I’ve just been through the process of sourcing the best budget hot hatch. The budget was around 5K (You can read all about the car here), this is what I ended up choosing & why.
I’ve done more in-depth version of this article on StrikeEngine.com, you can read it here,
The Brief
The brief I had was to find a hatchback, it had to be under 5K (or as close as possible), it wouldn’t be used every day, it had to be practical which meant 5 doors (unless something really interesting was available), it had to be cheapish to run, it had to be cheap to repair if something catastrophic happened and it had to be exciting.
Best Budget Hot Hatch – The Shortlist
With all that said, I narrowed down the potential cars to the following:
- Golf MK5 GTI/Octavia vRS MK2
- Renault Clio 182/197
- Honda Civic Type-R EP3
- Skoda Octavia RS 1.8T MK1
I ended up recommending and sourcing an Octavia RS 1.8T but did I make the right choice?
Scoring
This is how the cars scored using the brief detailed above.
| Clio 182/197 | Civic EP3 Type-R | Octavia 1.8T RS | GTI MK5/Octavia RS MK2 | |
| Purchase Price | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Fun (When modded with 5K budget) | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Excitement (When modded) | 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| Chassis | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Tuneability (5K Total Budget) | 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| Reliability | 2 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| Running Costs (Catastrophic Problems) | 3 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| Practicality | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| TOTAL | 20 | 14 | 24 | 18 |
The Octavia RS Mk1 came out on top and this was almost entirely down to the legenedary 1.8T motor that powers it. It ticks the boxes for reliability and fixability and the car can still be found quite cheaply in the UK which leaves a good budget for mods which could take it to 300bhp if you do the work yourself.
For sure the Octavia MK1 does not have the best chassis out of these 4 cars but big power can paper over a lot of cracks.
The surprise in the scoring for me was the Clio 182/197 finishing a strong second. This came down to the brilliant chassis and the fact the cars can be found for under 5K which leaves a decent budget for repairs.
Third place was the MK5 GTI. For sure, if we were looking for an everyday car, this would probably have been the choice but daily usability wasn’t in the brief and excitement was so that costs it the points.
And in last place of the best budget hot hatches is the Civic. Great car, engine and gearbox but getting pricey now and can be pricey to fix and not as practical as the 5 door shells.
Bigger Budget
If the budget was bigger, say 8-10K, for sure the Octavia MK1 would have not finished top. I think it would have been beaten by the EP3 and the MK5 GTI. The EP3 has the legendary K20A2 and if you have the budget these engines can be tuned to big numbers with the right turbo kit but a 5K budget is not enough. And with 8-10K we can do a lot to the TFSI motor and have some budget to fix big problems.
Summary
In summary, if you are looking for excitement and drama for less than 5K I can think of no better solution than a car rocking the 1.8T motor and that is what gave the MK1 Octavia RS the win for the Best Budget Hot Hatch.