A Non-Spider Infested Mazda 6 MPS Can Be Picked Up For Under £4k

We recently found out that Mazda is to recall thousands of 6s due to spiders being able to find their way into the car's engines. Yes, really. Happily, only a small percentage of 6s are affected, which means our favourite version, the fast MPS, is unaffected. While we had this four-wheel drive sports saloon in mind, we figured we'd see what they're going for on the used market these days, and had a pleasant surprise.

Prices for the earliest examples start at well under £4000. That's some serious performance for the money. The 6 MPS is powered by a 2.3-litre turbocharged four-pot, producing 256bhp. That's enough to send this inexpensive beast from 0-62mph in just 6.4 seconds, and on to a top speed of 149mph.

Not that you'd know it from the outside. Aside from the twin oval exhaust and the cheeky boot spoiler, there's very little to let you know this is the cooking version of the 6. That makes this an excellent sleeper 'Q car,' and we love a good sleeper.

This one is up for £3995; it has a reasonable 86,000 miles on the clock and is well equipped. Performance car bargains don't get much better than this.