first car

hey im lookin to buy a new car right now i drive a van thats sterio is worth 10 times the van. i want something kinda sporty fun to drive and something i can make wicked sweet if i do keep it. my limit is around $17,000 Canadian so few grand less american any imput would be awesome Oh! cars im considering are accord 2door v6 (late 90's early 2000's), eclipse GT(early 2000's) celica (also early 2000's) early 90s mr2, jetta vr6, and the lancer rally art

17k Canadian = 15.3k US

Okay...you can get something nice

Sports Car category:

Acura RSX-S
Chevy Corvette (C4 version)
Ford Mustang GT (as new as 2002)
Honda Civic Si (as new as 2002, but I prefer the previous coupe)
VW Golf GTi (as new as 2003)

thanx for the list, but what would you recomend. and why

thanx for the list, but what would you recomend. and why

RSX-S...I saw two you could pick up for under 15k US...so getting them in Canadia would not be hard. Reasons why...it's a balanced performer. Handles well, has good interior, reliable, quick, and nice exterior. Think of it as a decathalon athlete. Does everything well, but is not necessarily the absolute BEST in one category in its market...except for maybe interior.

Others cars in the category to consider:

Dodge Neon SRT4
Subaru Impreza WRX

You can get a very clean '98-'01 Subaru Impreza 2.5 RS for ten grand at most. Put the rest into your suspension, wheels, tires, and brakes, and you've got an autocross/rallycross demon. Or if you like the new body style, you can surely find an '02-'03 for fifteen grand.

you can also get a pretty decent condition E36 3 series for that money....
(before you know who says it...)

thanks guys kinda gave me a bit more things to look at, i checked out a imprezza wrx, they were closed so i didnt get to drive it yet but not a bad lookin car 2002 fully loaded, as for an rsx i think that would be my first choice but i cant find any plus whats the diffrence between the rsx and rsx type-s, i know there is a few more hp but that would be easy to gain with a few after market mods right?

thanks guys kinda gave me a bit more things to look at, i checked out a imprezza wrx, they were closed so i didnt get to drive it yet but not a bad lookin car 2002 fully loaded, as for an rsx i think that would be my first choice but i cant find any plus whats the diffrence between the rsx and rsx type-s, i know there is a few more hp but that would be easy to gain with a few after market mods right?

Well, it's a difference of 40hp which isn't exactly easy to gain with a few aftermarket mods on an engine like that. Sure, with a turbocharged car such as a WRX you can spend a little and get 40 easy hp by running a bit more boost + aftermarket intake/exhaust, but with a naturally aspirated 4cyl you'd have quite a bit tougher of a time getting that much out of aftermarket mods. Also, I believe the Type S has a stiffer suspension and different transmission. The S only gets a little worse mileage on the highway, 31 compared to 33 for the base model.

The RSX-S's engine is pretty close to maxed out. It's too high compression to run forced induction, and it's already making 100 hp/liter, which is about as much as a streetable N/A car will make. If you just want 200 horsepower, don't bother modifying an RSX, just get an RSX-S. If you want more than that, I suppose it would be feasible to run forced induction on a regular RSX, but I don't know how often it's been done. If you can afford an Impreza WRX, I give it my full recommendation.