Oddly, I was a staunch manual man for many years until I bought an older V70 T5 Auto which I've run for three years now and now I'd struggle to see past it... that said, with the R I specifically wanted a manual, probably because the early auto boxes have known issues and they seems to really sap performance. The manual box is great, 6th gear is superb and it'll sit at sub 2500rpm cruising at motorway speeds and it's easily return 35/36mpg which is rather good!
Just keeping an eye on the market too, seems to be more and more cars floating around the £7k to £8k mark but yes, manuals seems hard to get and whilst it's personal preference, I much prefer the 05 model year cars with the fully colour coded bodywork. Not a huge fan of the Atacama or the Nordcap leather... mine is Gobi but just realised that black is also available? Who knew!
I got very lucky with mine... looked at a few cars south of the border then by chance found mine in the colour combination I wanted, manual, no phone or sat nav (bit hopeless by today's standards!) and whilst it doesn't have comprehensive dealer history but it's been looked after by an independent specialist for the past few years... beyond that, I'd rather not know!
Bit like a good lady, sometimes best not to worry about the past and think about the future instead!
Good luck with the search and if I do decide to sell mine... the car... I'll pop you a heads up.
Cheers
|