We love a bargain in the UK and thankfully, we have a brilliant amount of do-it-all quick, cheap wagons on offer.
Recently, we covered the best used performance wagons for under £10,000. That is a mightily healthy budget it turns out, and you can get some real bruisers for your driveway. However, £10K is still a fair chunk of change, so let’s look at some for half of that. Here’s 5 for under £5K.
Ford Mondeo ST220
Rare, exciting, cheap and bloody good looking. The ST220 could be had in saloon, hatchback and estate form – with the latter looking the best!
The brilliance of this car lies under the bonnet, following on from the Mondeo ST200 which used a Duratec 25 2.5 V6, the 220 utilised the newly developed Duratec 30 – a 3.0 V6. Power was a healthy 226bhp which rocketed this car to 60mph in around 7.4 seconds.
Fitted with a lovely 6-speed Getrag manual transmission (early ones had the 5-speed), this front wheel drive longroof has utterly fantastic balance through the corners, which manufacturers are still trying to wrap their head around today.
Saab 9-3 2.8 V6
An off-the-wall choice from the now non-existent Saab brand. The 9-3 was the mid-size offering that was targeted at buyers of the C-Class and 3-Series but with a Scandi twist.
One of the most notable trims of this car was the 2.8T V6 Aero model. Featuring, you guessed it, a 2.8 litre V6 with a turbo strapped to it. Power was good for 250bhp which launched the car to 60 in just over 7 seconds utilising the front wheels to control that grunt.
Subaru Legacy R.Spec B
Not a fan of front-wheel drive cars? Well then heading over to Japanese automaker, Subaru will grant you super safe and predictable all-wheel drive. Driving all four wheels is a 3 litre, naturally aspirated flat 6 producing 243bhp giving a 0-60 time of 6.5 seconds.
The Spec B can be had with either manual or automatic options, however, we could only find one car for sale which had the auto. They do occasionally pop up every now and again, but they are a strong alternative to the A4 and 3-Series due to the tremendously large boot and famed Subaru reliability.
BMW 330d
Rather have rear-wheel drive in your life and be (somewhat) economically conscious? Enter the BMW 330d, packing a 3 litre, straight 6 diesel engine that puts out between 184bhp to 242bhp depending on which year you pick.
Thankfully, because they were hugely popular, the used market is awash with them. You can either go with the older (and cheaper) E46 era or the later (and more powerful) E91 models. All engines are seemingly bulletproof, as is evidenced by the wealth of high mileage ones on offer. Buying a 100,000 mile plus one should give you relatively trouble free motoring.
However, with most of the 330d’s being automatics, if you are really after a manual 3.0 diesel, the 325d with the M57 is readily available with manual options. Both variants take extremely well to tuning, too!
Jaguar X-Type 3.0 V6
Any of the previous choices not premium enough for you? How about a grandad-spec Jaaaaaaaaaaag? Yes it was just a Ford Mondeo underneath that used a broadly similar adaptation of the Duratec 30 as seen in the ST220.
But in truth, only 19% of the parts in the Jag were shared with the Mondeo, namely because unlike the Ford, the X-Type could be had with all-wheel drive.
The interior was certainly a step up from its blue-oval brethren and either an automatic or manual gearbox are your choices. The only thing to be mindful of is that Jag’s have never been famed for their reliability.
Still, worth a punt!
Fancy a new wagon instead? Take a look at the best new performance longroofs on sale today by clicking here.