So...cars?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Yorick
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Yorick

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I'm saving up to get my first (or second, long story) car in a month or two. But I'm having trouble figuring out what to go with. I want the same thing everyone else does: A car that doesn't need money put into it for gas or repairs and won't kill me if I hit something. And since I know next to nothing about cars, I figure someone here probably knows more than me.

So, here are the three kinds that I've been looking into for the most part.
- Honda Civic
- Toyota Corolla
- Saturn

My budget is probably around $6,000-8,000. I'm not worried about high mileage, because I'm not planning to put on a hundred thousand. So with that in mind I could get a car that's a few years older and still in great shape.

Argh I don't know. Any advice would be great. :E
 
I have a Toyota Corolla and couldn't be happier. My second choice was a Honda Civic. :E

If you want a reliable car with good pick-up and pull and all those words that I'm probably using in the wrong context, then you can't go wrong.
 
LOL. I was looking on Craig's List for you. I was looking at Lexus' since they are good cars. I found a 2005 GX470 that the guy put in the title for $45 instead of $45,000.

http://boston.craigslist.org/nos/car/647683525.html

Anyway.

Here is a Hyundai Elantra GLS for $6790.

http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/car/648056279.html.

Saturn Ion '04 $5995

http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/car/648168418.html

2004 Saturn Vue $7500. (I have the '06 and it is a very good suv)

http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/car/646865161.html



P.S. My dad has a '69 Camaro for sale for about $7500. Needs a frame off restoration though. :laugh:
 
Tis going to be a while until I get my first car. Only just got my Learners license the other day and went driving for the first time today. Thats was interesting. I'm not really used to the sensitivity of the ignition or the breaking yet.
 
96_Taurus_GL_gy_8474.jpg


My baby! Well, more like an old friend. Or someone who drops by the house every now and then to wash their clothes. Ok, it's more of an old acquaintance that I don't really like. Truly, I tend not to be seen in public with it.
 
Do what im doing and get yourself a road rocket?

21680438.jpeg
 
Yes because painting the street with your insides is FUN!


/waits for bike nuts to flame me.


I call those crotch rockets by the way. Because your penis has the tendency to go soaring once the rest of your body dissolves upon impact.
 
1000bhp per ton for Fiat Panda money is FUN!

Scraping knee and elbow upon tarmac as you negotiate a bend is FUN!

Cutting through traffic jams like a knife through butter is FUN!

Being at one with the environment rather than seeing it roll by through a windscreen is FUN!

The risk of serious injury or death if it goes wrong? Well, that's not fun, but it is cool. :)
 
repiV said:
Being at one with the environment rather than seeing it roll by through a windscreen is FUN!
Click to expand...

You will be one with the environment when you body physically melds with the bark of those trees.

Window or no window, you're in an motorized vehicle, and by definition you are at odds with the environment.
 
Raziaar said:
You will be one with the environment when you body physically melds with the bark of those trees.
Click to expand...

Been there, done that. Got a horrific injury to show for it. I still don't regret taking up bikes, it's hands down the best thing that's ever happened to me (not the injury, the bikes).

Window or no window, you're in an motorized vehicle, and by definition you are at odds with the environment.
Click to expand...

You're not "in" a bike, you're "on" it. Control is much more direct and precise than via a car, so once it becomes second nature it's not so much like you're riding the bike - you become one with it.
You can smell the smells of summer, feel the wind, taste the air...anyway most people who haven't ridden a bike have no conception of them. It's not like having a two wheeled car.
 
repiV.... mission accomplished! now get on IRC!

Yorick get a corolla... very reliable car!

:)
 
repiV said:
1000bhp per ton for Fiat Panda money is FUN!

Scraping knee and elbow upon tarmac as you negotiate a bend is FUN!

Cutting through traffic jams like a knife through butter is FUN!

Being at one with the environment rather than seeing it roll by through a windscreen is FUN!

The risk of serious injury or death if it goes wrong? Well, that's not fun, but it is cool. :)
Click to expand...

Know what they call bikers at hospitals?

Organ Donors.
 
I wouldn't take a bike out on the highway or for long distance drives... but I'd use it to get around town and pick up chicks on :)
 
I'd like a small fleet of bikes to cover every eventuality. Still cheaper than owning a single car that isn't a complete piece of shit...probably.

My current bike - Yamaha FZS600

113602.jpg


For commuting and general runaround.

Kawasaki ZX6R

SNA27M1511_36687a.jpg


For when the devil strikes/trackdays.

Yamaha FJR1300

fjr-1300-delivery.jpg


For long distances in comfort and carrying lots of stuff around.

Cars? Who needs em. :D
 
I love how Raz and AJ are just pounding on RepiV for being a biker. I don't even ride them, and I have respect for em.
 
Well, people are entitled to their opinions. But from my experience, almost everyone who actually tries biking thinks it's fantastic. I never had an interest in bikes, until I took a 10 minute spin on the back of my cousin's bike when I was 17. He dropped it twice pulling out of the same junction, nearly crushing my leg both times (wasn't used to the added weight and stalled it), but I didn't care. I was hooked. Completely hooked.
There are a lot of stereotypes attached to biking and bikers, and it's actually nowhere near as dangerous as most people think (although considerably more so than a lot of bikers would like to believe). Horse riding is far, far more dangerous than motorcycling. However, I'm quite happy to accept the hard-bastard biker image if people want to see me as such.
It's as safe or as dangerous as you make it. If you're an idiot on a bike, you will die. It's as simple as that. I'm a sensible rider (fast, but cautious), I had one moment of madness and I very nearly lost my life because of it. I'm still housebound six months later, and I got off very lightly. I was also wearing racing-standard gear from head to toe.
If you have a mature attitude and a dedication to learning the craft, then your chances of dying on a bike are minimal. You'll probably still break a bone or two throughout your career, but that's the same in any sport.
I don't recommend that everyone should get a bike, because I don't think most people are responsible enough to ride one. It's utterly fantastic, the best experience in the world and I couldn't live without it. But it's like working with explosives - it needs to be treated with the utmost respect and deference at all times. Personally, I think there is an inherent level of honour in riding a bike in the sense that you are putting yourself in danger, whereas car drivers mostly put other people at risk.
 
get a civic, they're cheap, reliable and some of them aren't that bad looking
 
repiV said:
Been there, done that. Got a horrific injury to show for it. I still don't regret taking up bikes, it's hands down the best thing that's ever happened to me (not the injury, the bikes).



You're not "in" a bike, you're "on" it. Control is much more direct and precise than via a car, so once it becomes second nature it's not so much like you're riding the bike - you become one with it.
You can smell the smells of summer, feel the wind, taste the air...anyway most people who haven't ridden a bike have no conception of them. It's not like having a two wheeled car.
Click to expand...

I understand and respect your enthusiasm. I'm just being an ass for the sake of being an ass. I'm trying to be funny, and it's not working.

Even though I do feel bikes are very dangerous, and you could just have easily been killed when you had your accident if the circumstances weren't just right.
 
I'm more of a car guy, but I've also found myself looking into bikes recently. I'm not really into sports bikes though, more into street bikes(which look cooler IMO even if they sacrifice aerodynamics) and touring bikes.

One problem though: Bikes + Desert Climate + Crazy Bahraini Drivers = lol no

Although my cousin rides a Harley, unfortunately.
 
Apocalypse89 said:
One problem though: Bikes + Desert Climate + Crazy Bahraini Drivers = lol no
Click to expand...

sort of my problem too. I want something small, like a 250, for getting around town (to work and such), but it wouldn't be worth it, because with it going past 90* in the summer, I'd show up at work looking like I just stepped out of the shower.
 
Raziaar said:
I understand and respect your enthusiasm. I'm just being an ass for the sake of being an ass. I'm trying to be funny, and it's not working.

Even though I do feel bikes are very dangerous, and you could just have easily been killed when you had your accident if the circumstances weren't just right.
Click to expand...

Ah, right.

Well that's very true, if any part of my upper body had taken the impact I almost certainly would have died at the scene. But that just goes back to what I was saying about having to respect the bike. You can't rely on crash protection to save you, because even the best crash protection available on a bike won't do anything for you if you hit a solid object at speed. My gear undoubtedly saved me from more severe injury (saved my foot, saved me from a broken wrist, stopped me from getting any road rash, lessened the severity of the fracture to some degree and kept the injury clean and sterile) but it's not going to save your life unless it's a real borderline crash. In a big impact like that, there's enough energy involved to kill you several times over, if any of the vital organs take the brunt of the force. Fortunately, it's the legs that tend to get smashed up in motorcycle accidents most often rather than the upper body. Which is why I don't understand how people get a big expensive leather jacket and then think they'll be ok riding around in jeans.

Point being, your mindset when riding must always be to avoid dangerous situations at all costs. The contact patch on a bike tyre is about the size of your palm, that's all that's keeping you on the road and while a modern tyre will continue to grip a well surfaced road in dry conditions long after all the hard parts of the bike are scraping the tarmac in a corner, it only takes something small (bad throttle control, leaves, gravel, cow shit, whatever...) to upset that delicate balance and you'll crash. In urban areas we always have to be looking out for diesel spills for example, because diesel is about as grippy as sheet ice. If you hit diesel and you're not travelling in a straight line, you'll almost certainly come off before you even know what happened.
So motorcycling can be safe. But it takes the kind of dedication you would apply to playing competitive sport, and the kind of mindset you would apply to something like running a family, in order to maintain that safety. Complacency in a car might mean you get a heart-in-mouth moment, or a scratch on your paintwork, on a bike it can kill you.

The reason so many people get killed is partly because motorcycles attract the kind of people who shouldn't be riding them in the first place, and partly because while riding them requires ten times the level of skill of driving a car, the level of training is in most cases actually worse than that required to drive.
 
Apocalypse89 said:
I'm more of a car guy, but I've also found myself looking into bikes recently. I'm not really into sports bikes though, more into street bikes(which look cooler IMO even if they sacrifice aerodynamics) and touring bikes.

One problem though: Bikes + Desert Climate + Crazy Bahraini Drivers = lol no

Although my cousin rides a Harley, unfortunately.
Click to expand...

Street bikes might sacrifice aerodynamics, but in return they also get comfort and utility.
I love sportsbikes, but I would only own as a second bike. They're horrendously uncomfortable, they cramp your legs, hurt your wrists and force you into sitting at very unnatural angles. I can only manage about half an hour at a time before I really want to get off, and the riding position is also really bad for having a good view of traffic and slow riding. And all the power is concentrated at the top of the rev range, they're actually quite docile outside of the powerband. They only come into their own when they're being ridden balls out on twisty roads at highly illegal speeds, which is what they're designed for anyway. I have to say though, they do make high speed cruising blissfully sedate.
The focus of manufacturers on totally impractical toy machines surely has something major to do with bikes not being taken seriously as a method of transportation.

xcellerate said:
sort of my problem too. I want something small, like a 250, for getting around town (to work and such), but it wouldn't be worth it, because with it going past 90* in the summer, I'd show up at work looking like I just stepped out of the shower.
Click to expand...

You'd be surprised how cold it gets on a bike, even when the weather is hot. It's only when the ambient temperature exceeds your body temperature that you have to worry.
 
repiV said:
You'd be surprised how cold it gets on a bike, even when the weather is hot. It's only when the ambient temperature exceeds your body temperature that you have to worry.
Click to expand...

the ride to work would be in traffic though...so it would be a lot of sitting on the highway at stop lights. Traffic, asphalt, 90*, jeans/jacket/helmet, typical cloudless day in alabama...it would be awful. Hell I get hot as crap sitting in my GTi (which has no a/c) in shorts and flipflops with the windows down in the shade...
 
xcellerate said:
the ride to work would be in traffic though...so it would be a lot of sitting on the highway at stop lights. Traffic, asphalt, 90*, jeans/jacket/helmet, typical cloudless day in alabama...it would be awful. Hell I get hot as crap sitting in my GTi (which has no a/c) in shorts and flipflops with the windows down in the shade...
Click to expand...

I think it really depends on the nature of the traffic and of your riding. We had a few 90+ degree days here in the summer, and it's not overly pleasant, but I didn't end up sweaty all over either.
The hottest weather I've ridden in was about 94C, we were on a day trip to Southend that day, about 100 bikes in all (memorial ride) and they were obeying the speed limits everywhere so it got really goddamn hot. The worst part about the heat was sweating inside my helmet, every time I took it off for a petrol stop or whatever my face and hair were all wet, and when I put it back on again it felt disgusting. My back got a bit sweaty, and pits etc., but it was nowhere near as bad as cycling. I was wearing full textile riding gear, boots and thermal socks btw.
At the lights, it will get really hot. But when you're moving it's a lot breezier. You can get perforated leather gear, it feels like you're wearing nothing at all when you're on the move. I only bought mine in September so it was kinda getting cold already, but the feeling at speed was glorious. Best to go with bright colours too, black absorbs the heat.
When I was commuting in the summer, obviously London is gridlocked everywhere and there are constant traffic lights, I was a bit sweaty in the usual places when I arrived so I just wore a t-shirt to ride in under my gear which I changed when I got to work and used deodorant.

It's not the best weather to ride in, but it's not as bad as you might think. You wouldn't want to swap it for riding in a British winter. :)
It can be done, it just really depends how much you value the convinience/cost/fun of the bike over the inconvinience of the weather.
 
I bought an '08 Mazda 3 two weeks ago and I love it so far. There is a 0% financing sale on all '08 Mazdas at the moment, not that it matters for you :(

But, using the Mazda topic as a segway; you may want to consider a 2003 Mazda Protege, since it'd be right in your budget. My sister has an '01 Protege and my dad still drives his 1990 Protege, so in my family they've been pretty good to us.
 
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