The Help Danny Pick a New Car Thread.

[trackjunkie21]

wtf is wrong with a Porsche?? I love 'em but not for a DD I see you in a Prius with those glasses.

do you not understand that he is in college? guys this isn't a dream car thread, I doubt any of you guys would pick up a porsche if you were in college.

[Danny]

I meant the Prius was. But I figure I could swing 300 a month on insurance. I'm still on my parents policy, so my 52 year old mother with a clean driving record would be the primary driver.

[VacMan]

DIdn't bother to look through the thread, but with that budget you could easily buy an E39 M5 and put away some money for maintenance. I bought mine for $12k, put $3k into it and it needs nothing at this point. Dunno what your swapped E30 runs 0-120 in, but I bet it can't do it comfortably with 3 adults and their luggage. :D

Good luck,

Tim

BTW, if you're buying a "sensible" car, then consider a Speed3. They're excellent cars for the cash. Hell, maybe even a few Fiesta.

[Danny]

DIdn't bother to look through the thread, but with that budget you could easily buy an E39 M5 and put away some money for maintenance. I bought mine for $12k, put $3k into it and it needs nothing at this point. Dunno what your swapped E30 runs 0-120 in, but I bet it can't do it comfortably with 3 adults and their luggage. :D

Good luck,

Tim

Thanks Tim. I'm on the fence between the M3 and the M5 and I think I'm leaning toward the M3. Where are you guys finding these smoking deals on these awesome cars? I'm not seeing anything like that on craigslist.

Also as far as "sensible" goes, I think I car wait another 5 years or so until I'm driving around a turbo minivan ;)

[VacMan]

M5board has a lot of well-maintained inexpensive cars that pop up in the classifieds. I actually found mine on CL in Seattle. Flew up, Luke picked me up and took me over to the guy's work. Hopped in, took him home and drove it back to socal a few days later.

I considered an E46 M3 very seriously, but I just couldn't get past how high-strung they are all the time. The E39 M5 is seriously quick even if you shift at 3k...the torque is heaven after driving an s50-swapped E34 touring. I got so sick of revving the berries out of it everywhere I went. Cost of ownership will be comparable, IMO. Mods cost about the same as well.

Go drive both before you pull the trigger on anything. If you get serious about an M5, let me know and I'll keep an eye out for you. In the last month I've seen a few sell in the 10-12k range with mods.

Good luck.

[Rodoni]

danny, e39 m5 > e46 m3. Do et. If you havent driven a m5, def test drive one before you buy anything. You'll fall in love. Tim is spot on.

[Danny]

I generally like high strung cars though. I will try to test drive one though, just for you guys.

[Jean]

LOL at suggesting e39 m5 for a college kid with 20k budget.

You guys are out of your minds.

[Danny]

I've seen the M5s just barely squeak below 21k, but they generally are high mileage and that kind of scares me. If I'm going to buy a newish car I'd like it to have sub 100k miles.

[Civilian]

Where are you getting this money? Insurance from the crash and then a loan on top of it? Seems like a decent idea but putting money into another E30 wouldn't be a bad idea since you're so familiar with it. But, the thoughts of a E46 M3 quickly put that aside so I understand that this is tough.

[Anguz]

e30 M3
e28 M5
buy a real handmade ///M

[rThor432]

LOL at suggesting e39 m5 for a college kid with 20k budget.

You guys are out of your minds.

Haha, Jean speaks the truth. I love E39 M5's to death but just price up the consumables + routine maintenance items.. That in itself should be enough to scare any college kid with enough sense away. Honestly, I could look at E46 M3's the same way.. Tires, brakes, oil, etc aren't cheap. Go price a water pump and other failure points..

I would probably drive a G50 911 before I'd buy a newer M car for a college car. Then again, I think that the S50 E30 is the perfect college car...

[markseven]

I meant the Prius was. But I figure I could swing 300 a month on insurance. I'm still on my parents policy, so my 52 year old mother with a clean driving record would be the primary driver.

I didn't mean to quote a post - I make no assumptions about you or anyone's finances ;) $300/month should cover an E46 M3, no prob, yeah?

[Danny]

I didn't mean to quote a post - I make no assumptions about you or anyone's finances $300/month should cover an E46 M3, no prob, yeah?

I would think so? I pay about 50 bucks a month for liability on my 89. But I can't see it being more than 200 a month for insurance since the car is technically going in my parent's name. Feel free to correct me however, I need all the info I can get.

Where are you getting this money? Insurance from the crash and then a loan on top of it? Seems like a decent idea but putting money into another E30 wouldn't be a bad idea since you're so familiar with it. But, the thoughts of a E46 M3 quickly put that aside so I understand that this is tough.

Yeah that's basically the long and short of it.

e30 M3
e28 M5
buy a real handmade ///M

No, and buy my wrecked car.

Haha, Jean speaks the truth. I love E39 M5's to death but just price up the consumables + routine maintenance items.. That in itself should be enough to scare any college kid with enough sense away. Honestly, I could look at E46 M3's the same way.. Tires, brakes, oil, etc aren't cheap. Go price a water pump and other failure points..

I would probably drive a G50 911 before I'd buy a newer M car for a college car. Then again, I think that the S50 E30 is the perfect college car...

I'm okay with having to shell out for some semi expensive parts because I can do the work myself. From what I have read people say the e46 m3 is expensive to maintain because they take it to the dealer all the time. Thoughts?

[Cloudbase]

do you not understand that he is in college?

Unless you've got family money, spending $20K on a car when you are in college is serious train wreck and we are all riding on it! That car payment is gonna cramp your whole college experience, even if it's just community college to start with. You could put the money you would spend on a $20K car payment away for 4 years and get something way nicer than you will be able to now and start life with no car payment!

$300 a month on insurance - GOD DAM, that's another car payment. I would use the surviving parts of your E30 to build up another one. It might take a while, but you've got a good starting point.

The whole needing a nice car to get waffleswaffleswaffleswaffleswaffles shit is lame. Dude's that need a nice car to get waffleswaffleswaffleswaffleswaffles are douches, no better then the Bro Truck guys! Any waffleswaffleswaffleswaffleswaffles you get because of your car is going to be rotten anyway! (trolling for sig quotes!)

Back to the train wreck. The E39 M5 is freakin badass. Torque always = fun. The S54 is high strung and light on torque which means even in 2nd gear you are always going fast enough to get in trouble. It might be different with the six speed (M Coupe is only 5 speed). I've never worked on an E39 so the mx scares me more than an E46 M3 would.