Hi all,

Haven't been on here for a while; lots of new faces but some of the old ones still around - good to see!

Well, I've just found out there is a high likelihood of me being made redundant in the New Year so I've been on a massive cost-cutting exercise and one of the things which has to go is my beloved E70 X5.

So, what to replace it with? Well, we bought it 15months ago because we had expected the patter of tiny feet. That's not quite happening as planned so we have no need for a big four-seater so I'm looking again (v seriously) at getting back into an S2000. Sold my 04-plater back in 2007 and regretted it ever since.

Unfortunately haven't had enough cash to buy one as a second car, but the plan now is to buy one with cash and rely on legendary Honday reliability and low-ish running costs while the future is uncertain. If the best outcome happens and I keep my job, perhaps I'll have saved enough money to keep the S longterm and buy a more practical car in the future.......we'll see.

I normally buy cars through franchised dealers (rightly or wrongly) and found several 56-plater cars for around £12.5k on Honda UK website. Kind of budgeting around £150pcm all in running costs (exc fuel), which I think is achievable over 12k miles pa.

So - question is: what do I need to look out for, given that I haven't owned these for a while............ I'm aware of the following, is there anything else I should look out for?

- Roof wear due to frame rubbing (I had this with my previous S)
- Seized suspension bushes
- Odd tyre combos. Do Bridgestone still make the RE050MZ's? What do people sugggest as other good tyres?

I'll be desperately sad to see the X5 go, as I have really falled for it (bizarrely!) but keen to get back behind the wheel of an S again and see if it still floats my boat.

Have pretty much chosen to go with it over Civic Type-R GT (bit lacklustre IMHO), E46 330Ci (been there done that), Z4 Roadster (potentially expensive to run), Focus ST (been there done that), Golf GTi (yawn).

Thanks in advance,

Dunk

 

Some have found their insurances have rocketed this past year and i think that £400 road tax have put a lot off.

 

Is the Z4 expensive to run? Unreliable?

 

DJ Billy would be the best to answer that, he ran an S and now has a Z4.

 

Thanks for the info guys. Some good points there which I hadn't thought about.

Checked for insurance - £770!!!! That's pretty much what I paid when I had one aged 26 and lived inside the M25.

I could handle the insurance if the tax wasn't £425 (same as my X5, which seems a bit unfair!).

The Z4, I'm concerned about potential for things going wrong, which with BMW I know could be expensive.

However, I'm now erring towards a E46 330Ci Convertible. Retains some element of practicality, together with soft-top and can take advantage of Four Years plus Servicing which is 50% cheaper than I was paying before.

I will, still, have a go in the S2000 though - I am sure it will get under my skin and I'll be back in the fold again!!