I used to own a Renault Megane.

I wasn't really that much of a Renault fan as was mostly into Fords and VW.

In the end I had no regrets owning it as other than the keycard that malfunctioned because it was flung across a room.

The key? Make sure you properly maintain that car and if you're buying 2nd hand make sure you buy one from someone that took good care of it.

A good car but you need to know how to drive it to enjoy it the most.

A good one from the same era would be the Mazda 3 MPS and if you're not looking for outright speed then a Toyota GT86 is an excellent choice as is a Mazda MX-5.

BMWs? I currently drive an E89 Z4, I bought it with a blown engine which meant I had a good discount on it upfront. I bought an engine for it from an E90 and still enjoying it. Thus far other than the convertible top everything about it has been very reliable...... presumably its reliability has more to do that I've made sure it is very well maintained like recently I had it serviced even though in the last 6 months it only did 2,000km.

Volvo 940, 240, 244

these cars were built very rudimentary , not much to go wrong

Popp b40. Drive proton only ;(

The renaut megane is really attractive.
However currently I still have the phobia as I seen my family bringing "continentals" to workshop on almost every weekend.

We can change all the parts, but majarity of it won't last more than a year or two.
Will study more on the GT86 and MX5.
The cars listed above could be good, however when it comes to spare part, it will take a lot of effort to source.
Hence it is not that "reliable" when comes to fixing.

I am now thinking maybe just get a Jap and mod it

That's why this thread is here to bounce some ideas.

If there are reliable secondhand continental, this would meant a lot to us.
Moreover, used continental are more affordable and more fun than used japanese cars.

Sub 70K shouldn't be an issue, as long it is reliable

A blown bmw engine must mean that the previous owner must have mod and revved it hard or didn’t do any proper maintenance. BM engines are pretty reliable. You’ll need to keep track further on it’s reliability as the car had only done 2k for the last 6 months.

any lower model is reliable as mostly kosong spec.

can get 320i, 520i..but most fun is 320d, 520d

e90 320d still nice..not aging much. and now is cheap too.

Correct me if I am wrong on the below:

Source from Internet

Diesel are certainly fun with torque, but the after sales cost is higher, might need to rethink on it

Btw, what's with the username DS51?
In car community we are very aware of DSS ehem

Porsche. Because they copied Toyota Production System. But sadly at the same time it is plagued by Audi/VW's crap German quality after their merger.

Porsche with a stick if you can find it, post 2000s. They copied Toyota in the 1990s.

Old mercs have a reputation of being reliable.

E39 is quite ok. Hasn't been giving me any issues over the past 2 years, my VW so far has been okay. Warranty just expired tho.

Mechanical problems can generally be fixed fairly easily. The real headache on these contis are electronics.

E46 is something to consider. Heard only water pump problem

Out of my league, at least for now

Wouldn't want to risk purchasing car which is more than 7 year old
althought the proposed car can be reliable, but if something breaks, then sourcing for spare part will be pain in the arse, hence unreliable and unfeasible to fix

E46s are still very popular so I doubt you will have problems sourcing parts

Based on your replies so far, honestly I think you should just stick with Japanese for a fun car. There's quite a lot of options to pick from too.

VW might not be so "reliable", but parts replacement is affordable, can look at shopee and lazada for spare parts.

Elantra Sport 1.6T. 4 years car, there was one asking for 75K few months ago, because owner need cash and very sad to let go. 2 years ago, one listed at 90K, don't know the story.
Only 2 used sales that I'm aware of. Most owners are keeping it, lucky if you can find one.

I had one, passed on to my sis. 4 years, only regular maintenance, lube change. DCT was smooth, no gear hunting at all. Annual maintenance about 800-1200, going back to 4S every 6 months

Performance is very close to Mk6 GTi, when both are stock.
GTi has higher peak power, faster at top end, while the Elantra Sport react faster to pace change due to the smaller/lighter turbo that integrated to exhaust manifold, minimize the path, less turbo lag. Of course being GTi, any single drawback has a mod/fix for it.

Elantra Sport has no LSD, and no torque vectoring. You need to manage grip better at corner exist, you will often limited on power you can put down to the ground when the car still have excess power.
More expensive cars with LSD, torque vectoring you can accelerate a lot more harder, and still have no traction problem.

Depends if your fun is satisfaction when you control well yourself or happy to let technology help you to go faster (not to say you don't need skill).

Aside looking at the continental side, I did look at Japanese cars too.

But Japanese fun+reliable are usually priced alot more higher than the continental.

Any good japs to recommend sub 90k?
Else we would have to modify, which would break the warranty and cost more on effort and time.

or they just send a tuner to do ECU tune, stages 1,2. some tuners just want to gain respect on this game, so they just push it to the max. the gain of HP will post massively on their shop marketing/fb. so u can see some tuner just wanna gain hp than make it reliable on long run.

then owner for sure will need to change the engine after in long run.

because they come in as CBU. if u talk about Lexus.
if u wanna save, buy the 2015 Perdana 2.4 around less than rm60k. k24 Engine by Honda and 5 torque converter gb (yeah no cvt). then send outside to change cam, injector etc if have budgets

This post has been edited by ayamxxx: Jul 10 2021, 10:54 AM

i was one of the potential buyers of this Elantra sport in 2019-2020. basically almost hard to saw people letgo theirs. want to buy the car for wife use. end up take x70 ckd