alright, so i'm driving a kia sephia right now that was pretty much a hand me down and its on its last stretch. I am looking to get a car soon, ideally an rx8 but since im a college student and only work part time, i cant afford one lol. Besides, i don't know how to drive manual and would really love to learn before i purchase an rx8.

Ok so i'm looking to get either an eclipse, 3000 gt, mazda miata, or mazda protege. Those are all around my price range that i can afford and that i like lol. The catch is, I don't know alot about cars, but i'm trying to learn how to properly care for a car, especially a manual. I'm usually on here just reading and reading old threads so that i can gain some insight on what to do. So with that said, i think an eclipse with a turbo is out of the question since i wouldn't know how to shift/control the car when the turbo spools up. So i was wondering if anybody on here could kindly contribute their knowledge on what you think i should know about each car and whether its tough to learn how to drive stick, maintain the car, or what car i should get as a proper first car, if at all any of the cars listed.

Sorry for the wall of text and try not to chew me up too much on the whole me being a noob to cars, we all had to start somewhere lol

 

I personally would say the miata out of personal preference. It's a nice and light car with great handling which can give it some similar traits to an rx. They're definitely fun to drive, though a tad on the small side if you need to carry much of anything.

 

Get a 2nd gen eclipse (95-99) with the 420a if you don't want a turbocharged car...there cheap lol

 

Definitely a MX-5 Miata. Those are a blast to drive. Great handling cars. Like the RX-8, it won't blow a lot of cars away, but you'll have more fun driving it than the other guy.

A Nissan 240 is another rear drive car to consider.

 

fc ftw

 

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Skip to 5:30, I couldn't possibly be more convincing.

Oh, and learning stick isn't hard - sit in an empty parking lot and use ONLY the clutch to get moving, this will teach you exactly how the clutch works without burning it up too badly. To do this, push the clutch all the way to the floor and put the car in first, you will need to push the clutch all the way to the floor every time you start from a stop or shift. Next, let the clutch out slowly until it just begins to engage (RPMs will start to drop), then flutter the clutch back and forth getting the car to go faster and faster until you can completely release the clutch. For the sake of simplicity, if you let the clutch out too far it will stall, and if you don't let it out enough it won't add any speed to your car. With some practice you will get the car rolling (albeit slowly) with the clutch completely released and you'll have never touched the throttle. Once you're comfortable with this process and can repeat it reliably, you can add throttle with your starts.

Now, to stop you'll want to press the clutch all the way to the floor, shift to neutral and release the clutch. You can now brake as you would in any other car. If you're feeling brave, instead of braking, you can slowly roll on to the throttle and drive off - if you want to try shifting up, simply press the clutch all the way to the floor, move to the next gear, then slowly release the clutch. It will probably be jerky until you gain a bit of experience and confidence (you need to shift efficiently to be smooth), so don't worry too much about that right now, smoothness will develop with experience.

I know that writeup looks daunting but I'm just trying to be clear, it's actually not so bad in practice. Take it slow and don't rush yourself through the initial slow starts where you're using no throttle, I imagine you should be confident enough to hit the roads after an afternoon of practice.

 

yea i was thinking of getting the second generation anyways as i don't like the way the "spider" eclipse looks.

I like the way the FD3S looks way more than the fc, but those are no where to be found in my area and would generally go for more than 10 thousand lol

@ rhawb: i had seen that video before and i always laugh when he mimics the people that say a miata is gay lol. But yea a miata is pretty nice, i just gotta find a good deal on one that doesn't have a lot of mileage.

Thanks for the input guys, and are turbos generally hard to maintain? also, how long did it take for you guys to learn manual?

 

Turbos are no harder to maintain than a rotary, just keep the oil changed. I've also updated my last post to answer any questions you might have about learning to drive stick.

 

yea i read your last post, very informative. Thanks! also, when you say its no harder to maintain than a rotary, do you still have to warm the engine up before taking off and let it warm before shutting down(cold start or something like that)? i know that is used to prevent the rotary from flooding and its different than a piston, just thought i would ask lol. I'm just afraid that if i do end up getting an eclipse with a turbo, i don't want to blow my engine cause of the turbo or anything.

My friend has a subaru that has a turbo and i was asking him if it was harder to shift with it and he told me you kind of have to account for when the turbo kicks in. I might read up more on how they work and all that before i commit to buying a car with one. I still have a couple of weeks before i need to start seriously considering a new car.

 

Agree with you 100%.

I owned a 95 240sx which was just a fantastic car. Wish I didn't sell it. Easy to work on, fun to drive, and reliable as hell. I beat the crap out of that car and it just kept going. Hard part about them now is finding a clean unmodified one. It got good gas mileage and was comfortable on long trips as well.

As for the miata, I sold the 8 and bought a 2008 MX-5. These cars are fun as hell, quick, but not fast, and handle very very well. Since they are a "chick car", they have a knack for keeping the idiots away, which in turn helps insurance. My insurance was cut in half when I swapped the RX-8 for it.

Both of those options would be great fun cars, cheap to insure, cheap to keep running, and good on gas, all things that a college student should be looking for.

 

good to know lol, damn, this makes things tough. I like the miata and 240's look pretty nice too, but i just like the style of an eclipse. Right now if i were to have a good deal on all of them i would probably choose eclipse > miata > 240 > 3000 gt > protege. But i'm sure my insurance will undoubtedly get higher if i get an eclipse . I just have to wait and see what deal comes up that suits me. Although in the long run i will probably have better results with the miata since insurance won't be ridiculous, i will be able to save up more money. Thanks for the input

 

No need to worry about cold shutdowns, but it's not a bad idea to give the turbo a minute or two to cool down before shutting down. As I understand, it's not really needed unless you take a long drive on a hot day or you wring your car out like a madman, though. If you really want, you can buy a turbo timer that will allow the car to run for a couple minutes after you've shut it down so you don't have to worry about that. I'll admit, I forget to do this ALL THE TIME and I have yet to see any ill effects after 34,000 miles.

As far as shifting with a turbo, the lag shouldn't be a factor your shifting at all unless you're trying to squeeze every last bit of power out of the car. For regular daily driving in a turboed car, you'll likely never even know the turbo is there - it's not until you begin driving the car hard that the turbo will become a significant factor. Even then, there won't be any need to adjust your shifting patterns unless you have a very specific goal in mind.