Boxster is very tempting but I think a £7k one would be a proposition for a braver man than I.

Also we like to travel in to Europe for our holidays so fear a 2-seater might not fit the bill. Otherwise I might have been interested in a Mercedes SLK.

I sat in the new C class convertible at the Geneva Motor Show last week and loved it. Unfortunately similar Mercs in my budget are a bit old or are horrendously expensive to tax.

Sage advice indeed SLO76.

The problem for me with hot-hatches is that they all seem to be too stiffly sprung to be comfortable on the rutted country roads where I do most of my mileage.

I previously ran an E46 323i coupe. That arrived with 18" wheels and was virtually undriveable around here until I swapped down to 16" rims.

That said, a Golf GTi might fit the bill or a Scirroco. How reliable is the DSG box at 10 years old ?

SLO is correct. Potential money pits Porsche and BMW at this age. At least a common everyday make should be easier and cheaper to repair and maintain. Personally I would be inclined to run the Saab until it drops and becomes uneconomical to maintain, in the meantime save some more money and get a better, newer car later on. As for fuel consumption, well that is all in your own hands. I suspect that you enjoy driving and probably use the available performance, which will mean low consumption. Maybe a little less haste and braking and your consumption should improve if that is what you want. Same will apply to any car with notional 'good' consumption based on fairly staid driving. Good luck in your search.

Cheers Concrete

Interesting conundrum, though, as SLO says, potentially risky!.

Couple of points, your Saab has 4 decent sized seats, does its replacement need rear seats?, if so, do they need to fit adults?. If so, your net of possibilities are pretty small!. An Autotrader search for convertibles >£7.5k (haggle room!), with at least 4 seats, auto gearbox and capable of sub 8 seconds 0-60 comes up with a total of 9 brands. One of those is Jaguar, an XK8 4.0, and while technically it does have rear seats, they are very small indeed!. The Lexus SC430 has similarly tiny rear seats, but it also has that Lexus reliability. On the minus side, its looks are somewhat 'challenging', and going by what i have read, they don't drive like a sports car at all. That leaves Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Mini, Saab, VW and Volvo. The VW (Eos 2.0TSI) uses the DSG gearbox, so i'd definately rule that out. There are lots of BMW's (123), but many, many of them will be rubbish, through neglect, modifications, accident damage, etc, so the biggest challenge would be sifting through the dross to find a nice example!. Merc's are less numerous (68), Audi's less so again (42), but i'm guessing similar problems would arise trying to find a nice example. Mini's are in their own little niche here compared to the rest of the search results, not my cup of tea at all but they have their fans. Not sure about specific reliability issues for the 170bhp 1.6, but it is the kind of car that will be likely to have been thrashed, so beware. That leaves Saab and Volvo. The Volvo in question being the Ford Focus based C70 and will have the 2.5 5 cyl turbo as found in the Focus ST of the same era. I believe the engines are good and reliable, if a little thirsty (doubt you'd see 30mpg very often), but i'm none to sure about the 'geartronic' gearbox, which is an automated manual. Normally i'd want to steer well clear, but maybe other forum members have positive experience of it(?), otherwise, not for me thanks. The Saab is the same as your car but with the bigger 2.8 turbo packing 250bhp. There are only two showing on Autotrader, but might be worth a look seeing as you are very familiar with everything apart from the extra grunt. This is the lower mileage of the two, a private seller, but looks pretty good?,

www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/20190310573...1

Well, lots to think about there.

In summary it looks like most autobox options aren't viable at this price point. I shall have to carry on shifting my own gears.

Quite like the idea of the Brera, great looking car but probably not a wise thing to spend your own money on. I like the looks of the French coupes but the engine options don't appeal, if you can find any of them anywhere.

Might look at manual A5's and 3 series coupes.

Many thanks to everyone who took the time to help. Especially pleased to have received confirmation that the DSG should be avoided. I have driven a Golf R with this unit and liked the way it worked, but that was a new car and somebody else's problem!

Apologies for the sudden change in direction here but......

We're actually looking for a petrol Saab 9-3 convertible as a days out/weekends away car whilst keeping our Golf as the main family car.

Just wondering what the OP's experience of the Saab has been and whether or not he would recommend one?

Thanks so much for that reply, always good to hear first hand reports of ownership before buying. Next step is to go and (literally) try one out for size. I'm a fairly 'big unit' and vaguely remember sitting in a 9-3 hardtop (saloon?) once and finding it a bit cramped. Thanks again!