Budget supercars

  • Ruud
  • 2019-04-26 11:34
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Budget supercars

The second-hand luxury exotic automotive landscape is packed with seemingly great bargains, and the more you scroll, swipe or read through the classifieds, the more the phrase ‘Life is too short to drive a boring car’ can swirl around your head.

The thought of owning an Aston Martin for Mondeo money is tempting, and is often accompanied with a self-reassuring "I’ll own it for a year and then sell it, just to say I’ve had one."

There is however, a lot to consider when buying a cheap piece of Automotive erotica. A lot of these cars suffer crippling depreciation with values that can drop faster than an ice cream cone from the hand of a child on a sunny day.

An Aston Martin V8 Vantage, of mid 2000s vintage, can be owned for as little as £25K, but a set of Front Brake Pads for the same car? Almost £500, compared to that of a standard family hatchback at around £50.

But what can you have that can do it all? What options are there for Autobahn storming pace, Supercar pedigree AND you can put the kids in the back. Well here’s a few of our favourites:

BMW E60 M5 Touring

The E60 M5 comes with a truly exquisite 5.0 V10 engine, 500bhp and crucially is available
as an estate. So you can take the family, and the dog, for a tyre smoking road trip.

There are a few foibles to note about the M5. The SMG gearbox isn’t exactly renowned for reliability or for that matter, actually being very good in anything other than full on M-mode.

Porsche Panamera Turbo

The early Panamera’s have rather marmite styling: you either love them or you hate them. Ultimately though, you can’t see the outside when you’re in it.

A 4.8 litre twin-turbocharged V8 built by Stuttgart’s finest hands, and all the caveat’s that Porsche ownership brings. The PDK gearbox is an utter engineering master piece - seamless rapid gear changes means this 2-tonne tank of a car really can drop a gear and disappear, and all for under £30K. Just don’t look at it from behind.

Jaguar XFR 5.0

The XF was a real return to form for Jag, especially when the frankly banana’s R’ and R-S models were released. With more bulging arches, together with flared air intakes, this big cat really does look like it’s had its tail trodden on.

Like most anything built in England, it does have its flaws. There's been reports of squeaks and rattles from interiors and some questionable wiring choices can lead to some annoying issues, but that’s a small price to pay for a 510bhp super saloon.

This post was written by Noah Robinson from Glovebox Direct.

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