Ideas for college beater..

[240KAT]

Hey. I'm going to school about 600 miles away. I'd like to get a cheap, sub $1000 car so I dont have to put so many miles on my SR20. I'd like something RWD and 5spd. 4cyl for good gas milage. I wouldn't mind another 240, but they're getting harder to find for less than 1000. MR2, old 200sx, whatever..anyone have some lesser thought ideas? Thanks.

[sub9lulu]

240 is pretty much the only choice

[JtWo]

Find a civic?

[Ghettokracker71]

Isuzu Impulse! Hah hah...:doh:...2.3 Litre Mustang? Mekur X4RTI or 4RXTI or something like that ? RWD 2.3 litre turbo with 5 speed,but ugly as sin:(

Thunderbird? Well,thats a V-6 but the N/A 3.8 is slower then my KA (not shit).

You might hafta sacrifice the "RWD" stipulation.

S12s are cheap if you can find 'em ? Old school V-dub bugs are RWD and 4 bangers ? hah hah...

[s13driver]

how about miata ?

[ThatGuy]

Fiero, if you don't mind bursting into flames.

[element240]

n/a mr2

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[zero.counter]

RWD, V6, 190HP, AUTO...
If you don't mind, the four door Toyota Cressida is a bad ass car.
I have seen them go for around 700 to 2k around here in San Antonio.

[Bbandit]

EF civic or EG civic :)
cant beat their MPG

[BadMoJo]

S12 200sx
old MR2
Old Toyota celica or corolla
Trucks are always good, Nissan Hardbodys are cheap

[Bliss]

why RWD if its just gonna be a beater?? that significantly shortens your options...

id go with an EF civic, or an old corolla or celica. ive beat the shit out of my 90 celica, and it keeps running.

[Badass240SX]

How about a 80's Toyota Van? It's a 2 liter and RWD.

[Demik]

pocket bike

[WilloW]

pocket bike

^^^Heheh, sub $1k is going to narrow your choices down a bit if you want RWD. I say get yourself a 1990 Corolla, those things last forever.

[240KAT]

The only thing is, I wouldnt mind a FWD car, but I dont have any experiance working on a FWD trans. I was looking into the s12's..are they carb'd?

[the head]

old sentra/200sx are rather common and easy/cheap to maintain

[brianglawson]

200sx (turbo available)
280zx (turbo available)
300zx (turbo available) "84-89"
aw11 mr2
e30 bmw (very awesome car)
ae86 or older corolla
datsun 510
datsun b210

tons of options

[Replicant_S14]

The only thing is, I wouldnt mind a FWD car, but I dont have any experiance working on a FWD trans. I was looking into the s12's..are they carb'd?


MR2s would be the same configuration, just in the back. Still tho, japanese FWD 4cyl cars are pretty easy to deal with. You can go wrong with 80s~90 japanese, plain-jane cars. I owned a 81 rolla, 85 FX-16, 82 Civic, 83 Toyota Pup and all of them had around 300k on them when I sold them...and they were still running. The FX was, and in some ways still is, my favorite.

[Wei240]

i dunno, for the price of getting a new car + insurance, it's probably cheaper for you to run your current car, if it breaks, get a new one, because i think if you figure out the cost, it's probably cheaper in the long run (assuming the engine + parts will last a long enough of time)...

[West]

e30 bmw (very awesome car)


I'll second that. They rock in the snow even though they are RWD.

[kingsol]

the e30's cost a lot to maintain though...

[chineseb0i]

i've owned 2 b12 sentra to commute back from Davis to San Rafael (about a hours drive 70+ miles of driving) and sold 1 of them (i got for $550) and the one i recently bought for $250 blew a headgasket. I still need to fix that but they are pretty easy to maintain. I recommend getting n e sentra from 87-90. 87-88 is carb while 89-90 tbi (throttle body injection which is part carb) I got about 28-30 mpg. Fits 5 full sized people with no problem. The most i fitted was 8 people into the car including myself (4 asses in the back, 1 person on top, 2 ppl in the front seat and me) GOOD CAR, jus make sure you maintain it and it will treat you well. Did i mention i put 20k+ miles on the $450 sentra i got and it NEVER broke down on me except once where i changed the alternator which i got for like $40? i also fuc*ed around in that car a lot and touged with my friends civic

[huevos]

CHEVY SPRINT
you can't beat the raw power of a 3cyl

[JtWo]

3cyl? go with a geo metro then

[oojpeeoo]

[QUOTE=Ghettokracker71]Isuzu Impulse! Hah hah...:doh:...2.3 Litre Mustang? Mekur X4RTI or 4RXTI or something like that ? RWD 2.3 litre turbo with 5 speed,but ugly as sin:(

gyea man....isuzu impulses are dope as fuck and cheap too...go do sum research on them cuz they make ur balls spin

[240Driver39]

beater = fwd econobox in my mind, not a lot of what has been said

my suggestion would be a b13 sentra, cheap, and very reliable..if u want one with pep go grab urself an classic SE-R with the sr20de...those are fun and good for runnin around...i personally had the 1.6L and didnt put a cent into it and sold it 6 months later for 200 more then i bought it for. 0 problems.

[WeldingHank]

Thunderbird Turbo Coupe.

T3 turbo, 2 different boost settings. sounds good to me!

[TachyonS14]

For college parking, NOTHING beats a motorcycle. You can buy brand new ones for like 3k. And they get around 70mpg and are very quick. Also, parking costs less, and it is a lot easier to find a spot if you attend a major university. I'm about to buy a Kawasaki 500R myself.

http://www.kawasaki.com/admin/uploadFiles/k_ninja500_silver_800.jpg

[Var]

like someone suggested way up top...Miata.

[Ghettokracker71]

I'd like to get a cheap, sub $1000 car

like someone suggested way up top...Miata.


Every miata I've seen for sale is not cheap or sub $1,000 either,not even salvage titled ones.

[Var]

that is the truth.. but 1000 dollar cars will need repairs

[Ghettokracker71]

Any cheap ass car will,esspecially if hes driving 600mis. to school one way.

I was going to say RX-7 but that thing'd be dead before it made it to school...lol,as much as I like rotaries

[Go Dog Go]

since repairs are clearly going to be a problem, as nobody wants to pay for them.....and if you can afford the full coverage insurance required, I strongly suggest you take a drive down to your nearest honda dealership and check out their super duper base base base bare essentials model civics. No fun engines, no fun options, but you can pick up a brand new one, warranty and all, on a least for 50 bucks a month.....thats right, 50 bucks a month. There was a lot over here by me that had HUNDREDS of them. It's a really cool deal, makes a kick ass daily driver that will give you as few problems as you can imagine. It's new, its remarkably reliable, its covered under warranty. Think about it :)