Good budget non-meme cars?

Those cars are gay as hell. What's the point of a project if it's been done a million times? Just because every Chinese ebay company makes parts for then doesn't mean they are good.

Uh, for your own enjoyment? If youre a stancefag who wants to be unique I can understand but those cars are widely appreciated for how they drive.

you mean euroland did not get isuzu?

mk1/2 gti/gli
toyota mr2
b13 sentra se-r/nx2000
bmw e36
gc impreza

they're popular because theyre good not the other way around

With the exception of the BMWs they are popular because they are cheap. BMWs are popular because people see them as a status symbol. I really don't understand Honda fags they are great dds but really what's the point of dumping money into it. Miatas are cool for the 24 hours of lemons but I would never want to own one.

>why dump money into something you use daily? I just don't get it!

>i want a special snowflake car to look like a supreme enthusiast but don't know enough about cars to know what it is

E30s are popular because they're cheap, too. Even if you don't care about the badge, they're an affordable RWD with decent power, they're relatively light, and they have a huge aftermarket.

We're kind of living in a shitty time for cheapo driver's cars right now, especially if you don't want the common choices. A decade ago there were a ton of awesome '80s and early '90s sporty cars to choose from, now 90% of them have been run into the ground and the remainder have become collectible.

Things might be a bit better in Europe, though. I know there were a lot of great hot and "warm" hatches in the '80s and '90s, and from what I've seen when reading UK car magazines, many of them are still shockingly affordable.

If you want a special snow flake you need to do research and not hope a bunch of troll won't steer you wrong for luls.

Maybe you should get a E30

If you are planning on doing anything past bolt-ons on a Honda you are stupid. It's going to handle like shit if you are running high boost like any fwd car. You could have spent all that money on something that could put more power down reliably. I can tell you are a butt hurt teenage Honda owner.

I would say seemingly cheap. Something is going to break and it will cost BMW money to fix it.

A B5

>quattros for under 3k
>fwd 1.8t & 2.6-2.8 for under 2k
>cheap to maintain in europe

hot hatches dude. any of of em, eurozone is awash in them.

200-ish bhp, under 3200 lbs. should be good enough to not be a fucking bore, if your country lets you modify your cars you'll be in great shape to build on.

>>bullshit fwd handling meme

learn how to brake properly.

250whp is more than enough in a civic and that's easy na power
I can tell you're clueless bench racing yard so stfu

What's the consensus on the 3000 gt? They're common and cheap as dirt around here, and iirc they're rwd.

>turn the boost up
>car stops handling
this is what busriders actually believe

He's like 20% correct, high power figures make fwd cars break traction on the driven wheels easier due to the front end lift cause by heavy throttle input.

So unless you put a lot of work into the chassis and suspension and differential to prevent this, you'll get terrible under steer on heavy throttle while turning.

You can just not suck at driving and learn how to left for brake.

I've owned one and they're not as bad as you'd think, at least if you're mechanically inclined. The only stuff that gets expensive are OEM BMW parts and BMW specialty shop labor, and you can avoid both if you're mechanically inclined. (You can get the exact same parts for much cheaper if you just buy, say, a Bosch alternator from Rock Auto instead of an identical one with a BMW sticker at the dealer.)

The performance aftermarket is pretty affordable for them, too. You don't have the mountain of dirt-cheap ebay parts that Hondas get, but anything with an actual brand name costs pretty much the same as similar parts for any other brand.

You definitely want to learn to do a lot of maintenance yourself, though. They're pretty simple cars to work on and don't require a ton of specialty tools. I was fortunate in that I actually worked at a BMW tuning shop when I owned mine, but 99% of the shit I did could've been done in my driveway.

Mk3 supra or mr2 sw30

the mk3 is the most underrated driver's car on the market to be honest, yeah, it's 3600 pounds but trust me it doesn't feel like that.

Just don't push the gas pedal as much lol. Or short shift when you need to

BMW drive and overall quality is seriously amazing though. That's why they are successful.

true but nobody can say that for mercedes. its quite sad, because some of the cars were amazing

Mercedes built before 1995 has the best quality on earth, wtf are you talking about?

5spd 3.0l maxima
I love mine, would not trade it for a thing.

Once you master the launch, you'll be crushing fags in their riced out civics and cucks in their "muh hemi" challengers. Tops out at around 142 (probably higher, that's 5th gear at 6000 rpm, recline is 6500). Great handling, comfy, and four door with a big ass back seat.

I daily drove an $800 E23 for three years and have currently been daily driving a $1800 E34 for a year and counting, and they've both been stupid cheap to maintain. Parts for my sister's mid 90s Corolla are usually the same price or actually more expensive, and that thing is a fucking bitch to work on in comparison.

I know that's all anecdotal but honestly, if you do your own maintenance older BMWs aren't any more expensive than any other car. Now, newer BMWs, I can't comment on.

It's a shame the good ones are all out of reach now.

I was so close to buying a really mint 190E Cosworth in '08 or so, when they were still under $10k, and then decided it was too nice for a fuckaround car and bought an E30 325is instead. I'll be kicking myself forever because of that.

Fuck you Honda fags are retarded. You ever heard of split traction? You can't exit corners anywhere near as fast with fwd. That's why no one uses it for high power applications. Those poor little tires have to keep your gay car on the road and accelerate at the same time.

> Its just a meme I swear
As you understeer into a tree.

fuck you. you can keep your jetronic type K
i swear to god only the diesel ones are what you talk about

190E also had jetronic K
in the garbage it goes

easier said then done
those fuckers are rare

they made a lot of them. but you know, nobody cherished them because they were cheap when they were new.

Put your trip back on muhV6

But I'm not that person.

I wasn't aware rwd and awd cars don't crash. Thanks for educating us all.

Happy?

They definitely don't crash as easily at higher amounts of power. Like I said before Hondas are good but not if you have high power goals and want to retain your ability to launch out of a corner. Honda fags can't admit that though because they all think they have the fastest car on the road. Eventually you will graduate high school and realize there are better cars out there.

ford focus svt

the mk2 hatch is actually great for autox and grassroots rallycross

OH SORRY A HONDA ISN'T GOOD FOR 9001HP TRACK DUTY
that doesn't make it a bad car. You're a clueless tard

You really are Fucking dumb aren't you? I said they are good in their own way multiple times now. The shortcomings of fwd are very evident well under 9000hp. It's common knowledge, you need physics in your life.

learn to drive m8

yep, or in small numbers.

renaultsport clio 172, if you're not in burgerville. fun car and cheap as fuck

yeah, old BMW was god tier. Newer ones are good, but not nearly on the same level

Toyota Mrs

Mk1=Mk2>>>>Others

>it should be a hidden gem
Yeah, a sleeper.
>for under 3k
It was possible like, 10 years ago. Nearly everything current is the opposite of a sleeper, it screams f a s t yet doesn't deliver. If there was anything left near that price range, it may have gotten raped so prepare for bigger costs no matter the year and odometer.
Next time you better save up to write that one more zero to actually look for a non-mainstream sleeper, user. Good luck!

tl;dr maybe Swift 1.6 or Clios if they count to that price range

If those aren`t memes then neither is a Twingo.

Get a Twingo OP, you faggot.

>I know there were a lot of great hot and "warm" hatches in the '80s and '90s, and from what I've seen when reading UK car magazines, many of them are still shockingly affordable.

That`s because you will be taxed to death with anything more than a 1.2 engine.

Opel omega

Redpill me on e34

Thanks user, its ma first car so I want to be able to scratch it without mental breakdowns. Hoping to find something cool, could do some work on it myself. Gladly.

Multipla

FC RX-7 if you can take the dorito life

afraid i cant tell you much more than the sort common knowledge, how its mostly non-electric good handling nice engines and so on, i have an E39

I see almost exclusively Isuzu pickups around here in Germany.

Confirmed. If you dump 1-2k€ in e.g. a Golf GTI with the 2.0 TSI you can decimate all. Actually not, but you'll be a lot faster than people expect you to be.
Friend of mine has a Mk V GTI and spent ~3k€ on the car. The torque is now at the limit of what the standard DSG can handle.

E21

>fuckhueg luxobarge
>a drivers car

pick one

A lot of police interceptors are both landbarges and drivers' cars.

>tried to buy on of these
>every car I went to see was completely fucked
>even the £3000+ cars are basically scrap

Might look for a Swift Sport instead, much slower but there are some that haven't descended into true shitbox territory.

You are an attention whore and not a gentlemen racer.

Your technique should be the thing you strive to separate yourself from the pack with.

B5 a4

these things are underrated as fuck. have a -15 SSS and i love it. mot very fast maybe, but its so much fun

Just to be clear, user. I wasn't pointing at your pocket but at an expectation to find something not popular PLUS the same thing to be good and all in the price of a regular, older car that could be on its last legs (because that's the reason it has lost its value, right?). I haven't read the thread since I posted, but you can either be happy with, for example, a decently maintained E36/MX-5 or buy a nice sounding 5 cylinder Fiat Coupe just up to your budget and cry by it sitting in garage while you look for a missing part. Hope you make it, I was in similar situation, ended up not even buying that "regular E36". :^)

Redpill me on e39. I am considering it.

All cool user, thats why Iade the dred because its tough topic.

i can tell you about the M5 at least, its the one i have first hand experience with.

About what it shares with the other cars, the size is pretty much perfect to me, big enough for 4 adults, without being too fat, (yeah alright, its like 3800 lbs). I think all except the lowest ones (520?) had i6, and most of them were on par or better with similar cars of the era. Handling is great for a 15 year old sedan/wagon, especially in the M

Running costs? well, it very much depends on how its been taken care of. a good one will will do 150k without too many issues. or it can die at under 100k if its a nigger that's owned it, even if this is very unusual. Known issues is water pump and fuel pump. If one of these dies, change the other one as well, because they tend to die at about the same time. Electrics are pretty solid, and haven't been any issue on my car.

Some small shit to take into consideration is cup holders that are not only pretty bad, but also tend to break (stuck in their "in" position"), i pretty much never use them. Apparently the air bag can get damaged by exposing the seats to very high pressure (like putting all your weight on your knee on the seat itself). one guy i met on a meet had to replace one of his seats, and since they were electric, they are fucking expensive

Oh, and most importantly, since the M5 (if you're looking at that) uses the VANOS system, do NOT buy a car with valve issues

But i love mine like nothing else

The earlier Ignis Sport was pretty good too, although in an attempt to save weight they didn't fit any sound deadening. I think the car was under 1000kg and had 110hp from a revvy NA engine, which was pretty good for the early 2000s.

Volvo 240

Thanks man. Appreciate it. I really love e39.

E39s are pretty dope. what are you looking for?

>fwd
stopped reading there

Preferably facelift model above 2.0. Under 4 k

I'm not trying to build a car for a specific class. Just want an enjoyable car I like. Guess that makes me some kind of faggot.

Instead of Miata check out V6 mustang, camaro, or firebird.

Instead of Civic check out Toyota Paseo or Tercel

Instead of E30 check out porsche 924 or 944

R53 works mini

I can't help but smile when I drive mine

>cheap but okay looking
>rwd
>v6 by BMW and even other v6 engines

Ford Contour SVT?

>no miatas
>no civics
>no e30's
>no bmw's

you've just cast away the literal best cars you can get for dirt cheap. but if you really want to do that to yourself an mr2 wouldn't be a bad choice, just make sure you have no friends and if you want to turn some heads steer clear from the 3rd gen.

>rear drive
Fuck off BMW kiddie

K-Jetronic is ok.

That was considered a great car in it's class in the UK. Did it sell well in America?

1. gen mr2 is cool, I like it.

Why no frnds tho?

>A fucking diesel punto

The Celica GT-Four was my first car in Gran Turismo 2

>>cheap but okay looking
It looks bland as fuck.
>>rwd
Who cares? The car is heavy, long and wide. It was never meant to be driven fast around corners, so the "fun" factor is out of the question.
>>v6 by BMW and even other v6 engines
Since OP has stated that he's an eurofag looking for a first car, I'm pretty sure insuring and driving a car with a V6 is going to cost him a fuckton.

I suggest OP looks for one of these. Fun, fast enough and could be considered a sleeper having in mind that most Swifts have a 3cyl 1.0 engine.

because it's a 2 seater

Grow tf up kid

Saturn sc2. Reliable and responds to flow mods well. Gets good gas mileage as well. Fun to drive and commonly sell for less than 2k

*iirc they're fwd

fixed that for you