If I was getting an MT "beater"...

[GX9901]

What should I get? I've been thinking about owning a near-beater MT car to decrease wear & tear on the G, satisfy the inner riceboy in me, and double as a winter beater. Between $2k-$7k I could probably get the following:

-Integra (base): A friend has a '94 that he'll have to sell eventually when he goes back to Taiwan. My wife would actually approve of this. Maybe $2k. I would actually have to de-rice this one since it's been riced out pretty good already. I also wonder about the mod-ability of the base Integra.

-'94 Sentra SE-R: A couple are up for sale at around $2-3k in my area. I think this car makes a great rice-rocket if it still works OK.

-300ZX TT: Seemingly plenty of them around here for sale below $10k. This would be leaving the rice-rocket realm but also costs a lot more. Also it doesn't make any sense as a winter beater. I'd love to have one though.

-Eclipse GSX: AWD probably makes a good winter beater. Too bad they still cost too much in most cases.

-Impreza (base): Another AWD car. Not a lot of MT ones for sale though.

-SVT Contour: Nice car, but I would worry about Ford reliability. Also not sure if it comes cheap enough.

Any other good low cost ($2-7k) MT near-beaters?

2004 G35 Coupe Diamond Graphite/Graphite 5AT
Premium, Nav., 18" Wheels, Z-Xtreme Hyper Grounding Cables,
K&N filter, Clear Corners, 350Z Aluminum Pedals,
Sony Ericsson HCB-30

[ChicagoX]

Don't rule out the 1st gen Ford Taurus SHO....plenty quick with the 220 hp Yamaha-sourced engine and right in your price range.

'04 G35X Graphite/graphite, NAV, wood, premium

[MOTOP]

91-97 Nissan 240sx. Not particulary a winter car but loads of fun and stock block is reliable as hell.


***04 G35s 5AT/Sport***
***04 Volvo XC90 T6***