When I turned 16, my dad gave me the same budget he gave my older sisters for their cars and suggested going with either Toyota or Honda. Since both of my sisters have Carolas I decided I wanted a Honda and decided to look for a civic. At the time of purchasing the car, my dad didn't show much interest in cars, but lately as I've been wanting to make adjustments to the car he's been telling me had I shown how serious I was earlier, he would have let me pick out a sportier version than a 99 Civic sedan that only had 17k miles at the time. I think it's called a VP or something, it basically has a DX engine but with a stock CD player. Anyway, I've decided I want to stick with a Civic until I turn 25 at which time I plan on purchasing an Evo. Until then, I want to make sure I stay happy with my car, and frankly I'm starting to become bored with it. I have no complaints on its performance other than that I'm getting tired of it being an automatic. <U>Either I plan on changing my current car to standard, or I need to just sell it and buy another civic that's not automatic.</U>

Currently, I'm on my second year at TAMU and don't have heaps of money to be using on the car. At most, I'd be able to save up like 3-4 thousand during a summer towards the car, but that'd be a one time thing since I'm supposed to be saving up for spending money during the year for books and stuff. The car is still in great condition with no accidents and no engine problems so far with just about 50k miles (Added that info so someone could possibly tell me how much I'd be able to get back towards looking for another car if I sell my current one). Basically, I'm trying to get as many opinions and as much info as possible before the summer to decide what I want to do. Keep in mind that any suggestions will have to sound resonable to the average conservative parents, and even then it'll take lots of convincing for them to allow me to make serious changes concerning my car since they paid for most of it. Other than that, all advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

just save ur money for the evo

 

i would put a ls motor in it and do the 5spd conversion, it woldnt cost much. but your parents would be hard to convince.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ek9mugen &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i would put a ls motor in it and do the 5spd conversion, it woldnt cost much. but your parents would be hard to convince.</TD></TR></TABLE>



then when you get enough $, do an ls/vtec!

 

Respect your parents and do what they say.

 

have done the auto to manual convo......


should have bought a manual from the start

 

So let me get this straight...

At 16, your parents gave you more-or-less a $12k budget and you were able to get a 1yr old (or less) car?

Forgive me for not feeling sympathy, but consider yourself damn lucky and be thankful for what you have. In another 2 years, you'll have your Bachelor's degree and be gainfully employed and able to buy whatever car you want(within reason). Until then, concentrate on school. Whether your car is 2dr/4dr, auto or stick, is trivial compared to earning a college degree, and anyone who tries to argue otherwise needs to be educated...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nuc79 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">So let me get this straight...

At 16, your parents gave you more-or-less a $12k budget and you were able to get a 1yr old (or less) car?

Forgive me for not feeling sympathy, but consider yourself damn lucky and be thankful for what you have. In another 2 years, you'll have your Bachelor's degree and be gainfully employed and able to buy whatever car you want(within reason). Until then, concentrate on school. Whether your car is 2dr/4dr, auto or stick, is trivial compared to earning a college degree, and anyone who tries to argue otherwise needs to be educated...</TD></TR></TABLE>

WORD

my parents didn't give me a penny towards my car, gas or insurance... i bought my civic last year I'm 19...

they also gave away for a tax write off the car i was driving from age 16 leaving me with no car for 3 mo while i saved up for a car! they didn't even talk to me about it AND gave away the $300 deck that i bought and put in the car with out giving me a cent!

hey at least I'm not still driving an Automatic 89 PROBE pos....

and it's nice having 100% ownership on my civic because they can't tell me what i can and can't do w/ it!

-Sketch

 

sell it and get a stick or get both a stick w/ a swap!

 

Okay, interesting responses. Thanks for all the input. I think I've decided to just stay with my trusty old auto for now. However, both my older sisters have now been convinced into getting civics to replace their old Toyotas.