Can now stretch to 4 grand if it,s the right car. Needs to be something I can do some of the work on myself, not have to take it to a specialist every five minutes. Never had a honda so can,t comment on the crx but not sure i like the look of them to be honest. The most fun car i,ve had apart from the R32 is definately my r5 gtt,s. If they could make something like this but reliable then i,d be very tempted. Currently looking through pistonheads to see if anything jumps out at me.
Honda redefined the word 'reliable'. They're bullet proof and easy to work on.
As everyone knows, Honda have never had a vtec engine back under warranty and they rev like you wouldnt believe. Immense fun, minimum maintenance and ultra reliable.
hate to say it, but for 4k you can get a nice early Impreza :!: Which may be more expensive to run/insure than the above mentioned, but even in standard form a WRX will blow the socks off them all :!:
Bits are cheap and plentiful, and the early ones 92-96 seem to be more reliable than the newer STI's etc.
I think it's an even better situation with the early Imprezas than Logan suggests. Such is the oversupply of imports, choose carefully and you can have a decent WRX for 3k and spend the extra grand making it handle and stop. Thinking back though, I spent more like 2 grand making my old WRX handle and stop. Was rock solid reliable up to the 130k mileage at which I sold it. On the other hand the late-90s STi's (as I now have) mostly seem to have had an engine rebuild at 50-100k mileage.