Looking for a new DD

In reply to Knurled:

Yes, how could I forget it was you! That's still a great insider tip!

drdisque wrote: Neon R/T or ACR if you can find one and can deal with a car that's flimsy as hell and are indifferent about factory paint.

Not sure what the flimsy is referencing. I have one at 450,000 miles (which won an SCCA Rallycross National Championship with 390,000 on the odo), and one with 366,000 miles. Both on the original engine and transmission. Autocrossed, rallycrossed and multiple track days. Still pulls hard past 7000rpm while getting 30-32 MPG.

Didn't say they weren't reliable. I was more referring to the Play-Skoolesque interior.

Interiors on both my cars look pretty much new. The drivers seat in the 450,000 has a somewhat squashed cushion, but the covers are not worn. Dashes have not cracked in 16 years of Texas sun. Shifter and boot look new. Oh, I have replaced the floor mats a few times.

Methinks you need more requirements. There area LOT of cars easily found that meet all of those, and they are all over the place (as seen so far in this thread).

Here goes-

Manual, Fun to drive, 1000lbs towing capacity, Seats 4, 30-35mpg highway, Reliable, Widely available and not crazy expensive parts, Relatively easy to work on, Not German, Korean, or General Motors, 4 cylinder, Timing chain if possible but not a deal breaker, can be found around $4k with under 130k miles.

I'm in Birmingham, AL so winter worthiness doesn't really matter.

I think I want a Civic, Accord, or maybe a Mazda3.

I'm hoping after Christmas more people will sell their cars. There just isn't much around here unless I'm missing it.

I'm ready to get out of Impala hell, lol.

Saab 9-3's and these two are old enough to not count as too much GM-iness.
http://bham.craigslist.org/cto/4817947492.html
http://bham.craigslist.org/cto/4781348661.html

Those Saabs are nice!

Not to hijack, but what's the poop on those? Why the low resale value?

I was thinking this until you updated your requirements...(NMNA):

http://columbus.craigslist.org/cto/4785579388.html

I was going to come back this morning with a serious answer. However, I realized I have had no cars, ever, in my car history, other than ones that have been German, Korean or General Motors. How weird is that, I've only owned cars from the list of cars you will not consider.

I like the Saab option.

The_Jed wrote: Those Saabs are nice! Not to hijack, but what's the poop on those? Why the low resale value?

On that generation, its the wet noodle chassis, underwhelming factory suspension, and overall GMness. These things make them a VERY good bargain today IMO, and there are parts available to fix the shortcomings. I had good experience with mine and they're cheap to make move and sound very good.

Hmm - would not have guessed the Saab's would be so reasonable...

On the Saabs, they were never a real mainstream brand and even worse, they are now a discontinued brand. Many assumptions are made that parts are not available since the dealerships are gone.
These are 12 year old cars. What car that old still gets parts from the dealership? At that age, for any car, it is PepZoneBoys and junkyards.
Only on a couple of models is availability are real problem. Those models would be the fully redesigned, one year only, last 9-5 and the one year 9-4x model.
The older stuff still has good availability.

Neon R/T or ACR if you can find one and can deal with a car that's flimsy as hell

I assume you're talking about running it into things? That must be why nobody rallycrosses them.

Volvo S40's. The 1.9 Turbo has about 160hp and are pretty darned durable cars. My jaw dropped when I saw the prices. We're talking Challenge money or just over for early 2000's.

All hail Mitsubishi!

My parents always were convinced a car over 100k is on its last legs. I know that's not true but what about buying a 150k mile car? I don't know why I have such a hard time getting past that.

See below:

once you get past the first round of replacing worn items, a car's a car until the bodyshell is scrap.

You can also look at my car to buy, $2300, have a replacement part, meets most of your requirements. Manual trans, many components replaced, etc. and fun to drive.

I guess I shouldn't rule out German cars but I've always heard they are very expensive to maintain and not as reliable. As for the Koreans, I don't mind the newer ones at all but in my price range I'm just not too fond of the looks of what I could get.

I'm kind of starting to dig the Saab's.

If you can do most of the repairs yourself, they can be manageable, especially if you don't have heavy driving requirements. I did some of the expensive repairs.