dtheriault

When I was a teenager we used to buy cheap cars for fun. We bought a pair of pintos one summer and used a sawsall to turn them into convertibles. another summer we bought an eldorado took out the trunk put a small sofa back there then after a month took it to the desert and had fun.

so picture yourself flipping through the auto-trader and you have less than 10 grand to burn. Based on speed, responsiveness, or other characteristics including the unusual nature of the car- what would you buy for fun?

I always wanted to buy a 1969 cadillac coupe deville convertible white with red interior and large bull horns on the hood.

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"Remember, it takes two to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

Unless you are the freakin Highlander, what is the point in learning how to fight with a sword?

degrawj

i've always thought it would be cool to own a really old Mercedes or BMW. like a benz from the 60's or an early 80's BMW.


edit: holy crap! i found one that i would get if i had the money.

'86 Mercedes 190

it's got some problems, but nothing major, and it looks SICK!

StanT

I'm probably showing my age, but my buddies and I modified an old Corvair (rear engine) to hold a pair of quarter barrels with ice. Holes in the hood accomodated beer taps. It sucked to drive, but was the hit of a lot of parties.

GetRdone

It would be real cool to get like a big astrovan and put a HUUUUGE sliding panoramic top on it. Build a kind of living room in the back. You could live in it, down by the river.

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jwoody

I always wanted one of these. In fact I still do.

~1986 BMW 325i (with an M-Tech body kit).

GetRdone

e30 bimmers are realy slick. I was looking to get an e30 325is for a while, i still wouldnt mind one. One of the hottest bimmers i ever saw was a factory (thats what it said) widebody 635csi (i think). It was like an 86 or something. Soooo sexy except it was automatic,.

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username

I'll have to 3rd the idea of an e30 bmw, especially an e30 m3. I think they are now running around 10k on eBay and such.

irseg

Quick, lots of hop-up parts, cheap to fix: Early-mid 90s Mustang GT or Camaro Z28

Luxo-barge sleeper: Cadillac STS, Lincoln Mark VIII, Volvo 950 Turbo

Small & fun to drive: Older BMW 3-series or Mazda Miata

Rare and gadget-laden: late 80s-early 90s Olds Toronado w/ color touchscreen, Thunderbird Turbo Coupe, early 90s Pontiac Grand Prix w/ heads-up display and a crapload of other electronic goodies, Merkur Scorpio, mid-80s Nissan Maxima with sonar suspension

Lockjaw

85 GMC pickup.
Get a junkyard 350 rebuild it drop it in.
Lift the truck slap on some big nobbie tires and go mudding.

That or do what I said in the sleeper thread.
Get a box Crown Vic. 383 stroker build up the rear and supercharge that sucker.

dtheriault

I've got an 87 mercedes 300. it's got tons of engine, suspension, and electrical problems, but my friends still love driving in it.

and thanks
IRSEG

i was looking for a list like that, now i'm looking up each one of them.

__________________
"Remember, it takes two to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

Unless you are the freakin Highlander, what is the point in learning how to fight with a sword?

510cut

Brand new Cavalier 2.2L engine 5 year warrenty and its 10,890 or so... so I guess its a little over your budget but apparently the thing is monster... my friend was forced to take it out on two NASA(not the space agency :P) track days in class 4 and was able to pass plenty of 30k+ cars.

dtheriault

Edmunds take on the Monster 2.2L 140hp Cavalier

"What Edmunds.com Says
Despite various revisions, there's no hiding the fact that this car was engineered more than a decade ago, leaving it hopelessly outclassed by nearly every other car on the market.

Pros
Low price, torquey four-cylinder engine, optional satellite radio and OnStar.

Cons
Ancient design inside and out, cheap interior materials, poor build quality, low resale value, poor side-impact and front-offset crash test results, ABS no longer standard."

I pass plenty of 30k cars when driving past my local olds folk community: leisure world

__________________
"Remember, it takes two to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

Unless you are the freakin Highlander, what is the point in learning how to fight with a sword?

510cut

lol here lemme quote him at sears point :P

IanSturgill

I would buy an SC 400, awesome badass car just to have fun in, otherwise i would build an offroad truck.

Martian

If it's an 'as cheap as possible' build, it's gotta be a big old 4x4, like an old Chev half ton. I'd never spend a lot of money on a truck that I'm going to take off-roading because I'm just going to beat the crap out of it on the trails anyway. An old Chev 4x4, rebuild a 350 (into a 383 if you can get the crank and connecting rods), TH 400 and a 205 transfer case. That's about the toughest drivetrain out there.. then drop the remaining cash on a set of Ranchos and some 33's or 35's. If you feel like getting fancy and have access to the right equipment, grab some steel tubing and makeyourself a rollcage and if you want to go all out drill some mount points for some big spots on top. That'll make a mean truck and if you can manage it for that budget (and actually have the spare cash) then it's not something you're going to be afraid of actually putting on the trails.

Or how about an off-road Astro? There actually is one around here.. he's got it raised and on 33's, with big spots on top. The night of that huge blackout a few years back he rolled down our street blasting AC/DC - my friends and I had been sitting out on the front porch drinking beer and joking about how the world was ending and thus due to the timing the van was quickly dubbed the Armegeddon Van.

twilightfoix

for $10K, i would go for a '88-'90ish BMW M3, small fast and fun to drive. They look pretty slick and there's a ton of mods that you can do to them to make them go even faster and handle even better plus they look better than any rice burner IMHO