Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: skorpx1 on August 19, 2013, 06:21:21 PM
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So on Friday I am pretty much guaranteed a job and after that I will finally be making some cash. I'll have at least $580 after my first 4 weeks and I can afford to get a nice acoustic bass for that price. With that being said, here's the first question:
If anyone here has some good acoustic basses what brand and model is it, and how much does it cost? If its an Ibanez leave it out of the answer. I had an Ibanez once and it was a pure-bred POS. Never worked like I wanted it to and had a terrible sound to it.
Second question:
What would be a good gaming laptop? I don't want an Alienware laptop because those are just way too far out of my price range and i'd like something under $400.
Third question:
What would be a good car to buy as a first car for a 16 year old with a spare 3 grand? Iv'e been looking at a '99 Firebird because they look nice and get like 18 city MPG and 24 HWY.
Not to mention its got the same engine as a Camaro. :aok
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You cannot buy a good laptop for $400.
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18 mpg? You'll spend all yer time pushing it. I'm happy with 115bhp and 54 mpg myself
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18 mpg? You'll spend all yer time pushing it. I'm happy with 115bhp and 54 mpg myself
18 MPG is the best i'll be able to afford. I don't have 22k laying around for a Smart Car or a Prius.
You cannot buy a good laptop for $400.
My friend has an HP Pavillion that he got for $349.95 and its pretty nice. He can run BF3, Arma 2 and Fallout New Vegas just fine on it.
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If your funds are that low don't buy a car that will cost you more in fuel, rego and insurance. A little 4 banger that's not too old is good. What ever money you would have spent on the firebird, save and you will have a buffer and be on your way to a much better car.
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If your funds are that low don't buy a car that will cost you more in fuel, rego and insurance. A little 4 banger that's not too old is good. What ever money you would have spent on the firebird, save and you will have a buffer and be on your way to a much better car.
+1
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18 MPG is the best i'll be able to afford. I don't have 22k laying around for a Smart Car or a Prius.
My friend has an HP Pavillion that he got for $349.95 and its pretty nice. He can run BF3, Arma 2 and Fallout New Vegas just fine on it.
My 99 Mustang gets in the low 20's for gas mileage. Probably better if I didn't hammer it so much, but its just so much fun! :devil
Your first car is NOT going to be a hot rod, it is NOT going to be a luxury car, it is NOT going to be a "babe magnet", nor is it going to be some ritzy sports car. What your going to get is a "beater" some thing that passes inspection, is easy to care for, and is cheap. If you get a year or two out of it most people will be surprised. As a young driver it WILL get banged up! You will not take as good a care of it as you should so why get a fancy car that you WILL ruin. Get a beater.
Look on Craigs list. look for a car that is being sold from a smaller town near-by. City cars get banged around alot, a car from a small town is more likely something that was used just to get to work and back and was taken care of. Have a mechanic check it out for you before you buy it. A good mechanic can spend 15 minutes with a car and find the problems it has.
Laptop..... only buy one if you need it for school or work. As a gaming machine they are only average at best, and to get that your going to have to spend a lot more than $400.
Basses, like any instrument, name, style, looks are all unimportant. How they sound is. Even if its an Ibanez, if it sounds good then it is.
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+1 on waiting on getting a car. You will be looking 350-500 Dollors every 6 months for Liabillity insurance just drive Mom and Dads as long as possible. If you need to tail a girl why u dont have your own hot ride tell her you are saving that money for later and spending some of it on her. She will like hearing that. :old:
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My 99 Mustang gets in the low 20's for gas mileage. Probably better if I didn't hammer it so much, but its just so much fun! :devil
Your first car is NOT going to be a hot rod, it is NOT going to be a luxury car, it is NOT going to be a "babe magnet", nor is it going to be some ritzy sports car. What your going to get is a "beater" some thing that passes inspection, is easy to care for, and is cheap. If you get a year or two out of it most people will be surprised. As a young driver it WILL get banged up! You will not take as good a care of it as you should so why get a fancy car that you WILL ruin. Get a beater.
Look on Craigs list. look for a car that is being sold from a smaller town near-by. City cars get banged around alot, a car from a small town is more likely something that was used just to get to work and back and was taken care of. Have a mechanic check it out for you before you buy it. A good mechanic can spend 15 minutes with a car and find the problems it has.
Laptop..... only buy one if you need it for school or work. As a gaming machine they are only average at best, and to get that your going to have to spend a lot more than $400.
Basses, like any instrument, name, style, looks are all unimportant. How they sound is. Even if its an Ibanez, if it sounds good then it is.
The laptop doesn't have to be stellar. I just need it to run better than what I currently have and if it can store somewhere around 15 gigs of music then so be it.
As far as the car I want goes, reality blows. Ouch. The cars I see in my area on Craigslist are usually beat to hell and cost 1-2 grand. I doubt they'll run for more than 8 months if I get into it. My friend has an '02 Mercury Sable that he bought from someone on Craigslist for about 1k and it lasted 3 weeks before the tranny blew out on him. 2 months later he scraped up the 2k to fix it and it pretty much ran like new, until the brake lines crapped on him mid-drive and he had to replace those. Still, after he fixed it, it ran like new - until the front two cylinders started to misfire.
I swear his car is cursed. If anything i'll end up buying the Eclipse GS-T that my uncle has had for a few years. Probably the only one in all of Wisconsin that hasn't been riced by some idiotic guy thinking he's gonna look cool in it.
+1 on waiting on getting a car. You will be looking 350-500 Dollors every 6 months for Liabillity insurance just drive Mom and Dads as long as possible. If you need to tail a girl why u dont have your own hot ride tell her you are saving that money for later and spending some of it on her. She will like hearing that. :old:
My mom won't let me get near the driver side of her car. That's definitely out of the question. As far as hauling a girl around i'm keeping away from that. Women are expensive and annoying, better left as "FWB" until the mid 20's.
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You will always take chances with older cars. My 2nd car was a well looked after car that my Aunt had babied for years. I had it for about 1 year. In that time I replaced/fixed over $1500 on it. I sold it for $100 after the clutch died(not my fault I swear! :uhoh).
My next car was off a car lot, and it lasted 4 years before an apprentice forgot to put oil into the motor after a service. :furious
I now drive a very nice car, but my first 3 were... not the greatest.
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I'm past my mid 20's and still prefer friends with benny's. :lol
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I'm past my mid 20's and still prefer friends with benny's. :lol
Cant say I blame you. :lol
You will always take chances with older cars. My 2nd car was a well looked after car that my Aunt had babied for years. I had it for about 1 year. In that time I replaced/fixed over $1500 on it. I sold it for $100 after the clutch died(not my fault I swear! :uhoh).
My next car was off a car lot, and it lasted 4 years before an apprentice forgot to put oil into the motor after a service. :furious
I now drive a very nice car, but my first 3 were... not the greatest.
My friend with a manual Dodge Neon (I think that's what it is) kept on redlining and gear grinding the car until it finally broke down with only 120k miles on it. Needless to say he didn't know how to drive a stick very effectively.
[sarcasm]
Also I need a cool car so I can put 20 inch subs in it, 22 inch rims, a lowering kit and some stupid looking body kit so I can be teh koolest guy on da blokz! YEAH! RICE BURNERS![/sarcasm]
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Cant say I blame you. :lol
My friend with a manual Dodge Neon (I think that's what it is) kept on redlining and gear grinding the car until it finally broke down with only 120k miles on it. Needless to say he didn't know how to drive a stick very effectively.
Also I need a cool car so I can put 20 inch subs in it, 22 inch rims, a lowering kit and some stupid looking body kit so I can be teh koolest guy on da blokz! YEAH! RICE BURNERS!
now you are getting dumb. and you started sounding like you had a good head on your shoulders.
semp
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now you are getting dumb. and you started sounding like you had a good head on your shoulders.
semp
Forgot to include the "/sarcasm"
Whoops.
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A chinese made Ibanez is not the same as a Japanese made Ibanez.
I've never seen a bad Yamaha product as long as you buy one that is at least one step above the bottom level product.
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I don't know anything about cars, especially not in 'MERICA! where kids can get driver's license at the premature age of 16. Oh, well, 'MERICA! is so vast that on average it should be comparable to a lottery win to hit a youngster behind the steering wheel. On the other hand, I suppose people also over there live in bunches... Anyway, get a cheap car. One that has the lowest insurance costs, the lowest accident rates etc. The main purpose should be to conveniently take you from one place to another. The smaller mid-class underpowered japs have here a reputation that their mechanics never fail, they just rot away. If you live in the dry parts of 'MERICA! such a vehicle should be a safe bet. Besides, in a car next to a doghouse you'd learn to drive carefully because you can't rely on iron rail construction and puffy thingies to protect yourself.
What I do have experience in is young people gaming with cheap laptops. To describe that in one word: Pathetic. Your friend says he can play those games just fine with his $349 Pavilion. Alright, almost any game can be installed on any computer if the Operating system is supported. That doesn't guarantee they would play nicely. The graphics have to be cut down to the minimum and the frame rates will still be mediocre at best. The examples I've worked on have had a gazillion of rogue optimizer programs installed, slowing the laptop down even more and adding a plethora of browser helper objects, bars, search engines etc. alongside them.
I have an Ibanez FG100 archtop electric guitar, somewhat of a copy of a Gibson. There are Ibanezes and there are Ibanezes... For what I've heard, way back in the early 70's they used to make quality copies of famous instruments. In the 80's they had somewhat of a success making their own models which were used by #1 bands all over the world. Later they moved their production to cheaper countries and that's basically the reason of their bad name nowadays. If you find one, of any brand, that plays good, sounds good, and if it's important to you, looks good - and of course, if you can afford it - buy it. Instruments should be played, not admired on the wall. Very few musical instruments gather value lying untouched in their plush upholstery coffins.
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:D my neighbor has an 89 chevy s10 he's planning on selling for around 200 with the low mileage of........................... ............................. ............................. .... 34k :O the truck has no rot and a new clutch. I had a truck just like it when I started driving, very reliable and around 25 mpg. I wanted a truck cuz I had a 4wheeler and stuff, so a car wasnt practical. the s10s are good trucks and get decent mileage :aok
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:D my neighbor has an 89 chevy s10 he's planning on selling for around 200 with the low mileage of........................... ............................. ............................. .... 34k :O the truck has no rot and a new clutch. I had a truck just like it when I started driving, very reliable and around 25 mpg. I wanted a truck cuz I had a 4wheeler and stuff, so a car wasnt practical. the s10s are good trucks and get decent mileage :aok
Chevy makes some good trucks. I sure as hell don't want a Dodge for a truck though, I can't understand why anyone would - but to each their own.
I'd probably get an F-150 or a Silverado if I decide to get a truck.
What I do have experience in is young people gaming with cheap laptops. To describe that in one word: Pathetic. Your friend says he can play those games just fine with his $349 Pavilion. Alright, almost any game can be installed on any computer if the Operating system is supported. That doesn't guarantee they would play nicely. The graphics have to be cut down to the minimum and the frame rates will still be mediocre at best. The examples I've worked on have had a gazillion of rogue optimizer programs installed, slowing the laptop down even more and adding a plethora of browser helper objects, bars, search engines etc. alongside them.
His graphics are set at medium/high, but once he gets to maximum or very high he'll start noticing some FR issues.
All I need is medium/high graphics. I don't need something to run a game at full detail for the best quality when that doesn't even matter.
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I got sick of throwing money at vehicles a while back so I let my bike run out of rego, sold my just out of warranty Kia Rio (big waste of money that was) and bought a 1989 Nissan Pulsar for a bit less than a grand, everything worked, sort of and it traveled about 700 miles a week. Admittedly I had a Ford Ranger at work that I could use anytime I liked if I had to move crap. I instantly noticed an increase in disposable income which I then managed to spend on a few guitars after a drunken night on e-bay. I've since upgraded to a ten year old Falcon and it's pretty good on expenses. I had to replace a coil pack and that wasn't even $200.
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go ahead and get the BMW or Mercedes. Skip all the old beaters and money savers and get right to the instant gratification. :rofl
ps if its gas mileage... my bmw gets over 30 mpg on the highway. Im 55 and drove beaters and such until my family was raised then saved and got a decent car.
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I wouldn't advise getting a gaming laptop, even if you could afford it. They get hot. Very hot. Then they fry themselves.
Do you NEED a laptop, or do you just think the portability is nice to have?
For gaming, get a desktop. If you NEED a laptop ( it probably won't be for something as hardware intensive as gaming ) get a used one that does the bare minimum of what you NEED it to do. Heck, you can take notes just fine on old Win 95 laptops.. assuming the batteries are still any good.
As far as cars go, have your folks ask people they work with for some kid that is upgrading to a new car from their beater. 1998 Hondas, Toyotas, Nissans are probably in the ballpark. You're 16.. you shouldn't be worried about woooing women until you're out of college.. then you can get a decent ride with all the money you didn't spend on dating. :D
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Sounds like someone likes to have money spent well before they get it.
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Sounds like someone likes to have money spent well before they get it.
There's a difference before spending money I don't have and planning ahead.
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go ahead and get the BMW or Mercedes. Skip all the old beaters and money savers and get right to the instant gratification. :rofl
ps if its gas mileage... my bmw gets over 30 mpg on the highway. Im 55 and drove beaters and such until my family was raised then saved and got a decent car.
Amen Rondar.
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How much will your insurance be on that Firebird?
Hell, I paid $500 for my first car and $1,500 a year for the insurance to be able to drive it.
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go ahead and get the BMW or Mercedes. Skip all the old beaters and money savers and get right to the instant gratification. :rofl
ps if its gas mileage... my bmw gets over 30 mpg on the highway. Im 55 and drove beaters and such until my family was raised then saved and got a decent car.
Bring Money With or a vehicle named after a cash sucking biattch prolly not a good first car despite the gratification.
Now, a nice used Jaguar can offer everything a youngin needs in one tidy little package.
:bolt:
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Bring Money With or a vehicle named after a cash sucking biattch prolly not a good first car despite the gratification.
Now, a nice used Jaguar can offer everything a youngin needs in one tidy little package.
:bolt:
And...................you get to learn to work on cars or develop a relationship with a mechanic.
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Now, a nice used Jaguar can offer everything a youngin needs in one tidy little package.
:bolt:
How about no. U.K. made cars are held together with Elmers glue and Scotch tape.
For the same price i'd much rather get a nice German made car - Preferably a Mercedes Benz or an Audi. BMWs and Porsches are way too overrated.
Getting 170k for an SLR 722 or R8 5.2 would have to be my goal though. Might take a good 40+ years but i'll get it done.
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If you want a good Mercedes, the W124 series (1985-1995) was the last without built-in computerizing. I suppose they cost only hundreds over there, and at least their diesel engines last forever. Besides their spare parts are cheap.
There was a review in a local consumer computer magazine about different types of computers and their suitability for young university students living alone. For universal use at home the desktop was a clear winner: Lots of power for both gaming and studying (I once met a student of chemistry whose single calculations could take three days!), possibility to upgrade or replace parts etc. An Ultrabook or Macbook would be a good choice, if the computer would be carried along all day for making notes in places without electricity, lightweight, sturdy and a long battery life. All of the others were more or less considered as secondary computers, if one could afford two or more. One student said he'd need a tablet, because his way home takes eight hours during which both his laptop and his cell phone used as a modem would run out of battery. I'd like to see the specs of your friend's laptop to better determine its capability of running games, but anyway, as APDrone said, gaming laptops get hot and fry themselves. Besides, wouldn't you be playing AH on the computer you're talking about? Read through the hardware and technical support forums on this board to see how people manage in playing AH with cheap laptops.
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If you want a good Mercedes, the W124 series (1985-1995) was the last without built-in computerizing. I suppose they cost only hundreds over there, and at least their diesel engines last forever. Besides their spare parts are cheap.
There was a review in a local consumer computer magazine about different types of computers and their suitability for young university students living alone. For universal use at home the desktop was a clear winner: Lots of power for both gaming and studying (I once met a student of chemistry whose single calculations could take three days!), possibility to upgrade or replace parts etc. An Ultrabook or Macbook would be a good choice, if the computer would be carried along all day for making notes in places without electricity, lightweight, sturdy and a long battery life. All of the others were more or less considered as secondary computers, if one could afford two or more. One student said he'd need a tablet, because his way home takes eight hours during which both his laptop and his cell phone used as a modem would run out of battery. I'd like to see the specs of your friend's laptop to better determine its capability of running games, but anyway, as APDrone said, gaming laptops get hot and fry themselves. Besides, wouldn't you be playing AH on the computer you're talking about? Read through the hardware and technical support forums on this board to see how people manage in playing AH with cheap laptops.
I won't be playing AH on the laptop, I don't have the time to do so and it'd be a waste of money only to get in about 20 hours a month. Not sure about my friend's laptop specs, i'm sure I could find it on google if I gave it a quick search.
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How about no. U.K. made cars are held together with Elmers glue and Scotch tape.
For the same price i'd much rather get a nice German made car - Preferably a Mercedes Benz or an Audi. BMWs and Porsches are way too overrated.
Getting 170k for an SLR 722 or R8 5.2 would have to be my goal though. Might take a good 40+ years but i'll get it done.
Lol I see we are still really really wet behind the ears yet
:rofl
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If you want a good Mercedes, the W124 series (1985-1995) was the last without built-in computerizing. I suppose they cost only hundreds over there, and at least their diesel engines last forever. Besides their spare parts are cheap.
mercedes and bmw's can be fixed for the price of another car over here :cry.
semp
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Lol I see we are still really really wet behind the ears yet
:rofl
He needs a car to pull in some trim. :devil
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if you want something cool and cheap get a Kei car from japan, buy one at an auction, and you can easily have a cool car landed for 3000, I have had three cars imported from japan and all have been great fun, this is how much I paid for the, landed in Canada
1990 RX7 5000$
1994 Celica GT Four WRC edition (2500 made world wide) 13 500$
1992 Mr2 4000$
all of these were in perfect shape when I got them, the GT four only had 20 000km on it, you can get a cool and interesting car from japan for less than 3 grand if you look hard enough, although I am not sure about the United states' import export laws
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Lol I see we are still really really wet behind the ears yet
:rofl
I see you still haven't read the entire thread yet.
Maybe you'll notice that I came back down to reality and will have to get some POS beater for a year, and then when I can get a full time job something better.
:rolleyes:
if you want something cool and cheap get a Kei car from japan, buy one at an auction, and you can easily have a cool car landed for 3000, I have had three cars imported from japan and all have been great fun, this is how much I paid for the, landed in Canada
1990 RX7 5000$
1994 Celica GT Four WRC edition (2500 made world wide) 13 500$
1992 Mr2 4000$
all of these were in perfect shape when I got them, the GT four only had 20 000km on it, you can get a cool and interesting car from japan for less than 3 grand if you look hard enough, although I am not sure about the United states' import export laws
The U.S. import laws require that cars made in a foreign country are up to our emission/safety standards and a few other standards I can't remember right now. The reason you don't see Skyline R34's and MR2's is due to the fact that they don't meet some standards we have. If you wanna import a car that doesn't meet some of the requirements you'll have to upgrade it to include every single requirement such as safety/emission and then get it through customs.
That's pretty much out of the question.
If I wanted to though I can go to the flea market by the highway and get a dirt cheap car that'll get me back home before it breaks down.
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If you want to grow up (like it sounds like you're coming around to), quit spending money on gaming for a little while and focus on either school or work (or both) until you have a decent income. If you really need a computer of your own, get a cheap 15" laptop that you won't mind throwing away when you save up enough for a good one.
For a used car, I like Honda civics but their resale value might make it hard to get a good one for $3,000. But that's where I'd start looking, a clean basic civic and don't spend all your cash on it so you have some for the first year's insurance and some gas.
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I see you still haven't read the entire thread yet.
Maybe you'll notice that I came back down to reality and will have to get some POS beater for a year, and then when I can get a full time job something better.
:rolleyes:
The U.S. import laws require that cars made in a foreign country are up to our emission/safety standards and a few other standards I can't remember right now. The reason you don't see Skyline R34's and MR2's is due to the fact that they don't meet some standards we have. If you wanna import a car that doesn't meet some of the requirements you'll have to upgrade it to include every single requirement such as safety/emission and then get it through customs.
That's pretty much out of the question.
If I wanted to though I can go to the flea market by the highway and get a dirt cheap car that'll get me back home before it breaks down.
pretty much all german cars are relatively expensive to repair. Audi is not left out either.
when I said go ahead and get the bmw or Mercedes instead of a beater I was being sarcastic, hope you know.
and semp, DIY is a handy skill to have these days. How much does it cost you to fix your bmw or Mercedes?
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civic is usually a good choice for a first car.
if you want something a little bigger with enough power to get you out of trouble, any early 2000s model GM with a 3400 v6 is not a bad choice for a first car. decent fuel mileage (i get 32 on the highway and 24 in city in my monte carlo and the alero i used to own) and enough power to get you out of trouble, not quite enough to get you into it. parts are cheap and readily available at any parts store or pick and pull yard...and they're dead easy to work on.
whatever you do, don't buy anything thats listed at a significantly lower price than the others.
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civic is usually a good choice for a first car.
if you want something a little bigger with enough power to get you out of trouble, any early 2000s model GM with a 3400 v6 is not a bad choice for a first car. decent fuel mileage (i get 32 on the highway and 24 in city in my monte carlo and the alero i used to own) and enough power to get you out of trouble, not quite enough to get you into it. parts are cheap and readily available at any parts store or pick and pull yard...and they're dead easy to work on.
whatever you do, don't buy anything thats listed at a significantly lower price than the others.
I don't trust half the cars on Craigslist anyways. What i'm looking for is a pickup truck like an F150 or an S10. I need to be able to haul my hunting stuff around in the winter and drag some mountain bikes around the state through a bit of mud and dirt to get to a good biking spot.
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Vort, we're trying to get him on the road, not give him endless time learning how to fix cars :)
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Vort, we're trying to get him on the road, not give him endless time learning how to fix cars :)
I know how to fix multiple things such as lawn mowers, bikes and ATV's. Cars would definitely be good to have in mind.
Having a car to fix all the time would be a 50% good 50% bad. I can learn how to fix my car but the bad part is that i'll actually have to fix it.
I'd much rather learn about fixing a car in my auto maintenance class where we get to mess up someone else's car.
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pretty much all german cars are relatively expensive to repair. Audi is not left out either.
when I said go ahead and get the bmw or Mercedes instead of a beater I was being sarcastic, hope you know.
and semp, DIY is a handy skill to have these days. How much does it cost you to fix your bmw or Mercedes?
I was talking about just getting the parts :salute
semp
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Vort, we're trying to get him on the road, not give him endless time learning how to fix cars :)
ran my alero for 5 years with nothing but common easy problems till it hit 200.000 miles. he'll crash it or upgrade long before then.
its not like i'm telling him to buy a sunfire!
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Public transportation is your friend my pad-wan :old:
Screw dating. Only chases heart brakes, and I burns huge holes in your wallet n