I'd be inclined to agree, except some of the discounts available are very generous. A reasonable spec can be had for £27-28k. Or, more realistically, about £320pcm. Good value for what you get in my book. Well, as good a value as any new car I suppose.
However, revisiting my previous point, I suspect a gti would give you all the performance and fun required for £75 or so less PCM. I've very quickly come to the conclusion that modern performance cars are utterly unnecessary in the uk.
An eccentric friend of mine runs a triumph gt6 all year round and I love being in that. You can put it on the ragged edge at about 43mph. To do that in mine you'd be well over the ton. Far too much at stake for it to be any fun (for me at least). I suspect this is where cars like the mx-5 or gt86 really come into their own.
That's been my opinion for some time: modern cars are far too fast to be fun. Hell, bigger engined old cars can be less fun than the smaller engined variants. My last Capri was a 2.8i with a tweaked 2.9(fitted because it solves the 2.8engines major deficiencies), and I regularly found myself missing the turning into my road because it would effortlessly do 90mph in a 30 limit. It was faster than I am, and that's one of the main reasons I sold it. A 2.0l can still be driven hard, but not exceed the speed limit by too much. Plus, it can easily be made to drift around a large roundabout with all four tyres
just starting to let go at about 60mph until you get dizzy. Or arrested
The Caterham 160 is a good example along with original Mx-5s or the GT86, is it really any less fun than the mental versions at 3 times the price?
Once I get back on my feet financially, my plans have changed from a 3.0l V6 engined hot rod(that I didn't have the facilities to build, and was already a downgrade from the 360Mopar that was my original plan) to a simple '27 track T with a 1300 Jimny engine. I reckon a budget of £4k should see a nicely finished car that looks like a traditional '50s example but is fully usable. Hell, the 1.3 Suzuki engine has about the same amount of power as the flathead V8s that were often fitted to such cars back then!