more expensive and has to be then facelift to get the wet 7 speed dsg box and then I’d want the super sport seats, so a hard car to find too.

RS3 would have to be pretty old and high mileage to fit my budget and doesn’t get 29mpg urban

I hadn’t looked at the A45, they look pricey, anyone have any experience of them feel free to chime in.

stinger is too big for my likings
 
Soldato
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Location
location, location
Yeah, weighing in on the MPG front...nothing on your list will achieve 29 MPG urban.

I drove an M135i from new to ~70,000 miles and I was, on the whole, pretty gentle with the throttle and the vast majority of the miles were clocked up doing 70mph on the motorway. I averaged 34 MPG over that 70,000 miles.

Realistically and M135i/140i is going to get ~20 MPG if all you’re doing is urban driving.

The 2L 4pots in the Golf, Merc, Audi, Seat may fair a little better owing to the smaller displacement, but I’d be astonished if you could better ~25 MPG urban in them.
 
Caporegime
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Also, with the S3, don’t let super sport seats put you off, they are crap.

Same base and bolsters as the normal seats, but with a butt-ugly non-adjustable headrest, whoop-de-do.

Gone are the days that the super sport seats were actually more supportive and more comfortable, it’s nothing like the seats in the B7 RS4.
 
Associate
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Do you use an app to track your mpg, or rely on the computer?
Might be worth doing fuelly or similar for a couple of fill ups if not since here the average of 16 TT's is 27.4 mpg.
I had the m135i for a while, my average mpg over 18 months or so ownership was 31 but i hardly ever drove it rapidly and when i was doing more urban stuff around town the mpg was low 20's.
 
Man of Honour
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Generally when people claim to be getting amazing mpg 'urban' what usually ends up being the case is that the driving style is less urban than you'd think. Not so much cold start slogs through stop start traffic and far more easy urban dual carriageways and ring roads..
 
Associate
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It’s a 2.0 TFSI 6 speed manual

I drive 8 miles to work 30-40mph with 23 sets of traffic lights, I don’t know if what the definition of urban is.

Computer says 29mpg, calculation off last fill up is 26mpg

@paradigm I didn’t realise the newer super sports were like that, I hate my current seats, so uncomfortable
 
Soldato
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23,299
Also, with the S3, don’t let super sport seats put you off, they are crap.

Same base and bolsters as the normal seats, but with a butt-ugly non-adjustable headrest, whoop-de-do.

Gone are the days that the super sport seats were actually more supportive and more comfortable, it’s nothing like the seats in the B7 RS4.

Are they the sort of headrests which tilt fowards. Designed for people who recline far back like some gangsta, so they dont get whiplash when they crash. But are really uncomfortable when you position them like real sports seats :\
 
Caporegime
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Leafy Cheshire
Are they the sort of headrests which tilt fowards. Designed for people who recline far back like some gangsta, so they dont get whiplash when they crash. But are really uncomfortable when you position them like real sports seats :\

No the "super" sports seats are completely fixed, part of the backrest. Think crap gaming chair and you're not far wrong in both terms of style and support :p
 
Man of Honour
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I drive 8 miles to work 30-40mph with 23 sets of traffic lights, I don’t know if what the definition of urban is.

Computer says 29mpg, calculation off last fill up is 26mpg

You presumably must be doing the odd longer journey to bring that average up.
 
Associate
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You presumably must be doing the odd longer journey to bring that average up.

Not really, which is why I need to change it

On a good run I will hit a lot of the lights when they are green and spend a fair amount of time at 40mph in 6th.

Test drove a m140i on part of my commute and it seemed to sit in 7th gear a lot.
 
Associate
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A45 owner here, You can get a facelift A45 (2016+) for £25k
381bhp standard

Remapped will run 3.3s to 60, low 8s to 100, 11.9 1/4 mile if that's of interest to you.
Mercs figures claim something like 40mpg average lol. You can get 30s with a very light foot, like wise you can get close to 10mpg with some spirited driving.

Feel free to ask any questions
 
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