Best car for under $6000

I know it's not easy to find any cars for under $6 that are very good, but here's a challange for everyone who reads it. What is the best car out there for under $6k?

It has to:

-Have under 100k miles
-Be an import (anything but American)
-Has to be a car
-Has to be pretty reliable and easily maintaned (I'm not afraid to do some custom work, though)
-Have lots of mods availible

I want to find a good project car that looks pretty good and doesn't cost me an arm and a leg so I can put a sh!t-load of mods on it. American cars are either not reliable or way to common (no offence to anyone). 2 door or 4 door doesn't really matter to me.

Right now I drive a 91 Maxima that I'm gonna loose to my sister in August. I need to find a replacement for it. Truthfully, I don't want to take a step down from that (160hp). My friend may sell me his 2k1 AE max for $5k (long story, don't ask) in the spring, but there's so many things that could go wrong with that deal that I don't want to put way too much faith in it. So, anyone have any good suggestions?

Too easy, anything that says Honda or Acura on it. Hell it doesn't matter how many miles are on it they last forever. You can't go wrong.

i would go with an E30 BMW (84-91 3 series). looks vary from person to person, but it has great performance out of the box. extremely light-2500 lbs. with 160ish HP, it will fly. and it has great handling needless to say. they are easily modded too.

Why get an old car and expensive to mantain?? You can get an used 1998 Daewoo, they´re the nicest ones and pretty reliables.

Hey Euro can you buy one for that price in Spain. Well probably not in America. In case you didn't realize this guy is from Texas, not Madrid. Get a Honda, they blow all that Daewoo and other garbage away.

Originally posted by LiuBei
Hey Euro can you buy one for that price in Spain. Well probably not in America. In case you didn't realize this guy is from Texas, not Madrid. Get a Honda, they blow all that Daewoo and other garbage away.

yeah they probably would, but they don´t look so good as this koreans, dont ya think?
yeah, Spain is a cheap car market, but not for turism!

Get a 95-98 Hyundai Accent, cheap, reliable, easily modded, and when modded- a babe magnet.

Stay away from any Hondas with over 100,000 miles, because as they age they are going to need expensive repairs, things like worn brakes, coolant leaks, blown head-gaskets and both interior and exterior bits will fall off

A used '98 Daewoo Lanos should come easily under $6k, in NZ I have found Lanos' for as cheap as US$4k

Originally posted by LiuBei
Too easy, anything that says Honda or Acura on it. Hell it doesn't matter how many miles are on it they last forever. You can't go wrong. Bang ;) That was easy... :) though a Mazda Protégé isn't a bad choice either.

Well I don't know if this car exists where you live but for what you asked you should take a look on Opel Calibra V6. They are pretty nice and about what you want.

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/attachment.php?s=&postid=178578

You can pickup a 240SX (either S13/S14) for under 6K and if you still have room...you can throw in a SR20DET which will pretty much always have less than 50K miles. If those are out of your reach...you got the Datsun 510's or the 240Z's...if not those...perhaps a 300ZX (Z31's).

Dont leave the Force and go the the Dark Side (Honda).

yeah i was thinkin about nissans. but the 240sx the S14 one, i dunno thats kinda more then 6 g's for a good one. soooo i guess the best bet is a honduh. but hey, they look good, who cares if they don't hbve any power, and that everyone else has them. lolz you'll be just like eveyrone else, isn't that what people want? lolz

i bought a s14 with 48k miles at the time for under 6Gs w/ a catch, no AC option/ no AC compresser

If you don´t care about styling, any japanese car would be fine except Honda, I´ve heard and know people with Honda Civics an some others with poor reliability after 60k; the engine brokes down and the plastic components start to make anoying noises on the inside etc, and its more expensive than Toyota and Nissan to fix it and everything. Anyways you have to get others opinions to make a conclusion :rolleyes:

honda engines are the best engines ever made. they last for so long. compared to other cars, the engines power doesnt wear down that much. it lasts for a long time. its really amazing. i had a old toyota celica but after around 10 years i think. the engine is done. the engine power went down a lot.
rx-7's are nice, but rotary engines are very hard to maintain. they dont last long. it costs a lot for repairs because its a hard engine to repair and fix.
nissans are not that good of a car company back then. it's a lot better now. the cars in the the late 80's to mid 90's are not the best cars.
hyundai....man those are ugly. if your going to buy a hyundai, might as well buy a decent car. a honda or toyota.

I have kind the same problem as you (Gamezilla). I'll go for a Toyo or Nissan, tendencies are to Toyo at the mom. the 5th and 6th gen are real nice. e.g. 5th gen GTI (170hp) very reliable.

I think Honda does have good reliability but so do Toyota and Nissan...I have heard of Nissan 240SX's with over 300K miles and still going. So I mean...definitely.

Another option is you can get a DSM (Eclipse/Talon/Laser) ...for under $6K and run 12's all day w/about $3K worth of mods but the big problem is the reliability and the drivetrain. So if you are in it for the short run and dont mind fixing it almost every weekend...then a DSM is by far the best bang for the buck...it's just you will have to spend some money on drivetrain parts to get that buck to truly be worth it.