What car should I get?

[Stargrazor]

I would go with the Mazda3. From what I understand it's the modern version of the protege and my protege was my favourite car. It just felt awesome to drive, and for they price they're very reliable, plus Mazda3 is a pretty common car so you'd likely be able to find replacement parts easily if you need them.

Sorry can't stand the clown face grille.

[ninjapaws]

I heard the CVT in the Lancer has issues. Have you test driven one yet?

yse a couple times, my friend has a 2011 Lancer GT with the CVT, ive driven it from Westchester, NY to Montreal, Canada a few times, and havnt had any problems. neither has he.

[Buxton McGraff]

In my opinion, go with the Santa Fe. One of the negatives I saw was that it was too big, but often that means it's safer for you. Especially if you live in the country, since a lot of teens (at least where I'm at) like to drive at horribly unsafe speeds.

[Paloro]

In my opinion, go with the Santa Fe. One of the negatives I saw was that it was too big, but often that means it's safer for you. Especially if you live in the country, since a lot of teens (at least where I'm at) like to drive at horribly unsafe speeds.

My dad has a Santa Fe and it does drive really nice, but the A-pillars and C-Pillars are so freaking huge that you have so many blindspots in it. The mirrors don't help that car much either. My dad didn't notice how bad it was until he got a spare truck to drive daily and now he never wants to drive the Santa Fe.

[zshikara]

I spent 17K on my 2008 Kia Spectra brand new. I've loved my car to death since I got it.

[Dolsiac]

Id say go with the GTi out of the lineup you have chosen at this point. They are good cars, even though some of them end up to go to crap quite quickly but that happens with most cars. They also can get a boost in power from a simple chip from APR or other tuners which will make it a tad bit more fun, and they handle amazingly. From my experience with Subaru I would never go that route, I had a 02 bugeye wrx hatch and even though it had a decent amount of miles (under 100k) I ended up having to swap the tranny, change out the turbo/up pipe/ dp, and replace the whole rear brake set up including the lines because they had gone to crap. Compared to other vehicles the WRX is quite a hassle to work on as they really cram that ej20 into the motor bay and unless you have a lift it takes a bit to actually repair these kinds of things. Anyway though my vote is for the GTI as I know plenty of people in the euro scene and they seem quite happy with the mkV when it first came out.

[Stargrazor]

Id say go with the GTi out of the lineup you have chosen at this point. They are good cars, even though some of them end up to go to crap quite quickly but that happens with most cars. They also can get a boost in power from a simple chip from APR or other tuners which will make it a tad bit more fun, and they handle amazingly. From my experience with Subaru I would never go that route, I had a 02 bugeye wrx hatch and even though it had a decent amount of miles (under 100k) I ended up having to swap the tranny, change out the turbo/up pipe/ dp, and replace the whole rear brake set up including the lines because they had gone to crap. Compared to other vehicles the WRX is quite a hassle to work on as they really cram that ej20 into the motor bay and unless you have a lift it takes a bit to actually repair these kinds of things. Anyway though my vote is for the GTI as I know plenty of people in the euro scene and they seem quite happy with the mkV when it first came out.

Ya I think it would be alot of fun too but I am struggling with a few things. First is I have to buy it used which is scary given the opinions I've seen for VW reliability lately. Also it runs on premium unleaded which really sucks because I get cheap gas at home but it's regular. I am actually leaning towards the hyundai's quite a bit right now. I am working on getting some prices for the elantra GT SE until the Santa Fe comes out and then I will test drive that. I will try to keep this thread updated as time goes on. I'm guessing the Santa Fe will be a bit too expensive for me and I will probably end up going with the elantra GT with the sunroof package. I hear the sunroof really puts the interior on another level.

[jlcamero]

VW Golf GTI