OT: Car for my daughter, Might be mine someday. Options

[914Eric]

OK...so I need a nice transportation car for my daughter, that she will supposedly pay me back for. Given past history, there is a 50/50 chance that will happen. Since I might end up owning it, I don't want just anything. I mean it might actually be parked next to a perfect original 914 someday. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/shades.gif)


I’m thinking in the $2-4K range that is maybe 10-15 years old. Maybe something worth putting a new engine in it if it came to that and is a cool driver. Perhaps a particular year/model Honda civic; maybe a particular Subaru that is fun to drive? Maybe a Volkswagen?

I would love to hear all your suggestions. With your suggestion, how many miles will it should run before a new engine is likely?

[Andyrew]

As mentioned an Audi a4 is in your price range. The 1.8T's are stout engines and are mod friendly, but they are turbocharged and They could have been abused, The 2.8v6 is a very very strong engine. The trani's are bulletproof, the control arms have to be changed every 125k miles, but asside from that and some other little things they are solid WELL build cars that have not been beat on or abused like older civics and other typical "cheap" cars.

Personally Id pick one of these three options.

Saturn SL2 (Under rated, Boring, As reliable as the honda's, Not as beat up or abused as the hondas), Not a car to keep, but if its her first car, theres a huge likelyhood of her wrecking it in the first few months (I know my wife did, and Im glad I chose the saturn for her first car), Totaled it, luckly the body parts are all plastic and everywhere, $300 in parts and the car was back to new (new fender, suspension, door, alignment). 50k miles later and her mom drives it after she got her sports car.
Subaru impreza
Audi A4 2.8 manual if you want to teach her, but the auto's are very nice. (This will be much more expensive to maintain than the saturn or subaru, but the quality of the car and the feel/experience is much better...) If you want something to play with in the future, grab the 1.8t and get a quattro in manual Spend 5k in suspension wheels/tires and turbo upgrade and you have one killer daily driver in one of the best handling sedan chassis.