A budget of upto 25k, I'd like to spend as close to that as realistically possible as I try to increase my value in cars every couple of years (yes I'm only looking to own for 2-3 years). Looking for something that's probably around 300bhp, handles well and can be used as a track day car if desired. I don't want something thats high maintenance, or stupidly expensive to run due to being only kept for a relatively short period. It also must have reasonable resale value for this reason.
I've had the thoughts of :
-BMW E90 M3, but it's not something that's really ever appealed to me.
- BMW Mini JCW, something that's quite common though, and probably a touch on the girly side
- Mercedes C63 AMG, running cost and maintenance costs just put me off being 6.3 litre
- Mercedes SLK 55 AMG, heard they don't handle as well as a Cayman although power is nice but not fruitful. Again maintenance cost put me off.
- Porsche Cayman S, Something I've been thinking about for a while. I like all the luxuries, it's a nice place to be. Would need to stretch the budget to about £27k to find something in anything other than black, with Sat Nav, PDK etc.
- Lotus Exige S2 Supercharged, seems to be my kind of go to at the moment (need to test drive), reliable Toyota engine, can be got up to 300bhp fairly easily, can be used on track if desired. Maintenance not ridiculous in costs.
Has anyone owned any of the cars above? Comment on what their like to live with, running costs etc?
Is there any options that I may have missed or a curveball that can be thrown into the mix?
Thanks
Adam