Category: Affordable Sports 
Price Range: £35,105 to £35,275
Quick, rides well, not a typical Vauxhall.
A bit on the large side, cheapish interior, rear wing a bit lairy.
The VXR8 is a fast, powerful but usable saloon and provides a lot of muscle-car fun for not very much money.
Vauxhall went a bit left-field on us a few years back when it introduced the Australian-built Monaro into its UK line-up. Despite only being imported in limited numbers, it became a popular car with critics and enthusiasts: its combination of V8 power and rear-wheel drive making it a true muscle car.
The new VXR8 is therefore less of a surprise, but just as welcome an addition to Vauxhall's model range. This time it's a bit different, though: there's still a raucous V8 - a fourth-generation 6.0-litre LS2 unit - but this time it's a proper four-door saloon, albeit with a huge wing on the boot.
So it's a proper monster, both in terms of its size and its output, with that huge, environmentally unsound engine pumping out 411bhp at a peak of 6,000rpm and 405lb-ft of torque at 4,400rpm. All that helps propel you down the road at a fair lick, with the 0-62mph dash accomplished in 4.9 seconds.
As you can imagine from these figures, it's not cheap to run, but it is pretty cheap to buy: £35,105 gets you entry into the relatively exclusive (thanks to its limited availability) club of VXR8 ownership. It's a pretty good club to be in, too, as the car is, although slightly flawed in certain areas, great fun to drive.
Who's it for? Well, if you've had your eye on an M5, but also like the idea of a brash Antipodean copy for a lot less cash, this is the car for you. But be warned, it's noisy, will make you such a regular at your local petrol station that the staff will get to know you by name and will get you off Al Gore's Christmas card list in double-quick time, thanks to its 365g/km CO2 emissions.
