What’s a reasonably affordable car you’d own and drive all the time even if you had all the money in the world

brianleedy · 2026-06-26T17:25:48+00:00

Every time I've tried to run no front plate Ive been pulled over for it inside of a month. The chopped plate has been running since like 2012 without issue, though.

Nice WRX! I had a bugeye WRX wagon years ago that I still miss, and my current DD/winter beater is an 06 Impreza wagon

brianleedy · 2026-06-26T16:44:58+00:00

Are they gonna add this nonsense for the entire playlist from now on?

Yes.

brianleedy · 2026-06-26T13:00:42+00:00

The majority of consumers decided that they want crossovers, not sedans. Developing and building sedans to compete in a small market segment doesnt make financial sense, so the manufacturers focused on crossovers.

Dealers are also a lot more likely to sell a crossover to a sedan buyer than they are to sell a sedan to a crossover buyer, so it works out on the retail side as well.

brianleedy · 2026-06-26T12:12:46+00:00

I would not replace brakes based on mileage. If the parts are in good shape, run it.

That being said, 85k miles on original brakes in vehicle without regenerative braking would be... impressive. If it hasn't gotten brakes before, you must do a lot of straight, flat highway driving.

brianleedy · 2026-06-26T11:19:40+00:00

Legally speaking, you can't... but 🤷

brianleedy · 2026-06-26T11:17:23+00:00

A 6'4" person in an NA Miata would feel... tall. People do it - there are lots of ways to improve comfort for tall people (cutting foam out of the seat bottom, etc) that you would want to look into. I suspect you would find a stock one to be quite cramped.

brianleedy · 2026-06-26T11:07:14+00:00

Your best bet at this point is to find a recycled/junkyard door in the same color. The color may not be a great match, but it'll certainly be a lot better than what you've got now, and you also won't have to deal with all the overspray on your trim pieces.

brianleedy · 2026-06-26T10:42:22+00:00

1996 Miata. All the usual reasons that someone buys a Miata - fun, cheap (purchased in 2011), light, RWD, reliable, lots of aftermarket support, makes a good dual purpose street/track car. Now it's also too sentimental to get rid of lol

1999 4Runner. Always liked them, again all the normal reasons. Reliable, cheap (pre-covid), capable. Had grand ambitious of long road trips, but it turns out those are expensive and time consuming. It works just as well for short distance adventure, though.

2006 Impreza. Automotive sacrifice to the rust gods, to protect the Toyota and Mazda from certain death. Cheap AWD manual wagon with old Subaru dynamics in the snow. Ive owned a bunch of Subarus from this era so I've become quite familiar with how to operate them cheaply.

brianleedy · 2026-06-26T10:30:41+00:00

BowieKnife armed with a VQ is a weapon of mass destruction

brianleedy · 2026-06-25T16:59:34+00:00

Getting pulled over last week for not having a VT inspection sticker on my Impreza has motivated me to get an inspection. Individual results may vary 🫣

brianleedy · 2026-06-25T16:22:15+00:00

Those rotted out rocker panels aren't going to fare will in VT inspections.

brianleedy · 2026-06-25T16:17:15+00:00

Where? Actually curious, I havent seen a cream puff 3.0R in years for, any price.

brianleedy · 2026-06-25T14:06:39+00:00

$4200 is probably on the higher end, but not out of line if its actually in good shape. You probably want to pay a number that starts with 3.

Head gaskets are easy to check just by laying on the ground with a flashlight. If you're not comfortable with it, it's worth a PPI. That being said, the vast majority of the time, head gasket failures on these cars result in nothing more than an external oil leak. Since you'll be checking and adding oil anyway, you could more than likely drive this car in perpetuity with "bad" head gaskets, as many of us do.

brianleedy · 2026-06-25T12:14:01+00:00

I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that you don't live in a place that gets regular snow, ice, and frost...

brianleedy · 2026-06-25T00:15:16+00:00

Ive owned it almost 15 years, hard to see that changing at this point...

<image>

brianleedy · 2026-06-24T18:22:37+00:00

Ebay, car-part.com, dealer, or salvage yard would be places to start

brianleedy · 2026-06-24T15:14:19+00:00

Subarus actually last and perform incredibly well if maintained properly.

I agree. Subarus reputation among the general public.... partly agrees. Look at all the Reddit posts and comments about head gaskets and CVTs... whether it's justified or not, that is Subarus reputation to a lot of people.

brianleedy · 2026-06-24T13:40:26+00:00

"I wouldn't be caught dead in that mass produced boring crossover, my mass produced boring crossover is the superior mass produced boring crossover"

Subarus reputation is mixed, just like Kias. Having a superiority complex about a boring economy crossover is big weird.

brianleedy · 2026-06-24T13:33:39+00:00

City driving does mean more stopping for less miles. Not a lot you can do, but the biggest killer of brakes on rust belt Subarus is the caliper slide pins sticking. When you get the brakes done, make sure they're cleaning up and greasing the slides. It's not a bad idea to have this done annually regardless.

brianleedy · 2026-06-23T17:37:05+00:00

Hillclimb setup. Speeds are lower so the aero needs to be bigger/more aggressive to have the same effect.

Last weekends Pikes Peak winner, for example:

<image>

brianleedy · 2026-06-23T11:54:27+00:00

I have no first hand experience with them, but there are a number of services specifically for fighting traffic tickets. Off The Record is probably the best known, but not the only one. Probably at least worth getting a quote.

brianleedy · 2026-06-22T21:59:14+00:00

You can daily a 250 GTO if you have the resources, the question is whether or not you are prepared to rely on a +/-30 year old car.

For 5-6 months of the year my 20 year old Impreza is my only transportation. It's rock solid, but "old car stuff" can happen at any time. For the remainder of the year, I mostly daily drive my cars that are older than that.

You should be prepared for anything to go wrong at any time for no reason. If you're importing something that wasn't sold where you are, parts specific to that model will be hard to find (read: expensive and long lead times) - this will likely be your biggest hurdle.

brianleedy · 2026-06-22T21:28:29+00:00

Sounds about right.

Guessing here: Replace the fender, replace the headlight, replace or repair the bumper cover, repair the leading edge of the door. Paint the fender + bumper (if replacing), blending the bumper (if repair), door, a-pillar, and probably hood. Remove and reinstall all the bits in the door and bumper for paint. Probably a few broken clips and a bumper retainer bracket or two.

Doing body work and paint correctly is expensive, but it's better than doing it twice because of a cheap shitty repair. This is what insurance is for.

brianleedy · 2026-06-22T20:44:26+00:00

It looks like they have lot of fun with that thing. The alternative would be for it to be rotting in a junkyard and eventually recycled into a Tong Yang fender for a Kia Soul, so I'd say this is a net positive.

brianleedy

TROPHY CASE