5 Reasonably Priced Cars That Would Be Perfect For Top Gear

There’s been a bit of debate about what the next Top Gear Reasonably Priced Car could be. That’s assuming that the Mini hatchback, which I think we can all agree was too fashion-conscious to be right for the job, gets the old heave-ho.

Stay tuned until Monday for what Top Gear presenter and all-round top bloke Rory Reid has to say about the new series, but the rumour mill says that the rallycross course and the Mini are both gone. But before we find out what’s really going on with the RPC, and whether it really is a GT86 or not, we wanted to cast our net.

We’ve brainstormed what we think are the best options for the next RPC slot. It has to be cheap, it has to be spacious and it has to be, well, a bit crap. We’ve assumed that the series is going to revert to the proper Top Gear circuit, at least until Dunsfold Aerodrome, the home of Top Gear, is ripped up and replaced with housing.

Peugeot 308

Just look at all the lovely equipment you get on the entry-level 308. For a very reasonable £16,375 you get air conditioning, DAB radio, Bluetooth and cruise control. It’s definitely not powerful and it’s a bit roly-poly, but it actually handles quite well, making it a perfect fit for thrashing around a small track a few times. You could even add optional alloy wheels if you really felt like it.

Fiat Tipo

The cheapest Tipo Easy Plus is another gold mine of reasonably-priced car-ness. A wheezy 16-valve, 94bhp petrol motor is bang-on for the purpose, it has 16-inch alloy wheels, a digital instrument cluster, 440 litres of space in the boot, a five-inch touch-screen, air-con, and (prepare an ‘ooooooh’), standard floor mats. And all this comes for a exceptionally fair £14,345. Does it get any more reasonable than that?

Suzuki Baleno

If Top Gear wanted to keep the car on the smaller side, the Baleno is a mighty practical little beast for not a lot of cash. A mere £12,749 of your money buys an SZ-T model, with DAB radio, air-con, alloys, a leather steering wheel, sat-nav and a reversing camera. That’s unbelievable value.

For an extra £1000 you could jump to the oh-so-lavish SZ5, with its adaptive cruise control, climate control and automatic emergency braking, which maybe isn’t a bad idea given the abject lack of driver skill on display most weeks. Suzuki also has provenance on the RPC front, too.

Dacia Sandero

Good news! It’s the… you get the idea. If it’s cheap you want, the Dacia Sandero is king. The top-spec Laureate has front electric windows, power steering, rear parking sensors, cruise control and a seven-function (seven!) on-board computer. You also get DAB radio, air-con and a seven-inch touch-screen with navigation. Splendid. You’d expect a price of £15,000 for all this, but Dacia will relieve your wallet of just £8995.

Nissan Juke

The Juke sells by the bucketload. We’re not sure why. Anyway, its popularity makes it easy to identify with, and with an entry price of £14,520 it’s definitely a reasonable option. The breathless 93bhp 1.6 is ideal RPC fodder and celebs could have fun chasing down the times set in the old Astra. Or maybe it was this old Astra. Probably not, but still, it’d be fun to watch it try. Alloys are standard, as are four electric windows, and there’s an AUX port straight from the 1990s for plugging your Walkman into.

What other cars do you think would make the best Reasonably Priced Cars? Apart from the whole Dacia range, obviously.