Nagase

iTrader: (6)

Exactly how is daily driving a Miata less financially responsible than a typical economy car?

Supercharging it is not what makes it a sports car.

TalkingPie

A salvage supercharged Miata is the most financially reasonable car to maintain of the ones he's listed so far. I think that bears at least a few moments of reflection. I'm not here to tell anyone how to spend their own money, but if I had $3,000 or less for a car which I relied on daily, my first thought wouldn't be, "****, son, I have to get me a high-mileage E36 or a DSM!"

Then again, not everyone would drop $9k on a base '99 Miata (that's prices in my part of Canada; no need to tell me it's worth 5-6), only to take the bus to work and school, and have no car to drive at all at least 4 months out of the year, but we all makes our choices and pays our money.

Nagase

iTrader: (6)

You said sports car. I specifically stated that a supercharger does not a sports car make.

A salvaged supercharged Miata as a specific example is even further from your original statement of sports cars are bad for poor people.

I've owned a DSM and 3 series with high miles. Even though the DSM was having wiring issues, it never stopped running, and the BMW kept going despite the blown head (that I bought it with).

Not the best choice in cars for a person starting out at all... and neither are sports cars. One is a niceish sedan, the other is a japanese muscle car.

A Mk1 MR-2, a decent Miata, an MR-S... there are plenty of reliable sports cars out there. Saying 'sports car bad' and then using the example of a salvaged supercharged Miata is not proving anything.

TalkingPie

So what you're saying is that my using the term "sports car" instead of the more pedantic "car with luxurious and/or sporting pretensions which needs frequent and expensive maintenance" renders moot my point that using very limited funds to buy maintenance-intensive cars as daily drivers is a bad idea?

Has this post of yours successfully refuted any point that I was trying to make, or accomplished anything aside from showing us that you're touchy about your definition of "sports car," and that you've owned and had non-trivial issues with the very cars I said were a bad idea?

Furthermore, I'd very much state that it's a bad financial idea to put two thirds of the value of your car into a power adding upgrade that's an added point of failure and adds stresses to an already-high-mileage powertrain, as well as suspension, brakes, tires and fuel consumption, given that the objective is to have a car that will serve as sole mode of transportation (and presently: source of income), all on the budget of a nice bicycle. Add in the fact that the car in question is salvage-titled, and from the description clearly not in the newest of shape, and I'm further convinced that this is not a pit in which it would be financially wise to dump more money.

But as I said before, you pays your money and you makes your choice, and I'm not the one who had to dump a car because it was bleeding me dry financially, nor did I have to live with the consequences of such, so I have nothing invested in what choices a person makes in their car purchases. My goal was simply to point to the fact that a less maintenance-prone car would have caused less drama given the meager budget available.

I would have also had less drama had I not owned a string of sport bikes, my Miata being the safest, most practical, and slowest vehicle I've bought in over a decade. I went my route for my own reasons, and I'm not interested in dictating what anyone else's reasons or motivations should be. If nothing else, the kid should be lauded for being passionate enough about cars to have sacrificed what he has in order to have interesting ones. But make no mistake: he could have saved a lot of money and hassles by choosing more mundane vehicles.

Nagase

iTrader: (6)

The Miata is at core a Japanese economy car. So is the MR-2/S. Prime examples of why you shouldn't discredit anything labeled as a sports car as an unwise mode of transportation.

Everything beyond that is a rant without relevance to what I said.

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

One of you will eventually run out of **** and this contest will be over. Then this subscribed thread will stop popping up on my list without anything relevant being added to it. OP already has said automobile. We can't change that with hypotheicals and theorheticals.