Another what car thread

*davidallen*

*davidallen*

Member
sorry for yet another one of these but i was interested in some opinions.

So first off is price range. I have a pretty solid max of about $3,000 so that definitely rules out a few options. I'm gonna be driving quite a bit around town to school, work, etc. And also i want a solid car to take skiing (good in snow, and decent gas milage). But so far the main cars that i've been looking at are:

1) 1998-2000 Subaru Forester or Outback- seems like a solid car, AWD, decent amount of room, and decent gas milage

2) 1998-2002 Volkswagen Golf, GTI, or Passat- good gas milage, could be a fun car, not sure how it handles in the snow, and i'm not sure how good they'll be at high milage because most of the cars i'm looking at are 120k+

3) 1998-2001 Audi A4 or A6- these are my favorite so far, AWD so they seem to be good in snow, good gas milage, seems like a fun car, the main thing i'm concerned about is reliability at high milage and the expense of repairs

So NS what do you think about my current ideas, and do you have any other suggestions??
 
id stick with the subaru. The vw's are ok in the snow, but i would take it on a ski trip. they're just fine around town. The audis have an awesome awd quattro system and are reliable at high miles but are expensive for parts/repairs.
 
Volvo 240 with a Chevy V8 Swap. Somehow they're great in snow even with RWD. They defy the laws of physics.
 
Any of those options are bound to break down quickly and repeatedly. Repairs for at least the Subaru and the Audi are hugely expensive. You will pay more in repairs than you did for the car, most likely within a year or two at the most. You will also have the hassle of probable breakdowns at less than ideal times. With 3K you need to be looking at an older Toyota, Hyundai, Nissan, etc. You need to understand that for 3K you cannot have a cool car or a car suited for extreme winter travel. Buy a cheap car in good condition with peferably low miles and learn to drive it well in the winter.
 
1. Every single car you listed is not exactly reliable.

2. All those cars gas mileage sucks.

3. AWD is not needed for snow.

For 3000 go for a nissan sentra, It was my first car and it had amazing gas mileage. I used to drive it off road in the winter through at least 1 foot a fresh plus a base layer. The motor was amazing and held up to all the first car syndrome I had. Constantly dumped the clutch to do super sweet burn outs, practiced my super sweet heel toe/ double clutching and bounced it of the red line to often. Plus I even hit a jump, hopped 1/2 foot curb and beat the shit out of it. You are going to abuse the shit out of you're new car whether you care to admit it or not and those cars you listed will be expensive as shit to repair. Any car will be fun if its not a racing car, pretend that's what I did and everyone else with a slow POS does.
 
My mom has an 02 golf. Almost at 300,000kms, it's a fun little cheap car. She beat the shit outta that thing too and it's still going strong, obviously had some repairs to do but nothing major.

But I'm biased towards german cars
 
I've looked at the same cars as you over the past year or so. I stayed away from the a4 because they seem to have a rep for developing electrical problems. The golf gti was nice to drive, but I couldn't find any lower mile examples in manual. They were also probably a bit small for more than 2 people.

Probably an outback or forester would be my pick out of them. Keep in mind that you will probably have to repair any of the vehicles you're looking at, so make sure your budget extends to unexpected repairs too.
 
Solid advice. Almost everyone starts out with a car that isn't cool. My dad encouraged me to get a basic car for my first car. I've never had any trouble with it, it handled winters fine and now my GF drives it! More than I can say for the 2 cars I've had since then
 
I always thought that subaru's were pretty solid cars. We currently have a 2002 outback sedan that just hit 200,000 miles and runs pretty well, and we used to have a 98 legacy that we sold at 200,000 and is currently at about 250,000. But i will start to look at some older toyota, hyundai, and nissan's.
 
Definitly don't get something you'd actually cherish. Chances are that car is not going to make it until the end of your new driving experience. What with snow driving, and being stupid, and DUI's, and racing your shitty car against your friends shitty car onthat back road that nobody knows about, and doesn't get repairs. So while you're practicing your perfect launch, and you finally get a nice heel toe, clutch action going, but the giant pothole you didn't see has other plans for your suspension.. You're not gonna want a car you'd cry over busting/wrecking/ or severely injuring. I'd say an older Subaru is your best bet, because although the Audi's have great quattro awd systems, and they drive really nicely, and they're beautiful, the subarus gonna get better gas mileage, and ultimately have less repairs/problems. I can't really comment on the VW's cause I have a horrible bias against Fwd cars, so I'm not gonna go Into that now, but I'd say just pick up a Subaru, don't upgrade it because it will be shit now, and when you eventually cash it in, and try not to kill yourself.
 
chev siverado HD.....

Id stick with the subaru though. My dad had one of those back in the day when he worked up north and it does everything you need. Audi a4/a6 is nice but repairs are gonna be $$ and when winter hits id rather be in the subaru
 
You can swap a chevy v8 into a 240 really easily. Ultimate tank/sleeper. And it would be cheaper than 3k.
 
its not exactly "really easily" i mean, you have to fab motor mounts, tranny mounts, set up the orientation of the clutch, move all the shit around in the engine bay, have somebody fabricate you a driveshaft, splice the chevy engine wiring harness into the volvo harness and/or possibly run a standalone ECU, you will want to find a LSD rear end for the volvo and you will need to swap that in as well. you might have to route a throttle cable if the engine is not electronic throttle, if it is that goes back in with the wiring harness splice. you will need to fabricate and route a custom exhaust setup and probably put new springs and dampners in the front end to handle the extra weight from the v-8.

im sorry about all that, i had a long day.

but honestly i would buy either the a VW or the subaru. probably the subaru, i dont really understand why newschoolers likes audi so much and would eliminate them entirely,you probably wont pay any more for labor but you will pay more money for parts and the 1.8t engine in those lives a horrible life of being overworked under the hood of that audi. also their front driveshafts fall apart on the regs.
 
sorry for double post but i see alot of kids (not just in this thread) saying to go for older toyota pickup trucks, nissans, ETC. and while i agree on buying anything toyota (literally anything toyota, buy an old corolla for fucks sake, toyotas do not die) i would not nessecarily choose one of those over a $3000 subaru, if you choose wisely you can get a pretty solid subie for 3 grand and they really are great cars, cheap and relatively easy to work on. as long as you know some of the cars history and continue to do regular prevantative maintenance there is no reason it shouldnt last forever.
 
yeah i did some more research on the audi's and that seems pretty much out the window. i am definitely leaning towards a subaru forester at the moment. but i am still pretty interested in either a passat or a golf. Does anyone have any prejudices against either of these cars?
 
We should make one thread in NSG about cars, and people could just post in that thread about what car to get, etc. It would make everything easier. It would kinda be like the Jiberish B/S/T thread.
 
k, geta motor, and a car for under 700?

also, im not gonna lie, putting a small block in a volvo is retarded, i dunno if you guys have ever driven real muscle cars, a heavy ass cast iron v8 doesnt make a car handle well, also, depending on what your budget is, good horsepower numbers aren't cheap.

in short, for all the time/money spent, might as well have just put in an sti motor or something and kept handling and fuel economy.

my .02
 
VW and audi are both part of the same company, so the passats are very similar to an a6, just without the luxuries. i have no idea if thats a new thing or not, but my moms 2010 passat drives just as well as an audi and she and i love that car.
 
if you're going to spend 3k on an audi, go for an audi 90. quite a bit more reliable and tougher than an a4, and parts will be a little cheaper. and performance will pretty much be the same.

there are some other cheap AWD cars to look out for that nobody really knows about.

a toyota celica alltrec, AWD pretty damn fast, fun, handles well. and its a toyota so you know its gonna be dead reliable.

mazda 323gtx. hard to find but such an awesome car just look it up.

and you do NOT need awd for snow. get some nice snow tires and a 2WD car will get around better than an AWD car with all seasons.

any gen golf would be a good idea, will be reliable and will be fun.

id look at bmw e30's. the 325ix (x for awd) is pretty much the best possible snow car of all time. but you MUST make sure the AWD system is in good shape. otherwise its a potential 1000 dollars. for 3k it might be hard to find an ix in really good condition, but definitely possible.

or look at normal e30's they are extremely reliable, will run well over 300,000 miles if taken care of. and probably the most fun car you can get for under 3k

 
dont take this advice. i dont care if its AWD, the e30 has way too much tendency to oversteer to be called "the best possible snow car of all time"

also its a 20 year old car no matter what way you look at it, finding one thats not totally beat is difficult at best and even with 4 doors is still pretty small and uncomfortable to ride in with more than two people, with four people in it my e30 could barely get out of its own way.

great car but wouldn't recommend it to a friend.
 
thats a good thing in snow.. understeer is basically the last thing you want in snow. and anyway, the ix handles extremely neutral, maybe a slight tendancy to oversteer, which is perfect for a snow car. ive driven a shit ton of different cars in snow. 2 different sti's, a wrx, a b5 a4 and s4, an ix, an s60r and more. ive driven the the sti and ix back to back, and the ix absolutely destroyed it. it was just soft enough to pitch the weight around very easliy, and its nearly perfectly balanced in the snow, you can get it to do whatever you want. the sti just pushed like crazy nomatter what you did, you could try flicking the crap out of it and if you were lucky you would be able to enter a corner with decent rotation. but 9 times out of 10 you plow from turn in to apex, then have to break the rear loose with power and "drift" out. anyway out of all those cars, the audi's definitely had the best grip, but the ix was by far the best balanced. but it has a much better ABS system, higher ride height, much tougher, 10 times more reliable, and just overall more fun, so the ix gets my vote :)

and no its extremely easy to find one thats in good condition, e30's especially ix's are usually enthusiast owned, yeah you have to be careful and have a couple choices. but its very easy to find a well taken care of e30.

and i dunno what your talking about with it being small, its perfectly sized, the front seats are awesome, plenty of room in the front, and the rears even on a 2 door were plenty roomy for a compact car, better than most anything else you can get for 3k. we took a 30 hour road trip in my friends e30 with 3 people, and like 250-300 lbs of luggage. not the most ideal car for that, but it was fine. and we were able to cruiser at over 100 pretty easy and cruise around 75-80 at 10,000 feet up hills, and its stock.

if i had 30,000 dollars to spend on any snow car, id still choose an ix, because i honestly cant think of anything that would perform better.
 
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