It's not obligatory for fun sports cars to be expensive. The process of hunting and buying a used performance sports car should not break your budget. Take Japanese sports cars for instance, they can offer great reliability, decent performance for the price and best of all they don't cost too much on to buy either. On the other hand luxury cars like Lexus, Acura and BMW can cost more when they are new but once they hit the used market their prices rapidly plummet down.
This is usually the price point at which you are winning out of your purchase which we refer to as a "bargain". Unfortunately most sports cars require quite a lot more maintenance than regular family sedan or a small SUV. Chances are the family sedan will be in a lot better condition than your average sports car. You don't buy a compact SUV to trash it around in the dust, do you ?
Fortunately for us, there are lots of cars that handle that with ease ( sub 2000 Mercedes cars and Volkswagen). Taking this into account while forming out our list of the cheapest thrills money can buy, we set our target budget just bellow the mid price point of what you could expect to pay for something that you'll transform into a project car.
Fortunately for us, there are lots of cars that handle that with ease ( sub 2000 Mercedes cars and Volkswagen). Taking this into account while forming out our list of the cheapest thrills money can buy, we set our target budget just bellow the mid price point of what you could expect to pay for something that you'll transform into a project car.
90 – ’94 Mazda Miata
If fun and reliable and cheap motoring is what you are looking for then look no further than the old faithful version of the MX-5 ( the 90-94 Mazda Miata ). It offers great fun and all of the enthusiasm from driving a classic Brit sports cars with most of their drawbacks cut down. Most importantly the oil stays in the car. If you are looking for the purest experience be sure to go for the 1.6 L engine, it’s highly responsive and very flexible. Of course you can opt for the 1.8 liter which is a bit more powerful, rated at a higher power output but then again you will be losing of flexibility and responsiveness.Most of the early models were designed for comfort and convenience, so there isn’t much that can go wrong with the car. One thing to look for is if your car is fitted with the optional Torsen limited slip diff. Of course the car is mostly famous because there is a lot of room left for aftermarket improvements.
Pros: Great fun, great MPG figures and very reliable. The Mazda Miata weight equals 0.
Cons: Doesn’t handle snow pretty well.
