£7.5k 'fun' daily - cheapish running costs

[roca1976]

Looking for a fun / interesting daily, ideally it would need 4 seats but not essential.

20m daily commute on free flowing but not particularly interesting B roads so needs to ride reasonably.

Shortlist so far is a Nismo Juke or Mini Cooper 1.5 in 2014 vintage with about 60k on the clock.

The juke has higher tax and probably less mpg but looks pretty funky in my eyes,

Anyone got real world experience of the two or an alternative?

[LightningBlue]

The Juke Nismo is ok but don’t expect an amazing drive, it’s just ok. MPG was poor when I had one as a courtesy car for a couple of weeks. The Mini is much nicer to drive, that generation is also better screwed together than the previous versions. You could get a high mileage Cooper S in budget which will be even more fun than the Cooper. You could get a previous generation Roadster or Coupe in budget, a Cooper S in Coupe form is doable and they’re great fun down twisty roads.

[Frenchda]

Would describe neither as fun.

The actual answer is (as corny as it sounds) is a MX5 NC. If you can forgo the 2 rear seats then well suited to a 20 mile commute.

[roca1976]

thank you for replying, would you estimate the juke was around 30mpg or worse? I wouldn't really get to exploit the 2.0L Cooper S, my wife had the 1.5 clubman and I like the offbeat 3 cylinder engine note so feel that and the cheaper VED is easily enough to sway me away from the S.

I wouldn't look at the previous gen, the later gen Mini is a far nicer place to sit and again that would offset any performance gains of buying an older 1.6S

[CG2020UK]

Peugeot 208GTI Prestige

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202304296...

Great fun to drive, quick, light, roomy, reliable (ours is faultless!) and really efficient (~40mpg).

Spec wise it has a sunroof, heated seats, dual zone climate control, sat nav, real spare alloy wheel, auto lights and wipers and the interior has really stood the test of time.

Downsides is small steering wheel (look over it and it’s fine), bit of exhaust drone at fast motorway speeds and speakers aren’t great.

[biggbn]

Frenchda said:

Would describe neither as fun.

The actual answer is (as corny as it sounds) is a MX5 NC. If you can forgo the 2 rear seats then well suited to a 20 mile commute.

Have you driven a mini? Universally lauded as fun, wonderful chassis regardless what engine, huge fun.

[roca1976]

Frenchda said:

Would describe neither as fun.

The actual answer is (as corny as it sounds) is a MX5 NC. If you can forgo the 2 rear seats then well suited to a 20 mile commute.

Unfortunately never felt any love for them and the new shape one which looks ok is 10k

[roca1976]

CG2020UK said:

Peugeot 208GTI Prestige

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202304296...

Great fun to drive, quick, light, roomy, reliable (ours is faultless!) and really efficient (~40mpg).

Spec wise it has a sunroof, heated seats, dual zone climate control, sat nav, real spare alloy wheel, auto lights and wipers and the interior has really stood the test of time.

Downsides is small steering wheel (look over it and it’s fine), bit of exhaust drone at fast motorway speeds and speakers aren’t great.

Thanks added to the list, main downside is that awful steering wheel/ dash cluster which is the main thing I will spend time looking at!

[LightningBlue]

roca1976 said:

thank you for replying, would you estimate the juke was around 30mpg or worse? I wouldn't really get to exploit the 2.0L Cooper S, my wife had the 1.5 clubman and I like the offbeat 3 cylinder engine note so feel that and the cheaper VED is easily enough to sway me away from the S.

I wouldn't look at the previous gen, the later gen Mini is a far nicer place to sit and again that would offset any performance gains of buying an older 1.6S

Yes the Juke averaged around 30mpg, I took it up to the Lake District and drove it on a mix of roads, this was about 10 years ago now though but doesn't seem like it. Funnily enough for small cars these are difficult to place on the road, they feel bigger than they are. I really didn't mind the car, it was a big upgrade over the Micra courtesy car I'd been given before, but I never could see the purpose of crossovers.

The quality control is much better in the new Minis, but some of the previous gen cars are very nice places to be if they have the leather interior and media upgrade. Can understand why you'd want a newer one though.

[ZX10R NIN]

roca1976 said:

CG2020UK said:

Peugeot 208GTI Prestige

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202304296...

Great fun to drive, quick, light, roomy, reliable (ours is faultless!) and really efficient (~40mpg).

Spec wise it has a sunroof, heated seats, dual zone climate control, sat nav, real spare alloy wheel, auto lights and wipers and the interior has really stood the test of time.

Downsides is small steering wheel (look over it and it’s fine), bit of exhaust drone at fast motorway speeds and speakers aren’t great.

Thanks added to the list, main downside is that awful steering wheel/ dash cluster which is the main thing I will spend time looking at!

A lot of people find the dash setup works for them, maybe try one for size.

An alternative is the Giulietta Cloverleaf:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202304286...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202305307...

[pb8g09]

The Juke Nismo is st. I owned one.

Averaged 27mpg on mixed driving. Fuel tank the size of a coke can, boot space just as small. Rear seats were more like a bench and the leather like a slip and slide- every one and thing slid around back there. Ate through front tyres and a wheel bearing whilst also being hard to manoeuvre tight spaces because you can’t place the front of the car easily as the front lights sit on top of the bonnet.

Oh and lastly the sodding door handle came off in my hand the day I tried to rid myself of it.

[georgeyboy12345]

Mini is probably the best option, make sure you go for the newer 1.5s and avoid the older 1.6s.

Here are some other ideas

Citroen DS3 DSport - go for the Euro 6 models, they are more reliable - same applies to its cousin the Peugeot 208 GTi
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202305167...


Vauxhall Astra GTC SRi
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202305227...


Alfa Romeo Giulietta TB Multiair Sportiva with recent cambelt
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202302104...


All a bit leggy, mind. Probably the Mini is your best bet.

Edited by georgeyboy12345 on Tuesday 30th May 23:17

[dmsims]

PMJI - could you elucidate? Daughter is looking at these

georgeyboy12345 said:

Mini is probably the best option, make sure you go for the newer 1.5s and avoid the older 1.6s.

[Garett]

A Suzuki Swift Sport would fit the bill.

[SFTWend]

I see the Alfa Giulietta has been suggested a couple of times, in either Sportiva or Cloverleaf guise. I've had one a couple of years and can highly recommend; they are fun when driven in a spirited fashion.

Couple of the links are for cars being sold by SDR Autos, who I can also highly recommend. Luke will properly look after you, he only sells Alfas, and their 6 month in house warranty is superb in the unlikely event you need it.

[Truckosaurus]

I leased a Nismo RS Juke for 18 months when they first came out. I liked it.

The 'RS' is the one with the 220bhp Clio Trophy engine, a manual box and an LSD. My one also had the optional Recaro seats.

As mentioned above, it has the same small fuel tank as all the other Jukes so with a 30mpg average I was stopping every 200ish miles as I did in the M5 that the Juke replaced.

Once you get used to a car with a low range you just get in the habit of nipping to your local pay-at-the-pump petrol station at the start of every out of town trip to top off the tank.

I don't think you can complain that the boot of a small supermini isn't very big.

I had no issues (as you'd expect for a brand new car) but it is basically a French car built in England so I'd expect used examples to be charmingly shoddy.

Sadly I think the RS versions are out of budget for the OP.

Finally, the Juke was the only car I've owned in 30+ years of motoring that universally got praise from people, including randoms at petrol stations.

[pb8g09]

Truckosaurus said:

I leased a Nismo RS Juke for 18 months when they first came out. I liked it.

The 'RS' is the one with the 220bhp Clio Trophy engine, a manual box and an LSD. My one also had the optional Recaro seats.

As mentioned above, it has the same small fuel tank as all the other Jukes so with a 30mpg average I was stopping every 200ish miles as I did in the M5 that the Juke replaced.

Once you get used to a car with a low range you just get in the habit of nipping to your local pay-at-the-pump petrol station at the start of every out of town trip to top off the tank.

I don't think you can complain that the boot of a small supermini isn't very big.

I had no issues (as you'd expect for a brand new car) but it is basically a French car built in England so I'd expect used examples to be charmingly shoddy.

Sadly I think the RS versions are out of budget for the OP.

Finally, the Juke was the only car I've owned in 30+ years of motoring that universally got praise from people, including randoms at petrol stations.

I’m very envious of your last paragraph because my mates gave me nothing but abuse for mine!

[roca1976]

A very left field choice but I am a gluten for a factory oem bucket seat and an unusual colour
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/2023051373...

[McMoose]

Seconding the Suzuki Swift Sport. Reliability and fun.

[pb8g09]

roca1976 said:

A very left field choice but I am a gluten for a factory oem bucket seat and an unusual colour
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/2023051373...

Service history sounds good too- half tempted by that myself and I can’t justify it.