Car for my cousin?

[lupinsea]

Thought I'd get your thoughts on this subject . . .

My cousin is going to be moving to San Francisco and will be working downtown in a few months. Currently he has a Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins Diesel that he wants to sell and replace it with a different car (thinking the big Dodge wouldn't be a good fit in SF).

Currently he's looking at 2006 E46 330is but is open to other suggestions.

He's a tall guy at 6'-3" and the 3 series fit him. But I'm thinking he should be looking at a lower-cost vehicle, in the $10-15k range at least until his career gets underway.

Any thoughts? A stick isn't critical for him and he's not as into the performance side of things as I am. Still, he'd want something fun.

When I think of SF, I'm thinking a hot hatch of some kind in that they'd offer some practicality with (tight) 4 seating, some cargo hauling, and can be a fun sporty-type car.

Or a convertible.

He's not too keen on the MINI styling, though I'm suggesting he test drive one at least. (BTW, are used R56 MINI S's in the $15-20k range now)?

The other reason I'm thinking lower in the price range is that I'm not sure where he'll be staying and I know parking is tight and/or costly for SF. I wouldn't want too nice of a car out on the streets in a large city.

[dan]

Mazda6

[Nick M3]

How about an older 330i?

[John V]

I certainly wouldn't want anything that new / nice / expensive if I were going to be parking it on the streets in SF. Or any city. But maybe he doesn't care if it gets dinged up?

For a city like SF, seems to me smaller is better. Mini, Mazdaspeed3 maybe (we love ours), E46 330 (because it's older and cheaper)... depends on how much emphasis, if any, is on "fun."

[SCA]

'06 330 = E90 unless it is a coupe. ;)

[ZBB]

Where will he be parking it?

If he'll have a garage, he'll be in good shape with just about anything -- and size really doesn't matter too much, unless the building has a really small garage.

But most places in SF don't have garages (outside SOMA). If he's parking on the street, the less flashy the better.

When I was in San Jose, my brother lived in San Francisco. He called me one morning because his car had been stolen -- he had an Acura Integra at the time (96 or 97 I think). It had been stolen, stripped, abandoned and found by the police in Oakland even before he noticed it gone at ~7am. When he got back to his apartment to call the police, he noticed a voice message from them saying it was in the impound lot. I took him up to look at it and sign it out of impound so his insurance company could take care of repairs. Nothing major -- but the headlights, radiator, stereo and airbag had been stripped from it and one window was broken...

[lupinsea]

How about an older 330i?

I think he's looking to limit how old of a car he gets. Not "too old" where it's high miles and he's stepping into a higher maintenance car and all the costs and time distraction (arranging for shop time, picking car up, dropping it off) that entails.

If he can get into a car with 40-50k miles that is 3-4 years old then I think that could get him a fun car without dropping too much coin on it that isn't too old.



'06 330 = E90 unless it is a coupe.

Oops, I meant and E46 330i. One of the last years produced (whenever that was).





I certainly wouldn't want anything that new / nice / expensive if I were going to be parking it on the streets in SF. Or any city. But maybe he doesn't care if it gets dinged up?

For a city like SF, seems to me smaller is better. Mini, Mazdaspeed3 maybe (we love ours), E46 330 (because it's older and cheaper)... depends on how much emphasis, if any, is on "fun."

I was thinking smaller = better, too.

I'm sure he wants a "fun" car but I know our concepts of fun are different. I'm much more concerned about the performance side of things. He'd like that, too, but also wants something comfortable and perhaps less edgy. He drove a 330i sport package car and thought it felt great (where as when I test drove one it felt mushy with a sluggish engine vs. our ZHP).

Cars he does like:

CTS (he was mentioning this at one point, I think I talked him out of it due to price)
BMW 3 and 5 series

Um. . . . stuff like that.

I'm trying to get him to at least consider and test drive some other, preferably smaller cars.





Where will he be parking it?
No idea. I don't think he knows yet as I doubt he's finalized any apartment arrangement yet. Based on where he was before (he spent a summer 3 years ago in SF on an internship) and some brief perusal of SF the few times I've been there it looks like parking is incredibly limited in the area. This is why I'm urging a not-to-expensive, small car.




Mazda6
I can suggest that to him. They're decent cars but I'm thinking he wouldn't go for it.

[lupinsea]

What about any of the semi-recent VW hot hatches like the GTIs? One of the people in our office had a GTI VR6 about 5-6 years ago. It seemed like a fun little 3-door. Semi-torquey engine, manual transmission, taut sporty suspension, decent milage, just the right size. We had four people pile into it for a weekend road trip to Vancouver B.C. (2+ hrs driving each way) and it seemed fine.

But it's been half a decade since I was in the car and can't remember much about the specifics. Would a 6'-3" dude fit in one?

And what about the engine. The VR6 seemed torquey but not as free revving as, say, my Miata and I'd imagine a high-winding 4 cyl. in a small hatch could be more fun. Thought I heard somewhere the VW 2.0L turbo 4's were a nice engine.

[Nick M3]

FWIW, there are 80 330is on autotrader under $15k and under 75,000 miles.

[Terri Kennedy]

I'm trying to get him to at least consider and test drive some other, preferably smaller cars.
Honda Fit?

The only problem is that there's only 3 trim/package levels and no separate options. But they've moved some stuff into the base package (a couple years ago you needed to buy the Sport version to get MP3 support in the radio/CD player).

It is quite inexpensive ($15K new) for what you get. If he's into mods, there is a huge tuning / body kit community (since it is a Honda). Since this is for SF, there probably isn't a lot of high-speed highway driving involved. You'll notice the Fit's 115-odd HP if you nail it and try to pass somebody, but generally it is fine. And you can get 200+ HP out of that engine if you're so inclined.

[lupinsea]

FWIW, there are 80 330is on autotrader under $15k and under 75,000 miles.

Hm..... I'll have to have him retweak his searches. I take it those are for somewhat older-ish E46's?



Since this is for SF, there probably isn't a lot of high-speed highway driving involved.
Perhaps not high speed highway driving but there are a lot of fun driving roads just out of the city that I'm sure he'll be exploring.

When he was down there a few years ago he had a 600cc Yamaha sport bike. Unfortunately he'd gump that it was too foggy to ride much. So he didn't get out of his apartment for almost 2 months.

When I showed up with our then new-to-us ZHP we headed north on Hwy 1 about 10-15 mintues out of the city and hit some great sections of PCH. . . . out of the fog and in the glorious CA sunshine.

He was kicking him self a lot the rest of my visit.

I think this time he'll get out and explore a lot more.

[Terri Kennedy]

Perhaps not high speed highway driving but there are a lot of fun driving roads just out of the city that I'm sure he'll be exploring.

Well, go grab a Fit for a test drive with him. 117HP on that car isn't bad. Consider that my E46 wagon is a lot heavier and only has 184HP. You can apparently get to near 200HP on stock Fit engine internals, a turbo, and some minor tweaks. And well beyond 250 if you upgrade the internals. And, apart from the coffee-can tailpipe badge of {courage; stupidity} (chose 1), nobody will know what you've got under there when you blow past them like they're standing still.

One of the company cars here is a metallic blue 2008 Fit in the base package. I've been nudging my business partner to bring it over here for a build-out with the stuff we can agree on - improved audio, adjustable suspension for NYC potholes, HID headlights, MP3 and NAV support, and so on. I expect he realizes it would be going back to him with a tasteful aero + body kit. Though, come to think of it I do have a complete set of puddle lights around here somewhere. Maybe that's what he's afraid of :eek:

I'm actually in charge of spec-ing the company cars. The other one is a Ford Focus ZX3. The idea is to have cars that start out inexpensive so you don't mind all the damage that comes from driving and parking in NYC, but which are similar to models sold in Europe as "hot hatches", so there's lots of possibilities. The 3rd company car is a 2001 Celica GT-S. That's the one Amanda drives, so it has a PhatBox w/ 2400+ CDs loaded and a 250W sub in the hatch. But the rules for the other two cars are "you have to be able to get a Cisco 7513 in there and close the hatch". While the 7513 has been obsolete for many years, it is still a good size benchmark when looking at cars like these. And my wagon easily qualifies - I've had the 7513 and a pair of 5509's in there at the same time, and can still seat 4 (+1 if the two in the back seat are skinny; +1 if the two in the front passenger seat are very friendly).

[JST]

JV will probably have some thoughts about the wisdom of buying a used VAG product, but the GTI certainly fits the description of what you've got in mind. You don't want a VR6 for a couple of reasons--first, they stopped putting those into the GTI after the Mark IV generation, and if you can you want a Mark V. Second, even if budget restricts you to looking at Mark IVs, you want a turbo. Other than the hotted up version in the R32, I always found the VR6 to be a bit lackadaisical and out-of-keeping with the character of the GTI. The torquier, lighter turbo is a much better powerplant.

If your cousin thinks the GTI is too downmarket, there's always the Audi A3. I haven't looked at prices on those, but I've always loved that car. The new Mark VI GTI makes a new A3 obsolete, but on the used market they may be an attractive proposition (and, presuming they skew to an older demo, may be less likely to have been ridden hard and put away wet).

[wdc330i]

JV will probably have some thoughts about the wisdom of buying a used VAG product, but the GTI certainly fits the description of what you've got in mind. You don't want a VR6 for a couple of reasons--first, they stopped putting those into the GTI after the Mark IV generation, and if you can you want a Mark V. Second, even if budget restricts you to looking at Mark IVs, you want a turbo. Other than the hotted up version in the R32, I always found the VR6 to be a bit lackadaisical and out-of-keeping with the character of the GTI. The torquier, lighter turbo is a much better powerplant.

If your cousin thinks the GTI is too downmarket, there's always the Audi A3. I haven't looked at prices on those, but I've always loved that car. The new Mark VI GTI makes a new A3 obsolete, but on the used market they may be an attractive proposition (and, presuming they skew to an older demo, may be less likely to have been ridden hard and put away wet).

I love the looks of the A3, but when I drove one while I still owned my 330i, I was pretty disappointed. It didn't seem fun at all. Maybe that's because it was the 6 cylinder.

[JST]

I love the looks of the A3, but when I drove one while I still owned my 330i, I was pretty disappointed. It didn't seem fun at all. Maybe that's because it was the 6 cylinder.

Yeah, I don't know what it was, but the 6 cylinder was a yawn factory. I have to ascribe that mostly to the DSG, because as everyone here probably knows I've long had a great deal of affection for the mechanically very similar Mk. IV R32. The A3 2.0 is a much more engaging car--weirdly, I think that's true even of the DSG version of the 2.0.

[Nick M3]

My sister's comment about the A3 was that it would be a great car if it wasn't FWD.

My comment is that it's frequently more expensive than an A4, which is just absurd.

[JST]

My sister's comment about the A3 was that it would be a great car if it wasn't FWD.

My comment is that it's frequently more expensive than an A4, which is just absurd.

That's true--and that's why we ended up with an A4 over an A3. The subsidized lease on the A4 made it something like $150-200 month cheaper than the A3. Although I understand that Audi eventually began offering aggressive lease deals on the A3, as well, the fact that the GTI offers the same options on a newer platform with no real difference in interior quality for a lot less makes the A3 a pretty questionable proposition these days.

[ZBB]

We've test driven the A3 2.0 with DSG a couple of times. I really liked it -- and was surprisingly OK with DSG. The first test drive was when I still had a stick, and the second was last May (so I'd had the slushie CTS for 8 months).

While DSG is a compromise, its a pretty good one -- nearly as much control as a stick, but not the drawbacks of a regular slushie. And I liked the quick shifts...

[Sharp11]

If he's not into the performance side of things and wants the best and most comfortable "value" for his price point - it's hard to beat a late model Honda Accord :dunno:

Ed

[lupinsea]

It's not that he's not into the performance side. . . . it's just that it's not as big of a consideration for him as it is for me.

And by performance I'm not talking, necessarily, raw 0-60 times or other data. More in the character and feel of the car.

AS I said, he's attracted to the 3 series in part because of its sporty nature. Same with a 5 series or a CTS.

FWIW, I had to take our car into the shop this morning and they drove me hom in a base model MINI (I think the first of the new generations). Pretty nice little car. Everything seemed nicely buttoned down and it rode nice. If the shop comes to pick me up again I might slide the driver's seat all the way back so see how much room there is.

[dan]

Why are you doing his research for him?

[armaq]

2003 ZHP.

I have one for sale! :D

[lupinsea]

Why are you doing his research for him?

Just trying to think of alternatives and offer other suggestions (which he asked for).

Looks like he bought an '06 E90 330i. He just sent the pic. . . no details yet.