I'm looking at some local used cars for sale that I can use as a weekend beater car to learn manual in, between these options which seems the best?
1997 $2,700 | Honda Civic - 279k Miles (New brakes, distributor, muffler, spark plugs, and master cylinder)
2003 $1000 | Hyundai Sonata - 180k Miles (New MAF Sensor, and Alternator Belt, says it could 'use a tune up' so seems suspicious)
2003 $1,500 | Pontiac Grand Am - 148k Miles (New clutch, Brake Line needs replacement)
2005 $1,800 | Saturn Ion - 140k Miles (New clutch, brakes, Might need to buy new tires because they only have studded tires?)
I would negotiate on the Saturn or the Honda. None of the others catch my interest.
Give the Honda Civic and Saturn Ion a look. Have a mechanic check them out and haggle a bit on the Civic ideally below $2000. If the Saturn is in good shape now for around $1500 that is a deal. Any decent running driving car for that price is to be sought for these days.
As for the Sonata, the ones back then were plain junk on wheels, and its already having problems.
For the Pontiac, those get absolutely trashed especially with a manual transmission.
If it wasn’t for the price, I’d go with the Civic. But maybe that is the market rate where you live.
I’d pass on the Sonata, like you said, it seems sketchy.
I’m 50/50 on the other two. I don’t know too much about them.
See if you can negotiate on the Saturn. It's a dead company so you can kinda be all like "it be harder to find parts" and stuff like that. Also if tires be bad, another reason added. I had a grand prix from pontiac for a bit. It was ight but some BS with the head gasket. If you are only planning to learn and get rid of it then pontiac. Also negotiable depending on condition of car. That brake line might be hard to fix if it's a hardline that's kinked.
For the price and miles, I'd get the Saturn Ion. The only other choice in that list is the Honda, but only if it were around 1000. That is alot of miles for that price, in my opinion anyway. I would be scared to buy the Pontiac or Hyundai.
