help with yet another.. buying a used car

[WanSolo1113]

Hello everyone. First time posting, short time reader

I'm a 24 year old looking to buy a used car. I've owned a 91 corolla, blew the engine and bought a '03 corolla right afterwards.Long story short, payments caught up to me and I had to get rid of it. That's why I'm looking for something relatively cheap, around 6,000 to 8,000 dollars.

Anyway, I used to drive an '89 acura integra which I really enjoyed. I dont know what mods were done on it, but it had tight control during turns and had good acceleration. I'm looking for something kind of similar to that car I guess.

It needs to be good on gas, on the cheaper side to maintain, and reliable. I'm looking for something fun to drive, meaning fast(excellent acceleration) and that has excellent control (suspension?). Straight line speed isn't all that important to me since I dont go to a track. In fact I like taking turns fast instead of straight line fast. Oh and it also has to be a manual transmission.

EDIT: I've also browsed around looking at some of these, only thing that turns me off about them is the high theft rate of the hondas/acuras
honda prelude '97-'01
honda civic si '99-'00
acura integra '94-'01
toyota celica '89-'06
nissan sentra se-r '91-'94 / '00-'06
..or any general 5 speed civic/accord

please let me know if you know your opinion or if you know of any other models/makes that you think will be good ideas. I'm open to suggestions!
Thanks!

[speediva]

You can add the 1991-1996(ish) Infiniti G20 to your list... it also came with the Sentra's SR20DE engine. I'm not remembering for certain if the post-1996 models had the SE-R motor or not.

Really, you can't go wrong with anything on your list as long as it's been maintained.

[WanSolo1113]

therein lies the problem i think. How can I know whether or not the car I'm buying has been well maintained? How realistic is it for a buyer to expect that of a car 10+ years old?

[speediva]

I just bought a 1997 Civic and got a complete maintenance record from the previous owner. Because of the age of the car, I almost exclusively looked with private sellers because I stood a chance of finding a car so immaculately maintained. Granted, there was one previous owner before the one I bought from, but I ran a vehicle history report, saw it was annually registered and passed emissions (so they were at least keeping the vehicle somewhat current).

Other ways of checking up on vehicles is to check the VIN through a dealership (hopefully one locally) and see if you can get service records on any major repairs.

Admittedly, I got lucky that the guy I bought from kept as many records as I do (all my auto maintenance goes in a folder - color coded for each separate vehicle). I did spend several months searching and ended up paying a little over KBB, but it was worth it for peace of mind.

Good luck!