My FRS dream hit a speed bump
 

I've been saving for a little bit now, eagerly putting aside any money I can spare from each paycheck. It's not much, but I figured around June or July of 2016 I'd be able to put down a good 8-10k down payment on a new FRS or BRZ. That was the master plan, and then whatever I could sell my car for (2001 Celica GT) would be saved for payments.

Yesterday a hideous civic ricer decided to ruin that plan and total my car. He rear ended me and caused a 4 car collision that completely wrecked my Celica. Insurance is helping out, but I obviously won't be anywhere near the money I put into that car. (New engine that I've only put about 5k miles on, replaced cv joints, bearings, sensors, radiator, power steering pump and lines). Over the past year and a half I've been slowly replacing everything on the car to the point where it was mechanically indestructible. But I think everyone knows the KBB value of Celicas and they're nothing impressive.

Long story short I'll have to buy another cheap car in the meantime to get to work or buy a decent car I'll be happy with for a little while. I started looking at some used twins but I'm simply not prepared to take on that much debt yet. I'm looking at getting a rsx or celica gts, probably the latter due to my familiarity with working on the car.

Hopefully it only delays my plan by 6 months to a year, and there's not a gross turbo/awd/convertible/sedan frs on the market that I'm forced to buy.

(Just to make things better I find out this morning my friend bought a brand new frs out of no where. Awesome)

Wish me luck guys! :sigh:

Between the insurance and what you have saved you don't have enough to put down a big enough down payment to get low monthly? Even if you had to go used I would think there should be something out there.

I only have roughly $1800 saved and insurance is giving me around $3000. I'm probably going to part it out because I know it's nearly impossible to find celica parts (in my area at least) and I can sell the engine because it wasn't damaged. But after all that I'm really only going to be looking at $5-$6k. I'm in school so I'm gonna have to be working less hours and I know trying to juggle rent and car payments would be a difficult task if even possible. I'm definitely young and stupid but that's just too much of a risk to take.

On one hand, it's not good to go too far in debt ...... just for a car.

On the other hand ...... life is short.

Maybe a nice pre-owned miata would tide you over.

Your call.


humfrz

Well that just sucks but at least you realize it.
They are paying you out but letting you keep the car? That is not normal at all. They usually take the car and recover as much of their pay out as they can from it. You may want to check that.

They're going to lower the amount they'll give me by whatever the scrap yard would pay them. I'm still waiting to hear back from them as to how much that would be, but he estimated around $200 and I'm fairly certain I could make more than that if I just have some time to dedicate to listing the parts. If it's an astronomical amount they'd lower it then I'll just let the yard keep it.

I'd love a miata, but I haven't done any research on them like I have with the twins and celicas and I've gotta buy something within a week or two because I can't afford to not be working. Plus I drive people around a lot and could use the back seats. But thanks for the suggestion!

A used Miata from the 90s is your best bet. They can be found for pretty cheap and they're fun to boot. Obviously you can't haul more than 1 extra passenger but that's gonna have to be a sacrifice you'll have to make for the mean time.

otherwise you can always crawl around craigslist for a beat up Camry, Corolla or Civic for cheap... But honestly those are far from enjoyable cars.

Yeah I've driven camrys, accords, malibus, corollas, etc. Definitely takes the fun out of driving. But I need something more so reliable than fun. I'm definitely gonna try to get something fun, still, but unfortunately that's gonna have to take second place as far as priorities go.

Out of curiosity I looked up the prices Celicas and RSXs for sale in Florida. You can pick up some pretty decent (looking) Celicas for a song there with the average being around $4K for a lower miles one. RSXs not so much but there were a couple around $5K.

Well, I owned a 2006 miata for 8 years and it was trouble free for 88,000 miles.

As far as a back seat, I wouldn't count on a FR-S/BRZ ...... unless your passengers are small children with short legs ..... ;)


humfrz

A GT-S sounds like a fun car. If you know it well, that's a plus. Or just get another GT and transfer over any parts that need transferring then continue your pre-planned wait. Knowing a car is worth a lot. A GT-S is a fun car, though. Many others to choose from, of course.

Civic fucktard... of course out of all cars, it would be a civic.

Sorry to hear what happened. Wish you all the best of luck!

if you have receipts for the repairs performed you will get more in return after the total loss valuation, try to dig them up it will help you out.