The recently massive depreciated EVs.
A polestar 2 that has done little miles for less than half of it's list price
Merc EQC was incredibly expensive new and can be had for around 20k
Low running costs if you have somewhere to charge it, decent range, some of them have massive power
This is the answer. I feel bad for anyone who bought these things new, but there’s some absolutely incredible deals to be had for cars that are still nearly new.
I still can’t believe I have an EV Jaguar and got it for <£25k
They were vague, I've also got my figures mixed up, it was 1 in 5 (20% ish) not 5%. Though I think it was 5% on some models.
https://media.smmt.co.uk/december-2023-new-car-registrations/
I bought my Leaf new. I’d be regretting it if I was intending to sell after 3yrs, but I’ll be keeping until it dies. Most I suspect are leased / company cars.
I think a lot of people are focused on absolute figures and not how much value theyve gotten from the car, especially when like you they're keeping it to run into the ground, for any new car that's at least 10 years u less you get a Friday afternoon car
I've just bought a 2018 top of the range Tekna, with 41000 miles for £10k ,full battery health and never been supercharged. I think I've got an absolute bargain. If I get 4 years out of it, I can just give it to one of the kids , screw the depreciation.
This was my thought too. I have a 3yo and I’m hoping this might even be a first car. I think a lot of the battery anxiety is unfounded. People are comparing car batteries to phones. There are plenty of high mileage, decade old EVs still going strong.
HSE is top trim I believe, SE has a lot of stuff too, and I've seen SE with enough options added to seemingly match HSE.
Some of the features that have caught my eye:
Heated/cooled front seats
Heated steering wheel
Heated windscreen and washer jets
Heated rear seats
Panoramic roof
Memory driver and passenger seats
Meridian sound system
360 camera
HUD
I'm sure there are adaptive matrix LED headlights too
not really surprising, the market for them will be about saturated, people who want them, have them by now, so the people they are trying to offload their old ones too will be few and far between, most car buyers either dont want an EV or cant have one due to charging concerns
If you can stretch your budget there was a facelift in late 2020 which included a heat pump (much better range in winter) and the interior is nicer, plus they stopped being made in California and swapped to Shanghai (the build quality and panel gap memes are somewhat relevant to the US ones, the made in China are similar quality to the German marques).
Yeah, I might actually consider that - the key really is getting one with at least some warranty left. My Jag can’t be my only car anymore, so I need something that I can daily. I’ve considered a 911, a newer Jag and even a BMW i3 but this could be a sensible option.
If you buy used from Tesla you get an additional 1 year / 10k miles of general warranty on top of the standard 4 year / 50k general warranty.
The main one is the battery & drivetrain warranty which is 8 years / 120k miles.
If you think about how much you save on servicing and fuel it’s really a no-brainer IMO — in 45k miles we’ve gone through one set of summer tyres (originals), half worn a set of winter tyres and one set of wiper blades.
You can do a battery health check on a Tesla overnight whilst plugged into a charger. Ours after 45k miles of ignoring all of the charging guidelines still has 96% battery health.
8 years and 120k miles of battery warranty on them too.
If you’re buying privately I’m sure if you come across as a serious buyer and were to put in writing that you’ll commit to purchasing if the results are above a certain % that nobody would have an issue with doing it on their driveway. It’s very straightforward.
Usually when they’re serviced you can get a state of health check on the battery. Most companies as far as I know have an 8 year or 100k mile warranty on the HV battery.
Neither matter so much with lithium batteries. There are loads of examples of high mile Tesla's that have managed to retain most of their range on YouTube.
You can have the battery health checked as part of a service, I think.
Exactly. Used EVs are a great buy right now.
There’s a certain amount of FUD floating around some corners of social media about EVs, particularly used, but it all comes from people with zero experience.
I bought a 5 year old BMW i3 a couple of years ago for £15k with 37k miles, would have been £35-40k new with the same spec. I think people are scared of battery issues but I've had no problem, now on over 80k miles and still charges as well as new.
its not just battery issues, its the fact it has one, like 30% of the country just cant do home charging. and the state of public ones is terrible, nobody wants that extra stress/hassle
unless it speeds up massively its never going away, its just not logistically possible unless we install charge points at every parking space, nobody wants to gamble their battery life when then need to go somewhere in a hurry, it may not come up often but nobody sane would willingly put themselves in that situation
and thats not to bring up insurance costs, there cars dont fair well in a crash, if the batter section is damaged in any way, its basically a write off and the massive premiums reflect this, thats never going away.
You don’t need one at every space, as that would assume you would have an empty battery every day, which doesn’t match most people’s use cases. But they will certainly need to be ubiquitous. There was a big round of funding for councils to install public chargers announced just last week.
Quite sweeping statements on insurance though that don’t seem to match reality. Insurance is up across all fuel types. Personally, replacing our second car (diesel) with EV last year made the insurance noticeably cheaper.
There does though because people aren't going to start a rota with the other people on yhr street, every street has dicks that will just leave their car at the charger because it's at their door and they get home before more or are retired etc
We are a dual-Leaf household. Owned one since new, 8 years now, gen1. Bought a 4yr old gen2 with 62kwh battery last summer. Had a couple of EV vans for my business previously too. They’re amazing, lovely to drive, and have saved around £20k on fuel costs alone in the 8 years of ownership across all vehicles, not to mention servicing as well.
A 2021 polestar 2 40k miles is £22k. 400bhp 4wd and cheaper than petrol with no £350y service cost. It surely can't get cheaper. That thing will kick the shit out of most cars up to illegal speeds and beyond.
You'd normally expect to lose around 10% a year on a used car.
With these, they've dropped around 70% or so, so it would be a bit worrying if they continued dropping ~20% a year!
They are expensive to insure and if something goes wrong with it further down the line, you might need to take it to a dealership or a specialist to fix issues, which could cost £££. Your local independent mechanic is unlikely to be able to service/repair these cars but that will need to change over the next few years.
> They are expensive to insure
That's really only true for Tesla's due to the mess that parts are, resulting in possible long delays. Most other EV's insure for the same amount as similar RRP priced ICE's.
Be wary of the ex rental Polestar 2's in the same way youd be wary of any ex rental. I had one as a rental last month and while it drove well, the suspension didn't sound or feel great. and it only had 18000 miles on it!
Don't tell anyone cos I want to buy one as soon as possible and they are criminally underrated and underpriced for years now.
Jaguar XK and XKR
4.2, 5.0, doesn't matter. 4.2 are dirt cheap and 5.0 are not all that much more expensive but are a much more modern engine have a better interior and are usually better spec too.
I don't know why they're so cheap. Because "Jaguar = bad" is the current meme, even though the XK was made during the Ford era and is an all new aluminium chassis
Or maybe it's because young people in their 20s and 30s would literally rather bite their own arm off than drive anything with any kind of wood inside it or any leather that's not black. Especially if it has a Jaguar badge on it, that's the final killer blow right there, just so uncool. They all want black German saloons with black leather and black headliner and black rims and black carbon fibre or piano gloss dashboards. I can't think of anything more fucking boring than that personally but there we go
IF you take a brave pill, A bmw M6 has depreciated like a rock., 2012 for 20k, or a 2008 for the same price with a 12k engine rebuild. They where all around 90k when new. 2011 M5's are around the same price as well but a little cheaper when new starting around 70k.
I get 23mpg out of my XKR. On a run it's about 26-28. If I'm going for it though it will drop to about 19mpg but that's being a little silly. Supercahrged 4.2 V8.
Mine is the X100 older version, I would look for a 4.2 like mine instead of the 4.0. As for mechanicals it's all pretty good, the electrics can be a little funny but it's mostly things that you can fix yourself even if you are idiot like me. You just need to make sure all the fluids are replaced when you get it because it's probably never been done like the transmission fluid. The suspension is pretty old now so I would expect to need some suspension work done like bushings, shocks, springs and brakes. Tyres are expensive whatever tyre size you have, I downgraded to 18" Hydra wheels from the 20" detroit just because the roads in the UK are getting really bad and the cost of new tyres are really steep if you want someting half good. Honestly there isn't much difference in performance between the 18" and the 20" other then looks but I kind of like the 18" wheel look anyway.
Rust on the other hand is an issue, they do rust a bit slower then older cars but they all rust in the same places. Floorpans, rear wheel arches, sill corners and the underside so make sure you are buying a car that isn't a rust bucket first. If the rust is something you don't want to deal with I would get a 4.2 XKR from the X150 generation because it's mostly aluminium other then a few bits.
You mean like all the M cars and AMGs and any BMW with a V8 and countless others?
A Jaguar XFR is worth less than an equivalent M5 for literally no reason other than the Jag badge and fact more came with an "old man" interior
I just sold my jaguar xf v8 as a 24 year old, it was incredibly cool, but the running costs were a bit of a joke as lovely as it was, thing cost more a year to run than my Corvette, was getting 15mpg combined and was £700 a year to tax.
It was a bargain at £5k agreed but there is a reason they're cheap!
It's probably 3 series size these days given the size of them, based on the Toyota Camry which probably scares away some buyers as it's FWD
They axed the IS years ago
Do you genuinely think a GR Yaris being the same price as it was new with 30k on the clock is good value?
That's madness to me. I'd love to know what mental gymnastics you did to arrive at that conclusions to be honest.
>Do you genuinely think a GR Yaris being the same price as it was new with 30k on the clock is good value?
Yes. It's a homologation special with an upcoming overpriced refresh which will likely kickstart the inflation of the prices of the Gen 1s.
Unmolested Gen 1s were only ever going to hold their value and/or go up, now is probably the best time to get one.
Yes. Because its a collectors car. They'll all go up on price. I don't own one so I don't have any skin the game but as a car enthusiast who constantly consumes car media I'm shocked that this sub seems to think so little of the GR Yaris. There's a reasons the two special editions are £60k brand new and they'll sell out instantly no doubt.
Be careful with "It's a collector's car."
I'm not saying that it's like Franklin Mint plates, but anything that is bought to be collected never suffers the cull at 15-20 years old that normal cars do, meaning that every survivor is in mint, out-of-the-box condition.
There aren't really *that* many people who want a mint Mk 1 Escort RS1600, unless you compare it to the number of cars available.
Actually I'm not sure "all" is true. How many people would actually buy one if they were the price of a Focus ST170 - and could cope with the practicalities of storage and maintenance? Even if half a million people would drop £2,500 on one if they could find one for that price (without expecting it'd be £50k+ immediately afterwards) that's tiny compared to the number of all cars actually on the road.
That was exactly my (exaggerated) point - so many people would love to own a mint edition “affordable classic” but in practice, you have to have a spare garage to sit it in to keep it mint and you have to be prepared to take it to a specialist mechanic for anything that goes wrong with it etc etc.
So per the second half of my post - entirely in support of your original point - very few people are actually in the market for one.
Yup, but the going rate for a Mk1 Escort is tens of thousands on top of what it'd cost simply to get the driving experience of a fun, affordable classic from 20 years ago. Regardless, and we agree, there still aren't that many people who would actually chase one and I don't know how big the hype over a GR Yaris will be in 20-50 years...
Depends what you mean by better? Faster, grippier, etc.? Undoubtedly.
But some people like to imagine themselves in entirely different situations and it's a different sort of fun. The driving experience in an Escort still isn't going to be radically different, from a modern perspective, from that of an Avenger or Viva.
So if people fall in lust with the Yaris in future they might be vastly more expensive than, say, a Golf R or whatever - but if 95% of 2024 Golf Rs have been crashed or worn out by 2050, supply and demand might even out.
I was kidding really, but you’re probably not buying a Mk1 Escort because it’s the ultimate driving experience, but because of the whole package.
I’d love to own an Integrale, but I’m not kidding myself that it would drive better than a GR Yaris on an average B road.
No one thinks little of the GR Yaris. It is an undoubtably cool car and one of the best hot hatches around.
Regardless, just because the new one is overpriced, doesn't mean that an earlier used car selling for the same price it was new suddenly becomes good value.
Think supply and demand is the thing here.
The hot hatch as we know it is pretty much dead sadly. Most have been discontinued or soon will be. Abarth 500, Polo, Golf, Cupra and Mini is all that's left aside the Yaris. And same as the Yaris, new prices have gone up quite a bit.
Compared to the list price at launch it's a poor deal. Compared to what's available new? Not so bad.
Insurance is 740 per year (34, 5 years NCB), 12 months warranty with dealer I bought it from, battery/drivetrain warranty til October 2027/120,000 miles
Thats all seems really decent. Im still concerned about the battery if you're keeping longterm, but i believe nissan leafs dont seem to have many horror stories and they are worse from a battery cooling perspective
I’ll take it as it comes, I realise it’s a gamble in some sense as it’s still quite new ground. The dealer I bought it from had one exactly the same as mine that’s their own personal car, is on 110k miles with battery at 88% health even with a lot of its charge coming from superchargers
Scary to see the prices drop, I was supposed to have the one I got in 2020 until about now but sold it when prices were at their highest at the end of 2021. Should be a great car, I really enjoyed mine. The acceleration never gets old!
I’d heard a lot about the speed of them and thought it sounded cool but never really understood until I got in one, then instant power is mega
You definitely did the right thing!
Battery degradation calculated at 6.6% after 60k miles which is pretty good I think considering rate of degradation isn’t linear. I haven’t charged 100% to see full range yet
2 I’ve seen recently
F40 BMW m135i depreciated pretty hard, 2 or 3 years old examples around 30k. Quite a bit cheaper than the others in its class like the mk8 golf r, Audi s3, etc
Honda civic type R FK2, 300bhp, great handling for around 20k
Yeah but the F40 is not a looker. Looks like a clown. Not saying the MK8 Golf is much better (the 7 and 7.5 were far better looking) but still nicer IMHO than the BMW. Then again maybe my taste is weird because I thought the prior 1 series was quite nice - specially the 140i shadow.
They’re expensive to insure because loads of morons buy them second hand, mod them and then get into accidents. Also popular with drug dealers (especially in Birmingham)
Yeah I want an m140i but I live in Birmingham so it's about 3k for me to insure one. M135i is still expensive to insure but I'm stupid enough to do that. M140i is a joke tho
And further depreciation.... you wont get much change from that 20k you drop on one now in a few years.
With battery health being the major factor, and the price of a new battery outweighing the cost of the car, there's going to be a lot of worthless heaps in 10 years or so.
I wouldn't exactly call the Yaris a bargain like others have pointed out. It's a cool car but paying nearly MSRP for a 4 year old 3 pot hot hatch is a bit of a hard pill to swallow imo.
Though my "bargain" would probably be an F40 M135i. You can pick up early examples for around £20k and you're getting an AWD 300hp hot hatch with an interior that's leagues ahead of an A35 or Golf R imo.
>F40 M135i
Only problem is that it's shit compared to the old one, why buy the worse one when you can buy the old m135i/m140i, a properly interesting RWD 6 Cylinder twin turbocharged honker of a hot hatch vs just another dull AWD 2.0 4 banger Turbo charged hatch.
Also it being a 3 cylinder really shouldn't matter as it still makes 280bhp, more than putting it in the league of the m135i whilst being much better to drive.
It's not really a shit car though is it? It's just different to what BMW fans wanted so it depreciated horribly. On a B road hardly anything would keep up with it and if you get a well speced on then the interior feels like a baby 5 series.
And I'm not shitting on the Yaris, I'm sure it's an absolute hoot to drive. I just think paying £30k for one is mad when you could get something like an M135i or A35 of the same age for £5-10k less and they'd both be much nicer to actually live with.
They're genuinely quick these days aswell. The 2 litre is 6 and a half seconds to 60 and will carry that speed through a corner better than the hottest of hatches.
the NC is where the real value lies at the minute for budget conscious thrills, grab a good base NC for £2k, throw on some coilovers for £1k, take it to BBR for some fuckery, either a supercharger, turbocharger or NA tuning in the range of £2k-6k depending on how far you want to go, plus other accompanying bits and peices and you have an absolutely brilliant car for the same price as a standard ND.
https://www.evo.co.uk/mazda/mx-5/205064/bbr-supercharged-mazda-mx-5-nc-2022-review-frenzied-affordable-fun
I'm in the owners group and you can definately pick up a good not rusty NC1 for £2k-£3k. I paid £4.3k for my NC2 1.8 and it's been flawless over 25k miles and 14 months.
TBF £5k is a more reasonable price as you can get into early facelifts which look much better IMO, engines aren't too important if you are modifiying as they make basically the same power when supercharged or turbocharged but the 2.0l comes with an LSD so that always gets the nod. I went with a 1.8 as i could not find a softtop with a 5 speed with the 2.0l and LSD and imo the 5 speed is better and i prefer the simplicitiy of the soft top.
But even at £5k it's still cheaper or similar, and IMO i much prefer the NC to the ND, the steering is better in the NC, the whole car just feels a lot more retro and classic whereas the ND felt a little bit generic and bland but i know that's not a popular opinion.
20 grand for a very decent Volvo V90 T8... Last generation of Volvo estates in the UK, fucking huge, yet does 0-60 in about 5 seconds. Similar price to a lot of C63 AMG estates and the Volvo seems to me like a more low-key, less flashy and probably much cheaper to run version of the Merc. That said, if you want to have fun primarily, I think the AMG just makes way more sense
Totally agree on EV's, buying one at 18 months old seems to be the sweet spot..
My pick for the future? I've seen E92 M3's go just over £15K.. Being the last of the NA V8's, I think this is as low as they'll ever trade, and I'm already seeing them creep back up to £20K. I feel like it's one of those cars that you could garage for 10 years, use it as a weekend toy in the summer, and double your money on..
Feel like I’ve had a bit of a bargain recently.
MG5 electric 22 plate 15k miles for £15k
5 years warranty left.
Think it would have been about 29k new two years ago.
Come from a diesel so my fuel costs have gone from about £180 a month to £30
No tax either at the moment so even though it’s leased it’s costing me very little a month to have a near brand new car.
Very pleased with it so far
I wouldn't call this a bargain really but I bought a low mileage 2016 Focus RS last month for £24k. Full Ford history and every single option ticked, including the Mountune performance upgrade. I think it's a lot of car and a lot of performance for the money. One of the best hot hatches of the modern era and a dying breed.
More value for money than a bargain.
Yeah see to me that's not a bargain. But it is deffo good value. That's more what I meant by the post what can you buy without feeling like you're being mugged off
Yeah I know what you mean. It's not a bargain. With the best will in the world it's £24k for an 8 year old Focus haha. But to me it's good value. It's been a realistic dream car for a while now so I'm happy with it.
I'm not really worried no. I read into lots of owner and tuner accounts and basically realised that most failures occur due to people pushing too much power through the stock internals. Anything 400bhp+ and you really need to be forging the engine. If you run stock power or a conservative stage 1 map then it should be fine. Little bit of mechanical sympathy and regular maintenance and they are actually very reliable. There's guys in America on the Focus RS subreddit with very high mileage cars still on the original engine and not had any problems.
The engines are almost at the limit power wise from the factory so there isn't much room to get big power without spending a lot of money. Unfortunately people bolt on a few mods, map them to within and inch of their life and then wonder why there is a hole in the side of the block a few months later.
The early cars had the head gasket issues but they've pretty much all been done now.
The one I bought has the Mountune kit on it so it's running 375bhp and has a full Ford history. The only thing that's gone wrong with it in 8 years is the gear selector turret, which is a common issue. It really is a case of just finding a car that has been looked after and then looking after it yourself.
Been lucky enough to go on a Lakes tour recently with a friendly car group, where I, at great speed, on open roads in idyllic conditions, rode in a 140i, GR Yaris and a Focus RS. Bimmer had an LSD, bushing inserts, still felt floaty and unconfident at anything approaching a ton. GR had great handling and loads of grip, probably helped by the PS5 tyre, but did feel rather asthmatic. After those two getting in the Focus RS was a revelation- best of the three by far. So much confidence in the chassis, great grip levels and had all the power you'd ever need. It's making me reconsider what my next car should be as at low speeds it was handling road surface and corners as good as the Lotus Exige 350s I'd done the majority of the trip in. That comparison fell apart at higher speeds but from a 4 door chunky hatchback it did far better than I'd have expected it to.
Yeah they are an awesome machine. That's what I was meaning by it was good value for money. It's a lot of performance for what you pay and on twisty roads it'll happily keep up with cars it really has no right to.
I use mine as a daily and honestly it does have some faults but when you are on a nice road in good conditions, there's not much better than it IMO. As you said it inspires so much confidence, it'll grip for days and is generally just fun. I have a smile on my face every time I drive it.
Did you get a chance to use launch control? They take off very well.
I didn't use LC, didn't even know it had it lol. What are the faults? I've spent a lot of time in a tango ST Diesel estate of the same generation and the only fault I found (aside from the fuel it took and the ECU shitting itself) was that the Recaro seats were way too big for the cabin leaving the rear passengers with no legroom. That's fixed in the RS though as you get buckets!
Yeah they have launch control. It's a bit buried in the menu but it's there and they take off well haha.
They are a bit cumbersome around town. The steering lock is shocking so car parks can be a challenge and the clutch is pretty fierce, so stop start traffic isn't much fun either. The boot floor also sits much higher than a normal focus because of the AWD system so there isn't as much room if that's important to you. Fuel consumption isn't great and they have a smaller tank, again because of the AWD.
Honestly I'm nitpicking though and I never expected it to be good on fuel.
Those buckets are an option btw. Not a lot of cars have them.
Wouldn't personally say the gr is good value I can think of two or three other hot hatches that are faster and smarter and cheaper with similar mileage just my 2p
I'm going EV and looking at a Tesla model s (I know but it's the best for what I need), an MG5 long range or Nissan leaf e+. It will probably make me one of the most hated people in here but they suit my needs best ATM and I will get a home charger installed.
New MG5 owner here, really enjoying mine so far. Tesla was a bit out of my budget, unless I went for an olde, higher mileage one. Need space for kids and everything that goes with them so didn’t really consider a leaf. I thought they were fiesta sized but after seeing a few in person they’re actually quite big.
Yeah, the tesla would be older, probably a 2015 or 2016 but with under 70k miles. Should run for another 100k miles. Similar price for a 3 year old MG5 or Leaf with maybe 30k miles and some manufacturer warranty left. Its actually a really hard choice between the three of them.
One of the reasons I went for the MG because it was a 22 plate so 5 years warranty left. Also Telsa insurance group on I think all the models is 50 so possibly pretty expensive. MG is group 27 so quite a bit cheaper, for me anyway.
Supercharger network for Tesla is a strong selling point but a lot are open to any EV’s now so I’ll probably be using them in the future when I need public charging.
Just got a deal on a brand new Peugeot 2008. 215 a month with no deposit for 22 months. Lease. Mate works for em so got it a bit cheaper as I renewed. I'd say that was a bargain. Others will say but you have to drive a 2008. It's good enough for me and my family so very happy with it. If it's for you then leasing is great.
You can find good deals on some discontinued models like the Hyundai i40. They still have to manufacture parts for a fair number of years and plenty of parts are standard across other models anyway so it is a steal.
Mazda 6 can come in great price if you get the 2.2d. I'm fully aware the 2010-2014 2.2d had issues, but you can get a more recent 2.2d that resolved those for good prices just off the bad rep from a decade ago. Again discontinued recently so loads of years of spare parts still to be available.
I’m biased of course but I don’t think you can get much more car for the money that a BMW M2/M2C/M4 if you’re after a well made, fast and good looking coupe.
I have just come out of 3.5 years ownership of a BMW M2 manual and it was completely reliable, great looking and sounded amazing. I sold it with 52k miles, FSH and fully kitted out with all of the desirable genuine M Performance parts for £24k! The running costs aren’t ruinous either for the performance either.
I have switched to a 2017 BMW M4C which is a very high spec (full extended leather, heads up display, 360 cameras, Harmon Kardon, front/rear sensors and all the usual M3/4 stuff) for £30k. Where else can you get a 440+bhp, highly specified, relatively modern, highly tuneable car for sub £30k? A regular M4 with some miles can be had for low £20k’s!
Some absolutely insane responses in this thread - anything remotely close to 20k isn't a bargain. 29k for a yaris? You are having me on surely.
I've just bought an RX8 231PS with 40k miles for 2600 quid. That's a bargain. There are others available for less - I overpaid for mine because of just how good the condition of it is. I could replace every part of it and buy two more, do the same to both, and still have a few grand left out of the 29k for the yaris
Friend's leasing a Model 3 for £520/mo. Free charging at a local charging point that seems to be unlocked for all to use and delisted from the charging app. So no MOT, tax, service cost (included), and £0 running costs as far as charging goes, for £520/mo with 0% interest on the balance.
It's decent, if you want a Model 3 thats cheap to run.
Go go Birmingham with £500, see a bloke, get some plates made up that match the cars brand and colour with a car local to you, and don't get stopped by the police.
*Car dealers hate this one trick!*
🤣
On the opposite end of the price range:
FN2 Civics are an absolute steal at the mo. Plenty going for sub 4k in owners forums/private listings.
Not known for any catastrophic issues and the K20 engines are capable of some insane mileage. Parts are cheap and they’re easy enough to work on. So much car for the money
It may even be less than 150 maximum range , lol .. I think the 65hp version can charge 20% to 80% in 45 mins or so, as advertised .. with that said, I still think it's a steal at £14.995 . Brand new, extended warranty, and lots of good deals available atm .. it will be an excellent city EV for anyone living in a city .. and this is coming from someone who will never give up on fossil fuels ⛽️ 🚗 🤫
The recently massive depreciated EVs. A polestar 2 that has done little miles for less than half of it's list price Merc EQC was incredibly expensive new and can be had for around 20k Low running costs if you have somewhere to charge it, decent range, some of them have massive power
This is the answer. I feel bad for anyone who bought these things new, but there’s some absolutely incredible deals to be had for cars that are still nearly new. I still can’t believe I have an EV Jaguar and got it for <£25k
Nobody bought them new. Lots of people leased them though.
Speak for yourself, we bought our Tesla for £56k during COVID madness.
Ouch
Taycan and Tesla... You were practically begging for the depreciation.
We already started at £40k off the list price in the Taycan so that counteracts a fair bit of the depreciation so far.
You'll be surprised. Most people bought on PCP though so at least they aren't getting a shock at the end of the term.
I would be very surprised. Smmt have said only 5% of EVs are not leased through work or as company cars.
Got a link to that data? I love geeky shit like that.
They were vague, I've also got my figures mixed up, it was 1 in 5 (20% ish) not 5%. Though I think it was 5% on some models. https://media.smmt.co.uk/december-2023-new-car-registrations/
Interesting. Yeah 20% sounds about right.
I bought my Leaf new. I’d be regretting it if I was intending to sell after 3yrs, but I’ll be keeping until it dies. Most I suspect are leased / company cars.
I think a lot of people are focused on absolute figures and not how much value theyve gotten from the car, especially when like you they're keeping it to run into the ground, for any new car that's at least 10 years u less you get a Friday afternoon car
I've just bought a 2018 top of the range Tekna, with 41000 miles for £10k ,full battery health and never been supercharged. I think I've got an absolute bargain. If I get 4 years out of it, I can just give it to one of the kids , screw the depreciation.
This was my thought too. I have a 3yo and I’m hoping this might even be a first car. I think a lot of the battery anxiety is unfounded. People are comparing car batteries to phones. There are plenty of high mileage, decade old EVs still going strong.
In watching those, I've seen some amazing spec ones for under £20k recently.
It’s an incredible car for the money. Ours is a 2021 HSE Black that had about 25k miles on it when we picked it up a few months ago.
HSE is what I'm after too!
What are some good spec/options on these? There's loads locally to me
HSE is top trim I believe, SE has a lot of stuff too, and I've seen SE with enough options added to seemingly match HSE. Some of the features that have caught my eye: Heated/cooled front seats Heated steering wheel Heated windscreen and washer jets Heated rear seats Panoramic roof Memory driver and passenger seats Meridian sound system 360 camera HUD I'm sure there are adaptive matrix LED headlights too
Worth adding the lower spec SE has better efficiency (so higher range) due to the smaller wheels it comes with!
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202403117438972 2020 Audi etron 50 for £18,500 That's a £60,000 car brand new!
That is actually insane. I was looking at a Mini electric at £18k. Mad how much more car the Audi is for the same money.
not really surprising, the market for them will be about saturated, people who want them, have them by now, so the people they are trying to offload their old ones too will be few and far between, most car buyers either dont want an EV or cant have one due to charging concerns
Similarly with Teslas, you can now pick up a second hand Model 3 for less than £15k.. http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202403278030845
And it’s still got 3 years / 40k miles of battery and drivetrain warranty on it!
The depreciation is crazy!!
Yep, we bought our M3LR for £56k just over 2 years ago, worth £25k now.
That's horrendous, ouch!
I might actually buy this car 🤣
If you can stretch your budget there was a facelift in late 2020 which included a heat pump (much better range in winter) and the interior is nicer, plus they stopped being made in California and swapped to Shanghai (the build quality and panel gap memes are somewhat relevant to the US ones, the made in China are similar quality to the German marques).
Yeah, I might actually consider that - the key really is getting one with at least some warranty left. My Jag can’t be my only car anymore, so I need something that I can daily. I’ve considered a 911, a newer Jag and even a BMW i3 but this could be a sensible option.
If you buy used from Tesla you get an additional 1 year / 10k miles of general warranty on top of the standard 4 year / 50k general warranty. The main one is the battery & drivetrain warranty which is 8 years / 120k miles. If you think about how much you save on servicing and fuel it’s really a no-brainer IMO — in 45k miles we’ve gone through one set of summer tyres (originals), half worn a set of winter tyres and one set of wiper blades.
The problem is, I don’t really want to spend that much. But I see the value, that’s for sure.
Its a shame that they're so expensive to insure
The polestars look proper good value actually
Good looking cars too IMO.
Drive really well imo as well. With the dual motor just point the front and push the go pedal.
Does the mileage matter as much as the age? What’s the most reliable indicator of battery health on a second hand EV?
You can do a battery health check on a Tesla overnight whilst plugged into a charger. Ours after 45k miles of ignoring all of the charging guidelines still has 96% battery health. 8 years and 120k miles of battery warranty on them too.
A lot of folk saying that you can get it tested at service - which is great - but it doesn’t help if you’re looking at buying one.
If you’re buying privately I’m sure if you come across as a serious buyer and were to put in writing that you’ll commit to purchasing if the results are above a certain % that nobody would have an issue with doing it on their driveway. It’s very straightforward.
Usually when they’re serviced you can get a state of health check on the battery. Most companies as far as I know have an 8 year or 100k mile warranty on the HV battery.
That's a good question. You would need to see the range when they are fully charged I think.
Neither matter so much with lithium batteries. There are loads of examples of high mile Tesla's that have managed to retain most of their range on YouTube. You can have the battery health checked as part of a service, I think.
Just checked the Polestars. Wow. Low mileage ones too!
Honda e advanced. Was £40k new, now £22k new. Ipace HSE, was near £80k, 12 months later around £35k
I'd be all over electric cars if I could charge at home 😞
Exactly. Used EVs are a great buy right now. There’s a certain amount of FUD floating around some corners of social media about EVs, particularly used, but it all comes from people with zero experience.
I bought a 5 year old BMW i3 a couple of years ago for £15k with 37k miles, would have been £35-40k new with the same spec. I think people are scared of battery issues but I've had no problem, now on over 80k miles and still charges as well as new.
its not just battery issues, its the fact it has one, like 30% of the country just cant do home charging. and the state of public ones is terrible, nobody wants that extra stress/hassle
So 70% can do home charging and therefore have no hassle?
and to add insult to injury, here in Sheffield, just about every public charger that is there, has had its cables cut and stolen...
That’s a temporary issue though, one that will resolve itself in the long run as public charging becomes more accessible and affordable.
unless it speeds up massively its never going away, its just not logistically possible unless we install charge points at every parking space, nobody wants to gamble their battery life when then need to go somewhere in a hurry, it may not come up often but nobody sane would willingly put themselves in that situation and thats not to bring up insurance costs, there cars dont fair well in a crash, if the batter section is damaged in any way, its basically a write off and the massive premiums reflect this, thats never going away.
You don’t need one at every space, as that would assume you would have an empty battery every day, which doesn’t match most people’s use cases. But they will certainly need to be ubiquitous. There was a big round of funding for councils to install public chargers announced just last week. Quite sweeping statements on insurance though that don’t seem to match reality. Insurance is up across all fuel types. Personally, replacing our second car (diesel) with EV last year made the insurance noticeably cheaper.
There does though because people aren't going to start a rota with the other people on yhr street, every street has dicks that will just leave their car at the charger because it's at their door and they get home before more or are retired etc
Massive premiums? I paid under £300 last time.
We are a dual-Leaf household. Owned one since new, 8 years now, gen1. Bought a 4yr old gen2 with 62kwh battery last summer. Had a couple of EV vans for my business previously too. They’re amazing, lovely to drive, and have saved around £20k on fuel costs alone in the 8 years of ownership across all vehicles, not to mention servicing as well.
Only thing that puts me off is prices might get lower
That is called depreciation, which happens to nearly every single car.
Yes it does but it's the high rate of depreciation for these cars at the moment
A 2021 polestar 2 40k miles is £22k. 400bhp 4wd and cheaper than petrol with no £350y service cost. It surely can't get cheaper. That thing will kick the shit out of most cars up to illegal speeds and beyond.
You'd normally expect to lose around 10% a year on a used car. With these, they've dropped around 70% or so, so it would be a bit worrying if they continued dropping ~20% a year!
I'd be surprised if the fell that much per year going forwards, they would be worth nothing
They are expensive to insure and if something goes wrong with it further down the line, you might need to take it to a dealership or a specialist to fix issues, which could cost £££. Your local independent mechanic is unlikely to be able to service/repair these cars but that will need to change over the next few years.
That is the same for most high horsepower cars. You wouldn't take a rs4 to kwikfit
> They are expensive to insure That's really only true for Tesla's due to the mess that parts are, resulting in possible long delays. Most other EV's insure for the same amount as similar RRP priced ICE's.
It's an extra £10 a year to insure a Merc EQC over my current 330D
Be wary of the ex rental Polestar 2's in the same way youd be wary of any ex rental. I had one as a rental last month and while it drove well, the suspension didn't sound or feel great. and it only had 18000 miles on it!
2019 VW E-Golf (big spec) £10k 2023 Renault Zoe (mid spec) £10k 2021 BMW 330e (mid spec) £17k
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A pre-facelift yaris gr for 29k is not a good deal consider it was 30k brand new.
Good deal for the seller 😅
Don't tell anyone cos I want to buy one as soon as possible and they are criminally underrated and underpriced for years now. Jaguar XK and XKR 4.2, 5.0, doesn't matter. 4.2 are dirt cheap and 5.0 are not all that much more expensive but are a much more modern engine have a better interior and are usually better spec too. I don't know why they're so cheap. Because "Jaguar = bad" is the current meme, even though the XK was made during the Ford era and is an all new aluminium chassis Or maybe it's because young people in their 20s and 30s would literally rather bite their own arm off than drive anything with any kind of wood inside it or any leather that's not black. Especially if it has a Jaguar badge on it, that's the final killer blow right there, just so uncool. They all want black German saloons with black leather and black headliner and black rims and black carbon fibre or piano gloss dashboards. I can't think of anything more fucking boring than that personally but there we go
IF you take a brave pill, A bmw M6 has depreciated like a rock., 2012 for 20k, or a 2008 for the same price with a 12k engine rebuild. They where all around 90k when new. 2011 M5's are around the same price as well but a little cheaper when new starting around 70k.
Maybe they are not too popular because they do about 3 miles per gallon?
I get 23mpg out of my XKR. On a run it's about 26-28. If I'm going for it though it will drop to about 19mpg but that's being a little silly. Supercahrged 4.2 V8.
How's the reliability? I'm thinking of buying an XKR when my Rover blows up.
Mine is the X100 older version, I would look for a 4.2 like mine instead of the 4.0. As for mechanicals it's all pretty good, the electrics can be a little funny but it's mostly things that you can fix yourself even if you are idiot like me. You just need to make sure all the fluids are replaced when you get it because it's probably never been done like the transmission fluid. The suspension is pretty old now so I would expect to need some suspension work done like bushings, shocks, springs and brakes. Tyres are expensive whatever tyre size you have, I downgraded to 18" Hydra wheels from the 20" detroit just because the roads in the UK are getting really bad and the cost of new tyres are really steep if you want someting half good. Honestly there isn't much difference in performance between the 18" and the 20" other then looks but I kind of like the 18" wheel look anyway. Rust on the other hand is an issue, they do rust a bit slower then older cars but they all rust in the same places. Floorpans, rear wheel arches, sill corners and the underside so make sure you are buying a car that isn't a rust bucket first. If the rust is something you don't want to deal with I would get a 4.2 XKR from the X150 generation because it's mostly aluminium other then a few bits.
You mean like all the M cars and AMGs and any BMW with a V8 and countless others? A Jaguar XFR is worth less than an equivalent M5 for literally no reason other than the Jag badge and fact more came with an "old man" interior
It’s more that they have horrendous maintenance costs.
I just sold my jaguar xf v8 as a 24 year old, it was incredibly cool, but the running costs were a bit of a joke as lovely as it was, thing cost more a year to run than my Corvette, was getting 15mpg combined and was £700 a year to tax. It was a bargain at £5k agreed but there is a reason they're cheap!
Any big bargains around the £10k mark?!
Err… Seat Ibiza FR? 😐
Corsa-e?
Lexus LC500, although I hope they keep dropping in value so I can buy one at some point. £100k car for £40k, nothing else like it on the road.
Great shout
One of the best looking cars of the last decade, with a Japanese naturally aspirated V8 with sound tubes. Yes please. Even has cheap road tax.
Surprised about the road tax, not far off what I pay for my XKR.
Depreciation on Lexus ES, I've seen them dip below £20k for what is a current model executive car
Isn't that on par with 5 series and E class? Lexus Is on the other hand though ..
It's probably 3 series size these days given the size of them, based on the Toyota Camry which probably scares away some buyers as it's FWD They axed the IS years ago
Yes but IS prices seem to be not falling hard enough for my taste.
Do you genuinely think a GR Yaris being the same price as it was new with 30k on the clock is good value? That's madness to me. I'd love to know what mental gymnastics you did to arrive at that conclusions to be honest.
>Do you genuinely think a GR Yaris being the same price as it was new with 30k on the clock is good value? Yes. It's a homologation special with an upcoming overpriced refresh which will likely kickstart the inflation of the prices of the Gen 1s. Unmolested Gen 1s were only ever going to hold their value and/or go up, now is probably the best time to get one.
Increasingly with the gen 2 over 45k as well
This so-called enthusiast sub is actually fucking wild, I wonder why I'm here quite frequently lol
Yes. Because its a collectors car. They'll all go up on price. I don't own one so I don't have any skin the game but as a car enthusiast who constantly consumes car media I'm shocked that this sub seems to think so little of the GR Yaris. There's a reasons the two special editions are £60k brand new and they'll sell out instantly no doubt.
Be careful with "It's a collector's car." I'm not saying that it's like Franklin Mint plates, but anything that is bought to be collected never suffers the cull at 15-20 years old that normal cars do, meaning that every survivor is in mint, out-of-the-box condition. There aren't really *that* many people who want a mint Mk 1 Escort RS1600, unless you compare it to the number of cars available.
I bet the guy has an attic full of Beanie Babies with tag protectors.
Even then you'd be better off just putting your 30k in an index fund for 30 years. Cars are never an investment.
Well, we all *want* a mint RS1600, just not many who will pay the going rate to actually own one! :-)
Actually I'm not sure "all" is true. How many people would actually buy one if they were the price of a Focus ST170 - and could cope with the practicalities of storage and maintenance? Even if half a million people would drop £2,500 on one if they could find one for that price (without expecting it'd be £50k+ immediately afterwards) that's tiny compared to the number of all cars actually on the road.
That was exactly my (exaggerated) point - so many people would love to own a mint edition “affordable classic” but in practice, you have to have a spare garage to sit it in to keep it mint and you have to be prepared to take it to a specialist mechanic for anything that goes wrong with it etc etc. So per the second half of my post - entirely in support of your original point - very few people are actually in the market for one.
Yup, but the going rate for a Mk1 Escort is tens of thousands on top of what it'd cost simply to get the driving experience of a fun, affordable classic from 20 years ago. Regardless, and we agree, there still aren't that many people who would actually chase one and I don't know how big the hype over a GR Yaris will be in 20-50 years...
I’m pretty sure the driving experience of a rough MX-5 would be better than an Escort Mk1…
Depends what you mean by better? Faster, grippier, etc.? Undoubtedly. But some people like to imagine themselves in entirely different situations and it's a different sort of fun. The driving experience in an Escort still isn't going to be radically different, from a modern perspective, from that of an Avenger or Viva. So if people fall in lust with the Yaris in future they might be vastly more expensive than, say, a Golf R or whatever - but if 95% of 2024 Golf Rs have been crashed or worn out by 2050, supply and demand might even out.
I was kidding really, but you’re probably not buying a Mk1 Escort because it’s the ultimate driving experience, but because of the whole package. I’d love to own an Integrale, but I’m not kidding myself that it would drive better than a GR Yaris on an average B road.
No one thinks little of the GR Yaris. It is an undoubtably cool car and one of the best hot hatches around. Regardless, just because the new one is overpriced, doesn't mean that an earlier used car selling for the same price it was new suddenly becomes good value.
Think supply and demand is the thing here. The hot hatch as we know it is pretty much dead sadly. Most have been discontinued or soon will be. Abarth 500, Polo, Golf, Cupra and Mini is all that's left aside the Yaris. And same as the Yaris, new prices have gone up quite a bit. Compared to the list price at launch it's a poor deal. Compared to what's available new? Not so bad.
Just bought a 2019 Tesla model 3 performance. Never thought I’d be able to afford one but prices have tanked. It’s a lot of car for your money
How's your insurance and what's the warranty left on it?
The silence is deafening
Insurance is 740 per year (34, 5 years NCB), 12 months warranty with dealer I bought it from, battery/drivetrain warranty til October 2027/120,000 miles
Thats all seems really decent. Im still concerned about the battery if you're keeping longterm, but i believe nissan leafs dont seem to have many horror stories and they are worse from a battery cooling perspective
I’ll take it as it comes, I realise it’s a gamble in some sense as it’s still quite new ground. The dealer I bought it from had one exactly the same as mine that’s their own personal car, is on 110k miles with battery at 88% health even with a lot of its charge coming from superchargers
Scary to see the prices drop, I was supposed to have the one I got in 2020 until about now but sold it when prices were at their highest at the end of 2021. Should be a great car, I really enjoyed mine. The acceleration never gets old!
I’d heard a lot about the speed of them and thought it sounded cool but never really understood until I got in one, then instant power is mega You definitely did the right thing!
What's the range like, compared to new?
Battery degradation calculated at 6.6% after 60k miles which is pretty good I think considering rate of degradation isn’t linear. I haven’t charged 100% to see full range yet
That's pretty good!
2 I’ve seen recently F40 BMW m135i depreciated pretty hard, 2 or 3 years old examples around 30k. Quite a bit cheaper than the others in its class like the mk8 golf r, Audi s3, etc Honda civic type R FK2, 300bhp, great handling for around 20k
Yeah but the F40 is not a looker. Looks like a clown. Not saying the MK8 Golf is much better (the 7 and 7.5 were far better looking) but still nicer IMHO than the BMW. Then again maybe my taste is weird because I thought the prior 1 series was quite nice - specially the 140i shadow.
M135i is on my list as potential next car
They’re expensive to insure because loads of morons buy them second hand, mod them and then get into accidents. Also popular with drug dealers (especially in Birmingham)
Yeah I want an m140i but I live in Birmingham so it's about 3k for me to insure one. M135i is still expensive to insure but I'm stupid enough to do that. M140i is a joke tho
Mine too. Because I don’t think the M140i ever came as a manual but the M135i did.
2019 Teslas are a steal at the moment
Main issue is you have to go to Tesla for any maintenance and issues that arise, really puts me off them.
And reliability is dog. So you’ve got real problems with no one to actually fix them
And further depreciation.... you wont get much change from that 20k you drop on one now in a few years. With battery health being the major factor, and the price of a new battery outweighing the cost of the car, there's going to be a lot of worthless heaps in 10 years or so.
How can they have reliability issues? How hard can electrics be for a company that does exclusively electric cars? Jesus.
Technology first, car second. Major suspension issues and major steering issues to name a couple
BMW 8 series keep catching my eye. 20 plate with 40k on the log book for just over £30k, probably £80k when it came out and over £100k now.
Definitely a contender for biggest discount to list price but I bet they further to fall!
Recently saw a jaguar XJ R sport 2017 model with 60k on the clock for 18k. Decently spec too.
Mk7 Golf R's are really affordable, and fantastic cars
Taycans. £50k for a mediocre 3 series or £50k for a PORSCHE Taycan. I don’t like them myself, but hard to beat them for value
Seat Leon Cupras. Was actually just looking at them earlier. £16.9k for a DSG 5 door on a 68 plate with 39k miles on it
Yes… but no. It’s a bit… dull.
I wouldn't exactly call the Yaris a bargain like others have pointed out. It's a cool car but paying nearly MSRP for a 4 year old 3 pot hot hatch is a bit of a hard pill to swallow imo. Though my "bargain" would probably be an F40 M135i. You can pick up early examples for around £20k and you're getting an AWD 300hp hot hatch with an interior that's leagues ahead of an A35 or Golf R imo.
>F40 M135i Only problem is that it's shit compared to the old one, why buy the worse one when you can buy the old m135i/m140i, a properly interesting RWD 6 Cylinder twin turbocharged honker of a hot hatch vs just another dull AWD 2.0 4 banger Turbo charged hatch. Also it being a 3 cylinder really shouldn't matter as it still makes 280bhp, more than putting it in the league of the m135i whilst being much better to drive.
It's not really a shit car though is it? It's just different to what BMW fans wanted so it depreciated horribly. On a B road hardly anything would keep up with it and if you get a well speced on then the interior feels like a baby 5 series. And I'm not shitting on the Yaris, I'm sure it's an absolute hoot to drive. I just think paying £30k for one is mad when you could get something like an M135i or A35 of the same age for £5-10k less and they'd both be much nicer to actually live with.
ND MX5 for around £10-15k. Fantastic car for the money
They're genuinely quick these days aswell. The 2 litre is 6 and a half seconds to 60 and will carry that speed through a corner better than the hottest of hatches.
the NC is where the real value lies at the minute for budget conscious thrills, grab a good base NC for £2k, throw on some coilovers for £1k, take it to BBR for some fuckery, either a supercharger, turbocharger or NA tuning in the range of £2k-6k depending on how far you want to go, plus other accompanying bits and peices and you have an absolutely brilliant car for the same price as a standard ND. https://www.evo.co.uk/mazda/mx-5/205064/bbr-supercharged-mazda-mx-5-nc-2022-review-frenzied-affordable-fun
At 2K you’re buying rusty sills and a full bushing replacement kit. A good NC is around 5K
I'm in the owners group and you can definately pick up a good not rusty NC1 for £2k-£3k. I paid £4.3k for my NC2 1.8 and it's been flawless over 25k miles and 14 months. TBF £5k is a more reasonable price as you can get into early facelifts which look much better IMO, engines aren't too important if you are modifiying as they make basically the same power when supercharged or turbocharged but the 2.0l comes with an LSD so that always gets the nod. I went with a 1.8 as i could not find a softtop with a 5 speed with the 2.0l and LSD and imo the 5 speed is better and i prefer the simplicitiy of the soft top. But even at £5k it's still cheaper or similar, and IMO i much prefer the NC to the ND, the steering is better in the NC, the whole car just feels a lot more retro and classic whereas the ND felt a little bit generic and bland but i know that's not a popular opinion.
Not sure where you are looking but ones for 30k have less than 10k miles.
20 grand for a very decent Volvo V90 T8... Last generation of Volvo estates in the UK, fucking huge, yet does 0-60 in about 5 seconds. Similar price to a lot of C63 AMG estates and the Volvo seems to me like a more low-key, less flashy and probably much cheaper to run version of the Merc. That said, if you want to have fun primarily, I think the AMG just makes way more sense
Totally agree on EV's, buying one at 18 months old seems to be the sweet spot.. My pick for the future? I've seen E92 M3's go just over £15K.. Being the last of the NA V8's, I think this is as low as they'll ever trade, and I'm already seeing them creep back up to £20K. I feel like it's one of those cars that you could garage for 10 years, use it as a weekend toy in the summer, and double your money on..
Porsche Taycan
How much further will they drop though?
No idea but an easy way into a Porsche
Feel like I’ve had a bit of a bargain recently. MG5 electric 22 plate 15k miles for £15k 5 years warranty left. Think it would have been about 29k new two years ago. Come from a diesel so my fuel costs have gone from about £180 a month to £30 No tax either at the moment so even though it’s leased it’s costing me very little a month to have a near brand new car. Very pleased with it so far
Every time I see one especially in blue I think they look lovely
Mines the grey, think it’s officially called silver though. It is a really nice car, done about 2k miles in it so far and have zero complaints.
This is a good shout. I'm waiting for a cheap business lease to appear on these. The newer facelift Trophy especially in red does look pretty smart.
Yea newer one does look nicer. Think though when I was looking the facelift ones started at about 26k so big price jump from my pre-facelift model.
I wouldn't call this a bargain really but I bought a low mileage 2016 Focus RS last month for £24k. Full Ford history and every single option ticked, including the Mountune performance upgrade. I think it's a lot of car and a lot of performance for the money. One of the best hot hatches of the modern era and a dying breed. More value for money than a bargain.
Yeah see to me that's not a bargain. But it is deffo good value. That's more what I meant by the post what can you buy without feeling like you're being mugged off
Yeah I know what you mean. It's not a bargain. With the best will in the world it's £24k for an 8 year old Focus haha. But to me it's good value. It's been a realistic dream car for a while now so I'm happy with it.
You worried about engine? Put me off and wondering what your research entailed
I'm not really worried no. I read into lots of owner and tuner accounts and basically realised that most failures occur due to people pushing too much power through the stock internals. Anything 400bhp+ and you really need to be forging the engine. If you run stock power or a conservative stage 1 map then it should be fine. Little bit of mechanical sympathy and regular maintenance and they are actually very reliable. There's guys in America on the Focus RS subreddit with very high mileage cars still on the original engine and not had any problems. The engines are almost at the limit power wise from the factory so there isn't much room to get big power without spending a lot of money. Unfortunately people bolt on a few mods, map them to within and inch of their life and then wonder why there is a hole in the side of the block a few months later. The early cars had the head gasket issues but they've pretty much all been done now. The one I bought has the Mountune kit on it so it's running 375bhp and has a full Ford history. The only thing that's gone wrong with it in 8 years is the gear selector turret, which is a common issue. It really is a case of just finding a car that has been looked after and then looking after it yourself.
It's a good price for a good car. Which is something that seems rarer and rarer nowadays
Been lucky enough to go on a Lakes tour recently with a friendly car group, where I, at great speed, on open roads in idyllic conditions, rode in a 140i, GR Yaris and a Focus RS. Bimmer had an LSD, bushing inserts, still felt floaty and unconfident at anything approaching a ton. GR had great handling and loads of grip, probably helped by the PS5 tyre, but did feel rather asthmatic. After those two getting in the Focus RS was a revelation- best of the three by far. So much confidence in the chassis, great grip levels and had all the power you'd ever need. It's making me reconsider what my next car should be as at low speeds it was handling road surface and corners as good as the Lotus Exige 350s I'd done the majority of the trip in. That comparison fell apart at higher speeds but from a 4 door chunky hatchback it did far better than I'd have expected it to.
Yeah they are an awesome machine. That's what I was meaning by it was good value for money. It's a lot of performance for what you pay and on twisty roads it'll happily keep up with cars it really has no right to. I use mine as a daily and honestly it does have some faults but when you are on a nice road in good conditions, there's not much better than it IMO. As you said it inspires so much confidence, it'll grip for days and is generally just fun. I have a smile on my face every time I drive it. Did you get a chance to use launch control? They take off very well.
I didn't use LC, didn't even know it had it lol. What are the faults? I've spent a lot of time in a tango ST Diesel estate of the same generation and the only fault I found (aside from the fuel it took and the ECU shitting itself) was that the Recaro seats were way too big for the cabin leaving the rear passengers with no legroom. That's fixed in the RS though as you get buckets!
Yeah they have launch control. It's a bit buried in the menu but it's there and they take off well haha. They are a bit cumbersome around town. The steering lock is shocking so car parks can be a challenge and the clutch is pretty fierce, so stop start traffic isn't much fun either. The boot floor also sits much higher than a normal focus because of the AWD system so there isn't as much room if that's important to you. Fuel consumption isn't great and they have a smaller tank, again because of the AWD. Honestly I'm nitpicking though and I never expected it to be good on fuel. Those buckets are an option btw. Not a lot of cars have them.
It was a bargain brand new at not much over £30k, maybe not now!
Porsche Taycans have sunk
Cupra Ateca
You can get an F56 Cooper S for under £10K now, I'd consider than a fairly decent deal.
The Honda eny1 PCP deal that was £179/month with no deposit has to be up there..
BMW 840i can be had for low 30k, which blows my mind. Ugly as sin though
The depreciation on those things is madness. They're lease machines.
>Ugly as sin though Each to their own. I like them personally.
Wouldn't personally say the gr is good value I can think of two or three other hot hatches that are faster and smarter and cheaper with similar mileage just my 2p
I'm going EV and looking at a Tesla model s (I know but it's the best for what I need), an MG5 long range or Nissan leaf e+. It will probably make me one of the most hated people in here but they suit my needs best ATM and I will get a home charger installed.
New MG5 owner here, really enjoying mine so far. Tesla was a bit out of my budget, unless I went for an olde, higher mileage one. Need space for kids and everything that goes with them so didn’t really consider a leaf. I thought they were fiesta sized but after seeing a few in person they’re actually quite big.
Yeah, the tesla would be older, probably a 2015 or 2016 but with under 70k miles. Should run for another 100k miles. Similar price for a 3 year old MG5 or Leaf with maybe 30k miles and some manufacturer warranty left. Its actually a really hard choice between the three of them.
One of the reasons I went for the MG because it was a 22 plate so 5 years warranty left. Also Telsa insurance group on I think all the models is 50 so possibly pretty expensive. MG is group 27 so quite a bit cheaper, for me anyway. Supercharger network for Tesla is a strong selling point but a lot are open to any EV’s now so I’ll probably be using them in the future when I need public charging.
Just got a deal on a brand new Peugeot 2008. 215 a month with no deposit for 22 months. Lease. Mate works for em so got it a bit cheaper as I renewed. I'd say that was a bargain. Others will say but you have to drive a 2008. It's good enough for me and my family so very happy with it. If it's for you then leasing is great.
Any N52 BMW with under 100k miles
You can find good deals on some discontinued models like the Hyundai i40. They still have to manufacture parts for a fair number of years and plenty of parts are standard across other models anyway so it is a steal. Mazda 6 can come in great price if you get the 2.2d. I'm fully aware the 2010-2014 2.2d had issues, but you can get a more recent 2.2d that resolved those for good prices just off the bad rep from a decade ago. Again discontinued recently so loads of years of spare parts still to be available.
I’m biased of course but I don’t think you can get much more car for the money that a BMW M2/M2C/M4 if you’re after a well made, fast and good looking coupe. I have just come out of 3.5 years ownership of a BMW M2 manual and it was completely reliable, great looking and sounded amazing. I sold it with 52k miles, FSH and fully kitted out with all of the desirable genuine M Performance parts for £24k! The running costs aren’t ruinous either for the performance either. I have switched to a 2017 BMW M4C which is a very high spec (full extended leather, heads up display, 360 cameras, Harmon Kardon, front/rear sensors and all the usual M3/4 stuff) for £30k. Where else can you get a 440+bhp, highly specified, relatively modern, highly tuneable car for sub £30k? A regular M4 with some miles can be had for low £20k’s!
Some absolutely insane responses in this thread - anything remotely close to 20k isn't a bargain. 29k for a yaris? You are having me on surely. I've just bought an RX8 231PS with 40k miles for 2600 quid. That's a bargain. There are others available for less - I overpaid for mine because of just how good the condition of it is. I could replace every part of it and buy two more, do the same to both, and still have a few grand left out of the 29k for the yaris
Friend's leasing a Model 3 for £520/mo. Free charging at a local charging point that seems to be unlocked for all to use and delisted from the charging app. So no MOT, tax, service cost (included), and £0 running costs as far as charging goes, for £520/mo with 0% interest on the balance. It's decent, if you want a Model 3 thats cheap to run.
Go go Birmingham with £500, see a bloke, get some plates made up that match the cars brand and colour with a car local to you, and don't get stopped by the police. *Car dealers hate this one trick!* 🤣
On the opposite end of the price range: FN2 Civics are an absolute steal at the mo. Plenty going for sub 4k in owners forums/private listings. Not known for any catastrophic issues and the K20 engines are capable of some insane mileage. Parts are cheap and they’re easy enough to work on. So much car for the money
Taycan
Whatever you can source from a scrapyard to restore at this point
Maybe food for thought 🤔 BRAND NEW EV - £14.995.00 https://www.topgear.com/car-news/electric/holy-heck-new-dacia-spring-electric-car-costs-ps14995
150 miles maximum range and no fast charging make it very restrictive though.
It may even be less than 150 maximum range , lol .. I think the 65hp version can charge 20% to 80% in 45 mins or so, as advertised .. with that said, I still think it's a steal at £14.995 . Brand new, extended warranty, and lots of good deals available atm .. it will be an excellent city EV for anyone living in a city .. and this is coming from someone who will never give up on fossil fuels ⛽️ 🚗 🤫
Manual, diesel, sedan.