Fun, Cheap, RELIABLE car

[Jake]

Oh, and go read every Subaru thread in the Member's Projects section from the last six to eight months. You'll be scared straight from wanting a 10-year-old turbocharged Subie.

[Goodspeed]

^ lol, I was going to say - head over to Justin's build thread if you want to see the ownership experience of a turbo'd 100k+mile Subie. I entertained the idea of a 5k 240Z myself until DJ, Justin and I almost broke one in half during the inspection due to the rust. 3000GT? A SL, maybe, but you'll hate your life more than you do with the Eclipse - more weight, likely more slow, doesn't sound like a recipe for fun. The turbo ones seemingly break everything, in order, in a rotating sequence.

[Jake]

Buy my Miata for 5,000 if this guy doesn't get it this weekend

Ooh yeah, do that. It's my old car. Keep it in the family!

[ScottyB]

something to keep in mind with a nice honda at a college:

they are still theft targets. that whole mess has cooled down a lot since the heydays back in the early 00's, but i'd still never, ever leave a decent looking integra or hatch sitting out with some nice mods. alarm or not, its probably taking a ride to a chop shop.

[SlimKlim]

Eh I've driven firebirds for roughly 8 years between the 3 I've had. Now that I can afford nicer things, yeah I wouldn't get one. But if I had to get something cheap and fun, I would sure as hell get another. Better than pretty much anything else you can get that would qualify as cheap/fun/reliable for under 5k.

A 100whp convertible just doesn't qualify as fun for me.

Different strokes for different folks. The only F-body I've ever been in that remotely did anything for me was that firebreathing monster of a thing Chris Levey had a few years ago. The rest of them are just massive, flacid boats with more engine than you can use. The Miata is like a scalpel, the F-body is the head of a sledgehammer attached to a pool noodle.

[Jake]

Here's the same exact thread I made a bunch of years ago... the recommendations haven't changed much:

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[RawrImAMonster]

Eh I've driven firebirds for roughly 8 years between the 3 I've had. Now that I can afford nicer things, yeah I wouldn't get one. But if I had to get something cheap and fun, I would sure as hell get another. Better than pretty much anything else you can get that would qualify as cheap/fun/reliable for under 5k.

A 100whp convertible just doesn't qualify as fun for me.

Different strokes for different folks. The only F-body I've ever been in that remotely did anything for me was that firebreathing monster of a thing Chris Levey had a few years ago. The rest of them are just massive, flacid boats with more engine than you can use. The Miata is like a scalpel, the F-body is the head of a sledgehammer attached to a pool noodle.

And which sounds more fun, a scapel or a pool noodle sledge hammer? :lol:

300-400whp is the sweet spot for street cars as far as I'm concerned. Any less is boring, any more ends up being too much for the street.

[SlimKlim]

And which sounds more fun, a scapel or a pool noodle sledge hammer? :lol:

300-400whp is the sweet spot for street cars as far as I'm concerned. Any less is boring, any more ends up being too much for the street.

...the scapel. That's why I said different strokes for different folks.

I'd rather have 100hp I can use on a nice twisty road than 400hp I can only open up on a long straight piece of highway.

Also, If I had a car with 400hp my car insurance would be $1,000/mo. I've driven a couple 500hp+ cars and it an utterly stupid amount of power that is totally intoxicating to be in control of. I can literally feel myself get stupider behind the wheel.

My buddy used to have a modded E55 that made about 550hp and doing 60-100mph in that fucker felt like getting rear ended by a runaway train. My old neighbor had an M6 and I wound out the first three gears. 1st simply turned on the traction light until the tach hit redline, 2nd hooked up and turned my face inside out, and when i shifted into third i was well past doubling the speed limit.

I've gotten two speeding tickets with 2??hp at my disposal. I don't think I can handle the responsibility of more.

[V1GiLaNtE]

And which sounds more fun, a scapel or a pool noodle sledge hammer? :lol:

300-400whp is the sweet spot for street cars as far as I'm concerned. Any less is boring, any more ends up being too much for the street.

...the scapel. That's why I said different strokes for different folks.

I'd rather have 100hp I can use on a nice twisty road than 400hp I can only open up on a long straight piece of highway.

Also, If I had a car with 400hp my car insurance would be $1,000/mo. I've driven a couple 500hp+ cars and it an utterly stupid amount of power that is totally intoxicating to be in control of. I can literally feel myself get stupider behind the wheel.

My buddy used to have a modded E55 that made about 550hp and doing 60-100mph in that fucker felt like getting rear ended by a runaway train. My old neighbor had an M6 and I wound out the first three gears. 1st simply turned on the traction light until the tach hit redline, 2nd hooked up and turned my face inside out, and when i shifted into third i was well past doubling the speed limit.

I've gotten two speeding tickets with 2??hp at my disposal. I don't think I can handle the responsibility of more.

Shit I have a hard enough time keeping my 13 year old WRX within the speed limit when I wind it out and that's MAYBE 227 hp these days with 117k miles.

I will say, a miata setup with good suspension/tires should be ILLEGAL at how fun it is. Like strapping a big ass rollerskate to your ass and zipping around town. 7000k shifts in town? YOLO cause you're doing about 35mph :lol:

But what the hell do I know about Fun,cheap, reliable vehicles... My other car is a lifted shoe box. :dunno:

[Beej]

I didn't look hard, but I couldn't find a project thread if you made one.

How bad is the Eclipse in terms of maintenance/repairs? Stepping down to a <$5k car that's you don't know is always gonna be a risk. Granted some ideas are worse than others, but we're talking about 20-30 year old cars here - that 6 month "needs something" frequency may not change a whole lot, especially if you want it to be "nice". Any other reasons? Bored of it?

EDIT: Oh shit I remember you/the car from the autocross now. Yeah that thing was smoking a lot, so we're talking engine-swap-type maintenance. As much as I love e30's, my gut says Miata's and Honda's are gonna be less of a PITA.

[Senor_Taylor]

I would say stay away from an RX7. Rotaries don't really fit reliable or cheap.

In summation, it seems the consensus would be Miata or a Honda CivTegLude.

How cheap can you find RSX's and Mazda 3s?

[SlimKlim]

Oh a stickshift Mazda3 hatch would be great. The motor has the same perky, rev-happy charm as the miata, but it's FWD and has a hatch, which means its great in the snow and you can practically shove everything you own in it. I seriously considered one instead of the GTI, and probably should've gotten one, but I've developed a torque fetish.

[D_Eclipse9916]

I would say stay away from an RX7. Rotaries don't really fit reliable or cheap.

Have you ever owned one? (coming from someone who owns one currently). Same goes for your dismissal of an E30 or E36.

[Sully]

You could have bought djs rx7 for really cheap and it came with enough spare motors to be reliable.

But everyone pretty much covered the topic like I thought they would.

Only thing to add, if for some reason you decide prelude, steer clear of the 4 wheel steering configuration. It's probably wouldn't even be a factor cause it was kinda rare but I'm sure it's not reliable or fun to fix.

[BLINGMW]

Finding a decent E46 325 for $5K is pretty easy, no reason to fool with E36 or E30 for a DD. Possibly not as fun as some of the other cars mentioned here, but definitely qualifies as not "boring as dirt" esp if you get a manual. Fairly simple, useful, and reliable. I could sell you mine if you find me a decent '91-'92 E30 318 vert.

[Senor_Taylor]

I would say stay away from an RX7. Rotaries don't really fit reliable or cheap.

Have you ever owned one? (coming from someone who owns one currently). Same goes for your dismissal of an E30 or E36.

DJ, you're a different animal. Not many people have the patience/time/money for the kinds of cars you subject yourself to. Let alone the mechanical knowledge. Where would you even take a Rotary around Harrisonburg to get worked on? You can't suggest someone who has never owned one, buy a 20+ year old Rotary for under $5000 and keep it on the road without luck or major downtime.

[D_Eclipse9916]

I would say stay away from an RX7. Rotaries don't really fit reliable or cheap.

Have you ever owned one? (coming from someone who owns one currently). Same goes for your dismissal of an E30 or E36.

DJ, you're a different animal. Not many people have the patience/time/money for the kinds of cars you subject yourself to. Let alone the mechanical knowledge. Where would you even take a Rotary around Harrisonburg to get worked on? You can't suggest someone who has never owned one, buy a 20+ year old Rotary for under $5000 and keep it on the road without luck or major downtime.

:dunno: I have had plenty of friends do rotary cheap and reliable. The N/A FC is a different animal then the turbo or FD. Just because you "heard" stuff through the forums and equate it to every car, does not mean it's true.
You want to know the first car I autocrossed? An FC N/A RX-7 in high school...

[ScottyB]

I would say stay away from an RX7. Rotaries don't really fit reliable or cheap.

you're thinking of the turbos. early N/A rotaries are amazingly tough. if you can keep them oiled and fueled, you have to be special needs material to actually kill one. its not unheard of to have cars or trucks (Mazda made a rotary pickup you know) go into the 200k range before a rebuild.

FB RX7s check all the boxes. they're old so they're cheap, they're simple, they're light, RWD, and have a vast motorsports backing. they've been all but forgotten by the cool kids so most of them have been tucked away as second or third cars for years now and haven't seen much wear and tear. they might not be THE ANSWER but i feel like they're highly underrated and overlooked.



i did a search for literally 10 seconds in SW VA and boom, first thing that popped up:
$4200, lots of mods, looks fun to me.
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[D_Eclipse9916]

Hahahah bad/good? memories of Ryan Farrell's FB RX-7. It never ran RIGHT, but it certainly always ran.

After road racing both and FB and FC RX7, I can definitely say the FC has a lot more balls and is a lot more fun. I just hate carbs so I stay away from FBs :lol:




Throwback 2007? 2008? when we had wrench parties in Squire Hill, and I am for some reason laying on the ground underneath in a button-up.

[Goodspeed]

Ryan F had one of those back in the day, it was kind of a basket case but the car had a ton of charm and character - it had a ported motor and went brapbrapbrapbrap, and stunk up our 33W drives something fierce, but I could tell he had a lot of fun driving it. I'd totally rock one of them...but probably as a 2nd car just due to their age.

Edit: DJ beat me to it, and I'm pretty sure that was your typical mechanic attire back then