Rush in a Car Crash! (MSP Totaled)

[LASERBLUE135]

This is very sad, your car was legendary. If you are graduating from college in a year you could probly hold off from putting the majority of your money into a car. But...wrx's are selling in your price range...with HIGH miles. (high repair bills)

Don't know your situation, but if you are possibly going to move to change jobs? Pay off student loans? yada yada, you might want to hold on to that cash for a while and really go over your options in the next year or so.

 

[bradboyd80]

you drove a car from Florida to Alaska? Wow, more power to you.

Actually it was a blast. I love to drive; and got to see a ton of places and cool stuff. Got to see the whole country. Yukon was awesome too.

 

[Flash5]

First Ill ignore the "i dont do wagons remark" haha, i consider the p5 a "sport" hatch if you will .

If I were you I would look into civics or sentras. A civic would prolly be the safest bet, esp with reliability and mpg being important. I have always liked sentras and if you can find a SER (non spec-v!) in 5-speed I would look into it. Don't look at ralliarts mainly because they dont have abs unless you get the highest model that only comes in auto. My friend has a 2.5rs and it is pretty sick, but being a part of tst you know you can't blink without seeing another scuby go by. Maybe even an older gti could be possible?

Best piece of advice I can give you is to be patient. It took me well over a month to find a car after I totaled my first car. That includes look on autotrader and cars.com ever night trying to find something and eventually I found the p5 (again a hatch!) and I could not be happier now. In time you will find what you are looking for.

 

[Wagonbacker9]

what do you have against the spec V?

 

[Flash5]

what do you have against the spec V?

the red volcano interior for one thing, that alone makes my insides hurt. plus I have heard that the 6 speed is sloppy and numb. one of my roommates has a spec-v and its nice but from what i have researched the normal SER is better all around car and i think insurance isnt as high and i think it doesnt need premium like the spec-v. its just hard to find a 5-speed.

 

[MSP2k3]

my last car was an 02 Sentra SER Spec V and i loved it. It was a great car and a blast to drive. If you throw a counterweight shift knob on it the shifter feels much better.

 

[Deatschwerks]

I vote for 00-01 RS, You will have a blast, and just about every turbo motor subaru makes will be a direct swap.

 

[Flash5]

that is true, subarus are like legos, all of their cars basically have similar parts and can be used in another subie. my friend has wrx seats from an 06 in his 01 rs, direct swap.

 

[bradboyd80]

But we are all forgeting one thing.....she wants it to be an eventual "beater" car. Now if she wants something she can mod and have fun with, then I agree that the subby is ok. But then you have to consider the cost of working on it. Subaru's are NOT cheap to work on, or mod, and money appears to be a concern (at least that's how I read it, but I could be wrong). I still believe a honda civic would be a perfect fit. Nothing against subaru, as I'd even love to have one.

 

[Deatschwerks]

But we are all forgeting one thing.....she wants it to be an eventual "beater" car. Now if she wants something she can mod and have fun with, then I agree that the subby is ok. But then you have to consider the cost of working on it. Subaru's are NOT cheap to work on, or mod, and money appears to be a concern (at least that's how I read it, but I could be wrong). I still believe a honda civic would be a perfect fit. Nothing against subaru, as I'd even love to have one.

Its not as bad as it used to be. If she gets an 02-05 WRX, she can hit 240-250 whp for less than 1500$ (Turboback and a tune) Suspension Mods are becoming a lot less expensive as well, plus you can buy a lot of great used parts from the subaru community. They are also a lot easier to work on than people think they are, the Boxer setup just looks intimidating.

 

[orng1]

Barely saw this thread, sucks to hear you crashed and it does look pretty bad.

Those subaru's aren't the best on gas but for the conditions that you may need to put the car I'd look at an RS so you wont be able to mod it or if you do want to a wrx. Those cars can be put into almost any conditions. If you just want a cheaper beater the Lancer isn't bad, pretty good for the price. They aren't as under powered as I expected them to be. All cars have their issues but you have to chose which ones your willing to deal with.

Good luck

 

[slo03.5msp]

plus if you get a bug eye you can save all that extra money for the trans problems. I forgot about the huge diff problems the had in the bug eyes as well. Plus theres' always the clutches that they eat every 20k no matter how you drive them if they make decent power.

 

[khaosman]

Check out used Acuras in addition to Hondas. I was able to pick up my '99 Acura CL (2.3L) pretty dang cheap. The interior is quite nice and roomy, fun to drive, and gets 25mpg.

 

[323]

First Ill ignore the "i dont do wagons remark" haha, i consider the p5 a "sport" hatch if you will .

If I were you I would look into civics or sentras. A civic would prolly be the safest bet, esp with reliability and mpg being important. I have always liked sentras and if you can find a SER (non spec-v!) in 5-speed I would look into it. Don't look at ralliarts mainly because they dont have abs unless you get the highest model that only comes in auto. My friend has a 2.5rs and it is pretty sick, but being a part of tst you know you can't blink without seeing another scuby go by. Maybe even an older gti could be possible?

Best piece of advice I can give you is to be patient. It took me well over a month to find a car after I totaled my first car. That includes look on autotrader and cars.com ever night trying to find something and eventually I found the p5 (again a hatch!) and I could not be happier now. In time you will find what you are looking for.

golden words.

 

[orng1]

Though I do like civics for ease of maintenance and reliability, I would never buy one for myself again. They are way to easy to steal and attractive to thieves.

 

[323]

yeah thats the thing with hondas. my friend has a k20 swap in his black EK hatch. it just sits in the garage cuz hes scared of people stealing it.

 

[bradboyd80]

Though I do like civics for ease of maintenance and reliability, I would never buy one for myself again. They are way to easy to steal and attractive to thieves.

Even if you mod them, it depends on your area. She hasn't said anything about modding though. Only that she wants a reliable, cheap vehicle that's good on gas. Based on that criteria....not many vehicles can compete with a Honda.

Well I gave my opinion, so no need for me to keep chiming in. LOL.

 

[Packerfan]

So sorry to hear about this if you really want the car press the ins, company to fix it I wreck a 2year old car, 22,000 when I bought it and when it was all said and done they ended up giving me 16,000 to fix got lucky with a bad adjuster or maybe a smart one he kept on missing things that where broke the kicker was the motor mount which came up after body was fixed and got the final check for a new motor 4500 which I never even needed to just swapped out mount. So just keep telling them you want to fix it really doesnt look that bad was the frame bent or what this question has been asked a few times with no response. Good Luck

 

[mspeedP5]

Sorry to hear about your incident but I must comment... If there is a snow plow working a highway/freeway it is not a good idea to try to pass it. Just settle in behind it (at a reasonable distance) and be patient. It's out there for a reason.

 

[gr?]

For a practical beater, there are tons to choose from. I went with the Maxima since: 1) readily available in manual transmission, 2) decent amount of torque, 3) back seat and trunk (coming from a Miata, anything more than 6-9 sq ft of trunk space is a Godlike)

I was also looking at Preludes but I couldn't find a manual trans equipped one in good condition. Tons of automatics, though.

Once you're out of school, you'll appreciate the utility of a full size sedan.