First off, yes, I did read the list of possible cars to pick up as my first car, but this isn't the case.  My first car is actually getting ready to be retired due to the cost of getting it repaired, and age.  So as of now, I'm looking to upgrade from a 94 Ford Aspire to something.... bigger.  Now, I don't have a kick ass budget to get me Lancer Evo or a Subaru.  And no, I will not get any kind of Civic.  I hate those with a passion, I really do.  But there are some cars that look promising.  One of them is a 99 Dodge Neon, with a DOHC I believe, pumping about something over 130hp, which is better than my Aspire.  The other one is a Mazda 626, 02 I believe.  Don't know much about that one, except it runs great.  Both cars belong to a family friend who runs a used car lot, and he's treated my mom pretty well.

So I'm trying to decide, which should I go with?  It's mostly going to be a daily driver, but of course, I wanna do as much as I possibly can without doing a engine swap or anything like that.  

Neither of those ae as good as a civic si IMO, but if your dead set against a civic look for a vw gti, the civics rival.  

do you want a ff or fr.  

Not really picky about either.  I've actually driven both types, but since it differs from platform to platform, it boils down to how well the car keep up with my reaction time.  

Let's just say, even though I've only own the aspire, I've driven the other cars, including the civic si, just not the vw, and to me, the civic's have poor reaction time.  

a 3rd gen eclipse has great stock reaction time. my gs came stock with mcpherson struts and front lower sway bar. its wide and has a strong stance. it has the 2.4l sohc 16v 4g64. 146hp and 157tq.it is a good strong stock tuner.  

i always recommend the crx  

or i'll sell u my legend for 2000 lol  

The two are really downers, what you want is a Nissan Sentra! The possibilites are endless.  

you guys are idiots all the cars you list are shitty. the vw is the buggest piece of *** problem car you will ever own and so is the nissan. and what do you mean how the car reacts to your reaction time. your just making stuff up. the civic would be the best choice. that gay neon has 136hp ok thats cool the civic has 136hp on a single cam 1.6 and 160hp on a dohc 1.6 and has a way better aftermarket. you should get the mazda and call it a day, you dont deserve any tuner car.  

oh and eclipse blow up after 130000 miles  

And you technically don't deserve to breath, but we can't get what we always want.  As it sounds like, you're a civic thumper, and you know what I say to that?  I say I hope you and your car wind up *** up for life.  

your 1.6l civic has 107 hp. your a dumb *** do you not know what reaction time is. do you never read car specs. your name is a mitsu but you trash em. ur a hippocrit. reaction time is how many gs a car can take in an emergency manuver. ive been tunin cars for over 8yrs. ive done hondas, toyotas, nissans, fords, chevys, dodges, and now mitsus. i tell straight facts.  

oh yeah. not even the b18 has that many hp. it has 117hp. now if you run a b18 with b16 heads you can reach 140. but at stock, it want till after 2000 that a 4cyl ff honda reached over 125hp stock.