I had a V6 166. Wonderful car, the only problem was after a 'mechanic' screwed up the cam belt change, and the belt de tensioned on the way home. Not exactly the cars fault. How about a coupe alternative? The Leon FR or cupra are lively little feckers, well made and discreet. The FR with a dsg box will hit 60 in 6.5 secs, do 45mpg and not make you look like you are having a mid life crisis. A low mileage 2010 model will be about £10,000 personally I'd go for the petrol, but the diesel isn't much slower
therin is the key - 5 and six speed boxes, the gearbox seed sensor is a separate item as it is on the 6 speed. its only the 722.9 7g gearbox that's fucking shit. actually its beyond fucking shit. Merc wanly shitey shit!
The Leon isn't a bad looking car, I guess; but then £ for £ the Ibiza ST appears to be reasonable in comparison.
MX-5 or Honda s2000 seem to be the smart buy. The Honda revs hard, bit like a bike. Merc, BMW and Audi never score well on the JDP car surveys year in year out. Shame on them.
Check spares availability - Honda uk are appalling and spares are all but unobtainable for anything more than a few years old ( the reason I sold my accord - I needed a coolant pipe which was discontinued when the car was just three years old, as a result even used parts were not available ) the Honda also tends to get abused. You don't buy a car with a 9000 rpm redline then bimble about. How about a boxter or TT? the TT is particularly robust, and holds its value well
I've given up looking for a while...........It seems around here in this rural location, a bl**dy combine harvester might be the only thing we are safe in.............at least it would slow the oncoming dickheads down and pull over when they see that in front of them...
Don't worry, if my mate's garage is anything to go by there's plenty of smashed S2k's to get spares from
