Help a guy pick a car maybe? ...car has now been purchased

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emad

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eMadman
Yaaay, it's that time of the year, my parents have decided they need a new car and their choice in new car as well as the neighborhood we're moving into next week means that I'll be needing something to drive as well

Currently, they're looking at a 2003 Windstar sport edition, fully loaded - leather, dvd player, and whatever the hell else the car comes with. I absolutely HATE having to sit in or drive vans and anything larger than a mid-size sedan, but the price is unbeatable. $14,000 canadian for a $30,000 van. Granted, it's taken some rear end damage, but the $14k will cover the repairs as well (car purchased off auction). I nearly had my parents convinced to spend about $35k on a used TL, but at this price, they probably won't look at anything else.

Because of where we're moving, my dad is planning on using the money saved on the van to get me a car. The same guy we're getting the van from is doing some repairs to a 2000 Tiburon - he's asking roughly $7000. The average market price is about 10k. I'm not that big on Tiburons myself, and I find them to be a bit impractical when it comes to moving a bunch of 6 foot tall guys around. Insurance for a Tiburon probably wouldn't be cheap either.

My dad told me he's willing to go up to $7000 canadian for my car so my options are fairly open. Unfortunately, I have no idea what would be the best choice in car. I'm looking for decent reliability, under 150,000km, and preferably something with at least a little power under the hood..

Any suggestions?

UPDATE

I bought the car today, it's the 2000 Hyundai Tiburon. Fully loaded and has every feature other than automatic door locks and an alarm. It's the 2nd fastest car I've ever driven (the fastest being my cousin's 2005 Altima v6) and it handles well. It's a hell of a lot better than the accord and I found the 1 hour drive home from the mechanic to be more than enjoyable. There's some rattling coming from the right hand side of the car, and it's probably just a loose screw that got left behind during the repair (front quarter panel and passenger door were hit). I'll have that looked at next week when we go pick up the Windstar from this same mechanic/dealer.

It's not a heavy duty performer, and it's not going to outpower the Maxima I originally wanted, but it's 'quick' and fairly nimble compared to the barge-like performance of the '96 Accord we have for the family car. The reason I went with this is because it was cheaper, more economical on gas, and had half the mileage of anything else in my price range. 👍

Pics to be posted some other time
 
Zardoz
Yeah: Get a Civic.

You do realize what's going to happen to the cost and availability of gasoline in the very near future, right?
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I know very well where gas prices are going. We also currently have a pair of hondas in the family. My dad will be selling the accord to someone else otherwise it would have been mine... but it's probably a good thing it's not mine because we've had to put about 1500 into repairing it over the past year and there's still a lot of little crap left to fix up before it'll run anywhere near to smoothly - or quietly.

The problem is that to get a civic in my range, I'd have to look at something in the 1998-2000 range with fairly high mileage - something I'd like to avoid if possible. High gas mileage is great, but if it's going to cost me more to fix it each year than the gas savings, I'd really rather not bother.
 
Buy a 3rd gen Maxima SE/GLE ('95-99), Toyota Camary (newest one with the least amount of miles you can afford), or a Subaru Legacy. Either of these three will be easy for tall people to get into and ride in. If this isn't your cup of tea the just buy a Ford or Chevrolet crewcab pickup with the smallest available V8.
 
JCE3000GT
Buy a 3rd gen Maxima SE/GLE ('95-99), Toyota Camary (newest one with the least amount of miles you can afford), or a Subaru Legacy. Either of these three will be easy for tall people to get into and ride in. If this isn't your cup of tea the just buy a Ford or Chevrolet crewcab pickup with the smallest available V8.
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The maxima is tempting, but my dad is obsessing over the fact that I should have something sporty... as if a v6 isn't going to have good amount of kick to it :rolleyes:

Trucks, vans, and SUV's aren't my cup of tea. They're simply big for me to be comfortable behind the wheel.
 
Only the jetta and impreza links load - both nice though. I saw a 2.5rs for a good price, buuut my dad has a thing against subarus 👎

*sigh* At this point, I'll probably just take anything so long as it's reliable
 
Zardoz
Yeah: Get a Civic.

You do realize what's going to happen to the cost and availability of gasoline in the very near future, right?
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In the very near future the cost is going down and the availability is going up.
 
el flexo
get a jaguar, always the best value for money, u could get an xtype 1 year old, 10,000 miles for 15-16 grand AWESOME
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They're not so cheap this side of the pond ;)

The only jaguar in my price range is a 1988 Vanden Plas V12. I'm not sure about you, but I can't afford gas for a 12 cylinder engine - v6 is the most I can do
 
i don't drive (i'm 13) my dad has an '03 jaguar x type 2.1 S v6


it's not that fast, but it is quite comfortable! why don't you go for a bmw or merc?
or maybe a mazda 6 mps?
 
el flexo
i don't drive (i'm 13) my dad has an '03 jaguar x type 2.1 S v6


it's not that fast, but it is quite comfortable! why don't you go for a bmw or merc?
or maybe a mazda 6 mps?
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bmw'S and mercs are much more expensive here, to get one for 7 g's it would have to be a base model 3 series or something from like 1993-1994 and then repairs are a ***** and parts are very expensive.
 
el flexo
i don't drive (i'm 13) my dad has an '03 jaguar x type 2.1 S v6


it's not that fast, but it is quite comfortable! why don't you go for a bmw or merc?
or maybe a mazda 6 mps?
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Hehe, my Dad has an X-Type 3.0 V6. Pretty nice, apart from the several rattles we have. :grumpy:
 
-> Any Civic EX or Si, Integra GS-R's, Impreza 2.5RS and WRX's (non-STI's). They are my top choices, they're pretty reliable, affordable and fun to drive. (:
 
How about an older car? Early 90's Camaro/Mustang. Mabye a Miata? Volkswagon Corrado, older Supra or 240? Or, what I'm hoping to get: A Datsun 510. Not so powerful, but [apparently] fairly easy to modify, and stout powerplant. Very stiff unibody, fully independent suspension and a decent aftermarket. $7k would probably get a decent example that needs little (or no) work. If you're the mechanical type, a 240 motor swap is quite common.
 
Slicks
How about an older car? Early 90's Camaro/Mustang. Mabye a Miata? Volkswagon Corrado, older Supra or 240? Or, what I'm hoping to get: A Datsun 510. Not so powerful, but [apparently] fairly easy to modify, and stout powerplant. Very stiff unibody, fully independent suspension and a decent aftermarket. $7k would probably get a decent example that needs little (or no) work. If you're the mechanical type, a 240 motor swap is quite common.
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Reliability on an early 90's car is nasty. Supras cost too much - even the 80's models. 240's are still in fairly high demand and hard to find in good condition. Lets also add that thanks to the salt on the roads during the winter, the majority of older cars are pretty badly rusted.

*anyways*

I've decided to get the Tiburon for the following reasons:
  • $6600 canadian price tag for a 5 year old car
  • 60,000km - that's a mere 37000 miles. The average car in my price range will have double that
  • fully loaded - leather, all electronic components, and of course, the sun roof
  • The only damage that it's taken in the accident from which it was recovered is simple body damage and the rear left wheel was knocked out of alignment

I know it's a hyundai, and I know that the resale on these is crap, and I know they don't make the best cars in the world. But with low mileage, and good treatment thanks to the previous owner, maintaining the car for the next few years will be cheap compared to an Integra, Civic, or Corolla. I'll have small back seats, but my friends will just have to deal with it since they typically have to rely on me to drive as it is. Worst case, if I have to carry a bunch of people, I can take my dad's upcoming van.

At most, I only ever *need* to drive 1 or 2 times a week right now. After we move, I'll be on the road for *maybe* 20 minutes a day each week in order to get to/from the train station and to drop my sister off at school. Long drives are rare for me and my longest is usually 45 minutes each way to get to Hamilton to visit some friends
 
emad
Supras cost too much - even the 80's models.
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:odd: No they don't. You could probably get a fairly decent MkIII for the same price as your Tiburon. MkII's are even (much) cheaper.
Not that I'd recommend either, they're too old to be very practical unless you can do a lot of the mechanical work yourself.
 
Emohawk
:odd: No they don't. You could probably get a fairly decent MkIII for the same price as your Tiburon. MkII's are even (much) cheaper.
Not that I'd recommend either, they're too old to be very practical unless you can do a lot of the mechanical work yourself.
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when I did my searching, I didn't find any within my range on autotrader. The few I found were, as you said, far too old for me to bother with or just overpriced.

The Tiburon will be in my hands by monday night unless Doug can step in and find me something more suitable before then
 
And thats coming from a supposedly 12 (or possibly 15) year old kid :rolleyes:. See, in the real world we call putting rims on a car that cost more than the car itself a stupid idea.

Rims don't make you go faster...superchargers and modified air intakes do.
 
pgr2status:beat
1. Hit ur dad were it hurts and ask him for a mustang
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I'll do it, but only if you are willing to pay the difference in the cost of the car as well as maintenance fees for the next 4 years up front. If you can't do that, then I'd like for you to hit yourself where it hurts.
2. get a '99 civic and buy soime nice rims for it
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Rims aren't cheap. Civics aren't cheap thanks to resale values. That means a civic in my price range will be very old, and again, I'll get one - but you have to be willing to pay maintenance fees up front

If those choices aren't good, then you could try to make an attempt at learning more about the real world before making future suggestions :)
 
emad
The maxima is tempting, but my dad is obsessing over the fact that I should have something sporty... as if a v6 isn't going to have good amount of kick to it :rolleyes:
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The SE 3rd Gen Maxima SE model is quite sporty, and accellerates faster than the 300ZX non-turbo of those years. It has plenty of get up and go for your needs, unless you drive an SE model you can't really generalize it as a normal boring and slow sedan. And think about this, because it's one of Nissans brilliant V6's you can mode the hell out of it and make it extremely fast.
 

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