What's the best used performance car for £30,000?

I’m asking this question as I’m looking for a new car and I just cannot decide on what car to get.
My head’s telling me to get an 8V Audi S3 or an A45 AMG. On the other hand my heart is telling me to get something like a 997 911 C2s or be even more stupid and spend a bit more any buy a high mileage F82 M4 which is the dream.
However right now I’m considering getting a BMW 435D, specifically an Autovogue 435D. The best of both worlds right?

Anyway thanks for reading this and I will really like to know what you would pick!

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Comments

Anonymous

2007 R35 GT-R maybe.

03/05/2017 - 11:19 |
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240sx ftw

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

I would love to have one but I can’t afford it. The cheapest ‘clean’ one is about £37,000.

03/05/2017 - 11:26 |
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DL🏁

As someone who has driven most of the cars you mentioned and who has worked in car sales in past, I can say the following:

  1. Avoid the A45. It has a brilliant engine and is great fun to drive, its also insanely quick, but for some reason I found that you get ‘fed up’ with it quite quickly. Firstly, its not the newest car, it has been around for a while and although Merc have done a good job at updating it, it does feel slightly outdated. Seconldy, its not as comfortable as, say, the S3. But that’s my opinion, you have to test drive it to decide for yourself, but as I said, I found that the more you drive it the less fun it is.
  2. Avoid getting a car which is over 3-4 years old. Even though I am a massive Porsche fanboy and I’d want to say ‘get the 997’, I don’t recommend you to do that, unless you are prepared to pay all the associated costs. You won’t get a good example of a 997 for the money (I don’t think you can get one at all for 30k actually) and you will end up paying for parts/servicing/running costs/etc more than for the actual car. Same applies for most other older cars.
  3. Unless you really want good fuel economy, avoid the diesels. This is very subjective, but I owned several diesel cars (my last car being a mk7 Golf GTD) and almost everytime I ended up wishing I bought a petrol version (e.g. Golf GTI).

I’d say if you dream of the M4 and you can afford the costs, get it (if you can find one for 30k, which I doubt). Otherwise, look for a newer car with less miles. For example, how about a 435i or M235i? Or maybe it is worth having a closer look at the S3 and other hot hatches.
But anyways, always first test drive the car, then decide, don’t rely on people like me (who are always very subjective) and personal ideas of what the car is going to be like

03/05/2017 - 14:07 |
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truth bomb haha

03/05/2017 - 17:19 |
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Hey man! Thanks so much for the comment!
I’ve heard some positive things about the A45 but have still yet to drive one hopefully will be able to soon. I could only afford a pre facelift one and i’ve hear the 7 speed box can lag a bit and have a significant delay when downshifting but that’s minor for me. The S3 is becoming even more appealing as I can’t fault it what so ever.

I can easily afford a 997.1 c2s for under 30k but as you said it’s probably not the cheapest car to run aha. I think i’ve scraped the idea of a 435D right now due the price of an Autovogue AVR one. There’s one black DCT M4 for sale with 67k on it for 34 grand but if i’m honest if i’m going to buy one of dream cars I want it to be my dream specification.
Thanks a lot for your help and i’ll make sure to test drive a pre facelift A45.

03/06/2017 - 21:32 |
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TheMindGarage

Perhaps try a 435i, M235i or M135i? Stay away from the Porsche unless you can bear the running costs.

03/05/2017 - 14:39 |
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Dat Incredible Chadkake

Go American. Everyone in Europe seems to have a BMW but you’ll be the talk of the town if you show up in a Foxbody Mustang

03/05/2017 - 17:20 |
1 | 1

Finding one would be a nightmare though (as you said people don’t buy American cars here so they are rare, specially not that recent ones like the foxbody)

03/05/2017 - 22:35 |
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A Mustang of any sort would be cool to have and I would have a lot more friends if I had one lol but running costs are a pain the a$$

03/06/2017 - 21:34 |
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Anonymous

Porsche 911 or Cayman?

03/05/2017 - 23:03 |
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