Mate wants an "interesting" car for £4,500ish

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My mate's just about got himself the money for his first car finally.
He wants something "interesting" in a way, he's eschewed the delights of my Alfa Romeo 156 as "unreliable", which is fair enough I guess.
His previous choice was an MG ZR (I know I know, but fortunately he can't find any hence my post).
He's not quite daring enough for the MR2 league of things, so, I'm not quite sure what to reccomend him.
He says he's not going to go for the "lower end" of things (eg; ford focuses and so forth, though lord knows I'd rather a ford focus than a ZR any day of the week).

Suggestions on a post card?
Incidently he's 21, and isn't really all that bothered about practicality, but doesn't fancy paying more than about £1,500 in insurance (pass plus included)
 
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Saitrix, aye, pretty much what I suggested, but the 200SX is hell to insure, the MR2 he says would cause him to kill himself, and the MX5 scares him off with the reputation as a hairdressers car (though I think it's growing on him)

Great, Ok.. I'll have a look at that, though from the name I guess he'll laugh at it and say "I think not"

Cymatty, They don't exactly rouse the passion within though do they?
 
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Civic VTi or you might be able to squeeze an Integra Type R into the budget, but be careful at this price.

Nissan 200SX would be a nice choice as well.

Might be able to find an FTO in budget too, but insurance is likely to be steep.

Might be able to find an early clio 172 too.

All would be much better choices than the MG ZR IMO.
 
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cymatty said:
No but they are very similar concepts of cars to the zr he was looking at. :confused:
I know I know, he has a very weird taste.


I'll get him to quote the FTO and the 200sx and see what it comes out as, will post the results!
 
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define 'interesting' ?

I would say either unusual or RWD and powerful as he's got 0NCD he need to go and get some insurance quotes first.

all he's going to get form a modern ish car is a 106 rallye or something similar and I wouldn't ever define that as interesting.

His other options are to go down the classic route. this will give him the low insurance figure that he wants. 4.5K will get you a 1/2 decent MGB GT maybe even a plastic pumpered roadster. Of course it's likely to be less reliable than a modern car and probably not as fast but it has to hit the interesting requirement?

stags are in that price bracket as well I think.

HT
 
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happytechie said:
define 'interesting' ?

I would say either unusual or RWD and powerful as he's got 0NCD he need to go and get some insurance quotes first.

all he's going to get form a modern ish car is a 106 rallye or something similar and I wouldn't ever define that as interesting.

His other options are to go down the classic route. this will give him the low insurance figure that he wants. 4.5K will get you a 1/2 decent MGB GT maybe even a plastic pumpered roadster. Of course it's likely to be less reliable than a modern car and probably not as fast but it has to hit the interesting requirement?

stags are in that price bracket as well I think.

HT
Aye, he's after something fairly cheap to maintain.
Interesting I'd say in this case is "not your average first car" and "something that makes you feel it's good quality" (and don't even start me on applying those to a ZR).
The Fiat Coupe suggestion looks perfect, provided he likes the look and the insurance is reasonable!
Also a few locally on autotrader in his favourite car colour.. yellow...
 
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Insurance on the 1.6 and 2.0 NA is pretty reasonable, but the Turbo will probably be over budget given his circumstances.

Bug One on these forums has one, and seems to like it.
 
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