Good, quick first car?

First generation Lexus IS300. 3 liter inline-6 with 220 hp and a good power to weight ratio. Extremely reliable and well built. Good weight distribution for balanced handling and overall a fun to drive car. However manual versions are a little harder to find.


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2000-2003 Audi A6 2.7T - can be found with all the criteria - twin turbo, 6sp MT, AWD, heavy, nice interior and good trunk space. With a pre-purchase inspection you can at least get "the devil you know". You don't need to spend $300 on a vag-com cable, you can get an ebay vag-com clone cable for $20 that can do 95% of the coding/measuring blocks you'll ever need and the other 5% should be done by a pro anyway. ECU explorer ($250) can do all the data logging and tuning if you are REALLY into that, but again, that should be left to a pro.

They can be expensive to maintain - over 130K i've put in $3K+/- in maintenance and repair, excluding oil, but the car has 230K on it now and still running very strong, IMHO $3K isn't much over the time I've owned it.. It's not that hard to find one that is well sorted, with good maintenance records that was not beat on.

There are plenty of indy Audi shops out there (at least 5 in my area) and they can be easily found through the national forums. If someone doesn't have a scan tool to work on your car or tune your ecu, you shouldn't be letting them work on your car, they clearly don't have the experience with your brand.
 
Subaru Legacy, WRX (if you can find in your price range), Audi A4 1.8T, 03-08 Infiniti G35 (for the fact that you want a 4 seater or I would say 350Z).
 
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One thing you need to know about Subarus. If we are talking about gc8 imprezas, they have head gasket problems frequently. Bugeyes are ugly in my opinion. The peanut and hawkeye subarus are my favorite but the WRXs aren't anything all that fast. They're fairly reliable and handle well in many weather conditions.

I have a honda civic. Between the cost of the car, the turbo setup that I put together and the suspension, I think I have about 9k into and it's a blast to drive. It's reliable and I haven't had any issues with it. I know it's a little more than you have saved up, but it's much more fun to drive than WRX's (except the newer ones).

I would also suggest against a BMW if maintenance costs are important. I worked at an autopark (honda, acura, subaru, chevy, ford, cadillac, nissan, bmw) and BMW hourly rates are 275$/hr for electrical sourcing of issues. Sadly, as much as I love BMWs, their issues are electrical related many times. And replacement parts cost an arm and a leg.

I'd look into a honda because they're so reliable. Also, some of the older nissan's are fun to drive and rwd.
 
Volkswagen GTI; the newer the car the more likely you will find the same engine used in the Passat. My first car was a Red Mitsubishi Precis and it did everything I asked of it. Cheap, realiable, had a flair to it that made it unique. You seem to have the right approach in your requirements. Good luck.
 
mwoolfso said:
Volkswagen GTI; the newer the car the more likely you will find the same engine used in the Passat. My first car was a Red Mitsubishi Precis and it did everything I asked of it. Cheap, realiable, had a flair to it that made it unique. You seem to have the right approach in your requirements. Good luck.
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Not dissing on VWs (this isn't a vw hating honda fan boy thing. I was considering a vw at one point) but I have a few buddies at school that have sold their newer GTIs because of various issues. Maintenance costs, they're not all that easy to work on, turbo failing after 10k miles, various sensors dying on a routine basis. And if he only wants to spend 7k or so, he's looking at a slightly older model which has an even larger list of issues most notably the coil packs dying constantly in them and the sensors dying a lot. Not saying that you'd have issues with a VW, but these are the reasons I stayed away from them. I don't have the time, money or patience to be fixing stuff all of the time.
 
Look into Subarus! They fit all your criteria, have great resale, and are some of the safest cars on the road, especially for the money. Legacys are great but probably gonna be above the price range you have or not to your liking of style, while the WRX is right in your budget and IMO have always had timeless styling. Wagons can be had cheaper sometimes and are still sporty, with plenty of room for gear.;)
Just to give a testimony on their safety, I wrecked my STi head on into a tree(I may or may not have had my seat belt on), at about 40mph+ and walked away. All four doors still opened and closed and the wheels looked to be fairly true. I sold the car to a friend's coworker and he replaced some parts on the front of the motor, to include cam gears, and the motor was running again with no issues. I would not put my money on wrecking to many other cars out there(especially Hondas) and being able to walk away and not have serious chassis issues to the car.
Nothing beats a boxer motor!
 
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In the OP's price range a VW is NOT something he wants.

Like you said and on top of it the older VW's (MKIV mostly) had transmission problems and MAJOR electrical problems/sensors going bad.

But if he had the money mwoolfso is right the newer VW MKV and up are quite nice cars but all FWD. I had an MKV GLI (same thing as a GTI but a sedan) and not a problem with it. I took it all the way to 80k and the ONLY thing I took to get fixed was my A/C compressor failed which was fixed under warranty. They aren't hard to work on either but you need "special" tools to work on them.
 
SkateForGirl said:
In the OP's price range a VW is NOT something he wants.

Like you said and on top of it the older VW's (MKIV mostly) had transmission problems and MAJOR electrical problems/sensors going bad.

But if he had the money mwoolfso is right the newer VW MKV and up are quite nice cars but all FWD. I had an MKV GLI (same thing as a GTI but a sedan) and not a problem with it. I took it all the way to 80k and the ONLY thing I took to get fixed was my A/C compressor failed which was fixed under warranty. They aren't hard to work on either but you need "special" tools to work on them.
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Well their engine bays are more cramped in comparison to hondas. But yes, the tools will get you. I believe there's a special tool for the oil filter and I know there is one for the transimssion drain bolt which was like 30$ for that by itself.

Back to my civic. I said I have about 9k into it but 3k of that is for the turbo setup. I put a lot of things in place knowing I'd upgrade at some point later. My tuning setup/ecu was 750$ by itself (hondata s300). You can get one for much cheaper that will work. I paid what I did so that I could tune it myself. You can get away with 1500$ and have a decent setup to start with.
 
zliegen said:
Be wary, if you notice any odd engine or drivetrain noises or oddness I would stay far far away, WRX are commonly driven HARD. Even if the exterior is in perfect shape, id still be carefully inspecting the engine and drivetrain before I bought it.
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I agree the WRX is a great car but people do like to mod them and not everyone does it right. If it is a clean car and checks out then an 03 wouldn't be a bad buy. If you are seriously looking at it I would spend some time on NASOIC reading their buying guide. It will give you an idea on what to keep an eye out for.

If you look into a Legacy, be it GT or N/A, Look for an 05-09. That is the generation in my opinion and should be in your price range, at least for a N/A.
 
Prev. generation Honda Accord V6, 6MT sedan. Will probably have to look for higher miles but they are bulletproof reliability wise. 0-60 should be around 6.5-7 seconds with fuel economy about 22/30mpg.
 
I'll be honest, I didn't wade through all of the suggestions. My initial thought was a Honda Civic Si. They can be bought right, are reliable, fun to drive. Then reading the requirements again I thought about a car that meets all of your requirements and even though it's not a "kid" car like most of the suggestions I saw, still would be fun. How about a used Crown Victoria Police Interceptor? They are dirt cheap, bulletproof, and meet all of your requirements. You can even get a black and white one and pretend that it's the BluesMobile. Im the MAN
 
are you guys aware that this post is over a year old, last post b4 today was on 11/18/10
 
Even though this is an old post. If anyone else is in the market for a car similar to the OP. You cant really go wrong with a 2005-06 Altima 3.5SE-SER!

It has everything the OP is looking for except for being FWD, no turbo and its a light car. Barely 1.5 tons.

It is a very quick grocery getter and its the same engine found in the 350Z.
 
who revived it? Flash seems to be doing this a lot lately :p
 
Newbie carslying was the one to restart this. I feel so dumb for not looking at the date on the OP. Guess we all got some entertainment out of it though.:)
 
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