Zed Replacement?

[RickyZ]

I'm after ideas of what to replace my Zed with. I bought my first house last year and the cost of Zed ownership is starting to lose its appeal, would rather spend that money elsewhere...

 

So the question is what would you buy if you had £8k ish to spend?

 

I want it to be less tax / fuel costs but still be semi enjoyable to drive / look good.

Reliability has to be fairly good too as I wont save anything otherwise. I know I'll have to compromise somewhere but not too sure where. Just want it to be fairly fun and cheap-ish.

 

Been thinking of Clio Cup, Abarth 500, Civic type R, MX5. Opinions of these and any other ideas welcome.

 

Would like a gt86 but they're around £12k still.

[Richf]

Celica

 

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201604012535265?searchcontext=default&search-target=usedcars&model=celica&radius=1500&onesearchad=new%2Cnearlynew%2Cused&postcode=rg208tx&make=toyota&page=1&sort=pricedesc&logcode=p

Edited June 8, 2016 by Richf@H-Dev

[StevoD]

bmw z4 2.0 or 2.5?

 

Audi tt mk2 2.0tfsi

Edited June 8, 2016 by StevoD

[350zedd]

Suzuki Swift Sport

 

http://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/suzuki/swift-sport

[Payco]

MX5, my wife has one and its a fab little sports car.

[Jetpilot]

^^^^ Mx5 ftw, bargain fun to be had

[brillomaster]

what costs of zed ownership are you hoping to avoid, and what are you hoping to keep? if I had £8k to spend right now and wanted to reduce costs, it'd be a bmw 330d I suspect - all the rwd goodness and comfort of a three series, plenty fast enough for cruising, but mid 40s fuel economy and less roadtax.

[Hodaka]

Shame that we're losing a zed in the local area

[docwra]

Celica

 

http://www.autotrade...edesc&logcode=p

 

Really? Any particularly reason, I drove one (admittedly a while back) and thought it was pretty hateful, very lacking in torque.

 

I guess youre looking for soemthing newer than a Zed .......... and I really cant think of much thats in the same ballpark, the Zed is about the best car you can buy for £8K IMO

[Richf]

He said he liked the gt86 , hence the celica suggestion, similar engine characteristics

[TT350]

The Clio and Type R won't dissapoint.

 

I'd go for the TypeR

 

Abarth...I only ever see blonde girls with oversized sunglasses driving these while applying foundation and/or on the phone.

Edited June 8, 2016 by TT350

[jowen7448]

Celica

 

http://www.autotrade...edesc&logcode=p

 

Really? Any particularly reason, I drove one (admittedly a while back) and thought it was pretty hateful, very lacking in torque.

 

I guess youre looking for soemthing newer than a Zed .......... and I really cant think of much thats in the same ballpark, the Zed is about the best car you can buy for £8K IMO

 

I agree with the sentiment a bit here. I owned one (well the Tsport which is the GT without the body kit) and found the lack of low end torque irritating and quite tiring for driving in motorway traffic which is speeding and slowing with regularity. It was a good laugh to rag the nuts off every now and again but if you don't it's not particularly entertaining. It also isn't massively comfortable for any length of time and I got bored of it a lot quicker than I thought I would. It's the shortest period of time I have owned any car. And while it does have 4 seats, getting into the back is an adventure, not suitable for tall people and barely suitable for short people if you have a long legged driver and front passenger and like any coupe the doors are huge which i found annoying in my not overly spacious garage and parking spaces with cars either side.

 

Having said that there are some positives, the boot is massive for the type of car, I could get an awful lot more in there than my Mondeo saloon, it really did swallow almost anything and was very deceptive. It does handle pretty well for a front wheel drive with quite a lot of grip meaning you can throw it round the bends a bit. The T sport can also be had for a bargain (GT seems to be holding price more) and is very reliable. Not a single thing went wrong with mine during my ownership. I certainly wouldn't pay more than a few grand for one though and would not go anywhere near your budget if I was to buy another. (Again ignoring the GT which incidentally I wouldn't buy over the T sport anyway)

[jonty88]

Mk 2 TT, Alfa Spider, Bmw 3 series coupe, Alfa Brera?

 

I had a T sport celica before I got my Z and could never really go back, on reflection just felt a lot less of a car imo

 

 

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[Ekona]

At £8k, I wouldn't even bother trying to find something cheaper to run. At £2k sure, MX5 every day, but whatever you buy it'll be an unknown quantity so could well end up costing you more to get it up to scratch.

[nissanman312]

S2000 Awsome cars and reliable

Little bit cheaper than a zed not much tho

[brillomaster]

not cheap enough annoyingly... really want an S2000 as a track car, but still asking for £5k for even a cheap one, need to be closer to £2-3k for me to consider

[nissanman312]

My pal just sold his 5 years after buying it for 1000 more than he paid

[RickyZ]

I'm not using the zed for its intended purpose any more and it seems a waste to spend £515 on tax, extra on premium fuel and tyres and services to go to the supermarket in lol. Its also not that practical with its big doors and smallish load space. That's why I was thinking along the hot hatch lines initially. There's a lot of cars I would like at that price point just spoilt for choice really. Missus is now saying she wants something we can both drive and potentially have as a family car so I may just keep the zed for another year now.

[RickyZ]

I would drive all the cars people have listed on here with exception to the celica as I'm not that keen on the styling. S2k would be an investment i reckon as prices seem to be increasing fr good ones now

[docwra]

S2K is great as a race car and not much cop for anything else, certainly not better than a 350 as a day to day car, as Ive said pretty much anything "better" would almost certainly be older.

 

Golf Gti's have a good rep for a reason, if not its difficult to look past the 330d. Sounds to me that youd be just as well served spending £3K on something "normal" and keeping the rest back for when something else tickles your fancy

[grahamc]

MX5, but I think I have spent more on it than I ever did on the 350z however I have done a lot more... see signature