Must depend where, I did a feature for NEI in Hartford and a lot of people were talking about how much cars get stolen around there and around Boston too. I do know that Garage Jobs is in CT too and they are nuts about VW's. Theres a couple guys that are part of Garage Jobs that do a lot of sidework, even specifically body/paint.

I would prefer a nissan Sentra but can't find any near Hartford that are manual tranny

Stay away from early 2000s 1.8l unless you like blown headgaskets

In CT man...if you find something before 2005 w/o rust, you've just won the lottery. That shit is insidious in newengland. Check out the suspension, exhaust, and hoses. That salty air eats them for breakfast, and they salt the roads heavily every winter.

I hear that. Sad part is, I havent even bothered to wash my car yet this winter so its all just caked right on. Even somewhat above freezing day we've had I've been stuck at work/busy.

I live near New Haven and I don't really hear any horror stories, but I wouldn't doubt them. CT has a pretty shitty car scene, yeah there's a Euro scene here but alot of these cars just aren't done right....everything is half-baked or just hacked to shit. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of nice, clean cars in CT that ARE done right, but they're few and far between, and usually they don't affiliate themselves with any groups because most groups in CT are ricers or hacks. Just alot of rusty, old, primered, body-kitted Hondas in CT

I ended up not buying the Honda, I never really liked them but I was just settling. I'll keep looking, however VW, Mazda, and Subaru are my top picks in that order.

You shouldn't be looking at any of them with your budget.

4k for a used Subaru in New England is as easy as finding a honda. VWs are everywhere too.

Have fun with head gaskets in those subarus and electronics in those VWs.