Tim lives in Vegas and has a short commute, but his 1998 BMW 318 is starting to get to the end of its usable life. He needs something with room for a car seat and is torn between a light sporty car or something more off-road oriented. With a budget of around $30,000, what car should he buy?
(Welcome back to What Car Should You Buy? Where we give real people real advice about buying cars. Do you want us to help you find a car? Submit your story on our form.)
Here is the scenario.
I have an easy 16 mile round trip commute (when I don’t bike) and go on adventures with my 5 year old son. We live outside Las Vegas and our driving adventures across the many desert and often dirt roads we find. It would be nice to be able to carry hiking gear, maybe mount a hitch for bikes, and possibly an inflatable paddle board, but we do have a van as our other car, so it does the big cargo duty, and we take it on cross country multiweek, mostly off grid camping road/trips.
My current vehicle is a 1998 318ti, which I have loved for it’s lightness, stick shift, and feeling like you’re driving it really hard while getting passed on straightaways by Kia Sorentos. The BMW’s now increasingly dicey going from Reverse to 1st and it leaks oil and radiator fluid, so it’s reaching the end of its life and needs to be replaced fairly soon, though I’d hoped to nurse it until the supply chain issues resolved.
I can either directly replace the 318ti with something sporty, light, and fun, or get something more off road oriented (or at least rough road oriented). A wildcard option would be to go in a totally different direction and get something that could replace the van as a road trip vehicle with more off road capability. I would pay the most for that, but there don’t seem to be many options that are efficient yet, so I’ve been holding out.
My price range is flexible. For a small, manual vehicle, I’d go up to around $30k (new BRZ/86), but would also look at much cheaper used options and assume I wouldn’t be keeping it a decade. With a larger, automatic vehicle that would be more of a primary family vehicle (my wife can’t drive a manual), I would go up to 45k or possibly higher for something perfect. .
Quick Facts:
Budget: About $30,000 but could be a bit higher depending on what vehicle gets replaced
Location: Las Vegas
Daily Driver: Yes
Wants: Fun, room for gear, and car seat
Doesn’t want: Something without a back seat
Expert 1 – Tom McParland: All Set-Up And Ready To Go
Tim, you are the perfect candidate for a WRX hatchback, and naturally Subaru in their infinite wisdom decided not to offer a five-door variant so we have to get creative. You want something small and tossable, but still room for some gear and a reasonably comfortable back seat and some extra ground clearance would certainly be a bonus.
Mini makes the right car for you with the Countryman. While it’s technically a crossover it’s really more of a lifted hatchback. Within that $30,000 price point you have your choice of several lightly used examples with low miles, but this 2018 John Cooper Works looks mighty tempting as someone has already done the work for you and fitted it with some off-road tires, brush bar, rally lights, and cross bars. Don’t let the minor accident on the CarFax scare you as that was likely just cosmetic damage. This thing will be a blast to drive on the road or the trails and have plenty of usability for your gear.
Expert 2: Collin Woodard – Build Your Own Luck
Tim, you’ve done nothing wrong, but I’m still mad about your current situation. It’s infuriating. You want to upgrade, but you don’t know which direction to go. You want a sports car, but you need it to be good off-road. You want an off-roader, but you want to have fun. What are you supposed to do?
Thankfully, I know someone who can give you the answer. My friend Emme Hall owns an off-road Miata, and she absolutely loves it. Having off-roaded more than enough myself, the one issue I’ve run into more than anything else is ground clearance. Even before you get to the locking differentials and all that, you need to physically be able to get over obstacles, and that requires ground clearance. Give a Honda Civic enough ground clearance, and I’m pretty sure you’d be surprised what it could do.
Buy a Miata. Lift it. Be happy. With a budget of $30,000, you can definitely get an ND and build it to be exactly what you want it to be. You’ll own a Miata, and everyone will love you. I don’t even know where to begin showing you ND listings. Just get one and lift it?
Expert 3: Bradley Brownell – Go With What You Know
You’re not going to like this because I’m not going to recommend something new and shiny. Instead of taking on a $30,000 new car payment at current interest rates, just fix the car you already have. There is no useable end of life for an enthusiast car, and anything wrong with it can be fixed. Get yourself a rebuilt transmission and fix the leaks. The biggest problems these cars are usually rust-related, and you don’t have that issue in Las Vegas.
There isn’t anything on the market today that will deliver fun and daily-usability like an E36 Compact. This is an interesting and fun car to drive, and you should give it a new lease on life. There are plenty of options for making the car a better handling machine, and if you want more power there are plenty of forced-induction options. For less than you’d pay for a down payment on a new car, you could revamp your existing car’s suspension and replace the transmission. Is replacing your fun enthusiast car worth pushing your household budget $700 per month? I promise your new baby will eat that budget up real quick.
Go with what you know, man.
Expert 4: Amber DaSilva – How Did It Take Us This Long To Arrive At The WRX STi?
Tim, I have to apologize for my dear coworkers here. You came in asking about cars that are fun both on- and off-road, and they showed up with Miatas and Haynes manuals. Tom got closest, with the rally-spec Mini, but even he mentions the better answer staring us all right in the face: Get yourself a WRX hatchback.
Can you find one of these new? Nope! Can you find one that’s been well-maintained? Maybe, if you really try, but it’ll still give you problems anyway. No, Tim, you need a WRX hatch that’s cheap — even better if you can find an STi, and better still if you can find one that’s already lifted for desert running. Don’t say I never got you anything.
For under $10,000, you get an STi hatch with a two inch lift and a chopped front bumper. Will a 14-year-old EJ25 be reliable? No, no it won’t, but with a budget of $30,000 you’ve got a lot of room left to address any future problems — and to stock up on Rotella T6. Top off the oil every time you stop for gas, throw on a set of equal-length headers to keep cylinder temps more consistent, and just go enjoy your time in the sand.
