WTB...Need YOUR help!

[Emily]

Alright boys (and girls), my ultimate goal here is to no longer have my vehicle but have a car that I can do more things with. In order for that to happen, I need to first convince my 'rents that this is a good idea, then get my car in selling condition/sell it, then find a car that will be semi-fast, sporty, decent, and affordable. So please give me advice/opinions on cars or how to accomplish what I'm working towards!

[Kaan]

what do you want to do with the car? reliable daily that you cant autox with?
1. 1988-2000 Civic: wrong wheel drive but parts are cheap and they are easy to work on. usually dead nuts reliable. Also its not a Miata.
2. Miata: terrible on gas, pretty easy to work on and they like to leak oil... i would say they are fun to drive but i dont agree
3. Sentra: everything the civic would have but they handle a little "worse" and are a little less reliable probably.

affordable is an issue... what is your price range?

[D_Eclipse9916]

Yeah affordability is the name of the game.

[ScottyB]

as always - fast, reliable, cheap...pick 2. what are you doing with it? just driving around, autocrosses, rallycrosses, track days, etc? if you want something for track fun, i'd advise to tag along with other MMer's to a track day and see what the popular cars are at a track. there's a reason why so many people will pick certain cars for that type of driving.

[SlimKlim]

The answer is always Miata.

[Jake]

A Miata will get 29 mpg no matter how you drive it. Mine either leaks or burns the teeniest bit of oil (maybe half a quart between 3,000 mile changes). I've put less than two grand into it in three years, and that includes new wheels and a few sets of tires.

Basically, I beat the crap out of it and it doesn't break. I know you've been eyeing E36 M3's -- and they're reliable enough, but slightly more complex and thus more little things to go wrong.

A Civic/Miata/Sentra SE-R will be cheap and easy to work on (you will be learning to turn wrenches, right?! )

[JustinG]

i'd advise to tag along with other MMer's to a track day and see what the popular cars are at a track.

So your getting a M3 or a Miata....... That was easy.

[Goodspeed]

They're small and nimble for dodging the worst of JMU traffic, simple, reliable, fun and sporty (obviously), and if anything were to go wrong you can likely fix it on a college kid's budget with a basic tool set in your parking space. Depending on budget, I think a nice NB would meet all of you requirements rather nicely.

Buuut you really can't go wrong with any of the usual suspects. E36, Mustang, WRX, Honderp, etc. - they're all popular for good reasons and chances are someone here knows how to take it apart and put it back together again.

[Sully]

Sorry but I have to disagree that the e36 M3 is reliable....now before you all start yelling.

I will agree they can be one of the most reliable cars on the road if they were taken care of. Unfortunatley, most M's went through one individual in their life that never knew about cars and always neglected them. Meaning they require a great deal of patience and love and of course money thrown at them in the first months of ownership. Without the ability or willingness to do the work on your own, they require lots of money thrown at labor. Finding a prestine one that was taken care of means paying over 10k and will still probably need a few parts.

Oh yea, and daz parts is expensive.

You really just can't beat the relative cheapness of miata parts or civic parts. Of course civic is WRD and that's just ad:

Just my opinion though

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[Kaan]

FYI - i have miata on my list but i am as anti miata as you can get. A miata is right wheel drive... but at the cost of a rollbar and hard top. I dont think i would drive any vert (even on the street) without roll over protection. So add the price of a roll bar to your miata ASAP.

being that my car sports the "H"... i cant see adding any BMW to the list unless Channing takes you under his wing. the E30 (and Miata) both have spec series driving up the price of the used cars.

[Sully]

Its not entirely out of the question to find a pre barred miata though although definatley more likely to get a NA with a roll bar installed than an NB.

And I mean previous owner barred it, not barred from mazda.

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[Jake]

FYI - i have miata on my list but i am as anti miata as you can get. A miata is right wheel drive... but at the cost of a rollbar and hard top. I dont think i would drive any vert (even on the street) without roll over protection. So add the price of a roll bar to your miata ASAP.

being that my car sports the "H"... i cant see adding any BMW to the list unless Channing takes you under his wing. the E30 (and Miata) both have spec series driving up the price of the used cars.

Roll bar is $500 and a day's worth of work to install. For street driving it's not necessary but it is helpful. There's no requirement to have a hardtop; a good soft top will keep the rain and snow out, and it's legal to do HPDE and autocross sans-roof.

As reliable as E30s are, I hesitate to recommend one. They're getting expensive and there are a few things that are big pains. If the timing belt snaps, it's an interference motor, which means things hit other things. Boom, yer done. A Miata motor is also timing belt (vs. timing chain) but it's non-interference. If that belt snaps, you're just inconvenienced until you get a new one installed. E30s have driveshaft bearings that need replacing and are a pain to do (look at my Revvin' Low project thread for that fun story) whereas the Miata just has a teeny little driveshaft with no rubber bits holding it in place.

You could get an NA Miata (90-97) for really cheap, and the NBs (99-05) are coming down in price too.

[Kaan]

Miatas are small and slow. With the increased number of soccer moms in V8 3 ton SUVs, IMHO a roll bar is 100% required.

[Sully]

I'm caging mine the day I get it, but I also plan on turning it into a spec car but that's another story entirely.

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[JustinG]

If reliable/cheap is an issue, I'd say a Honda......











WTF did I just say??? Did I really just recommend a Honda???

[Kaan]

If reliable/cheap is an issue, I'd say a Honda......











WTF did I just say??? Did I really just recommend a Honda???

welcome to the dark side.... the OG side.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Sorry but I have to disagree that the e36 M3 is reliable....now before you all start yelling.

I will agree, unless you buy an E36 M3 and throw 1.5 grand into it right now youll have a pig.

The problem with the E36 M3 is that regular failures are catastrophic failures. All cars SHOULD have their replacement bushings done by 100k miles, but the E36 M3 in particular breaks stuff when their bushings fail. Cooling system is the same way.

My E36 M3 has been dead reliable, a broken rear diff bolt and a power steering hose is the only issues (aside from studs breaking but that turned out to be my fault from a bad spacer) in 2 years.

For 35+ autoxes, 10+ track weekends, thats goddamn dead reliable. But its because when I bought it, I went through the cooling system and every bushing/balljoint in the suspension. Cost all of $1100 in parts. Problem is, people do this in spots and outcrops when shit breaks, instead of going through and replacing it before it breaks.

You want a car that wont leave you stranded when it breaks? Honda, miata, mustang etc. You plan on taking care of a full suspension and cooling refresh as soon as you get it? The M3 is the dominator in the performance per dollar under $10k.

Unfortunately, I know college kids (I was "that" guy); and you most likely will just try to get it to "survive" instead of doing a whole overhaul. So please get a honda/miata.

[CaptainHenreh]

I'm gonna say it. S14 240SX if you can get one. Reliable, attractive, RWD, enough HP to be fun but not enough to get you into trouble.

[Sully]

Exactly where I am at right now. I don't have the money to do a full overhaul and it is exactly what my car need. I love my car but I know it need pretty much every wearable item replaced. Considering parking it until I can get the funds to do all of that stuff. I'm pushing my luck with a lot of parts on that car and I really don't want to mistreat her that way but I don't see many other options. I feel with 3k, I could make the car better than stock and not have to worry about it for several years. But that is parts only.

To keep it relative to the thread, if you don't plan to do labor yourself, DO NOT buy a BMW. That same work would prolly be double the cost if I was paying someone else to do it.

Once again we digress back to the Miata. A nice shiny NB would be a great DD.

If you do consider a 240, make sure it is not setup as a drift car, drifto action 240 was one of my favorite and least favorite cars becasue it was so much fun to drive but it was also the most useless DD I have ever owned.

[caa337]

She's an alumni(graduated last year) I think emily said her budget was 7k - 8k.