the cheap manual poll
 

Ok folks, lately, I've been looking to buy another car for the purpose of learning stick. My Oldsmobile and Trans Am are both autos. I will be racing the Mustang that I co-own in June (more on that later) so it's important that rowing my own gears be more natural. Anyway, I'm hoping to buy a cheap car with a manual transmission that I like but won't get too attached to as I'll be selling it again before August. This makes resale (ableit short term) and issue. What would you buy in this scenario? :?: Feel free to suggest anything not on the list, although the list indicates what I've been looking at.

and by cheap I mean 2,250 dollars or less, although more could be spent if it's very likely that I could resell the car at or above the same price. Also, I forgot to list the option of a Keisler 5-speed swap for the Trans Am. I'd really like to keep it automatic though.

RWD 80's Toyota Corolla. (not those overpriced hatchback wannbe driftking AE86's for sale for $10,000 in Kalifonikator)

Should be cheaper than anything on the list, is light and pretty bullet proof. You did say "learn to shift with" - so why not just buy a throw away car? :)

I just got back from looking at a 1991 BMW 318is. I really liked the car in the ad but it was pretty dissappointing in person.

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/car/580432498.html

Basically, it was really sketchy and there were more issues than I had expected. I had my cousin with me who is an AMAZING test driver. He diagnozed a dozen problems in just a couple of minutes. Anyway, 3rd gear likes to pop out and grinds when put in. The power steering was out and the car didn't track straight at all. The power steering rack had likely developed a leak somehow and caused that. The throwout bearings needed replacing (but that would have been livable.) There were some random electrical issues that had been caused by the owners installation of the ellipsoid headlights. The was a pretty good deal and needed some weekends of TLC. That thought left me uneasy as I have a neglected Trans Am with an engine swap that is long overdue. Mostly, the owner gave me a bad vibe. The stormtrooper door lock knobs didn't help either. Oh, and that stupid momo shift know wasn't on right.

Tomorrow I'll check out a notchback Mustang and another car.

Here's the notch's ad.
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/car/581416988.html

Today's update:

The notch was too pricey for me so I didn't even go to see it.
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/car/581416988.html

The E36 that I was all ready to buy didn't pan out as the seller had (repeatedly) made a typo in his ads. It was advertised for 1800 but now he's got it up for 3500.
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/car/584314626.html
E36's with manual transmissions do sometimes go for those prices but you have to be very quick.

I could go look at this one I guess
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/car/575777179.html

Why a notchback? Why don't you just get a hatch?

e30 gogogo :D

^for as many as I've checked out, it's nice to see the E30 get some love

I've seen a couple more cars but I won't go into details.

If you're looking for an E30, then get 325i or better. Even if it's a BMW, it's not worth it if it makes less than 150hp.

Graywolf had a lot of success with his late 80's? Nissan 300 ZX Turbo... and sold it for what he bought it for pretty easily..

^Turbo 300ZX's can rack up pretty "high" prices. I don't think it's within his budget. Unless you're talking about those hideous early 80's ones.

http://www.motorworld.net/forum/show...ghlight=nissan

$2500 is pretty close to 79 TA's budget...

But they're so ugly! :mrgreen:

thanks for the heads up nth :-)

Here's what I missed today . . . dang having to go to school . . .

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/car/588372328.html

Dang. That looked pretty good too. :-(

My guess is since you'll be racing a mustang, you'll need to learn how to do a torque filled launch.... econobox type engines just drop R's pretty easily.... not much talent in getting those to a fast 0-60 mph run.... ;) just my opinion, of course

I was looking for 5.0 Mustangs a while back and they were hard to find around the $3k mark.

Found a bunch of 3rd Gen Camaros for $2k, but can be hard to find manual I think.

E30 318i would be a great beater to learn how to drive a manual transmission. Beat the hell out of the engine, much less maintenence to worry bout than a 325i (timing belt vs. timing chain)

BUT, it can be hard to find one in decent condition for cheap.

If you just want to learn manual, get a old Toyota. Dirt cheap, and take beatings like a champ.

edit: Just remembered you live in SoCal.. fucking E30 heaven. Find a good deal on one, take care of it and i'm sure you can sell it for a profit later on.

There are a ton of E30's around here. I never noticed it until I started shopping for them. Also, my local salvage yard had one in every single row (of the import section.)

Here's the current top E30 candidate right now.

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/car/590391140.html

Of course, I'm still looking at plenty of other stuff.

For 325's make sure you replace the timing belt and water pumps right away, unless you know for sure the previous owner recently had it done.

It's supposed to be replaced every 4-5 years or 50k miles...

On March 9th, I bought a car. Here's what I got. I'll have a custom pic along with more details sometime in the near future (in the "What do you drive?" section). But for now, I'll just post this to give this thread a bit of closure.

http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/5097/1004488cey0.jpg

http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/3...4437fc0.th.jpg

Why, this poll was completely useless! :mrgreen::-P

hey, I came so close to buying an E30 it's not even funny ;-)

Also, I was a little to slow on the draw for an E36 I was ready to go for. I'm very pleased with the car at any rate. More on that later though.