Now that I've butchered the Spanish language, it's time for another (drum roll please) "What car" thread...
It's for my son, budget around $4K. He prefers fun to drive/responsive/road feel (he drives my E30 every now and again, suckered him in that way).
Prefer good reliability - Honda/Toyota type (or close). Cars I'm thinking of are:
Civics Corollas Celicas Miatas (maybe) Proteges Accent etc....
Thoughts and experiences with these? Other?
Thanks!
how about an e30 or e36?
Call your insurance agent first. I guarantee you any Civic will cost more to insure than actually drive. You want unpopular cars like Volvo, Saab, Buick, etc.
Think you've got a pretty good list there for economical and reliable cars.
My vote would be Protege. I had a '99 as my DD from '06 to '10. Bought it with 76,000 miles on it, sold it with 150,000 miles. 5spd. It was dead nuts reliable. Never needed anything more than routine maintenance. It was also a lot of fun to drive for an econobox, very tossable. Got 33mpg to boot...
$4k should be enough to find a solid E30, then spend the rest on getting the maintenance/suspension fresh, so to have a fun, nice RELIABLE DD.
if you're paying for the car, buy him a buick century with the 3800. a 3800 will run badly for longer than most cars will run. as an added bonus, he'll never ask you to buy him a car again. 
What car thread = qué hilo de rosca del coche. Thank you Babelfish.com
My son had a '95 Jetta the first year at college. Cheap enough to run, cheap to insure, good aftermarket support. Big enough to be comfy on a big drive but not a gas hog.
With lo-pros in the summer and a set of steelis for the winter, that car went anywhere!
Dan
AngryCorvair wrote: if you're paying for the car, buy him a buick century with the 3800. a 3800 will run badly for longer than most cars will run. as an added bonus, he'll never ask you to buy him a car again.
Actually the Century had a 3.1 in it, the Regal had the 3.8 which was the better motor. And yes the 3800 is dead reliable both NA or S/C.
MR2? With little hp and only a second seat.. he can't get into too much trouble.. comes with the bonus of toyota reliability
An earily Ford Focus should be easily had for less than $4k. The suspension/brake kits from Ford Performance look like a good deal, too. I haven't dealt with them personally, just putting it out there.
Miata, Protege, Focus (w/ better shocks and springs)
914Driver wrote: What car thread = qué hilo de rosca del coche. Thank you Babelfish.com My son had a '95 Jetta the first year at college. Cheap enough to run, cheap to insure, good aftermarket support. Big enough to be comfy on a big drive but not a gas hog. With lo-pros in the summer and a set of steelis for the winter, that car went anywhere! Dan
I'll be checking your translation for accuracy with my babe (my wife is from Peru - it's sad that I don't know more...).
Hadn't thought about the Jetta, but I like those - more importantly I think he does to. One of his middle school teachers had one, properly done, looked neat. Good to know it was reliable.
As to the others, E30 - maybe, but he'd be on the hook for the work, and isn't as inclined as I am to throw a lot of time in to it (his preference, and I don't want to be under his car if he doesn't...)
Buick, I'm afraid, aren't the most "fun to drive", but we'll see....
Forgot about the Focus, I've seen them out there - but I thought the reliability was a little iffy on the earlier cars, and I don't know much about them as they ran through the years.
Anybody have experience with the Accents? I just like the look of the two door hatch, a little 510-esque I always thought - no idea how they drive or reliability.
93+ corolla, good amount of aftermarket, can swap the 20V blacktop engines into them too.
I myself say tercel always, 4E-FTE engines make them hella peppy.
Unless he doesn't want to modify this car. Then i'd say find a Celica GT-S.
as said above, the gm 3800 is nearly perfect, just put into cars that are too heavy. I'll say it before bobzilla can get to it: accent gt or elantra gt? 5 speed rios actually don't handle that bad either imo. something ecotec will be nearly bulletproof. you can get an old spec v for close to that but idk about reliability. tiburon's handle well (even though they should've been rwd if hyundai had their act together back then) and you can get an 06ish gt v6 for less than 6k usually. extremely nice interiors as well in those.
Javelin wrote: Call your insurance agent first. I guarantee you any Civic will cost more to insure than actually drive. You want unpopular cars like Volvo, Saab, Buick, etc.
Insuring my Civic is not that bad honestly. Same as a Miata or Porsche 944 and cheaper then Turbo brick or Alfa Romeo Spider or BMW E30 but more then a Buick Grand National or Yugo. (I checked all these cars when I bought my first Civic).
93EXCivic wrote:Javelin wrote: Call your insurance agent first. I guarantee you any Civic will cost more to insure than actually drive. You want unpopular cars like Volvo, Saab, Buick, etc.Insuring my Civic is not that bad honestly. Same as a Miata or Porsche 944 and cheaper then Turbo brick or Alfa Romeo Spider or BMW E30 but more then a Buick Grand National or Yugo. (I checked all these cars when I bought my first Civic).
I'm assuming the OP will be paying Junior's Insurance and that he's 16-17. I imagine you are not in that situation.
I was 18 when I was looking so not much older. I will say the Protege or Corolla will probably be cheaper.
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