Good first car

I'm going to buy my first car in a few weeks, I got my provisional licence two weeks ago, so the car cannot have a turbo/supercharger. I also want it to be a 4 cylinder and rear wheel or all wheel drive. I have $5000 to spend. FYI I live in Australia so most American cars are not on the market. What do you recommend Veeky Forums?
Pic attached is the car I'm interested in, 2003 Subaru liberty

Shut up and buy a Civic.

Honest question. Did you guys get the EM2 Civic? I know Japan didn't because Integra, but did Australia get them?

BTW, this is the EM2.
Same thing underneath as above, but a 2 door coupe. I know Europe got it.

Honestly don't know, not much of a Honda fan

I've never seen one around, they do look nice though

They're everywhere in America. But I'm fairly sure you guys at the very least got the sedan variant.

But yea. Shut up and buy a Civic.

Get a Corolla

It's like a civic but not shitty and riced out

Not a fan of front wheel drives, would much rather a rear or all wheel drive

If I was to get a front wheel then yeah I would get a corolla

It's like a slower, uglier civic. but you can go twice as long without doing any maintenance and only kill the car half the time, not 100% of the time, and you can pay a premium because everyone says it's reliable (in conditions you won't subject it to, over a distance or time span that nobody would ever use it for because it's a fucking corolla)

MX-5.

Get your fucking full license first, then buy a car.

I would also rather the car to be a manual

You must be a 14 year old child if you think a civic looks better and I would dust your bus riding ass on the mountain passes here

If you're not afraid to do a little work/capanle of doing so, you can pickup a pretty decent ride for 5 g's. Better than some honda

M X - 5
X
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5

If you're comparing it to a corolla from the 90s or later, it is. Older corollas get meme points for their retro aesthetics, of course.

Every Corolla from 2008 and before is better than any Civic ever made, new Corollas suck though

>4 cylinder
>rear wheel

...

Let's start an argument of this.
2ZZ vs K20

Gimmie a K20 please
>there are kits to swap a K20 into a Corolla, but no kits to swap a 2ZZ into a Civic

Mx5 is always the answer.

Why the fuck do you need rwd op? Especially since your ass is a new driver and thus a shitty one.
It doesnt matter what you drive you just need a cheap reliable shitbox. Later you can advance on other things.

Dont try to be a smartass and sit your ass down on a civic

Is insurance cost a factor? If not, WRX would be my choice for AWD.

>falling for the vtec meme

>OP asks for a cheap shitbox
>suggest a WRX that's 3 times out of his budget

It's not even about Vtec. The K20/K24 is a legitimately better engine.

In Australia, you can't have a turbocharged or V8 car on your provisional license.

Obviously, user I wanna do phat burn outs.
But seriously I just rather how rwd's handle

A base model Impreza for $5k will be a ticking shitbomb. Doubly so for a WRX, which will be on its last legs and undoubtedly fucked.

>In Australia, you can't have a turbocharged or V8 car on your provisional license
It varies by state. In QLD prior to 2010 it's no FI, above 8cyl, 13B rotaries, or anything with more than 210kW at the crank. Exemptions for FI can be applied for as long as you can prove the vehicle has a power-to-weight below 120kW/tonne.

From 2010 onwards anything is applicable as long as power-to-weight is below 130kW/tonne.

You can get away with driving a S2K, NSX or Lotus Elise here, but an RX-8 is a no-no.

My bad, should have read the OP more thoroughly

Actually you can get imprezas for around 4000, however they're cop magnets so I'd rather a liberty

As much as I'd like an mx-5 they're not cheap and id probably get stabbed. Also insurance would be a bitch

For that price it'll be just as fucked.

The choices are slim.

>MX-5
>MR-S
>E36 318i
>S13

In order of recommendation. The MR-S is reliable but suffers from the "I look like a Porsche Boxster and have 2 doors" tax, the 318i is an old BMW and requires constant maintenance, and an NA S13 is drift-taxed cop bait and nobody will insure you for it.

>I got my provisional licence two weeks ago, so the car cannot have a turbo/supercharger

how did australia get this cucked by nanny staters anyway

>won't somebody think of the chilluns

Boomer and Gen X voters are bleeding hearts for this sort of stupidity.