I am leaning heavily towards something fun and sporty with a manual transmission. I am looking at ca

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I am about to graduate college (this week in fact) and before I start my new job I need a new/used car. I am lucky enough to be graduating college debt free and with an excellent new job lined up. I will be moving from bone dry Texas to rainy Seattle.
For the past 6 months I have been driving my father s 2006 Avalon, but he will need it back once school is over and I don t think I can take another day driving cheap car rental calgary it. The lack of steering feel, the horrendous turn radius, the size etc.
I am leaning heavily towards something fun and sporty with a manual transmission. I am looking at cars between 15k and 18k. 20k if I can find something really clean. I will be getting an interest free loan from my parents that I will be paying back within the first year. My top three choices are an E46 M3, a E39 M5 and an RX-8. Yes all notoriously unreliable cars. Is there something I am missing? Should I forget the M badge and get a E46 330i or an e39 540i? Or should I go in debt and get an FR-S or BRZ?
The only caveat I can give you is that a new sporty sedan, hatch or wagon will likely be far more useful to you than a sport coupe. A lot of my friends who owned a sports coupe back in the 90 s ended up shelving them once the wife and kids came into their life.
Your taste in fresh-outta-college cars is just disturbingly awful.  It means that if you aren t a shadetree mechanic, you hate your pocketbook.  If you can (and will) turn a wrench, you are obviously a masochist. And the RX-8 is so terrible that even loyal Rotor-heads begrudgingly include it in the family so you need a reality check.
I know you re hot to trot with your sweet gig and no debt, but you are overlooking your future needs of a house, fancy clothes, lavish vacations, expensive dinners/cocktails with the pretty ladies, etc.  Such items not only require a more reliable mode of transportation than a used up BMW M, but something cheap car rental calgary with a lower total cost of ownership.
cheap car rental calgary Are you traumatized by your father s Avalon? Apparently so. But, for crying out loud, don t swing to the other end of the spectrum just because cheap car rental calgary of it!  There are plenty of reasonably nice sports sedans, that will be a better overall machine.
My advice? Test drive every sports sedan from a Kia Optima Turbo to a Focus ST, to a VW GLI, to well every dealership in town.  If that all fails, then you get an E39 M5 and rule the world. For a moment.
Just finished college with a good job 15k doesn t sound so unreasonable? You don t even know how old he is. I bought an r33 skyline when I was 19. THAT is irresponsible (and I have always been a tight-ass with my funds).
OP I have an e46 M3 and it is a great car. I ve had it for a year so far and other than the fuel cost (really, really expensive here) it has been absolutely great. I ve had some small issues when I first got it, but if you want to do some basic work on your cars, it is pretty easy to get dirty with. And fantastic to actually cheap car rental calgary drive.
(2) I have never been but from what I gather its quite populated and parking will be at a premium. Have fun when some hipster doofus backs into your gorgeous E46 with their $100 car when you park on the street.
(3) Get your excess money in the stock market, they will keep inflating it until it pops this should have happened by now but it looks like it may have be a record year. When SHTF again, pull out your profits and buy some newly broke dick s Lex or Bimmer.
Well you re certainly entitled to an opinion, but try hydroplaning in poor weather conditions other than a slight drizzle. Oh and while you re at it bring one of your RWD sticks to Pittsburgh, try living in our wonderful driving metropolis for a year including cheap car rental calgary the bad winters complete with frequent ice with little to no salt on most roads. I ll be sure to call you a wrecker cheap car rental calgary when you end up in a ditch.
I d much rather have a stick in inclement weather, actually greater ability to start from a stop, not to mention slow down, without forcing the computer to get involved. I d certainly insist on dedicated snow tires, though.
There is a similar cheap car rental calgary but more widely traveled cheap car rental calgary road nearby called Crane Avenue that I have almost lost control of my auto Saturn a few times in winter. Fortunately there is a longer, flatter, cheap car rental calgary way around that road but for some roads such as Canton, there may not be an alternate route. The South Hills presents some driving fun, hence my reluctance to drive a 5-speed around here, at least one as a DD.
Driving a fast, fun RWD in rain is much more fun, as rains brings the limits of grip much lower and enables you to do things that would otherwise be totally stupid in relative safety e.g. Hyundai Genesis V6 is a prime example of a car that s most fun on water. It doesn t work very well when driven really fast on dry roads, but it s immense fun to drift it in the rain and you can do it in quite safe speeds. Snow is even better. Every time it snows here and I have some RWD at my disposal, I take it drifting before it melts.
As for unintentional loss of grip/traction in the rain, I can t imagine it in a modern cheap car rental calgary car with modern tires, unless you are doing stupid things or going stupidly fast. Ze Germans drive zeir M5s and M3s at 100+mph on the highways in the rain, and they don t die because of it.
Also five speed is much easier to control in any adverse cheap car rental calgary condition than automatic (any kind of automatic). Manual transmission doesn t shift when it wants to, and it has a clutch to help you controlling things. Try to unstuck the car in snow with automatic and manual a HUGE difference.
On the other hand, I have driven RWDs in hilly areas and even small mountains during cheap car rental calgary winter. It s not great for going up the hills (unless it has engine in the back or really good tires), but you can make it work. And I was driving old cars with shitty tires. New car with good tires will work anywhere, unless you are stupid. And unless you are going to some ski resort.
Also, if you need TC in low grip, you can t drive. ESP can be and is really wonderful and useful technology. TC is something I switch off every time in every car that allows it. In normal situations, it s annoying. On snow or ice, it makes you go nowhere.
First off thanks Sajeev and Steve for the quick response. I will definitely cheap car rental calgary go test drive new, I like the Focus ST a lot. I just dont like the idea of being in debt in case I lose my job. My parents wont send debt collectors after me if I fall on hard times.
Just a little bit of background since I seem to becoming off as entitled. That was not my intent at all. I am graduating from The University of Texas with a degree in Business. I have worked every semester/summer since my freshman year of college. I will be working for one of the two big tech firms in Seattle. You can guess which one. I will admit that I am very luck that my parents paid for my education. If they had not I would not be looking at buying a car, I would be paying cheap car rental calgary back my debt. The first car I bought was a Nissan 240sx so I have been itching for something RWD in my life. Hope that clears up any confusion.
Funny, this subject came up the other day- you see, my brother bought a brand new M3, and it has been trouble since the day I bought it. Also, two of my kids have owned used BMW 3-series, which are guaranteed to break down and cost you $1,000 ever time . Best bet: Avoid Beemers, unless you want to get to know the local tow truck drivers on a first name basis.
Just to clarify, E46s and E39s are not likely to leave you on the side of the road. They do have high running costs, but mostly from replacing more balljoints, bushings, mounts, and more rubber pieces than you ever imagined a car could have. Combine this with high parts costs, and it can get expensive. For the majority of the problems you are likely to see, the car remains driveable.
A BMW will usually get you to the repair shop where the real hurt will begin. Except for those once-in-a-lifetime very rare occurences when bad karma comes your way, that is. It only happens when the bearing in the power steering cheap car rental calgary pump expires, the radiator explodes in a cloud of steam, the alternator stops circulating electrons, the fuel pump refuse to send fuel to the engine or a blown head gasket causes an extreme misfire. In my case owning a 325i (E46) and a 530i (E39) at the same time means that I know the tow truck guys very well.
I was in the same position your were 4 years ago. I got a used diesel powered SUV. Practical, comfortable for trips, and decent on fuel. Basically, at that time I was going for as practical as possible to get me going in my life.
About a year after that I got a much better job, a great girl, and once we started to get going (two years I bought my Jeep) I went out and got the fun sporty cheap car rental calgary coupe; just a basic, but brand new, 12 V6 Mustang. It s been a great car, great and gas, reliable, fun. It doesn t have the snob appeal of a BMW; but that s a plus in our eyes.
It s hard to claim you re being stupid/foolish without a look at your income and budget (which isn t our business). You re obviously trying too hard to buy the coolest car you can, which, a lot of girls (the good ones you actually can settle down with in a few years) aren t going to find that appealing. Plus, for that much, you could a decent new car, that ll last you several years, not hammer your budget every month with repairs.
Everyone I knew in college that had a coupe got rid of it not long after their entry into the real world. Lancer Evos, Scions, WRXs, and even Mustang GTs gave way to Escapes, Tacomas, Accords, and