[Dueller]

I'll chime in here with my recommendation...I have twin stepdtrs. My wife and their dad agreed to each buy a car, $5000 max budget. Dad, married to the country music heiress, goes out and buys one a 2002 Mitsubishi Eclipse for like $9K. So much for sticking to budget.

Mom was adamant to not spend more than $5K. So it falls on me to find an equally cool (to 16 y.0.'s) car. I shopped on ebay and came up with a 1999 318ti (the little hatchback) flew to Miami and picked it up drove it 900 miles home in 14+ hrs. A really fun little car...with automatic and the anemic 1.9 litre it looks a lot faster than it is. Dual airbags, reasonable back seat, gets 33mpg on highway. It already had a killer stereo installed, which apparently was part of the cool factor. Picked it up for a tick under $5K. They are becoming a cult classic.

She's now driven it 10,000 miles with no problems whatsoever. Conversely the Eclipse has had a myriad of problems and rattles and clunks and shakes. The baby bimmer is as tight and quiet as the day it rolled off the showroom floor.