Fun daily required
Discussion
Dear PHers. I would appreciate some advice on picking the new daily car. I have 3 cars, a two seat convertible, a road legal track/competition car and the daily.
Current daily is a 2009 Mazda 6 Sport SL Touring, 185bhp diesel, nearly hit 140k miles and drives great, however mileage and requirements have changed.
1. Have about £12k, can stretch to a little more.
2. Up to 5 years old
3. Petrol
4. At least 4 useable seats
5. Has to accommodate a large (40kg) dog, so if not an estate need upright hatch like 1 series or Golf etc, no sloping rear roofline
6. Has to be good fun to drive and good performance as well
7. Ideally responds well to basic tuning, stage 1 or 2 remap, induction/exhaust/FMIC etc.
The current short list so far is 2013/4 Focus ST3 Estate, 2013/4 Octavia vRS Estate, 2013 Mk7 Golf GTi PP, 2012 BMW M135i
The first three cars on that list only require remap or basic tune for approx. 300bhp which is nice amount for a daily and still economical enough. The M135i obviously makes more but is a little older and smaller.
Would be grateful for any good suggestions or thoughts from those with experience of the above
Cheers,
Scott.
Scottie - NW said:
Dear PHers. I would appreciate some advice on picking the new daily car. I have 3 cars, a two seat convertible, a road legal track/competition car and the daily.
Current daily is a 2009 Mazda 6 Sport SL Touring, 185bhp diesel, nearly hit 140k miles and drives great, however mileage and requirements have changed.
1. Have about £12k, can stretch to a little more.
2. Up to 5 years old
3. Petrol
4. At least 4 useable seats
5. Has to accommodate a large (40kg) dog, so if not an estate need upright hatch like 1 series or Golf etc, no sloping rear roofline
6. Has to be good fun to drive and good performance as well
7. Ideally responds well to basic tuning, stage 1 or 2 remap, induction/exhaust/FMIC etc.
The current short list so far is 2013/4 Focus ST3 Estate, 2013/4 Octavia vRS Estate, 2013 Mk7 Golf GTi PP, 2012 BMW M135i
The first three cars on that list only require remap or basic tune for approx. 300bhp which is nice amount for a daily and still economical enough. The M135i obviously makes more but is a little older and smaller.
Would be grateful for any good suggestions or thoughts from those with experience of the above
Cheers,
Scott.
What about mpg or running costs?Current daily is a 2009 Mazda 6 Sport SL Touring, 185bhp diesel, nearly hit 140k miles and drives great, however mileage and requirements have changed.
1. Have about £12k, can stretch to a little more.
2. Up to 5 years old
3. Petrol
4. At least 4 useable seats
5. Has to accommodate a large (40kg) dog, so if not an estate need upright hatch like 1 series or Golf etc, no sloping rear roofline
6. Has to be good fun to drive and good performance as well
7. Ideally responds well to basic tuning, stage 1 or 2 remap, induction/exhaust/FMIC etc.
The current short list so far is 2013/4 Focus ST3 Estate, 2013/4 Octavia vRS Estate, 2013 Mk7 Golf GTi PP, 2012 BMW M135i
The first three cars on that list only require remap or basic tune for approx. 300bhp which is nice amount for a daily and still economical enough. The M135i obviously makes more but is a little older and smaller.
Would be grateful for any good suggestions or thoughts from those with experience of the above
Cheers,
Scott.
Will the other 2 cars be staying?
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure a Focus ST estate is a good car and likely pokey with 300hp, but is it really going to be 'fun' to drive on the daily?
And when not commuting, what will you drive? Or is there risk of the daily being used when you should be enjoying one of your other cars?
I'm probably at odds with most on here. But in such a scenario, I'd probably want a daily to offer something different, while still fulfilling the practical needs.
Maybe a Jeep Wrangler or similar. Completely different type of sensation, but huge sense of occasion and driver enjoyment nonetheless.
A Focus estate, even an ST variant is still, well a fwd Focus and an estate, all a bit 'meh'.
300bhp/ton said:
What about mpg or running costs?
Will the other 2 cars be staying?
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure a Focus ST estate is a good car and likely pokey with 300hp, but is it really going to be 'fun' to drive on the daily?
And when not commuting, what will you drive? Or is there risk of the daily being used when you should be enjoying one of your other cars?
I'm probably at odds with most on here. But in such a scenario, I'd probably want a daily to offer something different, while still fulfilling the practical needs.
Maybe a Jeep Wrangler or similar. Completely different type of sensation, but huge sense of occasion and driver enjoyment nonetheless.
A Focus estate, even an ST variant is still, well a fwd Focus and an estate, all a bit 'meh'.
Good questions.Will the other 2 cars be staying?
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure a Focus ST estate is a good car and likely pokey with 300hp, but is it really going to be 'fun' to drive on the daily?
And when not commuting, what will you drive? Or is there risk of the daily being used when you should be enjoying one of your other cars?
I'm probably at odds with most on here. But in such a scenario, I'd probably want a daily to offer something different, while still fulfilling the practical needs.
Maybe a Jeep Wrangler or similar. Completely different type of sensation, but huge sense of occasion and driver enjoyment nonetheless.
A Focus estate, even an ST variant is still, well a fwd Focus and an estate, all a bit 'meh'.
MPG not that important, over 20mpg is ok, commute is 11 miles each way on mostly NSL A and B roads which gives me about 45 actual mpg currently, running costs not a particular consideration either as am not a heavy user of consumables.
The track car has not been road legal for a few years (1200kg rwd coupe 398bhp) but I have got it through an MOT and put in normal seats, aircon, radio etc. Would sell the convertible if I could and consider upgrading the road legal track car to either a 997 911 or similar type of rwd performance coupe.
So the daily car has to be fun as I will spend most time in that, use it for say 4 out of the 5 days, plus leave it in shopping centre car parks, take dog out to mountains and bike on roof etc.
A quality two car fleet would be ideal
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