Buying first car

[f6fhellcat13]

You shouldn't do that much damage; clutches are a pain to replace, but that is the worst case scenario. Just find yourself a parking and begin slowly letting out the clutch. A lot of stalls later and you'll be able to drive stick.

[kingofthering]

What a twist! So it looks like I may very well be in the market for a car in the $2K range in the near future.

[Kitdy]

Why is that?

[kingofthering]

It would cost me about $1200 in insurance to drive my mother's late-model Camry for six months. At this rate it would come out to be $2400 a year for insurance alone, not to mention fuel and upkeep. My father wants me to get driving experience as I haven't driven since I got my license and it seems like this is the slightly cheaper way to go; the $2000 cars have insurance bills 1/2 that. Even an Integra GSR would "only" cost $900 to drive for a year.

[kingofthering]

How insanely stupid would I be if I were to buy a vintage GTI? It's probably ridiculously unsafe, expensive to run, and my parents would quash the idea because it can't really survive crashing into a Chevrolet Suburban at freeway speeds, but still...

Insurance is also much cheaper than that of a GSR (as expected).

[Kitdy]

A vintage GTI would probably not be stock; dunno if that is desirable for you or not.

I would stay away from a 30 year old car for reliability's sake. It doesn't sound to car-guyish to say this, but the primary purpose of a car (especially if you only have 1) is to actually get you places. It makes a bit more sense if you can do a bulk of the work to keep it running yourself, but still, I would go for a reliable and fun car, not something that old.

[kingofthering]

Has anyone ever owned/bought an AE86? There was a pretty nice one being sold 60 miles away in somewhat alright shape for $1000 less than what another seller wanted for the same car. Still, questionable mechanicals (I'm 99% sure I saw that car for sale from another seller with something about oil leak) and lack of time meant I didn't get a chance to go for it.

Please tell me that I made the right choice by not buying it.

[pimento]

You don't want a car with questionable mechanicals, unless you have a pile of time and money with which to fix it up.

[kingofthering]

So an update:

Now that it's been one full year I've joined the local car sharing service. For $25/yr and $7-9/hr I get to have my pick of a Mazda3, Civic, Prius, Insight, CR-V, and a Focus hatchback/sedan.

[Kitdy]

Sounds not bad. Are you still in college?

[kingofthering]

After almost two years after the start of the thread, I've gone and acquired an Integra GS-R sedan (that's VTI-R for you Aus/NZ people). Don't worry. There'll be no boy-racer fantasies on my part because I've already gotten my need for speed in a Prius (I may have touched 91 mph on an empty stretch of highway...)

インテグラTypeR DC5 CM　土屋圭一　���� - YouTube

インテグラTypeR DC5 CM　土屋圭一　���� - YouTube

I CAN FEEL ZA BITEK COURSING THROUGH MY VEINS. UP TO TEN THOUSAND RE-BUS. UP UP SECOND!

The EggNog shall wait a few weeks as the car's at home with the parents and school doesn't let up for another few weeks.

[Ferrer]

Congratulations on your purchase.

It seems Japanese cars are quite popular on UCP.

[f6fhellcat13]

I love my Japanese car, but I ****ing loathe my Japanese electronics!
My starter's been only working intermittently so I pulled it today to perform a few diagnostics and such. The garage I was working in, our FSAE garage, has no lift so I was zipping about the floor underneath the car on a creeper. Then it started to rain quite strongly, and due to my school's impeccable engineering credentials, the building flash flooded with about 2" of water. After sloshing around for a while I got fed up and had to walk home through the storm and rain.
Add the starter to a list of pretty much every conceivable electric subsystem on car having something wrong with it. All the mechanical parts of the car are near impeccable, just the stupid electron-powered ones get in the way of my fun.
/rant

[Kitdy]

'Grats! Many happy miles!