Daily Driver

[ElvisCordovi]

Would you guys advice me to keep my car a bolt on car, since its my daily or get a little 4 cylinder as my daily and back up car? (Full time college student)

[shippy8907]

Wouldnt hurt to have a daily really. That way you could put your car down for mods and not have to hurry to get it done in one day. Plus the amount you save in gas could be put towards the Z. Its a win win.

[94Blackbird]

While it wouldn't hurt, you have to look at things beyond just gas savings, which won't be that much over the Z unless you drive like and ass everywhere.

With a second vehicle comes double maintenance, increased insurance and double registration costs among other things. Plus you have to buy the daily in the first place, which to get something that you can be reasonably sure isn't going to leave you stranded, you're looking to spend a minimum of 3-5k. Any less than 3k and you're getting into really old with super high miles and possibly some very soon to be upcoming issues or mechanics specials that don't run right to start with.

As far as would I recommend it, for a full time college student, no. You have a perfectly drivable car as is, and if you're on that tight of a budget as you say in your other thread, you don't have the extra discretionary funds to devote to purchasing and maintaining a daily driver, let alone the resources for a project car.

My advice to you would be to finish college first then worry about hotrodding your camaro, unless you come into some kind of money before then. But from what I understand of your situation, you would be better off driving the camaro for the time being rather than dumping a bunch of money into another car and having your expenses increase dramatically.

[ElvisCordovi]

I am on a budget but not a really tight budget. I can manage to afford headers,gears,a few suspension parts etc. I do not have the budget for heads,cam,intake. I want to do all three at the same time when the money is right. I would like to do those simple bolt ons then save up and go with a 100 shot for the time being. Nitrous outlet wet plate kit system.

[94Blackbird]

I am on a budget but not a really tight budget. I can manage to afford headers,gears,a few suspension parts etc. I do not have the budget for heads,cam,intake. I want to do all three at the same time when the money is right. I would like to do those simple bolt ons then save up and go with a 100 shot for the time being. Nitrous outlet wet plate kit system.


It sounds tight enough to me that anything more than a couple of bolt ons/a second vehicle is out of the question. Patience is a virtue, especially when it comes to money.

[Fastbird]

Depends on the vehicle. LT1's don't get terrible gas mileage, but they don't get great gas mileage either, and for the fun, you gotta run premium. I say get yourself a good reliable beater. Pretty much anything Toyota or Honda is going to be well built and relatively trouble free. I've used an 89 Celica as a daily that was bulletproof, a 99 Celica as a daily (both stock and MR2 Turbo motor swapped), a 92 Honda Accord as a daily, a 98 Saturn SL2 as a daily, and I'm currently driving a 01 Corolla as a daily. The most I paid for ANY of those was the 99 Celica at $7500, but the rest were all $1800 or less cars. The ONLY major things to happen to any of them were a spun bearing in the 89 Celica due to low oil (my bad, but I didn't care, new motor/trans was $400 and lasted 100K miles), and my wife letting the Saturn run low on oil too many times in which case the motor tossed a rod through the block on me on the highway suddenly. Other than those two very preventable things, the only necessary maintenance I've ever done to ANY of them has been brakes and alternators and a battery or two. When it's a beater, you've got to think like a beater. Don't bother with minor things unless they REALLY bother you. Do the necessities to keep it on the road and it will keep your maintenance costs down.

You can find early-mid 90's through early 00's Corolla's and Accords pretty cheap. I just paid $1650 for my 01 Corolla with 150K miles. It's not in the best cosmetic shape but a new junkyard hood for $45 completely changed how good the car looks, and I did brakes because they were low. Other than that it's a solid car. Also look for Camry's and Civics. The sedan's always are going to be cheaper than the coupes with the import tuner population anymore also, so consider that.

[NoMoneyZ]

If I were you I wouldn't bother with a second car right now. Seems like a wash unless your driving a ton of miles and need the 30+mpgs. I remember when my car was stock I would get mid twenties on the fwy. So they are not that bad when stockish.

[popo8]

I gotta say, if you want to do small mods...exhaust, etc.....do that, and enjoy it as a driver. Remember the more mods you add, the more finiky the car will get, the more attention it will need. Lets look at the N2o you want to spray it with..... When you start adding things like that, you have much better chances of breaking something...from the motor to the rear...

Just food for thought.

As stated above... the more cars you own, the more your vehicle MAINT budget gets hit (ask me how I know with 6 cars).... and that can put a big dent in a students wallet. Especially now when you look at beaters...