[wykd]

I'm currently 19 and have a part-time job (@ UPS) making $500/month. By November I should have $3000+ saved up for a down payment and whatever else (taxes, title, etc). I own a 1990 Dodge Daytona with 97,000 miles on it. My dad recommends I take that money and put it in a "speed shop" and let them do whatever they can to it. Well I know for one there aren't any turbos for it, and I sure as hell don't want a huge blower on it. He thinks i'm getting in over my head with a brandnew car at my age. I will be able to afford the monthly payments (which i'm assuming will be $350~400~) but insurance will be the main problem. I'm sure I can get help from my mother if needed.

So what do you guys think? Put tons of money into the Daytona (which will require a new trans+clutch considering the synchronizers are bad and I don't want extra power on a stock trans) or save for the SRT-4 for early next year?

 

[ohyeahwright]

One word: WARRANTY.

(And what the hell do you think a bunch of SRT enthusiasts will say when you ask if you should get one?!?! LOL)

I've had my SRT-4 a few weeks now and I am still totally enamored and enthralled with this machine! Wouldn't change my decision to get one even if I could.

 

[abaddsm]

Your insurance will probably at least equal the cost of the car.

 

[wykd]

Believe me... I wish I had a warranty on the daytona :\ Bought it used for $700... It runs fine but the idiots at Econolube destroyed the synchros...

 

[Whitey]

wykd, im 19 also and im in the same boat as you for the most part, cept i have a stratus not a daytona...but im getting myself one of these little beasts.

 

[Mike B.]

Is your Daytona a turbo charged 4-cylinder, or is it one of the V-6 models? If it's a 4 there are lots of choices for turbos. With the right combination of parts your Daytona could thoroughly spank a stock SRT-4 . . . for a whole lot less cash.

 

[Slow5OH]

I'm currently 19 and have a part-time job (@ UPS) making $500/month. By November I should have $3000+ saved up for a down payment and whatever else (taxes, title, etc). I own a 1990 Dodge Daytona with 97,000 miles on it. My dad recommends I take that money and put it in a "speed shop" and let them do whatever they can to it. Well I know for one there aren't any turbos for it, and I sure as hell don't want a huge blower on it. He thinks i'm getting in over my head with a brandnew car at my age. I will be able to afford the monthly payments (which i'm assuming will be $350~400~) but insurance will be the main problem. I'm sure I can get help from my mother if needed.

So what do you guys think? Put tons of money into the Daytona (which will require a new trans+clutch considering the synchronizers are bad and I don't want extra power on a stock trans) or save for the SRT-4 for early next year?

With some of the quotes I've heard on insurance around here you're 500 a month won't even cover that. I'd say just wait and mod out the Daytona, even if you can swing it you're gonna be spreading yourself much too thin.

-faast

 

[abaddsm]

Yeah I am 24 with a few speeding tickets and such in my Talon.
90 in a 50 etc.
Insurance for full coverage is $425/month.
But since the last of the tickets was in 2001 they will fall off my record next year.
Just got to be a good boy until then. :twisted:

 

[wykd]

It's a V6 3.0L. I really have no choices as far as bolt-ons :\

 

[SRT-Hunter]

I just did some number crunching on one of those payment estimator calculators. This was the break down.

SRT-4 bottom line price of: $21850

Down Payment of: $3000

Loan of $18850

Monthly Payments: $373.25 for 60 months (at 7%...which is realisitc...maybe even low for you)

That leaves you with $126.75 at the end of the month. Do your parents give you a gas card or something?? If not...factor in $20/week for gas...so your left with $46.75 which is not enough for insurance.

If you can convince your parents to help out with gas or insurance, then you can do it. Also...I recomend getting a second part time job over the summer. An extra $1000 will take car of 6 months (or more) of insurance.

If I were in your shoes, I would try to work extra hours so you can get the SRT-4. I wouldnt drop $3k on the daytona

 

[bmxfreak]

Ya, and like SRT-Hunter showed, an 18,000 loan is pretty heft, provided you could get a bank to even loan you the money (banks only loan a percent of the total car value). I dont know much about a Daytona, but i'd be kinda leary about putting forced induction on an engine that is coming close to the 100,000 mark. The last thing you want to do in your situation is destroy your car. It may be hard to do, but you may just want to hold off on both and save up some more, so you could put a larger downpayment. 500 a month isnt that great of an income, but with persistence and smart spending you could save enough to get what you really want, an SRT.

 

[wykd]

There are just so many things that add up to make the Daytona feel like a low-quality car. It definitely has some power as I can beat most ricers in it (all of the torque is @ 2800 RPMs) but... My $360 stereo stopped working (mechanical faceplate doesn't work), cracks in the plastic everywhere, the driver's side seatbelt doesn't retract and is cracked all around that, the clutch feels like its going bad, the transmission's synchros are bad which makes double-clutching necessary, and the belt on the car is bad which equates to a constant squeeling. There are other things wrong too, and it just seems like I would be putting money into a sinkhole. Yeah if I put enough into it, it would smoke an SRT-4. But then again, we're talking $2000 for a good clutch and synchros (maybe an entire new trans would be needed, $2000 to put it in a machine shop to be bored/port & polished/stroked/etc, $1500 to do the interior + paint job, and even at that I wouldn't even be able to turbocharge it. Maybe the machine shop would turbocharge it, but then again, that's another $2000 at least for labor + designing. I can't even buy an aftermarket exhaust system for it :\ I really don't understand that considering it definitely is a sporty car. It's not slow by any means...

 

[lifeisdeath]

If not...factor in $20/week for gas...

figure more than that if it is the daily driver. i get 35 mpg right now and i spend about $45 a week.