What next?

[sarg]

That's an unexpected response on this forum Goran, but I agree with you and with a lot of stuff Chris Harris says.

I have test driven:

D4 S8: very comfortable, very rapid, but not a lot of drama or noise
C7 RS6: as above really, went to try it as felt S8 too quiet and RS6 was just as quiet, very disappointing in that respect
New M4: rapid but lacking in character compared to my old E93 with the V8, noise seemed 'artificial' and interior a bit let down.
New C63: tried a coupe and a saloon now, bags of character, naughty noise, interior far superior to the BMW and lots of standard kit with a much shorter options list. Prefer coupe looks but saloon practicality and lower prices may win the day
New Mustang: great noise but nowhere near as quick as the above, plus stupid touch screen only infotainment which required far too much dexterity when you're driving and stupid LHD positioned handbrake
BMW 140i: bags of fun and noise, interior not so good but loads of car for the money, a definite maybe for a daily driver

Possible not driven:
New Mercedes E220: still think this would make a great daily
Golf R
S3
RS3
S4/S5
RS4/5
M5/M6
Maserati Ghibli (petrol)
D4 3.0 TDI

At the moment I am between IT contracts so no desperate rush to buy a daily driver, so might focus on finding something for the weekend for now, worry about a daily when the next contract comes in.

Anybody got any better ideas than a manual 997 911 for about £20-25k? It'll fit in the garage, should be fun and reliable, plus should hopefully retain most of its value at that age/price point.

Thought about TVRs but a bit fragile for my taste, might still go for something like a Z4M or Boxster/Cayman. 350/370Z anyone?

EDIT: rights reserved to change my mind on any of this and buy a purple M3 with ceramic brakes I've just spotted

[HPsauce]

Have you looked at Jaguar?

[sarg]

Originally Posted by HPsauce

Have you looked at Jaguar?

Which one?

XE: not a fan, no real performance version compared with the germans
XF: bit old in the tooth, tried one a few years ago, I fell out of the seat (literally!) going round a roundabout enthusiastically
XJ: like the looks, but would rather a D4 with 4wd
F-Type: love them, but only 2 seats so would only work as a weekend car, and too expensive/depreciating for that
F-Pace: possible daily driver contender

[HPsauce]

Originally Posted by sarg

Which one?

Well I think you answered that.

You mentioned a small garage; what about the choice we made for our "daily", Volvo V40? Same size as a Ford Focus but very different and ours has all the toys, 4WD, 8-speed auto and about as fast 0-60 as the S8 though just a 2-litre (petrol) turbo delivering about 250bhp.
We narrowed it down to that or a Jaguar XE, but the Volvo won on penalties!

[1781cc]

Based on looking at C63 and Mustangs, have you considered a Hellcat? or is RHD the only way to go?

[sarg]

Originally Posted by 1781cc

Based on looking at C63 and Mustangs, have you considered a Hellcat? or is RHD the only way to go?

RHD is less of a consideration than the £65k plus these cost (just looked on AT) and unknown levels of depreciation

[briang9]

Originally Posted by sarg

Which one?

XE: not a fan, no real performance version compared with the germans
XF: bit old in the tooth, tried one a few years ago, I fell out of the seat (literally!) going round a roundabout enthusiastically
XJ: like the looks, but would rather a D4 with 4wd
F-Type: love them, but only 2 seats so would only work as a weekend car, and too expensive/depreciating for that
F-Pace: possible daily driver contender

The XE comes with an option of the same engine V6 as the F-Type, pretty quick at under 5.00 secs to 60

[HPsauce]

Originally Posted by briang9

The XE comes with an option of the same engine V6 as the F-Type, pretty quick at under 5.00 secs to 60

Indeed it does, we test drove both that (3-litre 340PS) and the most powerful 2-litre petrol (240PS).
The 2-litre is fine, the 3-litre quite quick. For the money our choice would have been the 2-litre as there's a huge price premium for the 3-litre.

[sarg]

Originally Posted by briang9

The XE comes with an option of the same engine V6 as the F-Type, pretty quick at under 5.00 secs to 60

It does, but it's 340i/S4/C43 power, Jaguar really needs a proper high performance XE above this one. I still don't like the looks of the thing though, but I'll drop by a Jag showroom and have a proper poke and feel some time soon.

Even then, as HP points out, they're too much money, I forecast heavy depreciation on these over the next couple of years, especially if Jag do bring out a more powerful model.

[HPsauce]

The XE is aiming down into that market segment, e.g. A3/A4 and it shows. Nice enough inside (and much better than most) but the bigger ones are so much better.

Depends what you're after and expect to pay at the end of the day.

We knew what we wanted and it was a really high spec (A8 level ideally) in a small 4- or 5-door family car. Difficult to get and the list (as described in a thread here somewhere) just kept getting shorter for various reasons. I for one really didn't like the smaller Mercs and BMWs.