Dr. WOT

I have a 99 Civic 2 door. Speaking from this exact situation, it's almost perfect but I wish it had a little more utility. A Teg or a EG might do the trick, with their hatches, but personally I'd rather a 5 door.

How about that little Mazda wagon from a few years ago? The interior is cheap to death, but I always liked the styling, and it should fit the bill with everything else.

Boosted521

preludes make great dd's. as long as the timing belt & tensioner is changed out every 75k miles there aren't many other issues. i sold my 97 about 3 years ago for 5500 with 100k miles. you can definately find one in your price range.

JonBoy

Which part of Texas?

TheDonEffect

All are great options. If I wanted a POS beater, EG with some kind of swap- great gas mileage, legal, easy to work on, practical, and cheap to repair.
240s are great, gas mileage is good but it isn't corolla/civic good.
Preludes have transmission problems.
Integras are great, clean ones are hard to find, but also think about the insurance costs.
CRX and EKs are great as well, but I think you'll get more value out of the EG.
For me, the EG is probably the most enticing for a DD that could also double as a fun track car.

sparrow

EG no question out of those choices

Dr. WOT

the trick is finding one that isn't completely hammered

JS2k.com

Yeah, I think I'll buy anything I can find that's clean and runs well from that list, since they're usually beat on.
freq: yeah, what part of Texas are you coming to?

aklucsarits

Only if you get one with the "Sport Shift" Automatic. It's the worst transmission Honda has ever put in a car. Some automatic Preludes are on their 3rd and 4th transmissions.

The Manual 5spd transmissions in Preludes are all perfectly reliable though.

Andrew

omgitsoop

I had an 01 sh prelude, loved it, but it is definately a heavier car, and aftermarket parts are more expensive and a little harder to come by, although a few neat things have come out lately as h22 swaps are becoming more common in eg/ek. id say go eg/ek or 240sx, definately the cheapest out of pocket with the best aftermarket options. but definately invest in a decent alarm if you do the eg/ek route.

ionlylive

this is an extremist case, but i bought a '93 supra auto for $3000...

Edit: yes the new body style