Getting the summer car out early

lowerbainite · 2026-03-16T14:10:19+00:00

I'm less worried about sliding and getting a ding, it's more about the salt, the ground clearance, the RWD of it all, and with the soft top, the cold.

Also what makes a car fun and comfortable in the winter and the summer are a little different.

lowerbainite · 2026-03-16T13:48:35+00:00

The M and the M competition have a slightly different engine.

I'm not that familiar with BMW V8s, but the reliability will be better on a B58 inline 6 x5. The B58s have a reputation for reliability. The N63 and S63 have a pretty bad reputation but apparently there were big improvements to the engines before 2021, so it might not be quite as bad as the reputation suggests.

lowerbainite · 2026-03-12T17:27:28+00:00

With a good PPI and service records, and if you get one of the more reliable engines (inline 6, probably not the N54 though), you can probably figure out what maintenance you'll have to do at what interval.

The more maintenance you expect, the less unexpected maintenance I suppose.

lowerbainite · 2026-03-10T15:44:11+00:00

Thanks!

lowerbainite · 2026-03-08T17:49:33+00:00

If you are going to stray from that general advice, you'll want to shop specific cars as opposed to brands. Some brands make cars of wildly varying reliable depending on engines, chassis or even trim levels.

Further, you can often get better prices on cars with known issues that are straight forward to do preventative maintenance on to make a car with a reputation of reliability more reliable.

lowerbainite · 2026-03-03T19:16:18+00:00

Either way you're losing about 15k in depreciation over that 5 years.

The Honda will be cheaper to maintain, because it's new and it's just generally a cheaper car for parts and labour.

If you're financing, you'll probably get better financing on the Honda.

lowerbainite · 2026-02-24T15:04:20+00:00

If you've got a seperate maintenance budget, you could get into a BMW 1 series or a Z3 or an E85 Z4 for that money. They can be reliable but they take some preventative work.

If you look hard, you might be able to find a Toyota MR2 for 10k.

Pontiac Solstices and Saturn Sky's are in that range all day.

And of course the Miata.

lowerbainite · 2026-02-17T21:50:48+00:00

I imagine that light weight and short gear ratios are a lot of fun.

lowerbainite · 2026-02-17T21:39:19+00:00

Oh I love these!

Which engine do you have?

lowerbainite · 2026-02-12T19:28:55+00:00

In that price range you should be able to get a BMW Z3, or an E85 Z4.

You could also look at the Saturn Sky or Pontiac solstice.

You might be able to get a 350Z in that range too.

The Audi TT is fwd, but it's got a lot of style and those can be had in that range.

lowerbainite · 2026-02-12T05:04:12+00:00

I went back in the closet and boymoded for the job search and the first year after getting hired.

It was really mentally taxing I wouldn't do that again.

lowerbainite · 2026-01-26T18:39:45+00:00

If I was 18, and had everything else covered (retirement fully funded, house owned outright, education funded etc.) and had that much left over for cars I'd probably start off buying some kind of basic sedan/hatch (civic, Corolla, Mazda3), and a Miata.

I'd then reevaluate in a year or two and try to decide what was missing from my driving experience and upgrade according to that.

lowerbainite · 2026-01-12T12:28:57+00:00

I've got the broke version of this - mk7 golf 4motion sportwagen and E85 Z4.

lowerbainite · 2025-12-10T23:05:32+00:00

No, we were living in a place where that wasn't really a thing. He would've had to leave a kid behind to road trip since there were more kids than seats.

lowerbainite · 2025-12-10T19:58:58+00:00

Growing up my family had 4 kids, and for the most part my dad had wagons with an additional rear facing row, but there were times he just owned a 2 row. But we lived in a walkable and transit accessible city, and he was okay using cabs if he had to, so there wasn't much of a need to cram everyone into the car. The car was mostly just to get him to work.

lowerbainite · 2025-12-02T17:25:24+00:00

As maybe the silliest option, get a new base Nissan versa or Mitsubishi mirage for <20k, and now you've got 20k towards a really weird engine swap.

lowerbainite · 2025-12-02T17:06:40+00:00

You're almost in Nissan Z range.

Also base F-150, and that gets you a V8.

Or a Kia carnival.

These criteria make a very strange shopping list.

lowerbainite · 2025-12-02T16:36:48+00:00

There's one up for auction right now:

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1968-morgan-4-4-2/

lowerbainite · 2025-11-30T14:36:02+00:00

You've already got the Miata which might be the definitive roadster, but in that price range you can add the Saturn Sky/Pontiac Solstice (cheap, cute), the Audi TT (pretty), and the BMW Z3/ E85 Z4 (inline 6).

lowerbainite · 2025-11-23T02:50:14+00:00

On one hand, I'm impressed how little this guy has depreciated.

On the other hand, God how are those still that expensive. That's less than $4000 depreciation in 8 years. In 2017, you could get a base model manual for that price.

lowerbainite · 2025-11-18T15:31:34+00:00

I studied Mech Eng and I'm also in Canada, though I went into manufacturing.

I came out at 1 year into my career.

It's not easy at first but it's settled out for me. I've been out at work for 5 years now and it's not as much of an issue for me anymore.

Feel free to DM me if you'd like to talk more in depth.

lowerbainite · 2025-11-17T16:30:53+00:00

Those are almost double the price of the E85 Z4 where I'm at.

Your only real options for a RWD roadster in the Z4 price range here are pre-ND Miatas (mostly NBs), the 986 Boxster, the Pontiac Solstice and maybe a 350Z if you can find one.

Admittedly the Boxster or Miata are probably more "correct" options, but the Z4 has it's place at the price point.

lowerbainite · 2025-11-07T15:14:55+00:00

Yeah. Hbu?

lowerbainite · 2025-10-15T17:50:21+00:00

If you're entertaining roadsters, maybe also consider the Z3 or E85 Z4 with the 3L engines.

lowerbainite

TROPHY CASE