It's time for a cheaper sports car.

MadCat360

MadCat360

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I am fed up with paying for my RX-8. It's a great car, easily one of the best sub-30k MSRP sports cars. But dropping 1200 bucks on front suspension bushings has pushed me over the edge. I cannot afford it. I have a life to lead and this car is getting in the way. I have go karts to buy.

I have new criteria. I need a replacement sports car. I need as good of a power-to-weight ratio as I can muster (I've been spoilt by 230hp and 2900 pounds). It must get good gas mileage. It must be common enough to have cheap parts. Practicality is a bonus but not required. Rear seats strongly preferred. I do plan to put money into it so aftermarket support is a concern.

And it can't be a rotary, nor can it be a soft-top, nor can it cost more than $6,500.

Examples of recent craigslist searches: Fox body Mustang, E30, GenII MR2, 240Z

Help me out here! I know there are models I haven't thought of.
 
MadCat360 said:
I am fed up with paying for my RX-8. It's a great car, easily one of the best sub-30k MSRP sports cars. But dropping 1200 bucks on front suspension bushings has pushed me over the edge. I cannot afford it. I have a life to lead and this car is getting in the way. I have go karts to buy.

I have new criteria. I need a replacement sports car. I need as good of a power-to-weight ratio as I can muster (I've been spoilt by 230hp and 2900 pounds). It must get good gas mileage. It must be common enough to have cheap parts. Practicality is a bonus but not required. Rear seats strongly preferred. I do plan to put money into it so aftermarket support is a concern.

And it can't be a rotary, nor can it be a soft-top, nor can it cost more than $6,500.

Examples of recent craigslist searches: Fox body Mustang, E30, GenII MR2, 240Z

Help me out here! I know there are models I haven't thought of.
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E30 parts aren't all that cheap either. The Mustang is going to be the cheapest and best supported of the lot but out of the box the Fox needs a lot of fixes to make its handling approach 'competent'. It was equipped with RandomSteer? from the factory. Consider a SN95 or New Edge, which are a better starting point and still are part of the world's largest aftermarket.

Does the MR2 even HAVE a real aftermarket any more?
 
MadCat360 said:
Probably not, but at least it's a Camry motor so there's parts.
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IIRC, the US Camry never got that engine, just the Celica.

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LeVeL said:
E36 M3 if you can find a decent one for that price.
C4 Corvette.
4th gen f-body
MkIII Supra turbo
Civic and swap it
Miata with a hardtop :lol:
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E36 M3 isn't going to be all that reliable and it's certainly not going to be cheap to keep.
 
Spectre said:
You sure the budget won't stretch to more than $6500? Because $9K or so can net you a Terminator Cobra if you search carefully.
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The Mazda is still on loan. I have to pay it off and that's going to take over half of the selling price (if I can sell it for what I want). I don't have the money to afford anything more than that with a cash purchase.
 
LeVeL said:
No way. The 03-04 Cobras are going for twice that.
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Friend just bought one for $9300. They can be found - though he was looking for 3 months and this one needs a blower rebuild.

It helps if you live someplace where there are a lot of them as opposed to a place where everyone bought weenie Saabs, ovloVs, Priuses, etc., etc., etc. :p
 
I've always had a soft spot for the AW11 MR2. I imagine that they can be found in your price range.
 
Sevs753 said:
Well, he will run into that with a 240sx as well. I think he should be able to find a good AE86 in his budget though. It will be less power than he's used to but otherwise should fit the bill.
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240SXs are recent enough and common enough that it's still possible to find an original unmolested one being sold by its original owner for not a lot of money. Difficult, but possible.

The AE86 is old enough (and didn't sell in large enough numbers) that this pretty much isn't possible any more.
 
 
Spectre said:
240SXs are recent enough and common enough that it's still possible to find an original unmolested one being sold by its original owner for not a lot of money. Difficult, but possible.

The AE86 is old enough (and didn't sell in large enough numbers) that this pretty much isn't possible any more.
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The big problem with AE86 Corollas is that their "available for next to nothing" phase coincided with the early 2000s anime boom and they had the bad luck to show up a popular anime about drifting. A whole crowd of teenage morons proceeded to but up lots of AE86s and wreck them with ricer mods.
 
mjk said:
The big problem with AE86 Corollas is that their "available for next to nothing" phase coincided with the early 2000s anime boom and they had the bad luck to show up a popular anime about drifting. A whole crowd of teenage morons proceeded to but up lots of AE86s and wreck them with ricer mods.
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Plenty were simply crashed by amateur drifters before they could be totally ruined by modifications as well.
 
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