Hi guys, I was wondering if you could help me decide on buying a different car to start tuning or just stick with my altima. I've always wanted to try tuning cars ever since I played Gran Turismo on the ps1 (funny way to start a hobby) back in Asia. My dream car has always been a 1st/2nd gen Eclipse GSX with the AWD layout, but ever since I've moved here to DC a few years ago, they're pretty much nonexistent in the market.

Back to my original problem, I've got a 94 altima, and its hit over 250k miles now ever since my uncle bought it brand new. Now that I've finally got a profession, I was thinking of indulging myself and start tuning cars, but looking at the parts available for the altima (and considering its mileage) should I even bother with it? It's pretty beat up considering, and being a beginner I dont have the confidence to fix it up as good as some cars I've seen. It's already had a couple of breakdowns this year (alternator, fuel injector, ignition coils, oil gasket leak) but Im pretty much immaculate with its maintanance engine wise. The body works funky though since my sister dinged it up a couple of times.

Should i just save up for a newer (lesser mileage) or start messing with the altima?

FYI: I'm still waiting to find a 1994-99 eclipse GSX near my place, although the later model eclipse(uptil 2005) or Subaru Impreza tickles my fancy too.

Thanks for any suggestions.  

keep the altima as a daily driver. for the gsx your gonna have to look nation wide. theres like 4 4sale in my town, but my cc has already picked up 2 plus all the junkers. in our garage we have 6 gst and gsx. the 3rd gen is a great car, i own one also. the 4g64 is a bigger bore than the 4g63, thus has more power. you can run upto 7psi on the stock block. for awd, japan makes the fto in awd. the sti is a beast machine. the flat 4 boxer motor can take a beaten.

gt got me started also so dont feel bad.  

yeah, its like all the gsx up for sale are all on the west coast haha and thanks for the suggestion, im a practical guy so i didnt want to get rid of the altima just yet since its been a reliable (for the most part) ride.

i did see 2002 Mitsubishi Eclipse RS for $8849 w/ 99k miles on it. considering its gonna be my first time tuning something, i should start small. and since its gonna be my first purchase, I'm still trying to figure out the other details of buying a used car (insurance, inspection, loans, financing and all that happy stuff)

If I had the money like that other guy in a different post had (says he has 60k to buy his first car) id be riding out of a dealership right now haha  

that is way to much to pay for that 02 rs. my 03 gs only cost me $8995. that car should only cost about 6gs. look around for a better price then that.  

i found it at carmax. I didnt want to get a car from a private seller or the smaller dealerships around the area. I'd still want to have it checked out by a different mechanic, but so far this seems like the right one for me. Unless someone has some horror stories about carmax  

My cousins bought 3 cars from them, my brother too, and so far they've all been helpful and had no problems so far.

thanks for putting up with my questions godfather  

dont be afraid to ask qs. thats what these forums are for. i dont know about that dealership but you need to talk them down buy about 2gs. go to kbb.com and fill out the qs to see what it should cost.