Four fun used hot hatches that should hold their value
Fast fun cars that won’t break the bank, to buy or when it comes time to sell
It’s a hard time to be an active, car-owning car enthusiast at the moment and be financially responsible. The days of a brand new Porsche GT car or exclusive M car being a safe vessel for your cash are for the moment, in the new and used market as it is today, behind us. The bubble has slightly deflated even on sought-after used models, after a peak in values during and just after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Happily though, there are cars out there that are great fun and won’t be financially ruinous, either when buying or selling later down the line. This week we’re looking at hot hatches, which can be bought for the kind of money that’ll fall out the back of a new BMW M4 over a year. If you’re looking for a performance car fling that won’t break the bank, both when you buy and when you sell, here are a few options.
Honda Civic Type R (FK2, 2015-2017) – £15k - £20k
Underrated and overlooked is the FK2 Civic Type R. The car with which Honda’s iconic performance badge returned was the starting point from which the admittedly much improved FK8 and near perfect FL5 built. Nonetheless the FK2 still had much of what we love about those later cars – that inimitable slick gear shift, the intense, angry turbocharged four-cylinder engine, razor-sharp responses. Its damping isn’t as well resolved, it’s a much rougher car to ride in, though can be greatly improved in terms of feel and compliance with a switch to Michelin tyres.
> Look for a Honda Civic Type R here
It’s also rare. Only on sale for two years following its 2015 reveal, the FK2 is a rarer Civic Type R than the FK8, if not the FL5 (which had both time and a high price of entry working against it). The result is, FK2s hold their money astonishingly well. If we asked you to put a price against a ten-year-old Honda Civic with over 60,000 miles on the odometer, your guess would be closer to £10k than the £20k they’re actually at. Being a Honda, it’s a car you’ll be able to trust too. Type Rs never live inactive lives but one with service and maintenance history, with evidence, ought to serve you well however it’s been driven. Check for accident damage, check the MOT history, check the consumables (brakes and tyres), test drive to listen for any weird noises and verify it’s been looked after, and you’re on for a thrilling time.
Renault Sport Mégane R26.R (2008) – £20k - £35k
The Mégane R26.R is arguably still a high watermark for Renault Sport, one that subsequent Trophy R models ran close and surpassed in terms of performance, if not for feel and thrills. As a memory refresher, the R26.R is a hot hatch made hardcore to the point it’s still slightly absurd Renault signed it off. A laundry list of changes including plastic windows, Toyo R888 tyres, Sabelt bucket seats and five-point harnesses and a half cage, reads like a copy and paste from the Porsche GT3 RS playbook. The R26.R drives like if Porsche Motorsport made a hot hatch too. It’s hardcore and capable yes, but there’s compliance, tractability, tactility. It’s a car that you relish in driving, rather than hold onto as it deploys its performance.
Being a niche special, rarity and strong values come with the territory. They plateaued at around £18k at one point but now only the leggiest examples with the most questionable mods languish under the £20k mark, on the rare occasion they appear for sale. An R26.R worth having is more like £25k - £30k. A Renault Sport Megané of any flavour is a more delicate device than the equivalent Honda Civic. Maintenance history is essential, including documented evidence of the timing belt, auxiliary belt and water pump being done on time and ideally recently. If it’s got the right R888 tyres on it, you’ll want to pay extra close attention to their condition and age too.
Volkswagen Golf GTI Clubsport S (2016) – £30k - £45k
Even the most basic and staid of Golf GTIs is a car that holds money a little better than rival hot hatches. It’s a known quantity – fast and fun but dependable and classless. Turning up the wick on it as VW did with the Mk7 Golf GTI Clubsport S, could have gone a number of ways. It could have robbed the Golf of its versatility with little reward. It could have made it garish, robbing it of some of its class. Being a two-seater, the Clubsport S is a far less practical Golf GTI but in every other way, it’s the ultimate Golf GTI – possibly the ultimate hot hatch of its era.
> Find a Mk7 Volkswagen Golf GTI here
Along with added aero and lightweighting, the Clubsport S received an EA888 engine with over 300bhp, bespoke dampers, suspension geometry and even an alloy front subframe, not to mention calibration and setup by the man who developed the 997 Porsche 911 GT3. Inside there were bucket seats and a cross bar and net where the rear seats used to be. The result: the most hardcore, track capable Golf, yes, but also one that was astonishingly tractable and enjoyable on the road.
Prices are incredibly sturdy – this is the most expensive car in this little quartet. Without proper miles you’ll be paying upwards of £35k with some delivery miles cars priced at almost £50k. These aren’t examples you can drive without consequence in terms of values but get a leggier one closer to £30k (they don’t come up often) and you’ll have one of the best hot hatches of the modern era and plenty of time to enjoy it without the bottom falling out value wise. As it’s a Golf, it’s fairly sturdy too. The EA888 has a known appetite for thermostats and water pumps but otherwise, a car that presents well with good tyres and brakes, diligent service history and good MOT history, should serve you well.
Ford Focus RS (2016 - 2019) – £20k-£70k
Fast Fords have long been known as good ‘everyman’ performance cars in which to store some cash. As such, the buying advice applies not only to the Mk3 Focus RS we’ll be discussing here but the five-cylinder Mk2 and the frantic Mk1. The Mk3 being the newest is of course the closest to a normal, modern car, with the most contemporary creature comforts, practicality and safety standards.
Unlike the Renault, Volkswagen and even the Civic, which has more flaws than the former two, we weren’t the biggest fans of the Mk3 Focus RS on its arrival. We found it to be crass, overly aggressive but slightly short on the feel and tactility of rivals from France, Japan and Germany. It is nonetheless bristling with personality and blisteringly fast and capable on the right road, not to mention more adjustable thanks to its AWD system.
All hot hatches are susceptible to an audience keen on modifications but the Focus RS, like any fast Ford, might be on another level. They’re also cars that have really been driven, so there are plenty out there with miles on them. But then you have to consider, it’s almost certainly the last of its kind, with Ford not producing an RS version of the fourth-gen Focus. Now the nameplate has disappeared entirely from Ford’s configurator, the finality of the Mk3 Focus RS is all but concrete.
So yes, values vary. The leggiest cars with the dodgiest mods (and history) are around for under £20k. As of now, nicer, well kept examples, with under 50,000 miles are over £22k. Rarest and most desirable with extra power and toys will be the Red Editions (300 made), which start at over £30k, and the Heritage Editions, of which just 50 came to the UK and are rarely available for under £50k. Be sure your chosen car has great service history – these 2.3-litre engines are known to be delicate. Buy the right car in the right condition that’s been looked after and it should see you right.
