My Lifelong Dream, My First Car

Gs400

yupididit wrote: First car? 16 yrs old? 12k budget? Parents paying for insurance? E36 M3. Buy something cheap and save the rest. You'll be glad to come out of high school with some pocket change. And Miata fast straight line but losing to imprezas around the corners? This thread makes no sense to me.

At his age, I had similar lofty aspirations that I still haven't come close to...but unlike me, he may have the money to back them up!

buy a $3000 car and a decent 3D printer

TheBigLebowski wrote: With $12,000 as my cap price it excludes insurance and gas. My parents agreed to pay for insurance and some gas because I'm paying about 75% of the car and took a series of classes that lowered the insurance quite a bit. Despite those things the insurance cant be a monster like what a BMW would have. I would like to have a nice Porsche or BMW but parts and insurance would cripple me in the future. Other than that I am aware of the price of regular maintenance which is where the money I get from my job would go (plus some upgrades in the future haha).

I think you might be surprised once you start getting insurance quotes on various models. Premiums aren't really dependent on marque prestige. Instead it's more closely based on the market value of the car and how often their owners crash them. Actual performance doesn't even really matter that much. That's why it's often more expensive to insure an FRS than a Corvette.

An E36 is a 15-20 year old car at this point and unlike a lot of other stuff in this thread aren't entirely owned by overly eager youngsters. I highly doubt a standard 325 or 328 would be that expensive to insure. That said, you'll need to get your own quotes and start filtering from there.

I got my first car when I was 17 in 1995. I was absolutely CONVINCED I wanted a turbo Eclipse, but I'd settle for the NA version. Well, insurance killed that idea, along with my second and third choices. In the end, I got a 93(EG) Civic Si. Thank god. In reality it was faster than the NA Eclipse, handled better than the turbo, and proved incredibly reliable for the seven years I owned it (which you probably couldn't say for the DSM twins). It's voluminous hatch and low cost of ownership were perfect for college. Anything more would have made college finances incredibly difficult. I still miss that car.

Speaking of hatches, you could do a lot worse than a Feista or Focus. Your parents might even spring for the extra insurance cost due to the increase in safety features over an older choice. Parents are suckers that way.

'92-98 325/328is. 2 door coupe that doesn't have the insurance penalty of the M3. Can swap every M3 part onto the 328is and have the best of both worlds. Buy nice 3--is and look for wrecked M3. Doable for way less than your budget.

That was my strategy with my first car. In ''73 I got a '68 Pontiac LeMans with a 350 2 barrel and Powerglide. Every time something wore out or broke, I'd upgrade it. When I got rid of it, it had a GTO motor, tranny, rear end, dual exhaust, etc. I was only insuring the LeMans, though.