I could not disagree more. To me the first car should be a complete throwaway. It should serve 2 purposes: a.) if you stack it, it doesn't matter; and b.) if something (minor) breaks you should learn to pull it apart and put it back together yourself. If you're young and you drive with a bit of spirit, accidents will happen, and you'll just be shooting yourself in the foot by doing it in a car worth more than $1k. Buy a KE70 or an AE82 and just drive it into the ground, get some experience up :) Disagree but its an opinion I went through high school hearing guys come to school everyday with their latest close call. We actually set a record for the most lost licenses in one year group at the school, 27 lost before schoolies (starting 4th term yr 11) The ppl that were sensible never crashed their car and never got dings. The idiots, they went threough more cars than the rest of the grade put together, i **** you not. The first car i bought was my 20v. Its probably got close to 10k worth of gear in it atm (but as well all know, the price we put on our car is always higher than everyone elses). Its been punched, kicked, backed into and i dont regret buying it. I Beat the living **** out of the leb that punch my car. I kicked the stinking crap out of the drunk from high school that kicked it, and i got free parts from the dude that backed into it. So far I havn't shot myself in the foot. Why? Because ive been sensible. The 20v can be a volatile engine cause of its fiddly head, but ive looked after it and not kicked its ***** every time i get behind the wheel. Buy a lemon and you will regret it. DONT drive it into the ground cause you start bad habits. DONT buy a 1k lemon, cause its a 1k lemon and will **** up more than you can imagine. But as i state before its my opinion... SO far everyone i know who has bought a 1k trash heap, has regretted wasting that grand