Advice on buying a 'family tuner'!

Hi all I'm brand new here and am looking for some advice from people who know their stuff. I'm looking to replace my current car and would like something with a bit of poke but I don't really have the luxury of choice as I have a growing family and not much cash!

What I'm looking for is a decent stock car that will do as a day to day driver but that will also have the potential for extensive modification as and when I have the cash to invest. I'm a mechanic myself so whatever car I own at any given time is always well looked after and lasts a good while before death or sale and I'm able to carry out any work myself for minimal costs.

What I don't have right now is a lot of cash, and I don't mean 8 grand which most people on this site seem to think is peanuts... I basically have nothing and am planning to save for a while to get the right car so in the meantime I'm going to put my time towards finding a car with a good balance between fun and family!

Only limits are that it has a decent number of doors and seats and a manual box when I pick it up. I can live with any other variables but I need room in the back for the kids and their crap! I'm a big fan of Vee-blocks but haven't run one since I had a 4x4 and that's not what I'm looking for here!

I know it probably seems strange to look for a tuner for sensible day to day use but at the end of the day it doesn't matter how much it gets modded I'll always be able to drive safely when the kids are in the car! I'm in the uk and will only buy a RHD but any info, advice and namedrops would be great.

Cheers, Tim  

My best suggestion would be a WRX Wagon, but I'm not sure if they are available in the UK. My friend had a lightly modified WRX wagon and it was great, very quick with plenty of room for his kid and crap. Assuming you can find one, it should be much cheaper than the more popular Impreza sedans.  
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1994 GTO Twin Turbo
nothin wrong with front-wheel drive, I just refuse to own one

Hey thanks for your thoughts! I think the impreza may be a no-no though to be honest. It kind of fits the bill but they're common as muck boy-racer cars over here and I don't think I could ever be proud of owning one! (No offence intended to those with 'proper' Imprezas, they just tend to be very showy and fake here!)

Just Ebay'd the WRX Wagon and assuming they're properly listed there are a few over here for decent prices, some about £2k. No internet at home at the moment so will have a proper look tomorrow on my break! I'm not ready to cross anything off the list yet though so you never know!  

Haha, sounds like you have the same problem that I have here in Connecticut. Every other car is either a Mustang, Civic or Impreza. If it counts for anything, the wagon version may stick out more, lol.

It's a shame the Evolution is so expensive, that would be a much more unique option. Best of luck with whatever you end up getting  
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1994 GTO Twin Turbo
nothin wrong with front-wheel drive, I just refuse to own one

I have to agree, I'd be pretty happy to bring an Evo home one day but the price is rather restrictive! I really would like a fairly recent year too which makes everything even more expensive! A 2005+ Evo would be amazing but it would also be over £4000 and even for a 2000+ vehicle it's not much cheaper unless it has problems!

I did figure out today though that at my rate of repayment it'll be 7 months before I'm out of debt and the missus wants to get married once that's done so I have plenty of time to scour the market and take in some advice!!!  

lol sounds like you'll have some time to think then, with debt and a marriage on the way. and congrats  

hey, a friend of mine has an 02 Audi S4, they are pretty powerful vehicles with the twin turbo..all of them are sedans and AWD to make for a safer drive with some little ones  If you have access to the parts i would say this would be an ideal car for you.  I absolutely hear ya on the cash situation, and i am not saying that these cars are cheap, but i think my friend got his for like 7G and he has had it for about 3 years now and no problems...yet  

Cheers for the posts guys, unfortunately I think the car hunt may be off for a while while I go back on the job hunt again... Got laid off about a week ago and there's just no work over here right now so I'm pretty much stuffed...

Still, could be worse, could be stabbed  

You can shoot for an EVO VIII MR. A Bit spendy they are but with all the electronic gizmos that they've put into it, it can do amazing things such as beat a Lamborghini Mercialargo of its own year lets say 2006 around a trackin a race. Umm if you can find them they're rare have a good aftermarket is the Mitsubishi Galant VR4. Another one is what another member commented on is an Audi S4, umm some Volkswagon TDIs' would work also.  

Oh man sorry to hear that! I hope the job hunt goes well, don't get stabbed!

The Galant VR4 is awesome, but hard to find here (no idea about the UK)  
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1994 GTO Twin Turbo
nothin wrong with front-wheel drive, I just refuse to own one

I had a look at the Galant a few days ago and I've got to say I agree. There are a lot of standard vehicles and GLS models over here on ebay and auto trader mostly under £2000 but the vr-4 seems to be more in the £3-4000 bracket which is the same as the Evo. So I guess I'd have to ask myself what I'd rather have if someone gave me the money right now, can't say it's a particularly easy call though...  

well alot of it depends on what you do find when you have the money to buy, so i might focus on research or prolly nothing until you've got the money so you can see what deals are available then.  

That's true, the market is bound to change between now and 2020 after all!

Just had a proper look and done a real comparison between not only the two favourites but their alter egos too so the galant and lancer as well as the evo and vr-4.

Seems that as of right now the order of price goes something like Galant, Lancer, VR-4, Evo with the standard lancers and the VR-4s coming very closely within the same price bracket. The standard Galant seems to be ten a penny after a decent search though so wouldn't be an unreasonable target to set myself.

Big question is though, what's the difference besides the badge? I thought initially the std Galant was only fitted up to a 2.0L engine but I see they all have the V6 fitted as standard at some point or another. As I said in the first place I want something with a long life that can be modified extensively and improved upon for the duration. Which of these 4 cars fit that bill? Any of them? All of them?

After having a good think and a long search online, I think I'd probably be happier with an Evo in the long run but the extra cost runs into £2k+ on top of the other 3 models. There's currently a very nice looking vr-4 on auto trader for a pinch under £2k though which I'd be more than happy with!

Pretty much the only thing I've decided so far is that a Galant would have to be black, nothing else is doing it for me! Lancer/Evo not so picky but once I wave off the Cav I'm not planning on replacing it with another red car!  

I think both the Evolution and Galant are only attractive in black. The Evolution is also the most reliable, I believe. The most modifiable is the Galant VR4 (at least the generation available in the U.S., they stopped making them in 92'). The late 90's Galants had V6 engines, and looked much sharper, but only came in Front Wheel drive here in the U.S., no VR4s.  
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1994 GTO Twin Turbo
nothin wrong with front-wheel drive, I just refuse to own one