Next Car..., *dodges thrown items* Options

[Box]

So I've had my Celica for almost a year now, in two weeks it will be a year to be exact. In of itself I like the car, but it's time for something else. I'm wanting something with more power and a better ride. Doing swaps isn't an option and neither is reverting back to the stock suspension, for cost feasibility. So now I'm looking into the possibility of finding something else. Some of the cars I've been considering include: 1986.5-1992 Supra, 92-95 SC300, 91-93 240SX, 90-95 300ZX, 90-92 Camaro/Firebird, 90-95 Mustang. So I was wondering if anyone else have owned these vehicles and had an opinion of them. Or if you can think of others cars that I haven't thought of, I'd love to hear them. Pretty much anything RWD, 2 doors, and pre-OBDII I'd look into getting. I thought about the RX7 but I don't want to deal with rotary, and the Miata and MR2 are too small as I need space for carrying a synthesizer with me for when I got out and play. The Supra, SC300, and 300ZX are towards the bottom as they can be hard to work on, especially the 300ZX. Gas mileage isn't a concern to me anymore, but performance and comfort are. I'm not asking for it to ride like a Cadillac, but I do want something that'll ride better on these atrocities they call roads. So any help would be appreciated. I plan on trying to find an example of each of these cars and test driving them before completely committing to selling the Celica.

[JoshuaM]

Hey Box... So at the start of next year I will be heading overseas for a 6month overseas exchange (for university studies) to either the UK or San Jose in California. If I go to Brittain I obviously already know exactly what to get But if I end up in the states I was thinking I would have to go with a stereotypically American V8 coupe... Especially with gas prices so low (<- See what I did there... I said 'gas' instead of 'petrol'.... I'll fit right in now ).

Since I will be using holiday spending money to buy and run it I was thinking something around $5k USD. HAS to be a manual, and needs to be reliable enough to clock up the kilometers (wait... Miles ) when I'm over there without too many hassles (so no old Trans Ams or the likes ). Since it is Cali in summer maybe a 2003 V8 Mustang Manual Convertible..... Any other suggestions?

[6strngs]

Hey Box... So at the start of next year I will be heading overseas for a 6month overseas exchange (for university studies) to either the UK or San Jose in California. If I go to Brittain I obviously already know exactly what to get But if I end up in the states I was thinking I would have to go with a stereotypically American V8 coupe... Especially with gas prices so low (<- See what I did there... I said 'gas' instead of 'petrol'.... I'll fit right in now ).

Since I will be using holiday spending money to buy and run it I was thinking something around $5k USD. HAS to be a manual, and needs to be reliable enough to clock up the kilometers (wait... Miles ) when I'm over there without too many hassles (so no old Trans Ams or the likes ). Since it is Cali in summer maybe a 2003 V8 Mustang Manual Convertible..... Any other suggestions?

Did I just see the words "reliable" and "mustang" in the same paragraph? No need for an american car in san jose, I see way more modded japanese cars there (I live about half an hour away). For $5k you could get an s14 240sx, an NB miata, a 7th gen celica, a clean integra, etc. Whatever you get, just make sure the A/C works! The convertible top won't help you when you're stuck in traffic everyday (and you will be...) from 3pm until 7pm.

And how come a miata discussion comes up and I no get invite? If you're worried about "killing" the handling of your miata then you obviously have been browsing miata.net for too long... That crowd is mostly the older guys and the serious racers who believe if you lower the car more than 1/2" you "kill" the handling of the car. They may be right if you were a serious competitive racer, but my car is lowered on coilovers and trust me, the car is still very, very nimble. I prefer the forums at clubroadster.net, a much younger crowd and more modification friendly. Don't get me started on the miataturbo.net forums though. It is impossible to get a question answered there, they just tell you to search... So you search and all you can find are threads that end in the person telling the OP to search (after a lot of flaming and name-calling)...

The miata is definitely not faster than a celica though, not by a long shot. The power bands are pretty opposite, where a celica falls on it's face after 4.5k rpms, the miata doesn't start moving until 4.5k rpms... The miata pretty much needs a turbo to be even remotely considered fast.