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You have 1M Baht cash to buy a "Fun" Car with....


shiroboi

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New or used, you want to have a bit of fun and you have 1Million Baht to spend on a car that gives you the most fun for your money in Thailand.

Please note in this highly hypothetical situation, your hypothetical wife will hypothetically kill you if you buy a hypothetical motorcycle. Hypothetically speaking.

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I'd probably use it as a 25% downpayment on a near-new Cayman S I guess..

If you wanted to buy a whole car for that, it's a tough one... Not much in the new space around that price, other than the Nissan Pulsar Turbo, but fun factor? pretty low. Even In the used space, you have to go fairly old to get something interesting at that budget - which for me then makes it uninteresting, so a catch 22.

Edited by IMHO
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I'd be thinking second hand, and would add to the list of Frank above:

- A1 (the 185HP variant) - grey market is around this price maybe marginally higher

- Fiat Abarth with the esseesse kit

- MINI Cooper S this money easily gets you an R53 (supercharged) or the R56 pre facelift; may be able to even get a JCW variant; possibly get into a R53 GP which is the true 'giant killer' fun car

- possibly a Volvo V40 hatch new shape these can be had close to this price; very heavy depreciation early on so might be possible to get an early one with medium miles

- Audi TTS 1st generation - don't know a lot about them but would be pretty quick I'd imagine

Of all of these, the easiest deal to do is a Cooper S JCW R53 2006 repulleyed/tuned/new rims/new exhaust/strut or R56 JCW 2007/8 right around this price point; you still have a little left over for mods, MINI must be the manual, and start blatting around and scaring the neighbors.

If you want new, then really the choice is a bit limited to something like a Fiesta S, Suzuki Swift, Mazda 3 (my pick) - all relatively slow yet probably drive quite nicely, but none would I describe as a 'fun car' that you would just want to light up everytime you got behind the wheel.

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I'd buy my POS 150K pickup truck again, and keep the other 850K for a rainy day.

The only thing I'd do different is to get an automatic for Thailand traffic...

The pickup may not be "fun", but the stuff I can carry in the back certainly is.

Edited by impulse
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I would try to find a nice Porsche 944 S2 or 944 turbo. Not sure if you can find those in Thailand. Importing a second hand car is impossible I understand.

half million for the car, quart million to upgrade the aircon and the rest for repairs in the near future. ;)

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fun to drive new

Nissan Pulsar Turbo 190HP - any other new cars offer that performance for 1M?

Fun to drive s/h

BMW 330i (2006-10) - 750k upwards. great value imo but beware pre autumn 2008 engines have a design fault

fun to look at classics

Nissan Cube (Z11) 450k upwards

Citroen 2CV around 800k

Mercedes W114 200k-1M+

or fun to look at and drive

classic restored Alfa Giulia for 500-600k Lanna cars

Porsche 928 700-1M+ If by miracle you find a good one

Maserati Ghibli (mid 90s) 400-800k ditto most are dogs

Edited by fish fingers
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Mazda 3. The 2.0l Skydrive pushed it to 100kph in just over 8 seconds if I remember correctly.

There is currently a limited edition 'sports' edition with body kit etc available new for just under 1m Baht.

Others have mentioned the Nissan Turbo. It will have horrible resale, the interior is so-so, and it has a noisy CVT that I would not describe as 'fun'.

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With a lazy 1 million to buy a play toy id be looking towards a WRX or an RX-8.

I almost recommended an RX-8 initially, but I'd pass on the WRX - its a fun car, but at this price you're getting one so old even a Proton puts the interior to shame ;)

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For 1m it's either moderately used hot hatches as Stevero listed or older cars where maintenance and general condition gets to be a real issue. RX8 could be a good option as they're relatively undervalued here and you can still find some unmodded ones out there. If you're feeling masochistic 1m will get you a late 80s Porsche 928S or Lotus Esprit.

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I used to own a quick Rx-3 back in the day. I have driven Rx-8's. They aren't that much fun. The equivalent year Mx5 is much more fun if you're wanting to stay Mazda. 350z is more bang for the same bucks as an Rx-8 if you need a coupe bigger than an Mx5

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