Brickhouse

I have decided......I am going to treat myself to a second car!

It needs to be automatic due to a left knee injury, max of £1,500....Does not matter how many doors, how many seats, petrol or diesel as long as it is fun to drive, well as much fun as you can have in an auto car for less than £1,500

Any ideas?

cossynut2

Check out Gumtree, E-Bay and Autotrader, its suprising what is out there for £1500.

gcfcos

I had an ex police Vauxhall senator 3.0 24v auto and that was good fun, paid £50 for it lol, mind u that was many years ago now

gcfcos

I would look at this if I wAnted an auto
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/322646875308

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Mondeo






Lol

Adam-M

Just had a quick look the days of cheap Nissan 300zx's are gone, think you use to be able to get the v6 non turbo for about that budget.

After just a quick look...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/202017060941

burnzy

Petrol turbo, or big capacity petrol are the only fun cars really, a big Merc are usually fun and mainly autos, but anything from the 2000ish era are pretty much rust monsters.

burnzy

Couple of forrester turbos around that price, subarus are pretty good reliability wise too, autos are not really wanted so get good price, some of them are 5.5sec to 60 cars which is quick for a small 4x4 essentially.

Brickhouse

Never thought of a Forrester, good idea, meant to be very quick. So reliability on a Scoob are meant to be pretty good?

gcfcos

lol quality mate

ajamesc

Older shape diesel e class if your not too worried about looks they go on for ever

Brickhouse

My MK3 2.5 V6 Mondeo is good, but kind of after something that will gives huge smiles per mile! Only cars that I have owned that gave me smiles per mile are.... 205 GTI's, R5 GT Turbo's and a MK2 Golf GTI 16v. I had a Volvo 850T5 for a time, brilliant in a straight line but crap around the county lanes, so heavy. I have come across an E46 BMW 325i auto, dont know anything about these but might be fun to drive?

H3lsing

There's this A8 beast that looks totally bland on the outside: https://www.pistonheads.com/classifi...o-2001/7498424

Or this 7'er...

https://www.pistonheads.com/classifi...s-745i/7378462

All within your price range, would definitely make a fun weekend car.

fuzzy

a 3 litre turbo diesel C class is 224 bhp and come in under budget for about a 2001/2

burnzy

2001 c class will be a rusty cum bucket, I had a w211 e320cdi 2004 vintage, and although pretty quick for a standard oil burner, and a good all round car that was a perfect daily, it handled like crap and the autobox wouldn't let you do anything exciting even with the ESP supposedly off.

a8 another lovely car but just too big to be any real sort of fun, had a d3 3.0tdi and recently drove a 2.8 d2, yes you make the tyres squeal but it's hard work and doesn't feel right, more so in the d2 than the d3, the d3 is surprisingly agile for how big it is, but I sold mine to buy something "fun" I can imagine the 7 series being about the same as it's intended for the same target audience, it has it's place on the road but you don't buy one for something "fun"

subarus have always come fairly high on the reliability stakes, and if you can get passed the odd look of them then they are a good motor, I've always fancied one and nearly bit the bullet, and I can't remember why I didn't now, iirc rear subframes are there Achilles heal so be wary, any engine issues are shared with the Impreza as they are basically one in drag, I think the foresters are underestimated unfortunately for some, plus you'll have that famous Subaru grumble to boot

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/consumer-news/91220/the-most-and-least-reliable-car-manufacturers-2016

fuzzy

ive got the w203 c320, its a 2006 model so a bit more than the op budget but its got the 7g tronic auto so you can go through the gears manually if you want although the auto is pretty good of the mark. smaller lighter car than the e class and I think they changed the engines and boxes in them in 2005 to the 224bhp and 7 speed auto so I'm not sure how good the old ones are.everyone ive spoken to since I got it has told me these engines are great, bullet proof and good for hundreds of thousands of miles. ive had it for about 6 weeks now and I thrash it and ive not managed to break anything yet and its still a solid car with no rattly trim. I must have one of the few mercs around with none of the rust issues known for that era. not even any small bubbles on the inner rear arches but I do see a few around my way and your right.....most of them are rust buckets !
I was also looking at similar cars before I bought the c class estate but looks wise I thought the audis were very bland in comparison and the bmws were all going for much higher prices.
I guess it depends on what the op considers fun? big powerful barge for high speed cruising or small and nippy for handling?
ive also got a merc A class in the original shape from 2002, its the A210 amg so its a small car but has the amg kit and styling and quite a big engine for a little car,amg bored out the standard top of range 1.9 to a 141bhp 2.1 and with the amg suspension and brakes upgrades it handles like a little go kart and is great for racing on the twisty country roads. that's embarrassed quite a few big powerful cars! theres usually a couple on ebay and you can pick them up for under the £1500 budget.
as you can probably tell just now I'm a Mercedes fan

in fact heres one with low mileage for a grand....
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/One-of-a-K...oAAOSw6hNZh0Nb

Adam-M

It's a hard criteria to meet due to the budget, I think your limited to large engine'd barges like v6's and v8's.

Fun, automatic and £1500 in my opinion your only really going to get two of them.

burnzy

Fuzzy your 2006 car doesn't fall under the rust issues, it was a problem they had from changing to waterbased paint and not getting it right, iirc around 2003-2005 they sorted it out, and you 7g Merc doesn't fall under the op's price bracket, I liked my e class a lot, had 215k miles on it when I part ex'd it, but it wasn't a "fun" car.

mercs certainly have got it right for driver comfort though, and I can see why the 63's and 55 AMG's have such appeal

burnzy

I reckon you could have fun in a forrester with some proper wheels, dropped slightly on coilovers and stiffer ARB's

moondustka

How many of of those 328 horses are left now it's done 243k!!!

stevieturbo

What makes a car fun for you though ? And does size of car matter, practicality etc ?

Try and stretch your budget, or hunt around, but a Lexus Soarer could be a decent option.

Available with either the 4.0 V8, or a single turbo 2.5 and pretty sure most were autos, definitely the V8 versions.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/lexus-soar...cAAOSwfcBZiy-A

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Toyota-Lex...AAAOSw9~5ZSSAl

Most other cheap autos are likely to be small cars

You could probably get a Volvo 940 turbo too...but theyre not exactly sporty or fun...but good cars.

Bailes1992

I think your best bet would be an E46 or E39 BMW. You may even get a ropey E38 740i in your budget.

Fil

Bought a 750 e38 for less than that a few years ago as astop gap, still got it, will keep it until its dead.

So 740 or 750 e38 geta my vote

bj928

i used to have a v8 E430 merc, and that was fun and fast, auto as most mercs are, limited to abut 155 but could get there real easy, got a ML430 now as i was so impressed with the engine in the E class

The Black Count

Just sold the daughters MG ZR auto with a new m.o.t. for £450 3dr black stiff ish suspension and 17 inch wheels, 90 thousand miles and in great condition

It was quite a good drive really and at that price you could afford to thrash it and if anything broke just scrap it

ajamesc

The only way your get fun and auto for 1500 is if you buy a Discovery or Pajero and go play in the mud lol

gcfcos

Now there's a man who talks sense

ray barker

anyone remember the daf variomatic car what a wagon mate had one. dont get one if you want fun

gcfcos

I remember them mate

ajamesc

I work on dafs many people talk about Daf cars but I've never seen one I'd like to look one over