Best cars for $20,000 is the cover story for the current issue of one of the car mags (Car and Driver?). Should be in any supermarket or bookstore's magazine section.

 

Evoooooooooooooooo!

 

with $20k i would buy...

Option 1:
...a wagovan shell. seats of my choice. wheels/suspension of my choice. k20. new coat of paint. put the spare cash into my savings account. smiles all day :)

Option 2:
...a cressida shell. seats of my choice -- old school brides with the mesh headrests if i can find them. wheels/suspension of my choice. 7mgte + metal head gasket + ct20b + 2jz injectors. new coat of paint. put the spare cash into my savings account.... for new tires. smiles all day :)

Option 3:
...a running ek chassis civic. leave it stock. blow the rest of the cash on booze. smiles for the rest of the year :)

 

either a NSX, a Lexus SC400/Toyota Supra, Nissan Skyline (does importing $ count?), or a 93+ RX-7

any of those would be an ultimate blast

 

If I were looking for a new car for $20k, I would get an 04-05 Subaru Impreza STi or a newer WRX.
But if I had $20k to spend on any car, I'd get a 1998-2001 Impreza 2.5RS and swap an 04+ STi motor in it and save the rest of the money for a rainy day.

 

Ep3 K20. All day.

 

I have that car. The Honda Fit.

And spent less than 20K.

If I'd thought some other car was a better car, I would have bought it.

 

Factory Five GTM... its under 20k... of course its a kit car, but its an awesome kit car lol...

 

hmm just one car or a bunch of cars that total $20k?
I've always wanted a 86-87 Buick Grand National, 94-96 Buick Roadmaster and a 94-96 Chevy Impala SS

 

I'm confused. If everyone would have bought some specific car for 20K, and they're driving a Fit, uh, why are they driving a Fit? Why didn't people buy the cars they mentioned?

 

Well, in my case and I assume a lot of other people's, after C4C, I got the fit for somewhere in the 12k range. If I could have spent up to 20k (MSRP without extra fees, tax, title..) my choice might have been different, but I had a budget. For a lot of people, as I'm sure you know, even the difference between 17k and 20k does matter.

That being said.. I think I'm so tired from the process of choosing and shopping for the fit... I don't wanna try to figure out what else I might have bought.

Personally I'm not too crazy about the article either... I mean if we include the used market, we could get a TON of things below 20k... too many choices if ya ask me. I'm curious what people would buy in the same model year (or within a few years.) It's more restricted then. Me, I might have considered the VSA/Navi, because I want that VSA.. but for no other reason. I might have gotten a well-outfitted pickup, might have considered the Insight, or the Mazda5.. there may have been others under that sort of more strict rule that I would have considered, but I don't want to do my shopping process all over again for just a hypothetical question! :D

 

Oh, how I wish I could have participated in the C4C deal. Including tax, title, fees, accessories I had put in before I picked up the car, the alarm, etc, the check made out to my dealer was over $18K for the Base automatic.

Adding in the Sport trim would have pushed it uncomfortably close to $20K total. While I wouldn't have had to add the alarm, I still would have wanted the mats and cargo mat and cargo cover in the car, ready to go, when I bought it.

The mats (driver side) and cargo cover required some labor, not something I can just drop in myself, like the cargo mat.

And I bought in December, so I really DID want the all-weather mats and cargo mat in right away. After grinding mud or grease into the carpet is not the best time to realize that the mats are a good thing. Do it before the problem exists and the problem may never exist!

I figured that the $20K price had to include everything. Simply because if I had a $20.00 bill in my hand and that was how much I could spend, the total amount I could spend would be $20.00. That's "grocery store shopping".

I know "car shopping" is different.

 

in my case it was because i knew i was bringing negative equity into the equation. a sub 20k car was essential.

 

One car not mentioned here, Which I think is worth looking at the Chevy Cobalt SS. Really nice chassis and motor package, but the interior need some help. Just my 2 cents...