You want something fast and affordable. You go to a website with several top 10s (*cough*), be that sports cars, hot hatches, convertibles… You pick.
Those lists are useful, but they’ll be full of predictable options. Oh look, it’s a Volkswagen Golf GTI, Toyota GT86, some form of Porsche 911. All recommended for good reason, of course, but rarely groundbreaking.
What about the unconventional, though? Well, if you want something a little different from the norm, we’ve picked out 10 options to consider.
Peugeot 308 GTi
Hot Peugeots were once the kings of the hot hatches. Look at the 205 GTi, the 106 Rallye, 405 GTi (Ok, that’s not a hot hatch, but you get the point).
Now, absolutely nobody would consider the Peugeot 308 GTi as one of the finest cars to ever come from the manufacturer. Launched in 2015, it was good but never great. Quick, but often described as feeling quite numb. With the FK8 Honda Civic Type R, Mk7.5 VW Golf GTI and Ford Focus ST around at the same time, it had stiff competition.
However, in 2025, perhaps it’s time to revisit the 308 GTi. Prices hover around £15,000, and for that, you’re getting 266bhp, a manual gearbox and a proper limited-slip differential. Rarity, too.
Nismo 370Z
While the Nissan Z is a legend, and the 350Z was quite popular in the UK at its launch, the 370Z always felt like a bit of an ugly duckling. While it was an objective improvement on the 350Z, it never truly moved the game on.
Often derided for riding harshly and lacking excitement, it didn’t help that it cost a fortune to tax, nor that the Ford Mustang was officially coming to the UK to rival its muscle car vibe, and the Toyota GT86 for the true lightweight Japanese sports car.
The Nismo version was a notable improvement on the base car, but a high asking price kept its appeal niche. With no signs of the new Z coming to the UK and the only Nismo-branded car available here the underwhelming Ariya, though, it’s catching a second glance from us. We suspect prices won’t stay below the £20,000 mark forever.
BMW 130i
We can say we put our money where our mouths are on this one. Last year, former editor Matt Robinson took ownership of a BMW 130i for a video series and came away very impressed.
The lack of an M badge is probably the biggest factor in the 130i being overlooked, and perhaps that it just looks like any run-of-the-mill 1 Series. However, with a 3.0-litre straight-six with around 260bhp sent to the rear wheels, it was anything but.
Prices are starting to go up, with really tidy examples closing in on £10,000 now, so it may be a case of now or never.
Citroen DS3 Racing
Unless you’ve recently rewatched the episode of Top Gear where Clarkson, Hammond and May lap Monaco in hot hatches, we suspect you’ll have totally forgotten the existence of the Citroen DS3 Racing.
Limited to just 200 right-hand drive examples (and with rumoured figures of just 150-ish sold), it had its merits as a punchy hot hatch. 207bhp put it as the most powerful in its class, and it looked fantastic. However, it just didn’t have the fizz of a Renaultsport Clio, nor the all-round package the Mk7 Ford Fiesta ST could offer.
Unsurprisingly, there’s not an abundance of DS3 Racings out there, but when they do come up for sale, they’re not extortionate, either. £7000 can get you a tidy one, and we even found one for sub-£4000 at the time of writing.
Ecoboost Ford Mustang
You buy a Ford Mustang in the UK because you want a taste of V8 Americana, right? Take the great 5.0-litre eight-cylinder lump away, and it just becomes a big, heavy lump, surely?
Well, sort of. Alongside the V8 for many years, the S550 could be had with the turbocharged 2.3-litre four-banger found in the Focus RS. Not exactly a muscle car on paper.
It wasn’t a slouch, though. Pre-2018, that engine was good for 313bhp, which was more than handy in a chassis that turned out to be quite a capable one. Granted, we’d still have a V8 and completely avoid the throttled 2019-on version of the Ecoboost, but £25k for the package looks a great deal.
Hyundai i30 Fastback N
No, the Hyundai i30 N is not an underrated car. The hatchback has been widely touted as a revelation, the car that put Hyundai firmly on the map as a serious maker of performance cars. A genuine landmark hot hatch.
The weird-looking, sloopy Fastback, though? Yeah, nobody really remembers that. We think you should take a look at it, though, with the same capable hardware as the hatch, just with the sloped rear end. We’d argue its relative rarity, combined with the fact you can no longer buy a petrol-powered N car in the UK, makes it seriously cool today.
Toyota Yaris GRMN
You know the Toyota GR Yaris. You know the Toyota GR Yaris is an incredible piece of machinery. You know the Toyota GR Yaris is a car you should buy if you can afford to, and it will always remain a hero in the eyes of many.
But do you know the Toyota Yaris GRMN? Do you know the Toyota Yaris GRMN had the same supercharged 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine available in the Lotus Exige? Do you know the Toyota Yaris GRMN can be had for around £7-8k less than a GR Yaris, and with the element of rarity?
So many questions for you, and the answer to them all? Go buy one. If you can stomach the inevitable expensive maintenance costs that come with bespoke parts for a one-of-600 globally skunkworks hot hatch.
Fiat 124 Spider
ND Mazda MX-5, but make it Italian. That was the Fiat 124 Spider, a curious case of badge engineering that was almost cartoonishly re-nosed and re-engined. While the MX-5 has always come with characteristically fizzy naturally-aspirated engines, the 124 got Fiat’s 1.4-litre MultiAir turbocharged four-pot.
That gave it a personality of its own, even if its slightly gawky front and rear styling never quite managed to hide the silhouette of the ND. While the MX-5 soldiers on, the 124 left production in 2020.
For whatever reason, second-hand examples haven’t held insane value either. £14,000 could get you a pick of pretty much any example on the market, barring the top-end Abarths, and plenty of well-kept, low-mileage examples are out there.
Lexus IS F
Going up against the E90 BMW M3, W204 Mercedes C63 AMG, and B8 Audi RS4 would be no easy task for any manufacturer. When Lexus decided to take them on with the IS F, it was fighting an uphill battle it wouldn’t win.
Yet, the IS F has an appeal of its own. Its 5.0-litre naturally-aspirated V8 sounded incredible, its pace blistering and all backed with the knowledge that this being a Lexus, things wouldn’t break all that often.
Finding one for less than £20,000 is easily done, and we can’t think of many better soundtracks at that price.
Lotus Europa
No, not the original Lotus Europa, we mean the one from the mid ‘00s you completely forgot existed.
Based on the S2 Exige, this was Lotus’ attempt at building a more refined grand tourer with softer suspension, a turbocharged GM engine and a plusher interior. Ultimately, though, it failed to hide its sports car roots enough to be a compelling GT car, and the Exige was right there if you wanted a bona fide sports car.
Lotus did it better with the Evora a few years later, leaving the Europa as an oddity. Today though, if you can find one, we reckon it could be a compelling thing at around £20,000 for an S and a little more for an SE. We doubt you’ll see another, either.
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