Buy them before we do: second-hand picks for 6 September

Aston Martin DB7 5.9 V12 Coupé, £16,000: It doesn’t seem much for a 2003 DB7 V12 with a claimed full history. The seller says it’s running beautifully, but we’d check for misfires, frail hoses, gearbox coolant leaks, worn brakes, rust, a malfunctioning air-con system and sticky power windows.

Ford P100, £3995: Pick-ups weren’t always overblown Dodge RAM lookie-likies. The Sierra-based P100, launched in 1987, was a more modest and honest affair. This one’s a 1992 K-reg with 98,000 miles that seems to have avoided hard labour and appears in fine condition. 

Lotus Elan S2 1.6 LE, £7500: Where does a keen driver on a budget find their Lotus kicks? We found this 80k-mile 1995 Elan S2. No word on its history, but check for faulty injectors causing rough running, the glassfibre body for repairs, a warped hood frame and the underside for scrapes. 

BMW 1M, £35,317: The 1 Series M Coupé was welcomed with open arms, not least by Autocar, which praised its back-to-basics feel, epic performance and overall handling feel. Our find is a BMW approved used 2012/12-reg manual with 60,000 miles.

Auction watch 

Porsche 928 S4 Auto: Proof that auctions are the place to go if you want a bargain is this 150,000-mile, 1988-reg 928 that went for £9056. A bargain? Not if it’s a bucket, but this one has just been serviced, so there’s another stamp to add to the 13 already in the file.

It had an engine rebuild in 1997 and since then has had £8000 spent on it, with an aluminium radiator among the new parts. We’d have been keen to check that belts, tensioner and water pump had been changed at intervals, that the gearbox isn’t leaking and that the underside and window surrounds are free of rust. 

Future classic

Volkswagen Beetle 2.0 TSI Turbo, £9985: The last Beetle scuttled out of the Mexico factory recently, making this a good time to comb the family album for promising derivatives. And lo, we found this: the 2.0 TSI Turbo with 197bhp and an impressive 206lb ft at just 1700rpm.

Check out those 19in Tornado alloys, rear spoiler, privacy glass and red, uprated brake calipers. True, it’s a stretch to imagine it might one day achieve real classic status, but with looks, rarity and performance on its side, it must stand a fairly good chance. And they don’t make them any more…

Clash of the classifieds

Brief: Find me a bona fide V8 muscle car for £12k.

Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG, £9995

Porsche 928 S4, £10,250

Max Adams: My Mercedes might not be American, but it has all the correct ingredients of a proper muscle car: a huge 6.2-litre V8 in an equally big vehicle, rear-wheel drive and a fantastic soundtrack when you peel away from a stop light. What are your wheels of choice, Mark? 

Mark Pearson: A wonderful bahnstorming 1987 Porsche 928 S4, complete with that delightful 5.0-litre V8, wonderful balance and, oh, those polar moments of inertia! It’s had £25k spent on it and yet is just £10k to buy. Yours is a taxi, right? 

MA: Traditional muscle cars are based on saloons, so my Mercedes-Benz E-Class fits the brief. And, of course, they’ve had to spend so much keeping your old crate going because it’s two decades older than mine – which also explains the 200bhp deficit… 

MP: Mine oozes style, though, and no one complained that it lacked for power back then – it’ll see off 0-60mph in six seconds. It has perfect weight distribution and much else besides, and I should think its price can only go one way. 

MA: The E-Class wasn’t regarded as a minger at the time either, but this AMG has the subtlety to surprise the uninitiated.