TwiBlueG35

I would recommend your friend to get a new Honda Civic or Honda Fit rather than some used cars. When it comes to compact economical cars, nobody beats Honda. If your friend is willing to pay a bit more, like $15k, he or she could definitely buy one of these two nice small cars, very good handling and fit and finish as well as fuel economy. And they look nice in my opinion. They have bunch of aftermarket stuff to modify with if he or she is interested in doing so later on.

97-SC300

iTrader: (17)

$15k is out of the question, when I said 12-13k tops... it means pretty much that. He's more looking at something in the 10-11k range but if he found the right car he'd pay up to 13, and like I said earlier he hates the civic and all the new hondas.

LexFather

That kid has a future.

What about (gulp, I cannot believe I am saying this) a used ALtima. They are very popular with younger folks b/c well, it looks like a Lexus and its sporty to look at. Cheap, mods available, decent reliability overcome IMO, any expectations he should have.

kit cat

iTrader: (6)

What does he want out of this car? Autocross? Track? Daily driver? Is he even into cars?

If I could go back and was given a budget of 12k, I'd get a 4door DC2 for like 5k, overhaul B18, build suspension and drive the crap out of it by attending autocross events, and learn every bit of mechanical thing. 4 doors to haul friends, may not be fast but it's quick, plenty of parts, and you can tell the chicks you drive an Acura.

hell, I'd love to do this now if I had time.

Och

iTrader: (3)

Ok, so if basically his criteria is 10-13K, the car must be Japanese, and Honda (and assume Acura is out), and the car must be no more than 6 years old, it leaves us with Toyota/Lexux/Scion and Nissan/Infiniti. Since he was looking at a TC, I assume he wants a coupe, so there isnt much of a choice. Outside of the discontinued Celica or a used Solara there's nothing else.

Has he considered Toyota Matrix? You can get on in AWD, and it provides very decent utility, and it's one of the few hatchbacks that is actually pretty good looking.

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

infiniti i30/i35? maybe

97-SC300

iTrader: (17)

He's definitely into cars and this will be a daily driver with very few to no modifications at all. He thinks the Fit looks weird and quite frankly I agree. Again, this car needs to relatively new so no 10 year old cars to do swaps on etc. It's going to strickly be daily driven but needs to look nice, decent performance out of the box.

mmarshall

The Matrix AWD model was dropped a couple of years ago....AWD is just now coming back on the new Matrix and Pontiac Vibe. And, with only 123 HP, the older AWD models were like slugs, especially with the automatic. The new ones should have a little more power.

There were also comparibly few of the old AWD models sold...you might have to hunt to find one.