Cash in hand ready to buy, what car?

For the first time in four years I'm going to own a car! I'm pretty freaking excited. And I got out of my five year car ban a year early!

What I'm looking for is a car that I can use to pick the boy up after school if the wife is working late like she has been for a while. Besides that it's main mission in life will be a casual autocrosser/rallycrosser.

I'm not looking to be competitive in anything, just to have fun. Reliability and durability is the key. I'm not looking for a project, just something cheap that I can go beat on and have fun. I'm not worried about classing or anything like that. Budget is +/- $2400, cheaper is better as long as it's not a complete project. Prefer manual and RWD but right now I'm open to anything.

Mazdeuce, have anything cool that you know about down in your town?

I have messages in to these two cars on my localish CL. ZX2 S/R

1989 SAAB 900S

If I can get a reply from either one of those, what is the hives take?

There is also this that I haven't tried to contact yet.

1999 Camaro V6 Bad is big miles and it's a T-top car.

What should I be looking for?

And Go!

The ban has been lifted? Congratulations!

You should be able to get a solid focus and drop the svt bits into it for cheap.

Go to Craigslist, set search preferences for manual, rwd, max price $2017, sort by newest, buy first car on the page. Dare ya

Can't believe I'm the first to say, Miata. Meets all of your qualifications very well.

holy E36 M3 Doesn't really do any of the things I want besides pick the boy up from school but I haven't seen one of these in forever!

So have you been exclusively on motorcycles for 4 years? Man, I know I'd love a motorcycle, but I'm far too afraid of them.

Anywho, the "answer" wasn't listed...I presume it's for a reason? That would be the obvious go to. The ZX2 is sorta cool to me, but nothing wildly exciting. If I'm going a FWD 4 seater, I'd go Protégé or Civic Si if I can find a decent one in that price range. You could find a really nice older V6 Mustang, but the engine isn't anything to get super excited about. Clean CRX if you can find one?

Furious_E wrote: Go to Craigslist, set search preferences for manual, rwd, max price $2017, sort by newest, buy first car on the page. Dare ya

This is the only one that is a runner and not a pickup truck. http://killeen.craigslist.org/cto/5937697974.html The temp tag on the back scares the E36 M3 out of me.

Really this area is the worst for finding anything at all cheap on CL. So many cars I would be all over back in Knoxville, almost nothing of interest anywhere in Texas.

If you don't have what you want local, you could come see the Mardi Gras and pick up a car. The Volvo is included because it looks nice. It looks awful nice. Maybe too nice for $2k.

2001 Chevy Camaro V6 manual T-tops "OBO" - $2500

1988 Mustang GT 351W - $2500 (New Orleans (Westbank))

2006 Volvo S40 - $2000 (Chalmette)

Miata if the boy is old enough to ride up front or you're willing to disable the passenger airbag.

Nick (Bo) Comstock wrote: holy E36 M3

If you don't like that, you could drive it up to Colorado, and sell it for $7500+. No joke. Mighty pretty.

In reply to Klayfish:

Yeah, motorcycle only for about 3.5 years. I had a company vehicle that I lost when I turned down a different position at my previous job that would have me moving to three major cities in a year for my previous employer.

The wife says no two seaters, as a redundancy in case something happens to her car so that we can move the whole family. So no answers.

Which one of those vehicles does your wife want? (ducks and runs)

Sonic wrote: Can't believe I'm the first to say, Miata. Meets all of your qualifications very well.

He mentioned kid hauling or I would have.

I have it on good authority that a 1996ish Nissan 200SX is a heckuva car with it's SR20 motor. We have one locally that routinely posts a faster autocross time than a BSPS2000

4 seats, FWD, Japanese reliability. Solid and simple. Find one from outside the rust belt.

Starter kit

Appleseed wrote: Which one of those vehicles does your wife want? (ducks and runs)

Four seats and a solid runner are the only requirements.

Any issues with a first gen Tiburon?

The Nissan NX2000 has a factory LSD, a SR20 and a hatchback :)

Friend of mine had a first gen Tiburon. Worst car ever. Something about a bad flywheel problem that was never resolved from the dealership, bad customer service, generally crappy car.

Bunch of interesting stuff in BCS.

Nick (Bo) Comstock wrote:

Furious_E wrote: Go to Craigslist, set search preferences for manual, rwd, max price $2017, sort by newest, buy first car on the page. Dare ya

This is the only one that is a runner and not a pickup truck. http://killeen.craigslist.org/cto/5937697974.html The temp tag on the back scares the E36 M3 out of me. Really this area is the worst for finding anything at all cheap on CL. So many cars I would be all over back in Knoxville, almost nothing of interest anywhere in Texas.

Ha, I would have probably gone with e46 if I were making a serious suggestion. Maybe not the best example of the breed, but you could do worse.

And that Toyota is beautiful. Around here you'd be able to see daylight through every body panel and it would still be twice the price.

Do you feel lucky punk? Well, do ya? http://www.lsoauctions.com/details.cfm?itemnum=1074407256

someone teach me to hotlink please.

I just got a 2001 BMW 323 4 door 5 speed with a sport package. I can sell it for $2200. I can get some pictures for you if you are interested. It was a trade in at carmax.

In reply to Pattyo:

http://www.lsoauctions.com/details.cfm?itemnum=1074407256

Click on the little chain link looking thing above the really happy smiley face. Paste the link in the first box and whatever you want the text to read in the second. Hit OK.

In reply to pimpm3:

You're a long way from central Texas...

In reply to Nick (Bo) Comstock:

That's just a days fly and drive. OK maybe a long day.