10 Used Winter Performance Cars For Under £10,000

It’s that time of year when we all look out of our windows at 4:30pm and get surprised at how dark it is all of a sudden. Heating is on indoors, and fleeces and beanie hats are on outdoors. Well, unless you’re reading this from the south of France. Or Los Angeles. Or literally anywhere in the southern hemisphere.

Here in Britain, though, it won’t be long until our roads start throwing up all manner of hazards: ice, snow, rain, mushy leaves, and the crust of chassis-attacking salt laid down by our fleet of lumbering yellow grit lorries.

In other words, it’s prime time to pick up something with four-wheel drive. Now, we know this won’t make you invulnerable when the going gets slippery – good tyre condition and generally not driving like a bellend are far more important – but it is a nice extra safety net at this time of year. And the good news is, if you want to go fast but don’t have a huge amount to spend, there’s still plenty of choice. Here are our 10 favourite rapid four-wheel drive cars to pick up for under £10,000 this winter.

Subaru Impreza WRX

Be honest: this is exactly where your mind went first, isn’t it? A spicy Subaru Impreza is pretty much the go-to answer for cheap, fast four-wheel drive cars. While £10k will buy you higher-mileage examples of the slightly unloved third-gen ‘GR’ WRX STI hatch, we reckon you’re better off plumping for a tidier, older example of the only slightly less powerful WRX.

Our budget opens up all sorts of tidy examples of the long-lived second-gen Impreza WRX. Bugeyes, Blobeyes and Hawkeyes; saloons and estates – they’re all here, and all team a rumbly turbocharged flat-four making at least 215bhp with Subaru’s signature symmetrical four-wheel drive system. The world is your oyster.

Audi S4 B7

If you didn’t think fast Subaru, you probably thought fast Audi, and once again, £10k opens up plenty of options. TTs, S1s, S3s, even leggy RS4s and highly questionable RS6s are available. The sweet spot, though, might be the B7 S4.

£10k will buy you a very good example indeed of this understated Q-car, which packed the same gorgeous-sounding 4.2-litre V8 that would eventually feature in the original Audi R8 (albeit making ‘just’ 339bhp here). Choose between saloon and Avant, and enjoy the look on people’s faces when what they think is a 2.0-litre diesel roars off from the lights.

Range Rover Sport Supercharged

Want your four-wheel drive to do more than just give you extra grip on a slippery road? Despite its name, and not being a ‘proper’ Rangie, the original Range Rover Sport is still an impressively capable thing off-road.

It was also available with a stonking 4.2-litre supercharged V8 that kicked out 385bhp, taking this sizable SUV to 62mph in 7.2 seconds and on to 140mph. You’ll also comfortably get the cushiest interior on this list, even 20 years after it launched. However, we can’t reasonably recommend the RRS without attaching a health warning regarding potentially ruinous fuel and repair bills.

Mazda 6 MPS

Mazda is not a name you readily associate with four-wheel drive performance cars, but it’s dabbled here and there, most recently with the 6 MPS. An understated performance version of the handsome first-gen 6, it utilised a 2.3-litre turbo four-pot to send 256bhp to all four wheels via a six-speed manual ’box, sort of like a bigger, more grown-up take on the Evo/Impreza formula.

Never quite as entertaining as those cars to drive, it’s nonetheless a rapid point-to-point machine, and has rarity on its side too: as we write this, there are apparently only around 170 on Britain’s roads. This, obviously, will impact your ability to actually find one, and really nice ones are starting to creep above £10k now.

Porsche Cayenne E1

We thought about including the 911 Carrera 4 here, we really did. But all £10k will get you these days are very questionable Tiptronic 996s, and that’s a road you probably don’t want to go down. Still, there is another way of getting an all-paw Porsche on a budget.

In the context of modern SUVs, the original Cayenne really doesn’t shock as much as it did 20 years ago, and it’s a very handy steer for a two-decade-old 4x4. You have plenty of choice at this price range too, but there are a couple of standouts. If outright pace is a priority, then you’ll find the 444bhp Turbo to your liking, but if you want slightly sweeter handling, consider the 405bhp GTS.

Vauxhall Insignia VXR

Yes, it’s a mid-sized Vauxhall saloon car. Wait, come back! The Insignia VXR was one of the greatest sleepers of its generation. A 2.8-litre turbocharged V6 made for a very healthy 321bhp, which would get you to 62mph in 6 seconds flat and on to a limited 155mph.

In fact, you might even find a VXR Supersport, which ditched the limiter for a 170mph top speed. In a mid-sized Vauxhall! And is it just us, or is the Insignia VXR ageing really well? If we were to really push it, we’d say there’s just a little bit of the mythical Lotus Carlton’s spirit in this thing. Maybe.

Volkswagen Golf R Mk7

There’s a reason we’re already looking back so fondly on the Mk7 Golf. It occupied a sweet spot when VW build quality was still second-to-none and its interiors felt crisp and modern, but before it all went a bit off the rails with its UX and cars generally became slightly irritating tech-fests.

£10k will get you into the pinnacle of the Mk7, the R. It’ll be high-mileage, but you’ll get 296 very deployable horsepower, and the choice of a manual or quick-shifting DSG. The old adage really does apply, too – a Golf never looks out of place anywhere. Assuming you find one without smoked tail lights and a badly-applied chameleon tint.

Mitsubishi Galant VR-4

First, the bad news. You can’t really get an Evo of any sort for under £10k anymore – not even the comparatively unloved Evo X. It’s true that we didn’t know what we had until it was gone. However, with some patience, you might be able to find Mitsubishi's other turbocharged four-wheel drive saloon, the Galant VR-4.

The final EC5 iteration is the one we’re thinking – 276bhp (allegedly) from a 2.5-litre twin-turbo V6 which, with a manual, would see it hit 60mph in just 5.3 seconds. You’ll probably have to track down a Japanese import, but they can be found for four-figure prices. Bonus cool points if it’s the Legnum estate.

Alfa Romeo 159 Q4

The pretty Alfa 159 never really cut it as a proper sports saloon, but in four-wheel drive Q4 guise, outfitted with a 3.2-litre, 256bhp V6 (sadly not one of Alfa’s own rorty Bussos, but a General Motors unit with a few Alfa-specific parts), it starts to make sense as a grippy point-to-point tool.

You’re still getting those looks and an interior that felt much more special than anything else in its class at the time, and you’ll hit 62mph in 7.1 seconds and 155mph. As well as the 159 saloon and Sportwagon, you can also find this setup in the Brera coupe and, if you’re really brave, the gorgeous but floppy Spider. Just make sure you have a glance at our buying guide before making any big decisions.

Volvo V70 R/S60 R

If anyone’s going to make cars that handle winter well, it’s the Swedes. The Volvo V70 R – and its rarer saloon equivalent, the S60 R – fit the bill nicely, with four-wheel drive, bags of space and cosy, inviting interiors.

Oh yeah, and they also have snorting 296bhp five-cylinder turbo engines, just like an old Audi Quattro rally car. These cars – especially the S60 – were pitches as BMW M3 competitors in their day, and while round a track, they wouldn’t see which way an E46 went, things would probably be very different on a slippery, icy country road. It’s actually obligatory to blast ABBA Gold at full volume as you hammer through a winter wonderland in your turbo five-pot Swedish estate.