Car guys...

[mark thorpe]

i wouldnt get that car.. looks nice, but with all those mods, you can bet its been driven hard.. get a smaller, cheaper, less powered car..

 

[freestyler105]

The problem with the SRT-4 is getting your power to the ground. I'm pretty sure they are very susceptible to wheel hop. But you probably shouldn't be going that fast with your first car.

I disagree about buying new cars, I think that is a stupid investment, especially for your first daily driver. You take such a huge hit with depreciation when you buy new. On top of that you're piled up in debt. The only real advantage is you know that someone hasn't beat on the car, but even if that is the case, and you know what all is going on with all your parts in the car (it comes with time) you will know how to look for red flags on a used purchase and be able to repair things should anything go wrong... probably for cheaper than depreciation will own you even if you include labor.

Now granted, I wouldn't go for anything that has been modified to a certain extent. Heavy - bad, light - okay. Aftermarket parts are sometimes more reliable and work better than OE parts.But FYI my daily driver is my racecar and it has been pretty reliable. Got it used for $10K and I have probably put a little over $1k in "fix-it parts" on it over 80,000 miles, which some were upgraded so more expensive than an OE part. The key is to do the work yourself and you will always save half the cost.

You're probably better suited going to lots of car forums to research your car than asking here. We do know a lot about cars in general, but as for specific advice on ranges of different models etc... there's only so much we know. My advice is to not get set on a car, and drive as many as you can get your hands on. Get the one that speaks to you, and try not to make compromises... but I'm a purist. The world isn't a racetrack, despite my wishes, so do your research on reliability and safety as well and let those play a role in your decision.

Haha, exactly. My parents refuse to pay for a new car anyway. Yeah, I've been looking around a lot, I just wanted to get a trusted opinion here.

Check out www.srtforums.com, lots of info about them there.

As for wheel hop, new motor mounts are a absolute must. Either that, motor mount inserts, or filling the inserts with some kind of glue yourself.

Thanks, yeah, I've been reading a lot over there, good stuff.

if this is your first car you are stupid IMO for spending that much money on it
chances are its going to get beat up anyway i would spend max $1500 on a first car why not get some cheap crappy little car for your first car and then once your a little bit more experienced get something of that value

It's not like this is gonna be the first car in the world that I've ever driven and I have no experience. I'm not a crappy stupid driver, and I'm not gonna be one of those idiots in the news recently who go racing on busy roads and end up dead wrapped around a telephone pole.

There's no point in modding your car, I don't think.

1. It can make you look like a dickhead
2. People will want to steal it (happened to a guy who lived across the road from me, he spent thousands modding his Metro and it got stolen and written off)
3. The Police in the UK single out people with car mods because they see you and think you're some wideboy chavster who's going to be driving like an idiot
4. Mods are worth nothing, when you sell the car later on then you'll lose all your mods and won't make the money back
5. If you don't get it right, it can devalue the car.

In my opinion, you'd be better off using the money you'd be spending on mods and just put it into your main car budget to buy something which is much better overall, without bothering to mod it. I mean, most of the time in the UK the chavs all buy cheap crap like the Vauxhall Nova and mod it, but it's still a Vauxhall Nova and everyone knows that, so was there really any point when they could have kept the mod money and just bought a better car outright?

That's true, but the town I live in is one of the safest in the US, I'm not really worried haha. If I bought stock, I wouldn't mod as extensively as that guy...

For my first car I wouldnt be getting a tuner like that... Insurance will be really expensive, and its your first car. Wait til you are older before you buy something nice like that. Get something from the 90s with decent power for cheaper. Like a Mustang GT, or maybe a Camero SS or Z28. If you get one of those, just dont get the V6 crap ones, you will just get made fun of for that.

Insurance will be through the roof, but gas for a V8 like that would probably be even more expensive. The SRT-4 gets 20-30MPG depending on how you drive it.

 

[muz]

It's not like this is gonna be the first car in the world that I've ever driven and I have no experience. I'm not a crappy stupid driver, and I'm not gonna be one of those idiots in the news recently who go racing on busy roads and end up dead wrapped around a telephone pole.

so if your gonna be a sensible law abiding driver why in the worlld do you need upwards of 300HP really ?
we can all say we are going to drive safely but once you feel the power you will be tempted to go a little over the speed limit
And we can all say we have experience but if its the first car your going to own yourself then i honestly wouldnt be spending that much cos anything could happen

 

[Ð88]

but it's....a neon

 

[culexor]

its still a neon.

 

[Cabbs]

so if your gonna be a sensible law abiding driver why in the worlld do you need upwards of 300HP really ?

Because some people love fast cars.

 

[superman22x]

Insurance will be through the roof, but gas for a V8 like that would probably be even more expensive. The SRT-4 gets 20-30MPG depending on how you drive it.

20-30mpg for a stock SRT4... This is a turbo SRT4 with 400HP... So probably like 15-20mpg, and a mustang 5.0 can get about 22 driving normaly, and 28 or so on the freeway. So thats not a whole lot worse. And it has that V8 sound, compared to a turbo 4. And if you wanted to do a little tuning, you could always turbo that 302, and then you could get double the power of that SRT4

Because some people love fast cars.

We arent talking about how fast you can go, its about how fast you can get to 65mph.

 

[Cabbs]

I was responding to why someone would want a car with over 300HP.

 

[superman22x]

Ooops, I meant to quote muz actually.

 

[D-Lew]

20-30mpg for a stock SRT4... This is a turbo SRT4 with 400HP... So probably like 15-20mpg

No. Turbos often don't impair mileage significantly until you get into high revs. It's a good way to have an efficient car that still goes fast. He'll probably get high 20's on average unless it has insane stuff done to it.

And if you have to ask why anyone would want a lot of horsepower, you wouldn't understand. It's not all about top speed.