The dream used cars to buy in 2025, from £1000-£100k

Ferrari 360 Spider 2001-05

The 360 Modena, the first wholly new Ferrari developed under Luca di Montezemolo’s leadership, now costs less than the price of a new Boxster for even a relatively low-mileage, well-maintained example.

It’s still sophisticated, despite a low-tech dashboard, and, more importantly, still a great drive.

Price range £42,000-£95,000

Bentley Continental GTC 2006-11

For the price of a Dacia Duster, you can buy the near-polar opposite in the transformable shape of a Bentley convertible. At this money, the car might be a little leggy, but it will still be very smart.

Will it be expensive to run? Of course, but not crazily so, and it probably won’t be your daily driver, either.

The first-generation Conti is a reliable car, which is just as well: any significant engine work requires the magnificent W12 to be extracted first. But that’s very rare: this is an impressively durable car.

Price range £20,000-£60,000

Audi RS6 Avant Performance 2022-24

Performance itself has never been an RS6 shortfall, but this version offers far more dynamic sophistication to complement its asphalt-assaulting brute-force capabilities.

We’re talking a post-2019 ‘C8’ model here, complete with mild-hybrid energy saving, and the Performance package offered from 2022.

Price range £95,000-£135,000

Dacia Jogger 2022-now

Truly practical, affordable and economical but not so stripped-out that you suffer, the Jogger is the rationalist’s family car. It will optionally seat seven, and it’s a moderately entertaining drive, despite its back-to-basics remit.

Higher trims get you sat-nav, heated seats and a well-sorted touchscreen infotainment system. Performance? There’s enough.

Price range £13,000-£25,000

Kia EV6 2021-now

The handsome, futuristic, spacious and swift (very swift, in fact, in 321bhp four-wheel-drive form) EV6 will take you a decent distance between charges.

It handles well, too, although the steering is numb and brake pedal feel can be slightly odd. Skoda’s Enyaq is arguably a better all-rounder, but it’s the Kia that’s the looker, and it’s better value as a used proposition.

Price range £22,000-£59,000

Bentley Mulsanne 2010-2020

If you want a car whose bodywork is caressed with ostrich feathers during an 85-hour paint process (surely the list of desirous drivers is long), then consider a Mulsanne, the earliest examples of which now dip under £40k.

That’s a huge amount of luxury for BMW 320i money. No tailgate or folding seats, but the boot is vast, as are the four sumptuous seats within.

Price range £35,000-£175,000

Chrysler Delta 2011-14

If you like your cars cheap and ultra-rare yet practical, look no further. Chrysler’s UK division shifted just over 900 examples of this rebadged Lancia, which is in turn little more than a rebodied Fiat Bravo on a lengthened wheelbase.

So rear leg room is generous, if hardly a reason to trouble a dealer for a car that is otherwise very average. Still, it’s quite nicely styled, decently civilised and yours for peanuts.

Price range £1000-£2500

Peugeot RCZ 2010-15

It looks exotic, yet you can buy a serviceable example for less than £2000. That will get you the 156bhp 1.6 Turbo (seek out the optional, ambience-boosting leather-faced dashboard).

RCZs are well made and have relatively few troubles. There’s also a diesel, an overly long-legged 197bhp petrol and, most covetable, the 267bhp R with a Torsen diff. Only 305 Rs came to the UK; you need £15k for a good one.

Price range £1800-£15,000

Renault Wind 2010-12

For unusual, breezily cheap thrills, try the oddball Wind, yours for as little as £1000. You get two seats, a cleverly hinged electric roof, a Renaultsport-tuned chassis and a choice of two motors.

The 99bhp 1.2 is an easy, torquey drive, while the 131bhp 1.6 needs revs to get ahead, but both are brisk. Remember the 72,000-mile cambelt change.

Price range £1000-£4000

Lexus RC F 2015-24

You get an awful lot of refined Lexus V8 thump for your money with the RC F: its 470bhp 5.0-litre engine delivers 4.5sec 0-62mph runs and 167mph.

This rare coupé was on sale for almost a decade (there was a facelift in 2018), but even now there are fewer than 300 extant. BMW offers many better performance coupés, but this Lexus is far from short of allure, not least for its interestingly sculpted dashboard.

It’s extremely durable, too.

Price Range £21,000-£77,000

Aston Martin DB11 2016-23

You can sit within the sumptuous confines of a DB11 for less than £60,000 these days. That’s getting on for one-third of the new price in 2017. Early cars came with Aston’s own V12; a Mercedes-AMG V8 option became available soon after.

The DB11’s seven-year life seems short compared with its DB9 predecessor’s 14 years, and the appearance last year of the DB12 has accelerated its depreciation.

But the DB11 is far from inadequate: at launch, we ranked this sharp-toothed grand tourer second only to Ferrari’s sensational F12. For one of those, you need more than double the money.

Price range £58,000-£110,000

McLaren 12C 2011-14

A landmark McLaren and a slightly troubled beast that was decisively bettered by the 650S into which it morphed. That’s partly why values are low, despite early electronic issues having been retrospectively fixed.

A carbonfibre tub, 205mph potential and an exceptional chassis countered the potent V8’s dull blare compared with the Ferrari 458’s more soulful clamour. But the 12C is a fat 33% more affordable and still a fascinating car.

Price range £62,000-£93,000

BMW i8 2014-20

It looked like the future and still does, but the out-there plug-in hybrid powertrain seems less alluring now. What you got was the 1.5 triple engine of a Mini, tuned to 228bhp, and a 129bhp electric motor, combining to yield 357bhp, 4.4sec to 62mph and at least 40mpg.

A green supercar, then? Not quite. Progress is swift and smooth rather than visceral. More exciting is the low price of entry for this gull-winged beauty.

Price range £27,000-£60,000

Ferrari 599 GTB 2006-12

It has a bonnet the size of a ping-pong table, 612bhp and rather beautiful ‘floating’ D-pillars, and the 599 GTB is very fast. 

But perhaps this car’s most enticing performance curve is the traditional V12 Ferrari arc of depreciation, which is why you can buy one of these magnificent beasts for less than a new BMW X5.

The saving should go some way to countering the holiday-equivalent servicing bills.

Price range £70,000-£120,000

Maserati GranTurismo 2007-19

This is a cheap car at the high-risk end of the price range. Yet the Granturismo is a surprisingly tough, reliable thing with few issues to scare those bold enough to buy.

Maintenance is affordable with specialists, although the V8’s fuel consumption is, well, noticeable, along with an appetite for brake pads. It’s heavy, which is why the early 4.2-litre model isn’t so quick; the 4.7 is more convincing.

Avoid the clunky MC Shift automated manual in favour of the ZF six-speed automatic, which best suits the Maserati’s lavish grand tourer ambience.

Price range £13,000-£75,000

BMW M2 2016-21

Couldn’t live with the looks of the latest M2? Then go for this, the original, which is still a brilliant driver’s car. The earliest versions, with the 365bhp N55 engine, begin at £25k for a dual-clutch automatic or a little more for the rarer manual.

The Competition version, on sale from early 2019, provided 405bhp from BMW’s S55 motor and had sharper handling. Prices for these begin at £31k, but worry not if this is beyond your budget, because both versions are brilliant drives.

More brilliant still is the collectible CS, with 444bhp and many desirable tweaks, for which you need around £70k. All three are cast-iron classics.

Price range £25,000-£85,000

Alpine A110 2018-now

The oldest reborn A110s are now six years old, and this Alpine’s reputation as a superb driver’s car has barely diminished since. It’s almost a Goldilocks choice: not too expensive, not crazy fast but fast enough, not too big, not expensive to run and amazingly economical.

If you like driving rather than creating a visual and aural splash, this is the car. It looks pretty, too. Problems are few (the infamous failing fuel pump was fixed, eventually, with a recall), which is just as well, because service is patchy.

It’s better than a Cayman and unlikely to disappoint, although the infotainment is rubbish.