Hi, I used to use this site many moons ago and since I have forgotten my password I've reregistered. I've been looking around the site and notice that many of the people I used to know and enjoy chatting to have gone.
One of my favourites to read was the moderator mark who sadly seems to have gone.Does he still contribute to the site? I tried searching for his threads which were usually informative and amusing but it doesn't work. Not forgetting Honestjohn and dagerous dave of course who I see are still around.
Anyway for fear of being labelled a spammer I'll get to the point. I'm looking to buy a 4 wheel drive hatchback/estate. It must be less than 5 years old, under 14K and reasonably quick. I'm not overly bothered about economy as I only do 10K miles a year. Any thoughts or recommendations?
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Welcome back.
Only one obvious choice - Subaru Forester. Its about 2" higher than standard cars, so not as high as the small 4x4 and therefore a real proper driving car.
Comes with 2.0 or 2.0 turbo engines. Manual or Auto and will All-Weather Kits includes heated seats, fogs and partly heated front screen. All bomb proof and fast, especially the turbo. Very comfortable with a good ride. Certainly good availabiity around £14,000. Only downsides are limited number of dealers and poor economy. I have the 2.0 turbo automatic doing only 8,000 miles pa or mostly urban driving around Manchester and get 21-22mpg. But, as you say, for limited mileage - who cares!
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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I'd thought about the Impreza 5 door but not the Forester. Seems like an interesting choice and well specced from what you say. Some research in order methinks.
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Look at a Forester in the flesh. I hadn't paid much attention to them until I saw Espada's.
A very nice, well specced and nice sounding car!
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A4 quatro, Volvo countryman(?) didnt skoda make an octavia 4 wheel drive sporty estate?
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TourVanMan < yes its RF reborn >
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Just been doing a little light reading and it seems that it is possible to fit a prodrive upgrade for £1000 to the 2.0XT in my price range. This would give it well over 200bph. Things are starting to get interesting.
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Mark is still around although he's no longer a mod and he's now known as No FM2R
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Legacy estate as well. The really quick ones are 3.0 and there aren't many around near your budget - either well below on a Y plate, or well above on a 53 or newer. £15k would get you a 2.5 litre with "only" 162 bhp and a 9 second 0-60 time, so maybe not quick enough.
The Octavia will also give in excess of 200 bhp if you're willing to go down the chip tuning route. It's certainly worth considering.
The Volvo "Countryman" is the Cross Country (renamed the XC70) although it too is raised off the ground compared to a normal car; there is also a rarer V70 AWD with the 2.4 litre, turbocharged engine that looks like a normal estate car but is obviously pretty quick. You can get an 02 plate (they seem to have died out after that) for £10k - much cheaper than the XC70. 200bhp and 0-60 in 8.1 seconds out of the box but apparently very successfully chippable.
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How about a Mitsubishi Galant VR4, V6 2.5 litre twin turbo, 280 BHP, very quick, rare but worth a search.
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MF, you beat me to it! Grrr. I quite agree, the wife has one of these and they are indeed very quick. They need a speed de-limiter fitting to go over 180km/h if they've been imported from Japan. See www.clubvr4.com for lots more info.
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The Volvo V70R AWD (in 2000/classic shape) is 265bhp. New shape would be outside the price bracket.
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Golf TDI quattro.
50mpg and 0-60 sub 10 secs...
madf
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Audi S4 Avant.
276BHP - 4 wheel drive
They're fast!
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