Hi, I'm new to this place, and I would like to ask, what is the best car that can be bought for $25,000 or less. My friend is looking for a car, and he was looking at the toyota matrix, toyota celica, honda civic, RSX Type S, Mitsubishi Eclipse, ford focus, subaru wrx, and a bunch of other cars. He would like to know, which car that costs $25,000 or less can he tune up the most, or make fast the easiest. I would also like to know, since I would like to get a good car in a few years. Thanks.

Of all the cars you listed, I'd say none :wink:
Hehe, there's nothing wrong with any of them though. But I have very strong feelings towards a certain Volkswagen, and I'll lay it on you why.
You can get the VW GTi with the 1.8T I-4 for alot LESS than 25k. Approximately twenty thousand for the 'monk' basic basic version. I'd totally go for the Moon and Tunes package that gives you a Monsoon Sound System and a Moonroof for either 500 or 800 bucks, I forget at present. I know alot of people might not like how it looks, I find it not only unique, but also having a very cool looking deisgn. You can upgrade this baby in so many ways it makes my head spin :mrgreen:

www.18Turbo.com has as much info as you'd need to what to get for your'Dub

www.dubtuning.com has alot of pictures of tricked out VW's so you can see what can be done with the bodystyle.

Ciao
(oh, I was kidding before, I'd also look into the WRX though it would totally max out your budget)

MAZDASPEED Protoge.

Like i said on the other post, it's the best car in it's market, partly because it's overlooked. It's got superb handling, comfort and looks. It's also got a peppy little turbocharged 4-cylinder rated at 170hp. Car and river also named it best in 2 classes. THey ranked it first in compact cars over the civic, jetta, focus, elantra, rio, ion, neon, lancer ans so on. They said it was a miata with 4 doors and a hardtop. They also named the Protege 5 wagon best over the matrix, pt cruiser, vibe, focus and aerio. My dad has also had his Mazda pickup for 17 years and has 250k miles on it. It has had any serious problems.

Ok, first off, The Mazdaspeed IS a good car. It just doesnt have enough power though. Even a stock WRX has like 223 horsepower. So I'd probably go for that. Dont get a Honda unless yer gonna get the S2000, Dont get an Eclipse (everyone already has one) I probably would'nt get the SRT-4, cuz its ass ugly, its hella fast though, so thats always a plus, and dont get a Celica or anythin either. The GTI is a nice car, but its also severly underpowered. What you really ought to do, is wait a bit, and save up another 7 grand and go for the Mitsubishi Evo. I bought one, and its one of the funnest cars I've ever drivin (cept one time I drove a Ferrari, cuz that was SWEEEEEET) but anyway, its got amazing handling and you just cant beat AWD in anything. :twisted:

SRT-4, which i might add is under $20,000. It runs the 0-60 in the 5's for goodness sake. It has a mitsubishi engine though...

The GTI is a nice car, but its also severly underpowered
Okay, I don't see how 100hp per liter is underpowere. Yeah, thats 180 hp outta the stock 1.8T Sure, thats nothing up against a WRX or Evo 8. Those cars cost more and theres nothing you'd want to improve upon. Everyone with enough dough would get one and race it around stock, so you'd have a great car....that everyone else has.

A GTi with the Moons an Tunes package barely tips the 20k dollar scale.
Here are some thigns toi upgrade it with:

P-Flo Air Intake kit: $250 +6 hp
NEUSPEED Power Pulleys: $300 +6 hp
NEUSPEED Engine Management Chip: $350 ~40-43 +hp
NEUSPEED Turbo Intake Pipe: $260 +5hp
ECS N75 Wastegate Regulator valve: $90 +10 hp

Okay? Thats +63-67 hp above stock, usually a handfull of power will be thrown in with all the systems working together. And for those of you without calculators I only spent 1,250 dollars.
Now I have a CUSTOM GTi for ~22 thousand dollars with an output of 243-247, possibly more. I haven't even TOUCHED turbo upgrades(kits are usually around 2-5k) and exhaust upgrades. The exhaust is a good 15 more horsies and a good turbo kit will spank it up in the 400 range. So, even if I get a five thousand dollar turbo upgrade and spend a thousand on my exhaust system, My car is what? Two thousand dollars more than the Evo 8 and in the 400 hp territory. I'll take a car that I can say "Hey who wants to step up?" No-one with the same car stock would even think about it. Thats just me though. You can totally get somethignoutta the factory that everyone esle that spend the same amount of time (0 hours) tuning and same amount on mods (0 dollars) will be neck and neck with your car.

honda civic type-R

dunno how much they are in dollars but in the UK they are just under £16k

standard it has a top speed of 146mph and has a easily tunable engine

The GTI is a nice car, but its also severly underpowered
Okay, I don't see how 100hp per liter is underpowere. Yeah, thats 180 hp outta the stock 1.8T Sure, thats nothing up against a WRX or Evo 8. Those cars cost more and theres nothing you'd want to improve upon. Everyone with enough dough would get one and race it around stock, so you'd have a great car....that everyone else has.

A GTi with the Moons an Tunes package barely tips the 20k dollar scale.
Here are some thigns toi upgrade it with:

P-Flo Air Intake kit: $250 +6 hp
NEUSPEED Power Pulleys: $300 +6 hp
NEUSPEED Engine Management Chip: $350 ~40-43 +hp
NEUSPEED Turbo Intake Pipe: $260 +5hp
ECS N75 Wastegate Regulator valve: $90 +10 hp

Okay? Thats +63-67 hp above stock, usually a handfull of power will be thrown in with all the systems working together. And for those of you without calculators I only spent 1,250 dollars.
Now I have a CUSTOM GTi for ~22 thousand dollars with an output of 243-247, possibly more. I haven't even TOUCHED turbo upgrades(kits are usually around 2-5k) and exhaust upgrades. The exhaust is a good 15 more horsies and a good turbo kit will spank it up in the 400 range. So, even if I get a five thousand dollar turbo upgrade and spend a thousand on my exhaust system, My car is what? Two thousand dollars more than the Evo 8 and in the 400 hp territory. I'll take a car that I can say "Hey who wants to step up?" No-one with the same car stock would even think about it. Thats just me though. You can totally get somethignoutta the factory that everyone esle that spend the same amount of time (0 hours) tuning and same amount on mods (0 dollars) will be neck and neck with your car.

400hp range, sounds too high for me you would be pushing the reliability of the 1.8 engine to it's limits, my AWD Cosworth has 367hp, and that is more than you ever need, it can run ~3.9 sec 0-60mph (because of the AWD) all day long and top out at 240km/h with no problems, i can toss up with cars that double displacement, and an 911 carrera is not out of reach in the mountain roads (turbo is another story), but then again i invested a lot in tunning

No one here seems to like the V6 Accords, which pump out more power than any of the previous cars listed stock and is under $25,000.

FR500, are you getting your numbers from a dyno?

BTW, what counrty are you in? I'd assume the US, but where you live determines on what kind of car your looking at. Again, I only assumed United States America.

Well,
A) The AWD Cosworth is not available in the United States
B) is it under 25 thousand US dollars?
C) Yeah, I said you CAN get into the 400 hp range, in fact theres a project car I'm watchin' that has a goal of 500 hp :mrgreen: , but I'd be totally satified myself with an even 300.
D) Power is nothing without control. My car is SOL if I can't put the power down in the most efficent way. The AWD is usually the best option. FWD isn't bad...if you do it in the correct manner. And hey, there's a Canadian tuning company that will take a VR6 Beetle, GTi, or Golf, caress the engine until it spits out a hellish 500hp and switch out the drive train of the Audi TT. Yes, AWD and 500HP for 15,000 dollars on top of whatever you paid for your VW. Sick, no?
E) Yeah, I totally mis-"calculated" a super tuned GTi's price. I made the post right before work and it got longer than I thought, so I was like 5 minutes late, totally rushed. Base price w/Monsoon sound system and Moon roof, with 5k in a turbo kit, 1k in exhaust, and then the 1,250 dollars in the listed mods is a totally of only around 27 thousand dollars. Not the ah, "two thousand more than an Evo" I previously stated. Opps :P

Well,
A) The AWD Cosworth is not available in the United States
B) is it under 25 thousand US dollars?
C) Yeah, I said you CAN get into the 400 hp range, in fact theres a project car I'm watchin' that has a goal of 500 hp :mrgreen: , but I'd be totally satified myself with an even 300.
D) Power is nothing without control. My car is SOL if I can't put the power down in the most efficent way. The AWD is usually the best option. FWD isn't bad...if you do it in the correct manner. And hey, there's a Canadian tuning company that will take a VR6 Beetle, GTi, or Golf, caress the engine until it spits out a hellish 500hp and switch out the drive train of the Audi TT. Yes, AWD and 500HP for 15,000 dollars on top of whatever you paid for your VW. Sick, no?
E) Yeah, I totally mis-"calculated" a super tuned GTi's price. I made the post right before work and it got longer than I thought, so I was like 5 minutes late, totally rushed. Base price w/Monsoon sound system and Moon roof, with 5k in a turbo kit, 1k in exhaust, and then the 1,250 dollars in the listed mods is a totally of only around 27 thousand dollars. Not the ah, "two thousand more than an Evo" I previously stated. Opps :P

Yeah.......well, you can tune as far as money is available

That is pretty good for a GTI, no doubt about it. And I plan to spend about another 1000 dollars on my Evo and tweak it to around 400 horsepower too. I'll race ya then :) I live in Oregon if you wanna try me when I get done :)

Well,
A) The AWD Cosworth is not available in the United States
B) is it under 25 thousand US dollars?
C) Yeah, I said you CAN get into the 400 hp range, in fact theres a project car I'm watchin' that has a goal of 500 hp :mrgreen: , but I'd be totally satified myself with an even 300.
D) Power is nothing without control. My car is SOL if I can't put the power down in the most efficent way. The AWD is usually the best option. FWD isn't bad...if you do it in the correct manner. And hey, there's a Canadian tuning company that will take a VR6 Beetle, GTi, or Golf, caress the engine until it spits out a hellish 500hp and switch out the drive train of the Audi TT. Yes, AWD and 500HP for 15,000 dollars on top of whatever you paid for your VW. Sick, no?
E) Yeah, I totally mis-"calculated" a super tuned GTi's price. I made the post right before work and it got longer than I thought, so I was like 5 minutes late, totally rushed. Base price w/Monsoon sound system and Moon roof, with 5k in a turbo kit, 1k in exhaust, and then the 1,250 dollars in the listed mods is a totally of only around 27 thousand dollars. Not the ah, "two thousand more than an Evo" I previously stated. Opps :P
Yeah, I'm from the US, and I'll tell my friend and myself of course because we both want new fast cars, to save up money for the subaru sti, or the mitsubishi lancer evo.

Ack, I'm sorry. I was totally posting in a purely hypothetical manner. I DO NOT have a GTi(as of yet). I was merely listing this I WOULD buy off the bat for the $1,250. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Sorry, i forgot to add the Chysler PT Cruiser Turbo as a car under 25K. It's pretty cool.

The PT cruiser is soooooooooooooo UGLY!!! :? :? :?

i dont like it neither ....

Yeah, I can see what they were trying to do with the P/T Cruiser, but it definitly has a small small small following among auto enthusiests in general. Yeah, it kinda looks like an old school drag racer, but it's not and that makes it quite unappealing to me. I've been to alot of 'anti-rice' sites and one of the main complaints is people making their cars look fast while thye remind not very potent and unimposing performance wise. Well if thats the case, then the P/T Cruiser is the ULTIMATE "rice" machine. Looks like a 50's hot rod, but very much stinks in overall performance. (btw, I hate anti-rice sites and don't agree with anything they stand for. I was using their reasoning to flip mode, cha' know?)

What is "rice"? You obviously don't mean the food... :?

A "Ricer" is a term used to poke fun at the Japanese tuning crowd. A "Rice Rocket" or "Rice Burner" is a japanese car thats moderatly fast. Personally, i don't call anyone a ricer unless they buy a civic and put a big exhaust tip and spoiler and call it fast. In a sense, not a real tuner. I consider a "tuner" to be a person who really puts time into their car, and doesn't boast about it alot.

What do you mean a pt cruiser is the ultamite rice car? It's american. Unless i missed somehting, which i probaly did. This has nothing to do with anything, but my asshole friend called a Focus RS a "Rice Burner". I'm not sure, but i think ford is american.

And finally, What metallica song do you have on your tag jimkk29?

eh, maybe I've been to too many anti rice sites. They make fun of anyone who does anything to their car (of any make) that basically they themselves don't like, sooo apparently thats WRONG and possibly immoral? They make it seem that way. Even American cars, especially J-Bodies, since they are the most affordable, therefore most easily modified, financial wise. Um, I just think name calling is very pre-school myself and do my best to be more intilectual about these "ricer" matters.(hehe, I totally spelled intliectual wrong)

A "Ricer" is a term used to poke fun at the Japanese tuning crowd. A "Rice Rocket" or "Rice Burner" is a japanese car thats moderatly fast. Personally, i don't call anyone a ricer unless they buy a civic and put a big exhaust tip and spoiler and call it fast. In a sense, not a real tuner. I consider a "tuner" to be a person who really puts time into their car, and doesn't boast about it alot.

What do you mean a pt cruiser is the ultamite rice car? It's american. Unless i missed somehting, which i probaly did. This has nothing to do with anything, but my asshole friend called a Focus RS a "Rice Burner". I'm not sure, but i think ford is american.

And finally, What metallica song do you have on your tag jimkk29?
Thanks about the info. :D
Ford originated in America but now most (if not all) Ford cars are constructed in Germany.
The song is "Damage, Inc." from the album "Master of Puppets". :wink:

I was being sarcastic about the ford thing. I don't know if i expressed that enough. I live in america, so i know Ford is american.

A "Ricer" is a term used to poke fun at the Japanese tuning crowd. A "Rice Rocket" or "Rice Burner" is a japanese car thats moderatly fast. Personally, i don't call anyone a ricer unless they buy a civic and put a big exhaust tip and spoiler and call it fast. In a sense, not a real tuner. I consider a "tuner" to be a person who really puts time into their car, and doesn't boast about it alot.

What do you mean a pt cruiser is the ultamite rice car? It's american. Unless i missed somehting, which i probaly did. This has nothing to do with anything, but my asshole friend called a Focus RS a "Rice Burner". I'm not sure, but i think ford is american.

And finally, What metallica song do you have on your tag jimkk29?
Thanks about the info. :D
Ford originated in America but now most (if not all) Ford cars are constructed in Germany.
The song is "Damage, Inc." from the album "Master of Puppets". :wink:

Germany? i don't think so, maybe for your market, but for America, the focus i built in Mexico and Argentina, the Mustang is all American, the trucks too and so is the taurus.

Anyway, you get the better cars, the ST220 Mondeo for example, also that little new fiesta looks cool, and the sport ka would be perfect for my sister

The Mondeo isnt coming to America? how come Ford keeps doing this to us! First the Cosworth,(dont get me started on the Tickfords) and now this! WHEN WILL IT END! Oh well, I'm just wish the American auto industry would make another fast car( thats also decently affordable) AND NO HATCH BACKS!

Thats right! I'm sick of all the american perfomance cars being a hatchback. Everything good that has happened to the focus is a hatchback. The SVT, The RS, The ST170, The WRC Focus and even the ATI Motorsports Cobra Focus! The Focus comes in a Sedan and a wagon. They should do a Focus RS wagon, with 250hp. That would be sweet.

The Mondeo isnt coming to America? how come Ford keeps doing this to us! First the Cosworth,(dont get me started on the Tickfords) and now this! WHEN WILL IT END! Oh well, I'm just wish the American auto industry would make another fast car( thats also decently affordable) AND NO HATCH BACKS!

Yeah, it's crap, there are some nice cars out there from ford and GM too, the Falcon XR6 looks damn nice, i think it would handle cecently enough, and thats the entry line perfomance falcon (tere are more basic non high power versions), then is the XR8 and the GT, i would love to have a Falcon GT Pursuit, it's a very nice Ute.

As for Mondeo........US get's it, it's the Mazda 6S i think, same car except the looks, but i like the Mondeo better, the State version is pretty cool

i think grand am because they are a sporty looking car and if they have the v6 or the quad 4 in them they have quite a alot of power and they are good on gas

I'd get a TSX-S.

I'd also not bring back old ass threads.

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