Hey carkiller members/Scotty, I’m now at the age where I can buy my first car, and I want something sporty yet reliable. Can you recommend some cars? My budget is 10k.
Sporty yet reliable? Sounds like a Civic to me. Miata or Mazda 3 would be good too, if you want American, maybe a Mustang with a V6 if you can find a really nice one.
Figure out how much sporty you can afford - price the insurance, usually crazy high for new drivers, and look here for some reliability info: https://www.carcomplaints.com/
The obvious choice would be a Mazda3, Corolla or a Civic - all are very well built and nice to drive.
If you want to get something with a bit more personality, I'd recommend an 2012 era Volvo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1FFvl1PEcU
They're extremely reliable and with their T5 engines (200-250 horsepower) and 5 speed Toyota built trannies, they're also quite zippy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkjBOjMngCg
Almost all Volvos that are sold in the US (until 2014-ish) are great.
the best ones are probably the XC70 drift wagons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeQiADhIFes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py88_vKwclM
As a general tip, avoid all cars with a dual clutch including Volvo. clutches rarely last over 60k miles.
As for not T5 engines:
And if you choose to buy a C30 coupe with the 2.0 L-series (the Mazda Miata engine), I'd recommend the manual. the dual clutch on those is not cheap at all to maintain. I own that modification of the C30 and the clutch pack lasts about 90k miles and the cost of replacement is about $3k not to mention $250 automatic transmission fluid changes every 30k miles.
lucky you. My first car was less than $1k
My first car was $90!
lmao that's hilarious how?????
What year? (Taking sample year of 1970) that's $6000 with inflation.
1965 Rambler purchased in 1972. According to online inflation calculator that equivalent to about $570 today. (Though that's a very rough estimate - memory tells me that overall costs today are about 10x what they were back then.)
https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
@chuck-tobias
If it were a few years ago, 500 dollars would be believable and a great deal for a running driving car! In 2019+ years it seems nearly impossible. Mountainmanjoe's $1k is normal IMO after inflation, unless of course that is already with inflation.
Certainly $10k budget is plentiful, but considering what you OGs were buying cars for car prices are through the roof (not considering post-pandemic prices).
Let me put it this way, the cost around was 40 to 50 hrs of work
There are a ton of choices, I guess to start off what you think about a Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, or Mazda 3?
10k is a really good budget you can find a lot of neat cars for that price so anyways I'd recommend either getting a civic or corolla in one of their sporty trims and if you want something totally dedicated to be a sports car you can buy a muscle car like a mustang or a camaro, or for a fun car a lexus ct (but those are hybrids so make sure there's no battery issues) or maybe a miata. I like the miata's a lot but they're a bit small for me I prefer cars that are slightly bigger(that's my personal taste though), and another choice I would definitely look at is the older bmw's with an inline six like a z3 or z4. If you were also into something similar you can also get an older mercedes slk those are pretty cool. Those are definitely my picks bc I love sporty cars I have a corolla se
See the Kerem’s Kars section under our Car Buying Guide sticky under FAQ: of course prices can vary in your area.
I’d go with a Corolla or civic I just bought my first car and it’s a 17 Corolla fully loaded ik I spent to much on it and with the millage it has but I knew the previous owner so I had to take that deal but they did a bunch of maintenance like brakes tires air filter oil change etc do I that added onto the price but I got a loan on it but I’m happy with the Corolla and it’s standard safety tech with the 17s and newer
Civic Si would probably suit your needs and can be had well within your budget.
2006 Honda civic (manual)
2007 Honda civic (manual)
2008 Honda civic (manual)
2009 Honda civic (manual)
2010 Honda civic (manual)
2011 Honda civic (manual)
Any of this but SI if you want more power (will cost a bit more).
Civic = +100 fun
Corolla = -50 fun (but same reliability)
Mazda = +350 rust (the older ones)
Manual transmission = +1000 fun
Can't go simpler than that.
