1st Gen Tacoma Equivalent?

But I would want to pick up something cheaper and do all those sic mods myself What else am I gonna use all my garage tools for?

 

Fair enough. I suspect 650hp might break enough things to keep you busy lol

Especially some full throttle clutch dumps if you get really bored

 

as much as id say a Honda civic, the Honda accord is the best bang for the money. and my personal favorite years... 2006-2007 accord V6 sedan was optioned with a 6spd manual, and leather. but 2003-2007 you could get a 5spd behind a 2.4l that wasn't bad at all. but most years Honda accord could be had with 4 doors and a 5spd

but Toyota Camry, or a corolla, 4cyl sedans with a manual for many years

a Nissan maxima was a "4 door sports car" if you read the stickers on the door glass the 3.0 and a 5spd was fun and still allowed for some people in the back.

 

All 3 fun, all 3 manuals, 2 have no back seats, 1 has semi-usable back seats.
All 3 fit parameters, except 4 useable seats- unless small & small kids for 1 of them.

 

I just need the miata to complete my underpowered two door japanese trifecta

 

I've had my eye on those before! They are so clapped out here, I haven't ever seen a clean one for sale in my region

 

I've had one, they're nice but if you're tall they're not for you, they're roughly corolla size interior wise

 

The brz family always interested me, the civic game is a no brainer, and this forum concreted it for me.

I'll probably end up going that route, but was hoping there was some unicorn out there that's got the Honda civic reputation but is a little more rare. (Some old Lexus or something cool)

 

I lost my virginity in a Mazda 3, it's only fitting to buy one now

 

The go-to cool older lexus is the IS300 for sure, but a lot of them are clapped out as you've noticed. Or go back further and do an LS400, but you'll find they are also mostly clapped out and distastefully modified.

Newer models like IS250s are pretty cheap and can be had under $15k, but while I have no direct experience, I doubt that they're all that easy to work on. Definitely not like a 1st gen taco.

My friend had one and it seemed like a great car. Very reliable, comfortable, and enough power to get out of its own way, but when the time came I wouldn't really want to do very much work on it.

 

Know lots of folks with same mindset.

a few love older GTI’s and older 3 Series.

note* they all learned to wrench on them. Said if you can take the time to learn simple things on the platform, Maintenace and similar isn’t as bad as the newer ones.

 

Had an older 1 series for a bit, awesome car. Miss it a lot now, probably going to get an older 3 series next. But yeah, learn to fix them yourself, the information is abundant but the repairs will be frequent.