$1200 What car

Must be reliable. Hopefully fun too. Will be my daily driver for the winter, so I have no desire to do anything but maintenance on it. Thanks for the help!

Make and model don't matter, buy the best vehicle you can get for that money and be prepared to invest time and money.

What B-Tim said + make sure it's common.

yup... watch CL, go and check out the car... don't buy with you're heart... buy with your head... only done that once when I was shopping for a friends 16y/o daughter... she (the 16y/o was frustrated with the time it took but ended up with a great car at a great price.

that is the price range I usually shop in. I tend to find Maximas and Altimas in that price range. The Maxima is more comfortable and fun to me.

I see a ton of 90's Saturns around me in this range. I might keep my eye open for an older Maxima...

Sold my 97 Maxima for $1250

182K SE

So that is where you want to be.

I wouldn't touch a 90s saturn. as another maxima point of reference, I bought mine 2 weeks ago for $800.
Specs:
1995 GLE
Injen intake
Greddy Cat back
Stillen y-pipe
115k
rebuilt title Eibach Springs

4 months ago I bought a 97 altima GXE for $900
Needed a door lock on the drivers door and a passenger quarter glass. 155k
New tires
Aftermarket radio

I sold the altima for $1400 after putting in a radiator, brakes, and window. I also pulled the radio and gave them an OE nissan radio.

In reply to internetautomart:CL? or u got a special Nissan source?

upwardlymobilehome wrote: I see a ton of 90's Saturns around me in this range. I might keep my eye open for an older Maxima...

I bought mine for $1000. I have around $800 in mods/maintenance into it. It's a great daily.

Earlier this year I sold one I bought for $1000. I put 40K miles on it. I got rear-ended and was given $1600 (not totaled), then I sold it for $1300.

There are much better cars out there... but when shopping in the <$1200 range, a well maintained Saturn is a pretty damn good option.

upwardlymobilehome wrote: In reply to internetautomart:CL? or u got a special Nissan source?

just CL and a wanted ad. plus ready to run with cash in hand,

I stick with what I know.

For what it's worth, my SVX swapped impreza is almost done and I've spent $1350 on it including the car, which is a 96 Outback Sport

ProDarwin wrote:

upwardlymobilehome wrote: I see a ton of 90's Saturns around me in this range. I might keep my eye open for an older Maxima...

I bought mine for $1000. I have around $800 in mods/maintenance into it. It's a great daily. Earlier this year I sold one I bought for $1000. I put 40K miles on it. I got rear-ended and was given $1600 (not totaled), then I sold it for $1300. There are much better cars out there... but when shopping in the <$1200 range, a well maintained Saturn is a pretty damn good option.

those are exceptional cars. The body falls off all around but they keep on moving!

I bought my mx6 turbo for 400$. It's piles of fun, requires 0 care and feeding, and is insanely overbuilt.

90s Escort GT with the Mazda 1.8 and 5 speed. Same as a Protege GT but with a hatch and half the cost thanks to the reputation of the 1.9 turds.

I've had great luck buying cars off the $200X Classifieds. This is a good bunch of guys who shoot straight.

You'll have to do some digging, and hope your instincts are right, but you'll find deals on CL from people who are desperate for one reason or another to unload their car. Most of them are junk cars, but sometimes you'll find a pretty nice one. Just be quick, as they sell fast when a nice one comes up.

My current DD is a 1996 Volvo 850GLT wagon. Just bought it a few months ago. Had 110,000 miles when I bought it, brand new PA inspection. Got it from a local police officer who took good care of it. Bought it for $1400 (I think...maybe it was $1500). He wanted to sell it quickly because his son had a car he really wanted to buy and they wanted the cash for that car.

$1200 will get you 5-7 years of DD a Cherokee before rust comsumes it completely.

corytate wrote: those are exceptional cars. The body falls off all around but they keep on moving!

Huh?

RossD wrote: $1200 will get you 5-7 years of DD a Cherokee before rust comsumes it completely.

True. Although in that time it will cost you about $6000 more in fuel than the more efficient cars in this thread... if you are only driving 10k miles/year. They are tanks though.

In reply to ProDarwin:

I didn't see Upwardlymobilehome mention anything about fuel economy concerns. I banged out 18 mpg on the 50/50 highway/city with my '98.

RossD wrote: In reply to ProDarwin: I didn't see Upwardlymobilehome mention anything about fuel economy concerns. I banged out 18 mpg on the 50/50 highway/city with my '98.

Yeah, I just figured if price is a factor during puchase, then operating cost would be a factor as well. I used 18mpg for my math vs 30mpg in the 4cyl econoboxes.

Up to the OP I guess.

lot you can buy for 1200. I bought a 300 saab last year that got me through the winter needing only tyres, exhaust work, and a heatervalve.

This will sound crazy, but I vote Corolla or Celica. Find an AE92 GTS (4AGE!), or even a sedan with a 5 speed... tweak the suspension get some good tires and drive it forever. If you get a sedan, you can consider turbo'ing it or doing a 4AGE conversion later.

Another vote for Saturns. Honda reliability, but with a bargain-basement depreciation-is-your-friend buy in price. Oh, and parts are so cheap it'll make you giggle. Try to find a '95 or before so you don't have to screw with OBD-II. The short-wheelbase early coupes can even be sort of fun to drive.

friend of mine had a ist gen saturn coupe. With almost no maintance.. did over 200,000 miles on it. He only gave up on it when it started chugging a quart of oil with every fill up of gas