Turbosauce's New Car.

[nissangirl74]

I wouldn't buy anything from VW. Ever. Maintenance nightmare. I loved the IDEA of a Jeep until I drove one and absolutely hated it (on pavement). The Civic wins by default. However, if you are still looking for something with torque, that's a big, fat fail.

[TurboSauce]

What is your guys opinion on buying a car for around 1-3K?

In all honesty to me buying a car for 2k, spending 1k on insurance leaves me with roughly 2k to maintain/ upgrade it.

Do you guys think that this makes sense?

Or should i spend 4k on something I shouldn't have to maintain as much?

[OriginalWheelman]

Btw a max cost me as much to insure as an 03 350z

My 350z was actually cheaper to insure than my Versa. For some reason the 350z is really easy to insure for what it is.

[TurboSauce]

I guess because people who bought them really didn't wreck them that much


I'm really considering buying LS400 or Q45 for around $2,000
There are quite a few of them in that price range with decent mileage.

I can procure one, spend the 1k on insurance, and use the nex 2k that i have saved up for coils/rims.

Because this to me just looks awesome


as well as this

[TurboSauce]

[Heavy]

get the LS... super reliable, easy enough to work on and TORQUE. I DD mine and i still dust civic si's with 232k on the clock. IMHO stay with the 1st gen, its a little bit more of a "drivers" car i guess you could say than the 2nd gen. Non interference 1UZ and less electronic gadgets. The 2nd gen is good though if your looking to drive a street legal couch.

[TurboSauce]

I'm fairly Certain that If I procure an Ls for the price the money I would have to put into the car would enormous.

From what I've read online about the LS online is that it's plagued with minor problems, yet they DO all add up.

[TurboSauce]

And I wanted to thank everyone for their time and advice, I really appreciate you guys putting up with me

[MinisterofDOOM]

get the LS... super reliable, easy enough to work on and TORQUE.

That is not a word I ever expected to see in enthusiastic all-caps speaking about an Integra.

[TurboSauce]

I think he meant the Ls400

At first I was very as well.

[MinisterofDOOM]

OHHHHHHHH.

Right. He mentioned Civics so my brain went to Integra immediately.

As for the Lexus...have fun with that timing belt.

[TurboSauce]

OHHHHHHHH.

As for the Lexus...have fun with that timing belt.

see seee
this is why I reconsidered!

[TurboSauce]

Looking into it, a full timing belt + water pump job can be done for under $1000

Calculating expenditures, for the LS400

Car=need
purchase price = $2k (ha s2000)
insurance= $1k.
timing belt job(along with service such as spark plugs etc)= $1k

Car want=
Coilovers= 1k
rims& tires $1k

However this route leaves me with like no headroom for error, So this is why the ls400 is out.

Because let's say i get it to where I want it (aka marvelous picture above)
and something goes wrong. I have no $$ to fix it.

The reason I'm willing to pay for labor is,
1, Due to culinary school I can not get dirt that would be hard to remove on my hands.
2, I will not have that much free time.
3, I can't afford to injure myself *busted knuckles*

So I basically have to let someone else work on the car.

[Pento240sx]

-Toyota Corolla/Wagon
Good on gas mileage, big trunk, very reliable, cheap parts and kind of spacious
-Toyota Camry/Wagon
Decent gas mileage, not bad looking, very reliable, cheap parts and if you get the wagon you have extra seating in the back.
-Buick Park Avenue/Supercharge
Ok on gas, very comfortable, great suspension ride, very spacious, big a** trunk, nice accelaration(supercharge one) and big a** trunk.
-Toyota Tacoma 4 Door
Good on gas, good power, kind of spacious and nice looking.
-Lexus IS300
ok on gas, good power, fun car to drive and RWD!

[MinisterofDOOM]

I've never quite understood the appeal of supercharged 3.8 GM products. Big, boosted, iron engine that makes not very much power or torque not very efficiently. They're certainly cheap and reliable to own, but 20mpg combined and 240hp out of 3.8 boosted V6 liters is a tough turd to shine in my book.

[OriginalWheelman]

I've never quite understood the appeal of supercharged 3.8 GM products. Big, boosted, iron engine that makes not very much power or torque not very efficiently. They're certainly cheap and reliable to own, but 20mpg combined and 240hp out of 3.8 boosted V6 liters is a tough turd to shine in my book.

Reliable? Are you kidding? Every dealer I ever knew who knew a damn thing about cars wouldn't touch those things. They took an engine that was PRONE TO HEAT RELATED FAILURE and PUT A DAMNED ROOTS BLOWER ON IT. WTF GM. On ANY one of those engines they eat intake gaskets by 80k miles because they put an aluminum intake on an iron engine and use a paper gasket that tears after miles of differing expansion and contraction rates between the two metals. The supercharged ones eat the gasket by 40km. Oh, and GM put THE DAMNED COOLANT PASSAGES on that gasket. NEVER go anywhere near a supercharges 3.8 unless you want to regasket the whole damned top end.

[Pento240sx]

Well my father had one for 3 years and he never had a problem. It had like 110,000 miles and running good all the time.

[AZ89two4Tsx]

Civics are lame.

If you want the best bang for your buck in that price range, get an older Volvo. Dead nuts reliable, doesn't feel like a cheap econobox, and you can always turn up the boost......y0. My dad's Volvo 850 T-5 had well over 300K (the odo broke) before he got rid of it because a faulty freeze plug in the engine needed to be replaced. The dude who bought it (owned a Volvo service shop) took it, replaced it, milled the head and it's now his loaner car to customers. When he inspected the head, he found that it was missing a lifter on one of the cylinders! Haha.

Mind you the engine had never been cracked open, the transmission has never had any work other than fluid changes, and the entire car had never seen anything other than routine maintenance. It went 300K+ like that never averaging under 25 mpg in 50/50 driving

lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Avilr4UtSWU

[TurboSauce]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msbAAEImMjE[/youtube]

If i had $6,499.
I would so totally do that.

Fyi. From that one youtube video I ended up here.
Which lead to me crunching numbers.

Cost to get a 2jz volvo is like $1,4k out of budget.
(that's with proper mounts (well what I suppose are proper mounts), harness conversion, motor, drive shaft, and labor.

And that's keeping stock brakes... and stock diff. and stock ball joints... and stuck suspension.


and basically it would be balls fast and probs would fall apart.

It would be different though!

I also just realized i'm addicted to number crunching and big dreams.

Out of the fast, reliable and cheap triangle this would be more fast and reliable(more reliable then it would be cheap).

not so cheap.

[AZ89two4Tsx]

A 2JZ in a 740? Be realistic, you're going to keep the motor that it came with. Especially if you're in college.

You're going to want to spend your money on other things. Like alcohol... Find a decent car that's cheap to maintain that you can haul your friends around in.

[Razi]

Plus, with a build like that, random things are gonna start popping up and start nickle-and-diming you until the budget goes out the window.

[TurboSauce]

So being realistic, it's not really feasible to buy a car for 1k and expect it to be reliable hey.

[breadbox]

My current daily is a Mazda Protege 5. Pretty reliable, okay on gas, fits a ton of crap inside it. I bought it for 1700 with a cracked windshield, two bad front wheel bearings, leaking clutch line(didn't notice until it stranded my a few miles from the house), and the interior has cig burns and no cruise control, outside is beat to s*** and it came on horribly balanced rubber band tires.

I love it now, but then again I could have spent 4000 and bought a clean one and maintained it.

I would say figure out what you want to use it for and find the car that does that best.

I wanted a manual wagon that was easy to maintain and decently fun to drive. MP5 fits the bill pretty good, I can live with the fact I will never spend money to make it faster, the motor sucks a** and I can live with that.

If you haul a tone of shizz the get a wagon, or SUV, or Truck.

If you move your self and some stuff and maybe the occasional person, get a 2dr hatch or coupe, there is alot of fun in this category.

If you move some stuff and a few people pretty often, get nothing less than a 4dr sedan or wagon/SUV.

But whatever you do, don't rush into a vehicle because of what it could be, buy it for what it is.

[TurboSauce]

Looks like I wont be getting Any of the cars spoken about here. Stay tuned.

[TurboSauce]

Sh*T got real, made a downpayment.
gonna take delivery in 3 weeks.

[TurboSauce]

I bought myself a

[Bubba1]

I bought myself a

Which model? OF course, if it's an SC430, you forfeit your mancard.

[TurboSauce]

not telling till I take delivery.

but it's turbo'd

[Bubba1]

not telling till I take delivery.

but it's turbo'd

Aftermarket turbo I presume? I don't recall Lexus building any forced induction cars for the US market.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

The IS300 wasn't turbo?