Jump to content

Best fun-ish daily under $12k?


Geeesammy

Recommended Posts

I’m halfway kicking around the idea of adding a fifth vehicle to my fleet. It’s been awhile since we’ve had a thread like this, just trying to get some ideas I may not otherwise think of.

 

Needs:

Ideally sedan, or large 2 door (E9x size)

Comfy to drive, ideally leather seats w/heat

Maybe some form of Navi, not required, ideally Bluetooth from factory

 

Don’t needs

A truck

An suv

Honda Civic/accord

 

 

Bonus for manual and turbo, especially with modding potential. Not super keen on a WRX, but I suppose it could work. I would enjoy something awd so I could throw the wife in it over winter if needed and not sweat it.

 

I’m heavily leaning towards a 535xi, maintenance doesn’t scare me nor do the costs associated with it. I have all the tools and special tools I need at work to fix whatever will inevitably fail.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 51
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Maybe 335 or 535 (x drive)...

 

I think the 5xx seem to be even lower priced than the 3xx of a similar age/mileage now. This is just my vague recollection so it could be off base. I would guess no MT options in the 5-series, especially once you get up to the x35 trim level. But probably a bigger cabin and since OP is tall might be nice.

 

I just looked a bit on Car Gurus Price Trends and that's maybe not actually true about the prices, but to get the same price 5 series is only 1 year older than the 3 series.

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/price-trends/

 

 

OP, I'm sure you know this but the price of used cars has went up a ton due to new car supply issues. Maybe not the best time to buy a used car if you can avoid it... and I have to buy 2 right now. According to same link above a 2014 3 series or 2013 5 series average price is around $15k (can't filter by trim level), but have both went up $1.5k-2k from their low points around mid-May. $2k will get you roughly a year newer too, so you would have to buy a year older car now to get to your price point VS just 4 months ago. It's a bit hard to tell but some of the increases seem to be leveling off, so maybe another few months of flatish and then they will start to go back down again?

 

Edit again: Sorry, I read it as $15k, not $12k, so knock a few years off of the above and you are probably roughly good.

Edited by Trouble Maker
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can find clean S60Rs for a fraction of that and they have the comfiest seats of any car I've ever been in (including Doc's Bentley). GROM makes a ~$100 bluetooth thingy that T's into the nav cd-rom player and it worked great in mine. Cons are they're simply old cars, but are a couple bolt-ons and canned tune away from a care-free 400hp. I miss awd turbo.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can find clean S60Rs for a fraction of that and they have the comfiest seats of any car I've ever been in (including Doc's Bentley). GROM makes a ~$100 bluetooth thingy that T's into the nav cd-rom player and it worked great in mine. Cons are they're simply old cars, but are a couple bolt-ons and canned tune away from a care-free 400hp. I miss awd turbo.

 

That's funny. When I read the original post my first thought jumped to the S60R.

 

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/l-Used-Volvo-S60-R-d512#listing=283393951

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm a fan of my Volvo S60 for all of the things Brian said except for the dumb 5-speed Aisin auto. Amazing packaging for a small-ish sedan (great interior room and huge trunk) and comfy, premium interior with AWD and a great safety record. It's really well-engineered.

 

You know what else is really well-engineered?

 

BMW 535. :) I'd try to find an unmolested one with a stick and get that. The aftermarket has both figured out how to DIY the problem areas for maintenance, as well as how to hop them up to be street monsters. I would bet a 5-7year-newer 535 would be not much more than a good S60R for the same price if not slightly more.

 

DON'T GET AWD. Just get some snow tires and you'll be fine.

 

https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/detail/812162413/overview/?aff=atempest&cmp=atempest&utm_source=AutoTempest&utm_medium=TRP&utm_campaign=atempest

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you HAVE to have 4 doors? Lets start there. :)

No, because even with a sedan I am so tall its reallllly only a 3 door/seater. Mainly beneficial for the dog. but thats a rarity.

Also what are the other 4 cars?

 

'18 Sante Fe Sport

'09 Sierra 1500

'05 Legacy Limited

'06? Volvo flip car

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No, because even with a sedan I am so tall its reallllly only a 3 door/seater. Mainly beneficial for the dog. but thats a rarity.

 

 

'18 Sante Fe Sport

'09 Sierra 1500

'05 Legacy Limited

'06? Volvo flip car

 

Oh, tall guy?

 

Well in that case, add C5 Corvette to the list of options.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was looking into Maserati Coupe/Spyder a bit before I got the S2K.

 

Yes, Ferrari engine, but cross plane crank in the non-Ferrari cars... so half way there? Still a cool engine, a high reving smallish V8 with pretty high specific power, and that intake!

 

43663002539.535031330.IM1.13.1600x1200_A.1000x750.jpg

 

'F1 transmission' is just a marketing term. I'm pretty sure it's an automated (traditional single clutch) manual. I don't think anyone has made one of these for mass production that was worth a shit. The Maserati one is pretty well known to be a pile even when new, and had reliability problems. They did sell an MT version of that car, but it's pretty hard to find. The are more rare than the AMT and you have to shift through any search results because taters list the AutomatedMT as an MT. I think the Cambiocorsa trim is supposed to be the AMT and GT trim is supposed to be the MT, but the accuracy of that on Auto-trader is also really bad.

 

NOT the right price point due to year/mileage and probably too high listing price IMHO, but just an example.

 

https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicledetails.xhtml?listingId=543695569&zip=43015&referrer=%2Fcars-for-sale%2Fsearchresults.xhtml%3Fzip%3D43015%26city%3DDelaware%26incremental%3Dall%26modelCodeList%3DCOUPEMAS%26makeCodeList%3DMAS%26transmissionCodes%3DMAN%26listingTypes%3DUSED%26sortBy%3DderivedpriceASC%26location%3D%255Bobject%2BObject%255D%26state%3DOH%26firstRecord%3D0%26marketExtension%3Dinclude%26searchRadius%3D0%26isNewSearch%3Dfalse&listingTypes=USED&numRecords=25&firstRecord=0&modelCodeList=COUPEMAS&makeCodeList=MAS&searchRadius=0&makeCode1=MAS&modelCode1=COUPEMAS&clickType=listing

Edited by Trouble Maker
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Manual Acura TL

 

I'm glad so many people have had success with the 535/335's, but they absolutely suck to work on when they break. I would never own one for that reason alone.

 

Was hoping you would chime in and talk about the Maserati since you recently had a bit of experience with one. :nod:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...