Ilya
February 3, 2010, 10:21pm
104
Hey man, just caught your post…
Couple thoughts:
Try to settle on a platform first. I’d love to have something like your budget ($5-$7k right?) as I can think of like 12-15 things that would be cool. And I’m just thinking sedans, since you have family…
Some of them have been mentioned but here are a few, in no particular order:
'03 and newer Accord, 4 cyl w/ the 5 spd (stay away from '98-'02 V6 w/ auto tranny)
5.5G Maxima (mentioned by Ilya), ballsy, torquey, so-so looking unless modded (subjective I know), but 6 spd w/ the limited slip is cool yeah
Acura TL Type S (like '02ish) is a good bet too, again this has been mentioned I think… No manual for this generation sedan though, if I remember correctly. 6 spd was for CL only right?
RWD
I’ve seen E46 BMWs in your price range, but with over 100k miles… I don’t know much about them, but heck ask Pete or one of the real BMW heads on here, you know them all anyways.
Don’t be afraid of a maintained E36, your budget you can buy a real nice 325i or 328i with fairly low mileage. You’ve worked on BMWs before, parts on E36s aren’t that big a deal unless you break something REAL big… $hit I own and maintain (well ok I use the word “maintain” LOOSELY) one, so uh, any idiot can…
Other RWD rides in this price range are either automatic (i.e. GS300, LS400, IS300- no way you could find a 5 spd one w/ this budget)… Or not worth mentioning because I can’t see you in it (i.e Ford Crown Vic- :lol). Oh wait!! Hell yeah a GS300 w/ 5 spd swap (and/or Aristo mechanicals is a wet dream yeah but at this price range- NO :lol) [/boner]
OK so my RWD list reeks of Bimmer fanboizzzms but you don’t have much of a choice in RWD sedans for family use unfortunately.
Somewhat off the beaten path
Galant VR4: with your budget you could find a pretty nice a$$ one but yeah you’d have to stay on top of it. An almost stock one with low miles sold for like $7k a couple months back, but yeah it’d be dicey and it’s an almost 20 year old car… But hey you have a Z31 so you’re not afraid of old school styling. See galantvr4.org for cars that are out there.
Mazdaspeed Protege, '03 or '04 can be had (tough to find stock and unabused perhaps, not to mention maybe a bit boy-racer if you are representing your company)
Whatever you do, don’t be so quick to jump into something. Whenever you have time on your side you can use it as leverage while scanning for all possible deals.
If you can, set aside the equivalent of what your monthly payment will be for like 2 or 3 months… It should be no problem for you if you can really swing it. Then, buy the car after you do that ‘experiment’.
You can then use the 2-3 months x payment put aside towards your loan and/or maintenance stuff when you do buy the car! All the while proving to yourself you can swing it without impacting your lifestyle. In the scheme of things, 2-3 months is nothing, take your time, do it right.
Shift will always be here to make fun and talk $hit about why your choice was a bad one and that you overpaid because ___________ anyways. :lol
Good luck!
:thumb
Just a side note on the Acura TL…
Be careful with the 00-03’s…they had tranny problems. I know because my brother had an 03 and while researching a diagnosis for his car, I came upon post after post of people going through tranny’s.
But otherwise? SOLID CAR. I loved that thing. He has an 08 now and I love that one too lol. Acura TL’s are fantastic cars.