Best bang-for-the-buck car under $4000
 

okay everyone, i have an interesting situation..

i came into a pretty good sized chunk of money about a week ago. i've been thinking of what i can do with it.. obviously the SVX is way up on the priority list.. i figure it'll cost a good couple thousand to get it in pristine shape.

the thing is, i'd like to use some of this money to make MORE money, instead of just spending it all on my car.

CD's and traditional investments are fine and good, but i'm looking for something a little quicker than that. for awhile i've been toying with the idea of finding a good buy on a decent used car, putting a few dollars into it, and trying to sell it for a profit.

can anyone point me at a car which is generally inexpensive, reliable, and easy to sell?

i also thought that it'd be pretty easy to buy a Civic for $3,000, put $2000 worth of rice on it, and sell it for $7,500..

anyone have any thoughts?

-adam

re: well you could....
 

well you could just go take that $4000 and go buy a slab of rock or a coke cookie, cut it and sell it to little kids. if you feel that selling to kids is bad, you could sell it to the crack *****s or the businessmen that party at the clubs. :D

just a thought!

quickest way to double or triple your money :D

there's always vegas. or if you feel like you can win, go race the ricers for money :D

just a few ideas for you. but if you're looking honda's and civic's are easy turnovers. if you're serious find a guy who has a dealers license and then go to auctions. i made a deal with a dealer here (small used car lot) and offered $150 for using his license per vehicle. so if i win the bid, all i do is pay the dealer $150 and whatever i owe to the auction block and the deal's done. goodluck

i gave a serious but brief thought to investing in contraband.. probably not the best idea, although the profit margin is unparalleled..

i think my father actually has an auction license, so i'll see if he wants to go out with me someday. i fugure if i want and pick carefully, i can find a good deal..

-adam

Most people who buy a car mainly pay attention to the cosmetic shape. If a car's got mechanical problems, they're often unnoticeable and go overlooked. The only way to make a profit with fixing up cars is to buy totaled ones, obtain the parts at dealer cost, fix the cars up and sell them. I had a friend that did this. He said it was very difficult also.

Anyway, nobody's going to pay an extra $3500 for the same car somebody else is selling cheaper, simply because you put an extra 1500 to 2000 into it.

That's my opinion anyway.

Oh. You want to sell it. I thought you meant to OWN. For 4 grand, you can get a lot of cool iron. Here are some examples I can think of:

1st or 2nd gen RX7, with mods.
1st gen Neon with 2.4 with mods
Older GTI with mods

eh. Lotsa stuff. But as for an easy sell, just do this: Buy a plain jane civic in good shape for a good price. Wash it up. Wax it up. Buy a bodykit, put that on it. FInd a good deal on some 16 or 17" rims. Put it on ebay. Make sure you put 'type R' in the title, you'll get a TON of hits. Whenever I sell anything car related on ebay I put type R in the title and you get a LOT higher prices.

- Rob

I don't think it's worth it. What if you do all that stuff to a car then have trouble selling it? Or what if it sits around for awhile? There's no guarantee that someone will want it for the price you are asking just because you "riced" it up. I'm not trying to sound mean, but you don't want to blow your money.

Re: Best bang-for-the-buck car under $4000
 

Not following the math on that one....I have NEVER seen a situation where you got anywhere near the money back that you put into a car, unless it's something in the way of a classic muscle car from the 60's, something that is a bona-fide COLLECTIBLE.

As to whatyou SHOULD do with the money that will make you MORE money real fast? I haven't a clue...but let us us know if you figure it out!

re: maybe
 

it depends actually. if you live in a place where every kid wants to be fast and the furious then you won't have a problem. only until recently have i noticed all the ricers in atlanta. i saw a 1996 prelude that was fairly riced out. giant rear wing. stickers all over the car. obscene body kit. tinted to hell and back. giant coffee can muffler. vents all over the car (no function). carbon fiber hood with more vents. it looked ok. not my style, but my cousin liked it. it was going for about $16k for 120k miles. i popped the hood and apparently there were no engine mods. it sold in less than a week. they probably got 14-15k off of it. i dunno how much it cost to buy and make it like that, but all i know is that it sold faster than the other preludes that were not riced out. then again, the modded cars seems to sell even faster than the riced out cars. good luck.

hmm...maybe i should buy a neon srt-4 instead of a svx. just kidding. i'd have to be shot before i'd do that lol.

dude hands down the best bang for the buck car under 4 grand is a first generation DSM(eclipse talon laser) turbo. pick teh car up for 2-3, 1k in mods and your in the high 13's/low 14's all day
phil

Re: re: maybe
 

Yesss...and I'll volunteer to pull the trigger! ;)

*shrugs*....I have to admit I know *zero* about the ricer world....I guess if a kid had the money in hand and wanted that "look" right now then you could make some money off him.

I don't see it here, but in an urban area like Atlanta...maybe so....:rolleyes:

Sorta. First, it's impossible to find a 1st gen DSM turbo that hasn't been abused. Secondly, the ones that are impossible to find (because they havent' been beat up) cost quite a bit. Thirdly, they like to eat halfshafts and transmissions.

Fast cars though.

- Rob

Doesn't anyone invest in the markets these days?

i like to have my hands in my money.. know what i mean?

-adam

Who doesn't want to make money quickly... I think the way to go would be like DavieGravy buy something broke and make it run sell it to soemone who needs a car, the probelm is that the profit margin may be such that if you sat down and did the math you may only be making 10 dollars an hour, maybe. Ithink otherwise you'll have to search for some type of a classic detroit type and work form there. I'll sell you my civic for 2500 you go drop a grand into fixing it up and IMO its still not unique enough to garner you any real profit. I could be wrong though.
I'd say put some of that in the market, even though it may not look that attractive the average gain is, believe it or not 11% and I'm actually doing a bit better than that:D

Re: re: well you could....
 

note to self: dear self do your best to keep noir out of your neighborhood, and NEVER let him watch your kids :eek: :eek: :D :D