Help me Choose a Daily Driver

[shiftbmw]

For the last year, I've been driving an E39 540i/6. It's an awesome car, but it's also a lot of car to carry around when I'm the only one in it with no luggage 99% of the time. I'm looking to sell the 5er and downsize to something more fuel efficient, but still modern and fun to drive.

My budget is roughly 8-9k, must be a manual tranny, and prefer RWD/AWD although I could do FWD. I prefer 4 doors but can do two as long as there are 4 seats. Needs to get decent mileage and have some fun factor. I don't plan to modify this car. It seems like all the cars I consider in my range have fatal issues that affect way too many people to make them trustworthy. Here are some of my choices:

1)Cooper S - tranny issues
2)GTI - everything issues
3)E46 330i - subframe/headgasket issues
4)WRX - tranny issues
5) RSX - tranny issues

Any cars that I'm missing that I need to consider?

[Ryann]

Lexus IS300 5spd. 24v I6, rwd, good mpg's.

[shiftbmw]

Lexus IS300 5spd. 24v I6, rwd, good mpg's.

5 speeds are tough to find and they come at a premium.

[jasonsnoddy]

E30

[KamakaziX]

E30

Yup.

[shiftbmw]

E30

That won't do. I already have 8 cylinders and 384 horsepower worth of E30 that I don't want to daily drive.

[kts]

4)WRX - tranny issues

A few of the early 2002 WRXes had some issues with the transmission. Most of those had heavily modified their cars to make a lot more HP than stock and were also driving them like asshats, thus blown transmissions.

This issue was fixed and the 03+ WRXes do not have this issue. Same with the later 02 WRXes. If you aren't throwing down a ton of HP and aren't abusing it the transmission will be fine.

A friend of mine autoxed an 03 WRX for years with a codriver and after countless launch controlled clutch drops at autocrosses, and putting down a decent amount of power over stock his transmission was fine, I'm 99% sure it was still on the original clutch before he sold it as well.

[freeride53]

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/cto/2327831194.html

[Danny]

Buddy of mine bought a 330i ZHP for 16k a year ago. He loves it to death and it loves him.

[woodisgood]

That won't do. I already have 8 cylinders and 384 horsepower worth of E30 that I don't want to daily drive.

A different e30?

Gti?

[mr.vang]

a civic..it has vtec..lol

[LuckyHenriksen]

MKV GTI/Rabbit/Jetta

[shiftbmw]

So how is the reliability on the MKIV Gti's then? THe MKV is a little out of my price range still.

[urbancynic]

So how is the reliability on the MKIV Gti's then? THe MKV is a little out of my price range still.

I had a mk4 GTI 1.8t for awhile. Bought it new, put 56k on it in the first year. It never gave me any issues, had plenty of power, was incredibly fun to drive, and was an overall good car.

Fuel economy was pretty good. If I drove like an old person I got mid to high 30's on the highway and about 30-32 around town. If I went balls out like a jack ass I would get about 28 around town.

Main areas of concern are the timing belt and oil changes. Timing belt is important for the same reason as it is on the m20.

The 1.8t CAN be prone to sludge, but if you change the oil when you are supposed to then it isn't an issue whatsoever.

When I worked at a VW dealer we had a lady bring in a Passat with the 1.8t motor in it. The car had 66k miles on it and ran like crap. I took a look at it and asked her when she did an oil change on it last. Her response was "Don't these do that on their own?"

She'd never done on oil change on that car since she bought it new.

[Vtec?lol]

a civic..it has vtec..lol

see username...