10 of the best cars for £15k: a Top Gear guide

If you don’t need back seats this ought to be the beginning and end of the £15k conversation. Handling doesn’t really get any sweeter, even if you multiplied our budget by one hundred, while the combined boot space outsmarts several family hatches. It’ll be one of the earliest on this budget – 2005-07 kinda period – but prices for those first-gen Caymans (the 987, model code nerds) seem to have held solid for a while now. It looks like these will never languish in the bargain bin like 944s once did.

Like the idea of a welterweight, rear-drive sports car but need nominal back seats and more palatable service bills? The GT86 offers a decent chunk of the Cayman’s fun but with a healthy dose of pragmatism. You should have a decent amount of choice on our budget, too, though they’ll all be too old to retain any of their original warranty. Seek out its Subaru BRZ twin for extra rarity – they apparently account for just one in ten of the boxer-engined pair that made it to Britain. Oh, and check the tyre wear before you buy…

‘Pragmatism’ may have briefly left the room for this one. We’ve cranked the risk factor right back up again. But oh, the rewards should it go well. An RS6 Avant in Layer Cake spec - below 100,000 miles and boasting a full book of service stamps - comes right in on budget. Making it the same price as an exceedingly restrained options list spend on its 2021 namesake. Expect fuel bills.

Sure, the ‘Ring-honed Megane R26.R and 275 Trophy R get the icon status. But what doesn’t get said often enough is that the cars they’re based upon are very nearly as mesmeric to drive. And just so happen to have a full complement of seats and entirely glass windows…

Fifteen grand is a generous sum that opens up plentiful choice and a bamboozling number of variants – a Megane 275 with a Cup chassis is where we’d look to direct our cash, but prioritise a solid history and fresh looking tyres.

Yes, you can get an E90-generation BMW M3 – the one with a V8 that snarls, sings and everything in between as its 8,000 revs pile on – for 15 grand. But should you? Depends how brave you’re feeling. Most are coupes, most are DCT, and it’s probably a manual saloon you really want. But a leggy cabrio at £15k could be the most exciting gamble you’ve ever taken.

We’ll concede a fair chunk of this list so far has involved words like ‘risk’ and ‘brave’. Which, if you’re simply looking for dependable daily transport with a whiff of intrigue about it, is probably sub-ideal. So here’s a nice safe pair of hands, just a handful of years old at £15k and with abundant options – petrol, diesel, manual, automatic, hatchback, estate. Though not all six at once, obviously. If you’re set on avoiding an SUV (congrats!) there are few more sensible places to look if you want a reserve of performance, too.

The classic Mini continued production right up until the plumper, safer, caps-locked MINI landed in 2001. Coopers made in that final decade are where we’d focus our cash. Some people sensibly saw it as an investment to squirrel one away with low miles, and those cars are now popping up if you’ve a bit of patience. The most recognisable four-wheeled design on the planet, a vague semblance of ‘equipment’, and all for one tenth of the cost of a modern restomod special.

Want something British that’s up for a bit more rough ‘n’ tumble? Fifteen grand can buy a classic Series Land Rover or a more modern Defender, though ‘more modern’ is a term used at is most relative. Focus on the latter and you’re surprisingly spoiled for choice given the icon status this car permeates – 90 and 110 shapes in passenger-carrying and commercial vehicle forms abound.

And now for something a little more…. civilised. Much like the Renault, £15k is quite a princely pot of cash if you’ve got your eyes on a two-seat drop-top Merc. The wedge-tastic R129-gen has aged fabulously and can be had in tidy, probably restored form. Or you can fast forward to the mid-2000s and get an R230-gen SL500 (pictured) with a folding metal roof and woofly V8. Or if lower risk and miles are your bag, a V6-powered SL350.

There are abundant Renault Zoes and Nissan Leafs (Leaves?) for £15k too. But to misquote Chris Tarrant, we don’t want to give you those. Because the coolest dinky EV of them all also slots comfortably into budget in a variety of colours and specs. There are stories of the Range Extender version overheating if its little ‘Plan B’ engine is relied upon too often, so go fully electric if your typical usage will allow. Else go for the security of the REX but make a solemn vow not to work it too hard…