[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by klaus

This is just wrong. With a PPI a car at just about any price point can be reliable. Here is a quick list of cars I have purchased for less than 5k and have been dead reliable:

BMW 535is (e28)
BMW 325is (e30)
Volvo 850R
Porsche 944 Turbo
VW GTI VR6 (MK3)
Datsun 280Z

So that spans car from 1975 to 1997, all of which only needed standard maintenance items to keep them up and running, sure all of those are not classics, but the BMWs, Porsche, and Datsun qualify.

Amen to that. I've owned a lot of sub-$5k cars, and while they may have had misc needs I can't recall any of them leaving me stranded. Except for my 318ti which was a mistake from the beginning.