Hi!
I'm a car nerd. Nice to meet you.

All cars have their quirks and whether it's French or Italian or not, if they're not maintained properly, they'll break. The thread linked in one of the first replies has some good info in it. I'll only add that you want to get something oldish, preferably pre-95. The reason for this is that before then, computers were relatively uncommon in cars and you'll be able to replace most parts yourself.

Find a good parts dealer, for German/French, try GSF. Good quality, cheap parts who'll deliver promptly. For Japanese, go to Japarts.

You want to do this because most mechanics is like Lego, dirty, greasy Lego. You'll get a good understanding of how cars work and how quickly most things can be replaced. Once you have a bit of knowledge, you'll find it's much harder to get raped by huge mechanics bills. An example would be that I recently needed by car to have its' brake pads changed along with an oil service. The first, nearest place quoted me 420 pounds. That's for one job that involves knocking a pin out of a caliper and then putting it back in and for another that involves unplugging two things and waiting for the sump to drain. Robbery.
( Kroney, Tue 29 Jun 2010, 12:17, 1 reply, 16 years ago)

haha Japarts
that made me lol
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Tue 29 Jun 2010, 12:24, Reply)