E30, 91 'lude, 740 turbo or turbo the 240?

SON240sx Automotive
1

My friend has been driving for quite some time now (not new to cars or RWD :P). He’s looking into what car to get. He has a very low budget for now, like around a grand, but he can save for a year if he finds a good car to aim towards. He’s looking for good reliability, decent gas mileage, manual, and RWD, also the quicker the better.

He currently has a Volvo 240, and its mean but seriously underpowered (instead of a tachometer, he has a clock ahahahahahaha we always make fun of him for it). I told him to get a 240SX, but he doesn’t want one because I have one and he wants to be original lol.

He found a late 80’s BMW 325i for $900.00 with a cracked windshield and WITH winter tires included. That sounds like a sweet deal IMO, but I told him to avoid BMW cuz he’s aiming for relatively cheap maintenance and insurance.

Another choice for him would be a 17-20 year old Volvo 740 turbo 5spd. He’s into Volvo’s cuz they’re big boxes of awesomeness lol. Also, he’s good friends with a Volvo only mechanic, who can hook him up with parts and all that.

Another route would be to turbo his current Volvo 240, cuz its in very good condition, no rust or anything. It’s auto at the moment, though.

One exception to the RWD choices is the 91 Prelude, the wide one :). Its nice, beautiful and handles insanely well. He wants one badly, and I told him its a good idea and meets all his expectations except for RWD

What’s your view guys? I know you’re all power crazy and love RWD and manual lol so I thought it’d be nice to get a 2nd opinion before giving him more advice.

Thanks, any other suggestions will be appreciated, but make sure you realize it has to be a PRACTICAL car cuz he’s a university student.

2

Buy a bus pass and savvvvvvvve your money.

3

It’s obvious your homeboy is looking to live beyond his means. Like Dustin said tell him to save his money. 1K will buy you scrap that will barely pass cert and probably fail etest. There are always exceptions but Im talking about the norm. I 've seen too many people buy cars for 500-1000 dollars and then have to invest more than the price of the car to get them road worthy. Its just not worth it.

Tell him to drive whatever he has, finish school, get a job and then buy a decent car.

4

^^^church

if the car he has now is in good shape tell him to keep it and continue to save. then by next summer hell have enough money for something that isnt a rusty pile of shit

5

LOL.

6

I see your point about the bus pass lol. But I started this thread to find out which car you’d take/recommend and why.

Any advice?

Personally, I think a turbo’d Volvo would be awesome for him…especially if he does some minor upgrades like swaybars, lowering springs and some bolt ons for a bit more power, to still maintain efficiency and remain reliable.

The prelude would be nice also, cheap to buy, cheap to maintain, very reliable, lightweight, good styling, however its still FWD and its a Honda lol.

7

Get the Prelude. Honda’s are sick.

8

^ my buddy just got one… faster than a stock 240, easy to work on, nice interior, and they handle really well.

Honda really should have made that car RWD… it would have been the 240sx pretty much.

9

Keep the Volvo. That car will outlast all that other junk. And when he is bored do a small block swap in it.

10

The whole suspension will need upgrading, he’ll need better rims and tires, he’ll also have to convert it to a manual transmission, and pay shitloads of labour to put an engine into that car that doesn’t naturally mount in. Not practical IMO, if he wants a Volvo, he should get one that was turbo’d STOCK and then upgrade it from there…

Yeah I agree about the prelude comment, sick car…if it was RWD damn

11

e30’s are not expensive to maintain, bmw started getting expensive after that, short wheel base also means tight cornering, and with good setup easy drifting…

even the e36 isn’t too bad now that it’s considered old, but junkyards still don’t have many

e32 and up all have complicated electronics, and that’s usually the problem, not the mechanicals, I know several people running the 3.5L at 300k+

12

keep the volvo. uni student need a car that’s cheap and won’t need much maintenance. been there done that.

13

Oh, I forgot to mention, the Volvo is his mom’s; if he wants it, he’ll have to buy it off of her. He drives it around all the time to uni, while his dad has an Accord. The Volvo is basically his, but if he wants to mod it or w/e, he’ll have to do something about that. This is the reason I told him to buy another car altogether.

Let me tell you, that car is SERIOUSLY underpowered, its pushing like 80whp…leaving it stock is very sad. For God’s sake, the least he should do is put in a tachometer so we can stop making fun of him for having a clock lol.

14

omg, why hasnt this been closed yet?

15

If he really, really insists on getting another car then get the Volvo 740 turbo, a cone filter and manual boost controller to about 13-14 PSI.

Better to wait and save, but yeah.

16

save…buy a better car later…he’s pretty much got a car to use for daily driving…so no real necessity to get a car…especially for a grand that’ll probably cost more to put on the road as was mentioned up there

17

Awesome, thanks for the advice guys.

I’ll let you guys know when the time comes for him and he’s saved up enough to buy a decent car.

/thread