Can You Help Our Man Graham Decide What Car To Buy For £7000?

In the near future I will inherit a bit of money. I'm going to spend between £6000 and £7000 of it on a new car - something fast, fun and generally more exciting than my current Focus. Trouble is, there are a lot of options and I'm hopeless at making decisions. So I thought I'd put my decision in your hands.

Here are seven cars I've shortlisted. Read through them, vote for your favourite or leave a comment pointing out anything I've missed.

1. Nissan 350Z

Nissan's muscle-coupe for the Noughties looks fantastic, all low-slung and broad-shouldered. It goes like the clappers too - its 276bhp, 3.5-litre V6 engine dispatches 60mph in 5.7 seconds before running on to 155mph. Fortunately the chassis more than copes with all the grunt. In fact, the 350Z instantly became a favourite of drifters across the globe.

On the downside, the interior of the early models in my budget is a bit cheap and its hardly practical. Plus I'll use up most of my money paying for the sub-20mpg fuel economy. And the rest on tyres. I found this well looked after 2004 GT model well within budget.

2. Porsche Boxster 3.2 S

Believe it or nor, you can get a decent Boxster S for well under seven grand. The push-me pull-you styling is a matter of taste and the interior's hardly luxurious. But with 252bhp from the 3.2-litre motor it has 911-baiting performance. The 0-60mph sprint takes just 5.7 seconds and top speed is 163mph. Which should be fun on the inevitable trips to the Nurburgring, as will the mid-engined Boxster's scalpel-sharp handling.

Maintenance wouldn't be cheap, but at least it should do 20-odd to the gallon. And I suspect values have pretty much bottomed-out, so I could make my money back when the time comes to sell it on. This well-specced X-plate example looks tempting.

3. Honda S2000

We like the S2000 here at CT. Honda's 50th birthday present to itself might look fairly innocuous, but it's a raging animal. Honda squeezed a huge 236bhp from the S2000's 2.0-litre VTEC engine, which screams round to an insane 9,000rpm. You have to work it hard though, most of the power coming in above 6,000rpm. Still, it rewards you with a 0-60mph time of 6.0 seconds and a top speed of 150mph. And the handling's excellent, so long as you don't take liberties.

S2000's are legendarily reliable - it won the JD Power survey a couple of times. And I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually started going up in value. I would have to find a post-2004 example, with chassis revisions which mostly solved that notoriously tricky high-speed handling. This one looks decent.

4. Mazda6 MPS

I may yet decide I need four seats... While the turbocharged, four-wheel-drive MPS is certainly a left-field choice, it's a more grown-up alternative to the Evo and Impreza. The 2.3-litre engine turns out 256bhp and a whopping 280lb ft of torque. A 0-60mph dash of 6.4 seconds and a 149mph top whack may not sound much, but the handling more than makes up for it. With a possible 50:50 torque split, stiffened body and MX-5 steering, its an absolute hoot to drive.

The MPS has a lot of Q-car appeal, which I really like. It should be reliable, comfortable and it comes loaded with toys. I wouldn't even have to spend £6000 for a good one either. This rather nice one comes in 50 quid under budget.

5. Ford Focus ST

An obvious choice, perhaps. But it's obvious because it's brilliant. The charismatic, 2.5-litre, 5-cylinder, turbocharged engine kicks out 221bhp, though you get a helluva lot more than that from it. Performance is plenty strong enough, 60mph passing in 6.6 seconds before it tops out at 152mph. The handling's epic, but it's still a damn good cruiser, too. The only real black mark against it is its heavy drinking habit.

On paper it's ideal, but I'm still not keen. Why? I already have a Mk.2 Focus. It's only a 1.6, but I have a cast-iron rule about not owning the same car twice. Or am I being stupid? This one's very tempting, though.

6. Ford Sierra Sapphire RS Cosworth

As a child of the Eighties, the Sierra Cosworth has permanent residence in my fantasy garage. The story of how Ford wanted to go touring car racing and dominated everything has been told over and over again. But the Cossie's legendary status rests largely on that three-door touring car. The later Sapphire saloon tends to fly under the radar. That's unfair, though. It doesn't lack motorsport heritage and success. And in four-wheel-drive form, with 220bhp from the 2.0-litre, turbocharged motor, it was a proper rocketship. 0-60mph took around six seconds, with a top speed of over 150mph.

Sapphire Cosworth values are increasing and good ones have crept beyond my budget. But if I let my heart rule my head, I might be able to find the extra cash. This one's gorgeous.

7. Fiat Grande Punto Sporting

On the basis that everything else here would probably bankrupt me in short order, I figured I better include something sensible. The Grande Punto is easily the prettiest supermini of the past decade and it's a reasonable steer in Sporting guise, too. With the 1.9-litre, 130bhp, Multijet turbodiesel engine, performance isn't embarrassing, either: 0-60mph in 9.2 seconds and 124mph flat-out. And it'll do 50mpg. This one fits the bill.

So there we go. Vote for you favourite or suggest anything I've missed. My choice is now in your hands...

Image sources: Netcarshow.com/Carinpicture.com