The Volvo 850 T5-R would be on my list...or it's later V70 incarnation.

Given how tight they were on rear seat space(*), I'm not sure how well the R5 GT Turbo would cope with family car duties!. (*) As with the first gen 5, on the second gen cars, the 5 door had a longer wheelbase for more rear legroom (60mm).

Out of that list, I'd go for another Renault, the 21 Turbo. But I also have a weird hankering for a Renault 9 Turbo (in black), the pre facelift model.

But I'm glad to see the inclusion of the Jetta GTI 16V, a car that, even in its day, was completely overshadowed (unfairly IMO) by its more attention grabbing sibling!.

Can’t see the Subaru WRX on the list SLO !

* Pandemic price rises aside, there are still some bargain performance cars out there, unfortunately not in Euorpe, mainly in the US, presumably because the cost of living is cheaper. Even factoring in the exchange rate, equivalent cars are still quite a bit cheaper than those on sale in Europe and many other Western countries.

Mainly taxation differences & volumes I would say rather than cost of living. The US isn't actually that cheap to live in.

Aren't they the main components of the cost of living differences from country to country? :-)

* Pandemic price rises aside, there are still some bargain performance cars out there, unfortunately not in Euorpe, mainly in the US, presumably because the cost of living is cheaper. Even factoring in the exchange rate, equivalent cars are still quite a bit cheaper than those on sale in Europe and many other Western countries.

Mainly taxation differences & volumes I would say rather than cost of living. The US isn't actually that cheap to live in.

There used to be some great affordable performance cars in Australia. All the young guys wanted V8 utes however now that Holden and Ford have stopped manufacturing in Australia those V8s and big sixes are no longer available. Yes, you can get 3.6lt pickups and SUVs but those are not as much fun to drive. My daily driver is a 4lt 6cyl Ford Falcon and it is great for relaxed cruising on long country roads. You can be doing 110 kph, pull out to overtake, floor the throttle and she kicks down and roars away. A great feeling.

“ Nissan Almera mk1 2.0 GTi (the dealership chap who sold me my Micra owned one - very nice indeed)” These were genuinely good cars. I ran about in one for a while that is taken in against a Colt GTi another car that I forgot about in my Morgan’s induced stupor. Both belong on the peoples performance car list as both were great fun yet affordable. The Almere was really only let down by its bland styling inside and out but to drive it was a real joy.

Indeed - The Mitsi Colt was on my list (with the Micra and Honda Civic) for my first car (2nd hand 2 to 4 years old) back in 1998. I looked at the very nice Colt 1.6 GLXi (no way I could afford [esp. the insurance as a new driver] the 1.8 GTi), and the lack of widespread dealership support and high parts/servicing costs (which also bumped up the inurance quite a bit) was what pushed me away from them.

A shame that the Colt never really caught on as an alternative to the popular small hatches. Similarly for the Almera - I had one as a courtesy car (as a sort of defacto test drive when my Micra was in for a service/MOT) and thought it was great to drive, despite it just being a 1.4 engined model. Good value cars if you could keep rust at bay, if rather bland looks as you say.

“ Nissan Almera mk1 2.0 GTi (the dealership chap who sold me my Micra owned one - very nice indeed)” These were genuinely good cars. I ran about in one for a while that is taken in against a Colt GTi another car that I forgot about in my Morgan’s induced stupor. Both belong on the peoples performance car list as both were great fun yet affordable. The Almere was really only let down by its bland styling inside and out but to drive it was a real joy.

Indeed - The Mitsi Colt was on my list (with the Micra and Honda Civic) for my first car (2nd hand 2 to 4 years old) back in 1998. I looked at the very nice Colt 1.6 GLXi (no way I could afford [esp. the insurance as a new driver] the 1.8 GTi), and the lack of widespread dealership support and high parts/servicing costs (which also bumped up the inurance quite a bit) was what pushed me away from them.

A shame that the Colt never really caught on as an alternative to the popular small hatches. Similarly for the Almera - I had one as a courtesy car (as a sort of defacto test drive when my Micra was in for a service/MOT) and thought it was great to drive, despite it just being a 1.4 engined model. Good value cars if you could keep rust at bay, if rather bland looks as you say.

A friend used to have a Proton Wira saloon. Real basic, bland looking thing in white with wheel trims, screamed minicab (or Grandad)!. But when I looked into it, turns out said Proton was a bit of a 'sleeper', having the 1.8 16V unit from the Colt 1.8GTI...........

Not a great deal of power in this day and age, but could have been amusing hunting down and embarrassing (or at least, surprising) boy racers!.

If I recall (from when I was looking at the mid 90s Colt, the 1.6L and 1.8L petrol engines had 110bhp and 134bhp (it may have been 143) and 0-60 times of 10sec and around 8sec (approx) respectively. The 1.8 GTi - especially in black - was a VERY nice looking car that would easily keep up with (and often beat) most hot hatches of the day and many since.

The Proton equivalent after the bought the rights to the engineering of that car was cheap looking but swift - someone round the corner from me still owns a Satria GTi.

Indeed - before the days of the HJ website (I would've read my dad's copy of the Saturday Telegraph for HJ's agony column but I can't remember when he started it), I remember dutifly buying my paper copy of the Parkers guide (boo!) and that was why my choices for my first car were between the Micra K11, Civic of the same era and the (nice version of the) Colt, all 3dr versions.

Of the three, the Colt was the best looking and to drive, but was far more expensive than the Micra (even with the 1.3 engine for both to compare) and there were so few about, plus the high insurance. The Civic wasn't exactly cheap either.

The memory of the Colt was why I put the 3dr Civic from the early 2000s on my list - very similar experience. TBH if Motorpoint hadn't put up such ridiculously cheap (new) Mazda3s, I probably would've got a Civic 3dr 1.6 Sport or 2.0 Type R.

A real shame Mitsubishi didn't put more of an effort to up their sales via increasing their import quota in the 90s - maybe it was out of their hands. Also a shame that they are a pale shadow of their former selves, with the Colt, Lancer (including later EVOs) and Gallant being very well thought of at that time, as were their bigger 4x4s.