Up to £2,000
Toyota Celica: A rally hero and sporty looking thing, you can pick one up for less than £1,000, let alone £2,000, although nearer to that price will get you a newer one. Then again, the older version is arguably better looking and has more pedigree thanks to those rally exploits.
Audi Cabriolet: Made famous by Princess Diana, this is a bit of a 90s icon. And it’s aged very well – it still looks cool. You can have one for less than £1,000 if you’re really lucky, but you can certainly get a good one for less than £2,000. A modern classic, without a doubt.
BMW 7 Series: There’s something pretty cool about a 1980s/1990s BMW and, incredibly, you can have a mighty 7 Series from that era for less than £2,000. That’s a lot of car, with a lot of mod cons, for not a lot of money.
£5,000 to £10,000
Porsche Boxster: 20 or so years ago it made Porsche accessible to a whole new range of buyers and now it’s a bargain – and will probably become more and more sought-after. It might not be a 911, but it’s got the Porsche DNA that makes it a cracking driver’s car.
Mercedes-Benz CLS 500: A nice bit of executive four-door coupe for less than £10k? Can’t be bad. A car that combines style with performance and luxury. Not a combo you’d expect to get for so little cash, but you can have one that’s less than 10 years old for less than £10,000.
Mazda MX5: One of the best sports cars of the past couple of decades and, if you can’t afford a new one, you can have plenty of driving pleasure for not a lot of money. The MX5 is a perfectly balanced smile-on-your-face two-seater.
£10,000 to £15,000
Vauxhall VX220: It might be nowhere near as well-remembered as the first-generation Lotus Elise, but the VX220 shared pretty much everything with that car and it’s just as good. Make no mistake, this is a stripped back sports car made purely for driving pleasure. It’s tight, direct and full-on. There are plenty around for less than £15,000 and even some below £10,000.
Range Rover: While new ones can easily cost north of £100k these days, there are plenty around on the second-hand market for a fraction of that. Kitted out to the hilt, endlessly capable off-road and full of practicality. The Rangie is all the car you’ll ever need. You can have one that’s eight or nine years old for less than £15,000.
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution: A 1990s rally hero to many, the Lancer Evo has a cult following and spent much of the 1990s battling it out around the globe with the Subaru Impreza for world championship glory. And as a road car it’s a masterpiece, with bundles of power and four-wheel-drive-powered handling. It’s always looked amazing, too.
£20,000 to £40,000
Bentley Turbo R: This is one way to get a serious amount of car for not a lot of money. Most people don’t think they will ever own a Bentley, but it’s definitely doable. A late-1990s low-mileage model can be had for less than £25,000. Higher-milers even slip into the sub-£20,000 bracket.
Aston Martin DB9: Given that Aston only stopped making this legendary car last year, you’d be forgiven for thinking that you’d need six figures to be driving one away. But no – a DB9 of around 10 years old can be bagged for less than £40,000 these days. That’s not a lot for a snarling V12 GT.
Lottery win
Well, where to start? Well, we guess, how about the most expensive new cars on sale right now?
Topping the bill currently is the Koenigsegg CCXR Trevita. Less-than-catchy name aside, one of the reasons for the price tag of £3.6million is the fact that diamond dust-impregnated resin is used in its exterior finish. You also get a 4.8-litre, 1,000hp V8 with two superchargers under the bonnet.
For those looking for something even more outlandish looks-wise, step forward the £3.4million Lamborghini Veneno. That’ll get you a 6.4-litre V12 with 740hp.
In third place is the slightly lesser-known W Motors Lykan Hypersport, at a cool £2.5million. It boasts a 3.7-litre twin-turbo flat-six with 770hp.
If you’re looking for a new car visit www.exchangeandmart.co.uk and www.s1cars.com
