Re: First Car
wont get an '03 86k for under 5k
2 door cars (or 3 incl. hatch, or whatever) shit me to no end, getting big bastards in the back seat
basically if your (total) budget is 5k youd want the cost of the car to be something like 4k +-500 or so, there will ALWAYS be some trivial repair work which you will need to do / get done.
You wouldn't spend $$$ on new tyes, clutch, bpads, other stuff if you knew your selling it soon
i bought an ae92 corolla hatch a few months back for 2.5k, and knew when i was buying it , it needed a new front driver wheel bearing (paid mechanic to do), replacement tyre, rear tail light+housing replacement,
and a few days after driving, needed both front pads and rewiring of the shitty electrics (cd player /speaks were wired directly to the battery, unfused..) which quickly added up to 550 odd
+ nrma (if you want it), 75 odd for stamp duty, 3rd party property (if you want it), + if rego is coming up (people like to sell there cars at a time when they get their moneys worth for the last rego, but long enough to make it not seem like an issue (not an immediate expense) for the person buying the car , plus ctp once its expired
basically if your total immediate car budget is 5k, the actual amount you should spend on the car would be much less.. just keep that in mind for all the extras
early/mid 90s corollas, lancers/mirages (not magnas), pulsars, civics, [jap is ok - but stay away from korean shit
] are all nice old fart cars that should do the job for you and not bad to work on if you want to learn a bit/do some things for yourself