B13 sentra. Best car in the world.
B13 sentra. Best car in the world.
ratghia wrote: I found this 85 318i but was wondering how good they are in the snow and if they are expensive to buy parts for.
With Blizzaks anything is good in the snow. A friend just sold his commuter '91 318is and after 3 years he had enough. I think he replaced just about everything and it nearly broke him.
May I suggest a MK2 VW Jetta or Golf. Those things came with some very nice seats and could get 30+ mpg in 4 cyl. trim. Used speed parts are all over the Vortex too.
fornetti14 wrote: A friend just sold his commuter '91 318is and after 3 years he had enough. I think he replaced just about everything and it nearly broke him. May I suggest a MK2 VW Jetta or Golf. Those things came with some very nice seats and could get 30+ mpg in 4 cyl. trim. Used speed parts are all over the Vortex too.
Wait... you lead with "a 318is almost broke him" and finish with "buy a VW"? I'd reccomend any VW owner keep a spare 318is around as "Old Faithful". Walking Home has been standard on every VW since they discovered they could use electricity to operate the engine management system.
Was your Ghia purchased from somebody who had planned on attending a GRM challenge with it a few years back? Perhaps both of you autocrossed it at one time or another? The only reason I ask is because I've only ever seen one of these things before and it was at a few Susquehanna region auto-x events.
Don't fear right wheel drive (RWD). As somebody said earlier, there is an unfair misconception that they are bad in the snow and this needs to be addressed. If you are driving in snow, make sure you buy a car with a nice 50-50ish weight distribution, and do yourself a favor and buy some snow tires (regardless of drivetrain). A well balanced RWD car will be just as good as a FWD car when it comes time to go, and may even be easier to drive than the traditionally heavy-nosed FWD cars. My Z3 was nearly unstoppable with the extreme-summer tires when the wet stuff fell unexpectedly. Once I got some snows on that baby it was as sure footed as a Clydestale pulling a beer wagon in a holiday parade.
Alternatively, you can check out what has just become my favorite work horse: mid-90s Subaru wagons. All-wheel drive (you will be pulling pickups out of ditches), parts compatibility with WRX cars, and cavernous cargo holds to make short work of any parts hauling you need to do. I also found out that if you find a wrecked car in a junkyard with heated seats, all you need to do is pull the seats and switch panel and put it in your car and you will have heated seats too (direct plug and play)!
I think hatchbacks are the best for teenagers. Mountain bikes and all other manner of cool toys fit inside. Just so damn practical.
confuZion3 wrote: Was your Ghia purchased from somebody who had planned on attending a GRM challenge with it a few years back? Perhaps both of you autocrossed it at one time or another? The only reason I ask is because I've only ever seen one of these things before and it was at a few Susquehanna region auto-x events.
I will bet you are thinking of his dad.
FWIU the car was being trailered west from Pa towards its new home...
That 318 looks nice, and you dont have to worry about replacing the timing belt as soon as you get it like you would with a 325 (people selling $1200 bmws dont usually have the slightest idea when any maintance was done). B13 sentras arent bad, but the 5th gear has a life expectancy of about 175k miles and you have to have really small hands to work on one. I think in either 94 or 95 they fixed the 5th gear problem, so if the transmission from the later body style will fit that would be a solution. I was going to try it with the one i had but it got wrecked before the tranny completly died.
Id still recomend staying away from watercooled vws, i looked at several of them for sale, and i found them to be very disapointing. They dont handle well stock, they all had cold start problems, and generally run rather poorly, the shifter linkage is usually so worn out you can barely figure out what gear you are in, etc. They were probably good when they were new, but after 20+ years of abuse, they really kinda suck.
sold the ghia = 
newer S10 with 2.2/stick
my dad has a 99 ext cab with 120k, picked it up for $1900. he drives it all over ohio, PA, VW, MD for kayaking from spring through fall and it is a great little truck that pulls good mpg, and you can cart corvair parts around in one.
If insurance is an issue, don't buy a BMW. That reads performance car, and high premiums.
I hear that the cheapest insurance is for 4 cyl PU's, any model.
Although, any basic, slow car will be cheap. If you can't swing the v6 probe, the I4 isn't horrible. Same size, same chassis, just slower.
Remember, slow = cheap.
You need a ghey white New Beetle for $4900.00 ;)
As long as you get the SAAB checked out before you buy it it would be a good choice. It will be like like any older European car with electical issues but if the oil was changed like it should have been the drivetrain will be solid. Add to that it is probably a hatch, goes quit well with the turbo and is huge on the inside you should at least go check it out.
alfadriver wrote: If insurance is an issue, don't buy a BMW. That reads performance car, and high premiums.
well, i would ask your agent first.
my E30 is really cheap to insure, but i am only carrying liability on it
Escort GT/Protege/Tracer LTS
90-93 Celica. You can get a NICE one for $2k, and they're rock solid dependable, and won't put you to sleep.
I LIKE the idea of the Saab 9000 Aero. They're great cars, a little quirky, keep a supply of DIs on hand, and be prepared to replace the BPV. They get great gas mileage, they run forever, and they're QUICK. Like... really quick. You'll start passing people on the highway just for the hell of it, so you can play with the ridiculous torque. Keep in mind that this was the car that had THE FASTEST top gear acceleration test out of ANY production car during the same year. That includes Lambos, Ferraris, Porsche... anything.
Honda Accords.
Maxima/sentra
Camry. Paseo. Tercel.
$2k will get you a LOT of car. What do you want?
Buy something with working AC. Don't believe the "AC needs a recharge", if it only needed a recharge the current owner would have fixed it. $600 later I know. Remember ladies don't care about the 3hp you gained by disconnecting the compressor.
Well I didn't have school today due to the 4" of snow that fell this morning. My dad and I were in the Escape practicing our drifting at the ring in front of the one school. We then decided to go and see if we could find any cars at local dealerships. We ended up finding the turbo Colt. The owner of the lot told us he wouldn't sell me the car because "you would be dead in a week" "it has too much power for ANYONE to drive" and my personal favorite "if you want a tuner car like this you got to build on yoursel followed by a look like he thought I wasn't capable of doing any automotive work". The cars only mod was a chrome cold air intake.
The boy speaks the truth.... It was way hard not to laugh at the guy.... 
Apexcarver wrote:alfadriver wrote: If insurance is an issue, don't buy a BMW. That reads performance car, and high premiums.well, i would ask your agent first. my E30 is really cheap to insure, but i am only carrying liability on it
True. Always ask.
IMHO, though, it's not all that great to have a daily driver that's also a racer- you compromise the ride and noise a lot, and when you spend 100-1000x longer commuting than you do racing, the speed parts are very questionable.
My freinds always ask me what mods I'm going to do to my Miata- thinking turbo or something like that. And my thought is a 3.6* FDR and the wide ratio box from a late 80's RX7 so that 1-3 are pretty close total ratio, 4th is 15% lower, and 5th is 25% lower. That would be sweet.
You'll need to log in to post.
