Need Help! Starting to Look at Cars

Hey everyone. I'm a 15 year old who is starting to look for a car. I'm open to anything from a sports car to a luxury sedan. I will have anywhere from none (which does me no good) to 10000, probably around 7500. Like I said, I'm open to anything, most likely imported, and I really like sport sedans. I might be able to finance a car. If I can, I'd like to get a Mini Cooper S (they have a special deal where I could pay like 200 a month), a 96-99 Audi A4, or a number of other things. If not, Integras, Eclipses, and old BMWs are looking good. I'd really like something with a decent amount of power, a nice interior (leather is pretty much a must), and good looks. Any suggestions and/or ideas would be great. Thanks.



"they can have a big democracy cake-walk right through the middle of Tiananmen square and it won't make a lick of difference because we've got the bombs, okay?!"

-Denis Leary

Do NOT buy Kia, Chrysler, Ford, GM, Hyundai or Daewoo. Stick to Honda, Toyota, Mazda or Nissan.

If you can work out a deal to get the Cooper S, wait till Consumer Reports has a reliability review for the first year's model. Personally, I would go with a Civic Si, Subaru WRX or a Sentra GXE.

If reliability is NOT an issue, please disregard my suggestions.

i'm not a huge fan of the mini, but hey if ya like it, they are available everywhere now..
but a used audi would also be a very good choice, although i really like the new a4 1.8t.... a lot..

90-93 BMW 535i -good sports sedan (see left for mine)

94-97 BMW 325i -fast and nimble. Leather just about always.

90-93 Lexus -but check model, these usually require premium gasoline.

check into a used accord.... you might be able to find an old 98 ex-v6 for around 10k if you look ...
if not a newer 4 banger would be good..

95-99 maxima GREAT car with plenty of power

Actually, the Neon or Sunfire would be pretty decent US built cars. Honda is a good choice for Asian and a Jetta might be worth looking into.

please don't get a neon... :)
i'll except a sunfire.. i guess..
they are pretty good..
there are a lot of decent middle cars like those..
civic, gti, jetta, sentra, celica, integra, rsx, eclipse, lancer, accord and stuff like that ... they are all good choices..

Keep in mind you'll also need to pay insurance, gas, main., etc. As a guy strapped for cash you might wanna look at options for durability, not just speed.

I'd be a little iffy about leather though. It doesn't breathe well and as an active teen (like myself) all the hustle and bustle will cause it to crack. A cracked int. is uglier than a decent looking vinyl.

Good luck finding.
If you don't mind buying used (why not?) then you might wanna check out ebay and some of the other online sources. I usually can spot some nicer deals there.

i have to agree... tha biggest problem when buying a car is.. it's a lot more expensive than ya think.. it's not just the car payment.. it's about 5 million other things.. your better off going cheap getting a job and saving.. but who the hell wants to do that .. :devil:

Do you need expensive car repairs? I don't think so. I know of '94 BMWs that have nickled and dimed their owners to death. Had a 87 Mercedes 190D until recently, even though the engine would run forever, it was costing me about 500 a month in repairs.

My suggestion is buy new with a good warranty. Obviously a WRX or Impreza RS/TS would be awesome, but you can't really afford that, at 10K. They run about 2 to 2.5 times what money you will have.

Think Hyundai Elantra or Kia Spectra. If you can't buy the whole thing at one time, your payments would be dirt cheap, and you would not have repair costs to pay. They come with a 10 year/ 100,000 mile warranty. (At least take a test drive and see if it is a kind of car that you can live with.)

Just recently bought a 2002 KIA Spectra GS. Has the more power than a mid 90s VW Jetta. The build quality has gotten a lot better since they were bought out by Hyundai. I got mine for 9,000 and if you had 10, 000 you could get yourself some really nice wheels and high performance tires.

Elantra would be a bit more upscale with a 2.0 liter instead of the 1.8 liter 16 valve 127 Hp engine that is in the Spectra.

There is something nice about simple, repair free driving.

check out www.sharkracing.com if you want to know about what you can do to trick out a KIA or Hyundai.

Cmotif <><