best for 5k

[supernova]

whats the most reliable, decent power, good looking car for 5k and under. post your comments and maybe a pic of the car. I'm ready to buy a new car.:)

[AFI]

I'm not sure about reliablity but....

[pkrSE-R]

Perhaps one of these...
http://images.cardomain.com/member_img_a/251000-251999/251779_34_full.jpg

[CoNFuSioUs2002]

dsm

[2Muchb00st]

Originally posted by pkrSE-R
Perhaps one of these...
http://images.cardomain.com/member_img_a/251000-251999/251779_34_full.jpg

werd.....

[NotAMonte86]

Mr2 turbo... if you're lucky, you might find one under $5k (I did, and it had 91k miles).

[reese]

Originally posted by supernova
whats the most reliable, decent power, good looking car for 5k and under. post your comments and maybe a pic of the car. I'm ready to buy a new car.:)

He said reliable guys.......

[sracer]

I may have the rest of you disagree with me but..a 82-93(3 gen) Camaro would be a nice car for 5 grand and under!

[gsxtreme]

You are asking a bunch of "racers" about a reliable car under 5k. Will never happen. My money still sits on the DSM as our 1g has never ran into any problems.

[PedRacer09]

i would consider an older import (late 80s-early 90s)

[707nismo]

or one of these sentra se-r:D

[gsxtreme]

Originally posted by 707nismo
or one of these sentra se-r:D

With all the blinking lights too :D

[707nismo]

Originally posted by xleRateGSX
With all the blinking lights too :D yeah its optional on most years:rolleyes: :haha:

[gsxtreme]

ha!

[Angel5]

If you want an import;
944s are great.
http://www.rapidcars.com/images/944main.jpg

Domestic; I'd go for a 5.0 Mustang.

[fusionsport]

944, dsm, turbo or non, just be sure to get the 2litre, mustang as long as its a 5.0 and passes a background check from a good mechanic, sentras are cool, 2g mazda rx7s are cool, miatas are indestructable, there are others, but the ones mentioend are decent and reliable if maintained decently

[CoNFuSioUs2002]

i have se-r friends (too damn many) and to tell you the truth they take some $ to make fast compared to a dsm. And i'm sorry but fast, reliable, and cheap are usuially not used together. Don't get me wrong, you can buy a se-r, get i/h/e and be close to mid 14's with good driving, but now that i think about it, i spent $250 on my car to get it in the 13's, that was intake exhaust and a boost controller.

[Sniper]

also keep in mind that finding a decent import that hasn't been beat to shit around here is....well, not easy.....finding a well kept 5.0 is.....well pretty easy :)........

[951dude]

Id say either a 944 (non turbo) or a Miata, both very fun cars that can be had for cheap. Not the fastest but you'll be taking the long way home everyday:)

[sLEEPY oNE]

Originally posted by CoNFuSioUs2002
i have se-r friends (too damn many) and to tell you the truth they take some $ to make fast compared to a dsm. And i'm sorry but fast, reliable, and cheap are usuially not used together. Don't get me wrong, you can buy a se-r, get i/h/e and be close to mid 14's with good driving, but now that i think about it, i spent $250 on my car to get it in the 13's, that was intake exhaust and a boost controller.

Yes but one is turbocharged and 4wd from the factory, while the other one is a FWD car with 140hp and N/A. Give me a break, dude. Plus, an SE-R will outlast a DSM any day of the week, hands down. Even one with the living piss driven out of it will outlast a DSM.

[sLEEPY oNE]

My friend has a 944. It's in the shop every other week with something else broken on it.

Miata or SE-R. Both of them are really fun to drive and really reliable.

[gsxtreme]

Do you want speed with a little bit of reliability or slow with reiability.

I have only changed my alternator at 100k miles. Over 50 launches and still running strong.

[CoNFuSioUs2002]

Originally posted by sLEEPY oNE
Yes but one is turbocharged and 4wd from the factory, while the other one is a FWD car with 140hp and N/A. Give me a break, dude. Plus, an SE-R will outlast a DSM any day of the week, hands down. Even one with the living piss driven out of it will outlast a DSM. really??? all 4 of my se-r friends, 2 with b13's and 2 with a b14s car are not running, both b13's had blown motors, one a stock sr20de (spun a bearing) and the other a turbo det that blew the head gasket. Not to mention the one wiht a turbo det had a other b13 classic that was nothing but problems. The b14 se-l had a bluebird thrown in, had a motor failure (can't really tell you what happend, haven't talked to him in a while). The other b14 is just waiting on a swap so i guess that doesn't count, any car with miles will have problems period. There is a guy that lives 5 minutes from my house with a 91 tsi awd with 160k on his bottom end and he still boosts 24lbs and runs low 11's, daily driven. Dsm's are great if they are maintained, my car did not have one problem for 20k miles, my tb went for no reason and there came the problems. Also, so what if one is turbo and AWD, if they can be found for teh same price i would consider them in the same class. I was even looking into buying a classic, to me though there is no point in fwd turbo, i live in fl and could get away with emissions and would go for a red top in a s13. don't get me wrong, i love se-r's, i help my friends work on their cars, even pull a motor and drop in a gti-r, but they're not for me, i don't like having to go through a whole bunch of shit just to get a motor in and still be running 14's.

[fusionsport]

Originally posted by sLEEPY oNE

Yes but one is turbocharged and 4wd from the factory, while the other one is a FWD car with 140hp and N/A. Give me a break, dude. Plus, an SE-R will outlast a DSM any day of the week, hands down. Even one with the living piss driven out of it will outlast a DSM

My friend has a 944. It's in the shop every other week with something else broken on it.

Miata or SE-R. Both of them are really fun to drive and really reliable.


sorry for your friend but my neglected 944 had very very few problems in its life..even with me way to busy to take care of t properly..and a 0 buck prebuy inspection will go miles towards making sure he doesnt end up like your friend.

I put 200k miles on my 88 Mitsu Montero with very little trouble from it before a lady in a camry ended its life prematurely, my 91 eclipse as negelcted as it has been still served faitfully til the day the t-belt broke, which is a maintenance issue/operator error, not a faulty design..and come to think of it I think all the dsms I have owned or known of have withstood much much more punishment than any nissan product i have owned... just to let you know i am not biased I have owned a sentras, and have a great fondness for the sr20, but it is no more and maybe a little less reliable than the Porsche and the dsms,

the fact that your car wasnt(in this country) offerred with awd and a turbo has nothing to do with the fact that for about the same dinero you can get a dsm in great shape, it will be faster, and small mods will give decent performance for the casual user

[pkrSE-R]

as much as i love my SE-R, i'm gonna have to agree with the DSM guys on this one. if Supernova wants to go fast without spending tons of money he should get a 1g or maybe a Fox-body. truth is that after i sold my accord i wanted a 1g, but i realized i couldnt afford the insurance, so i got the se-r.

[CoNFuSioUs2002]

oh yea, also *cough* tranny problems on high hp nissans *cough*. Sorry but i don't enjoy broken tranny cases.

[markGSX]

While I won't argue that DSM's are not problem-free, they are definately the best bang for the buck. Maintain it well and it will be good to you! You can find one well under 5K.

[CoNFuSioUs2002]

Originally posted by markGSX
While I won't argue that DSM's are not problem-free, they are definately the best bang for the buck. Maintain it well and it will be good to you! You can find one well under 5K. oh shit, u got the 16g in??? hows the car running? You got injectors ect?

[markGSX]

Haha yea. It's off topic so I'll keep it short. I only drove it once since getting the 16G in, but that thing pulls HARD! There's a world of difference from the old 14B. I was only running 12 PSI but it feels much, much, MUCH faster than the 14B @ 16. I'm sure it's running lean because I haven't adjusted my SAFC yet, and I'm still on the stock fuel system. Once it gets out of the shop (timing belt) I'll be putting in the walbro 190 fuel pump and RC 550's, then we'll see what she can do :haha:

I made sure to do it right.. ported turbo, bigger 34mm wastegate, ported 2g O2 housing, ported 2G manifold.

[archvyle]

Which car would I choose?

I don't know. I'm a huge fan of a 1g DSM, especially the Talon TSi AWD variety. I even love the old magazine advertisements.

If it were up to me, I would probably spend 800 bucks on a cheap daily driver and build another for speed/fun.

See, the rest of the money could, quite possibly, put a Talon in the 12s. Daily driven. Reasonably reliable.

The money could also go towards funding an AWD SR20DET powered B13 Sentra. It just depends on the amount of time you want to spend on an adventure into the Jay Dee Empire's vast used parts bin. Then you would have to pay for shipping. Then you would wait. And wait. And one day you'd have a Sentra with power to the rear wheels as well as the fronts.

Or you could get an S13 and do a Sil-eighty conversion.
Or you could get a MKII Supra Turbo.
Or you could get a 1990 Pontiac Lemans which bluebooks at $462.

It just depends on your style. Do you want to build something or buy something?

-Keoki

[sLEEPY oNE]

I'd certainly love to know what your friends are doing to blow up their SE-R's. To spin a bearing you run the car out of oil. Is that the cars fault? No. That's some idiot owner. Keep oil in an SE-R and they're plenty capable of lasting over 300k miles.

The blown headgasket makes me wonder if that person did any work to the engine before he/she put it in. It's common knowledge by any SR20 swapper to change ALL gaskets on their 'DET before they put it in there. That's just using your brain, you know?

Not everyone is a FF fan. I happen to be, so I understand where you're coming from. I have a LOT of respect for DSM's, so don't get me wrong either. The fact of the matter is I just think that, in the long run, a SE-R would be a better purchase than a DSM. Yeah, if you want to go stupid fast for cheap then get a DSM. But, like your signature says, they don't typically stay that way.

If you do a clean SR20DET swap on a SE-R, it'll last just as long as a normal motor will. I know a guy that's had his 'DET in his 200SX SE-R here for 2 years now and it still runs perfectly. He's had no problems, and the car is still putting out over 200hp to the wheels and the only modification to it is an exhaust system. Not bad considering that car will run mid to low 13's all day long on street tires.

[CoNFuSioUs2002]

nope, the car had oil, we went to the track and checked before leaving to the track. The car had 120k miles and just went. As for the headgasket problem, that was solved today, my friedn started the car and the oil squirters that are in the oil pan (where they were foudn) broke. Now his car is once again broken. funny thing is, he owned a laser before his nissans and went to nissan for reliablilty

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid65/pf20c77d8379640abeda8839701c8bfda/fbf1d098.jpg

[ceeelle]

Best car under $5K? Mazda Miata. No question. Bone stock they handle like they're on rails; add some adjustable shocks, some decent springs (stay away from Racing Beat) and some sways and you'll have the best corner carver out there. They're not much in the horsepower department (about 112 for a first-gen, which is what you'll find for that price), but there are some easy mods that will squeeze some extra ponies out of the car. If you want some real power, you can get a Jackson Racing supercharger for about $2500. It's an afternoon bolt-on that will add about 50 percent more HP and torque. For even more, Flyin' Miata makes an awesome turbo kit, but it starts at $3000.

A lot of people have mentioned 5.0 Mustangs. They're great if you only want to go in a straight line, but the rear end will bind up if you get into heavy cornering. (Grassroots Motorsports magazine detailed the problem, and the fix made by Steeda that costs about $600, in the latest issue.)

[T_MO]

i vote miata!

[datsun510dude]

ahhhhhh best for 5k. DATSUN 510!!!!! You will never get more respect for a import then a 510. Cheap, hella easy to work on, good aftermarket, TONS of swaps avail, NO SMOG and look at it! its sexay!!!!!!

i got a 510 for 5k fully built all motor (check sig)

josh

[Viruz1]

Most 1g DSM's are way overpriced....around 5-6k with 150k+miles. Also u dont even know if they have been badly used, like pushing 16 or higher psi of boost with stock everything. It really is a hard find to find a well maintained DSM, well at least in my area.

[CoNFuSioUs2002]

Originally posted by Viruz1
Most 1g DSM's are way overpriced....around 5-6k with 150k+miles. Also u dont even know if they have been badly used, like pushing 16 or higher psi of boost with stock everything. It really is a hard find to find a well maintained DSM, well at least in my area. what??????????? i bought my 92 in prestine condition in 2001 with 99k miles on it for $3700, paint was perfect, leather was perfect ect. Now and days you can find a 1st gen in good condition for $2500

[Fast2Seater]

It all depends on what you want the car for. If you want to go reasonably quick in a straight line buy a DSM or a 5.0. If you want a car that'll have you grinning ear to ear every time you hit a corner, buy something like a Miata, a 944, or an MR2.

Just some random Miata I found.......
http://images.cardomain.com/member_img_a/205000-205999/205960_5_full.jpg
I hear its for sale too :)

[SHOCKER187]

Originally posted by CoNFuSioUs2002
oh yea, also *cough* tranny problems on high hp nissans *cough*. Sorry but i don't enjoy broken tranny cases.

dsm trannys suck donkey balls too...

[CoNFuSioUs2002]

Originally posted by SHOCKER187
dsm trannys suck donkey balls too... i think you should rephrase that to most dsm drivers suck. Of course your gonna break a tranny if your making more hp than stock and launching like a maniac/shifting like a maniac for no reason. If you let the clutch take the abuse instead of the tranny, the tranny will not break.