My advice for you, buy a Honda Fit. By far the most favorite car I've owned. As a single guy I own 3 and the fit gets driven the most. The Evo is just a toy that I knew I'd loose money on. The maintenance is expensive, buying the right parts to upgrade is exspensive, stay away from the cheap stuff. Invest that 30k in something else. If I would've invested the money I spent on my Evo I would be debt free and probably a millionaire if I did it in stocks or traded $$.

Bottom line is you're going to do what you want. There's many threads in here that explain maintenance costs of owning an Evo, use the search option.

 

Dude, be smart and save that money for your education.

I wish I had done that.

These are car great cars and very fun to drive. But insurance will booty rape you, just like me. When **** starts braking on you, prepare to have deep pockets.

$240 a month for my Evo X at the age of 19-20.
$175 a month for my Evo 9 at the age of 21.

Had a clean driving record and no accidents.
Both full coverage @ $1,000 deductible.

I would say save the fun car **** until you finish your college and start your career.


Also had a G35 coupe as a first car.... which was a bad idea as I spent all the money I saved up on it. On top of that all the tickets I got... luckily for me they have been removed off my record via Stay of Adjudication. (Reckless, speeding, Careless).

Having a sports car as a first car = big no no. I regret having a nice sports car for a first car.

 

it doesn't get much better as you get older. i'm 41yrs old and pay $180/mo for full coverage, $100/500 deductibles, no tickets or accidents for 12yrs (knock on wood).

oddly enough, i could buy a broken down car, use the title to register and insure as my "primary vehicle". my rate would drop to $150/mo or less for both vehicles LOL.

 

I would LOVE to be paying around $100 when I turn 26.... ( I believe that is the age where it drops a bit).

We shall see ^^.

 

not for an Evo, you won't

 

I got smoked by a stripped down Honda civic with a 2 litre at my last track day, it cost the dude like 10g.... start off on something fun and simple you can tinker with, put 20 g away into an investment, you sound like a real smart guy so you'll be honors degree in no time and making that 20g into 50g then 100g, then you'll buy a great built Evo 9 when your 25 and have the best time of your life to look forward to. If you start off in the big league you will be bored by the time your 18, value the small stuff now and look forward to the big stuff later.

 

I started with Hondas. Cheap. Easy to work/learn on. There's a reason almost every high school teenager drives one LOL

 

buy the evo for $15k, spend another $15k on built motor etc, YOLO.

 

So if I understand correctly, at least that's what I'm understanding from all the replies (once again, very grateful) is to not get a car when I'm 16 and to save the money?

 

I agree ^ ..if you feel like you could handle the car's power, insurance payments and maintenance, fk it just get it. Money comes and goes and you'll learn a lot about cars and yourself if you make the 9 your first car. Personally, I would save it for college, but if you have that part taken care of through scholarships, parents etc., you should reward yourself with one. They're not that hard to work on. Hold onto that money until you know you're getting a good deal (this is the hard part). You won't spend the entire 30k on it and you can use the rest to make it a comfortable daily. Everyone else is telling you not to because they don't want to see a beautiful car goto waste on someone who won't take care of it. The Evo isn't that sporty if it's close to stock. Changing fluids in intervals is key. 3-5k miles for oil, 15k miles for transmission, transfer case and rear differential fluids. Changing the water pump, timing belt and balance belt and pulleys every 30k miles (~$1000 parts and labor) is another must and you need to make sure you do it when you get the car unless the previous owner can prove they did it. After you squared all of the initial maintenance away, just sit back and enjoy all of the poon you'll be getting haha. This is realistically what you'll be faced with as an Evo owner. If this isn't for you, save the money and get a good beater and invest the rest in a Roth IRA

 

If you have any debt, pay that off. If you anticipate debt, save as much of your money as possible. Re: you're too young for a powerful car; don't be an idiot. My first car was a '68 Camaro. Second car was a '67. Restored both, crashed neither. Both were way harder to drive than an Evo. No power steering, no power brakes, both manual transmissions. You'll be okay, unless you won't, and then you deserved it. Good luck!

 

We're talking about a 15 year old though. I can't speak for you, or anyone else, but if I was given a 300hp car with an awesome AWD system (a potentially false sense of security when driving it hard) for my first car, it would not have lasted long. Especially if OP plans on dumping a ton of money on mods.

Giving a new driver a rocket ship for his first car sounds like a comical liability. I mean, maybe some people are/were perfectly safe and responsible drivers at the age of 15, but I was not.

Reading this thread is interesting to me. I was in OP's position 12 years ago when I was in highschool. I wanted a brand new 2003 evo 8 SO BAD. I tried to convince my parents to help me with a payment plan. I considered working 2 jobs while making the transition to college. I remember people telling me that it was both dangerous for a new driver to be given a fast car, and an extremely poor decision financially. I never wanted to believe them but looking back on it now, I would definitely agree.


OP: If you decide to buy an evo 9 - the car will turn you into a mechanic. You're going to spend hours and hours on the internet learning about how it works, how to fix things, how to maintain things. You'll be taking things apart and putting them back together. You'll be buying, uh, "sodas" for your friend(s) when they come over to help you mount your transmission back in after you've replaced the clutch. You'll either be learning to tune the car yourself, or paying a tuner to do it for you. A lot of people love doing this stuff (myself included), and maybe you already have this expectation. But if not, I just wanted to share this part of owning an evo. It can either be a fun learning experience if you like getting your hands dirty, or it can potentially cost you a ton of money.

 

LOL @ "money comes and goes".

Yeah. I stumble onto $30k like, every few months.

We'll lump him in with the "wash your turbo every six months" guy.

 

My money comes and goes too. What does yours do? Sounds magical.

 

it just pretty much goes LOL.

i can't believe how irresponsible some people can be. telling a teenager to blow such a large sum of money on a car? that's epic.