Eschew The New Hyundai Accent: The 6 Best USED Cars Under $15k

As a fan of CarEnvy.ca, your tastes run into the more eccentric, fun, and obscure realms of automobilia. You’re also very smart with your money. In short, you’re pretty amazing. Almost as amazing as ING Direct spokesman Frederik de Groot, also known as Mr. Save Your Money, seen above.

While your friends are buying the latest and greatest, you’re biding your time until depreciation strangles some poor, unsuspecting dude and leaves you with a bargain-priced gem that is a bit special, rewarding to drive, and easy on the wallet. If you’re looking at driving a brand-new car off the dealer lot, your Canuck Bucks can’t do better than a $15,094 3-door Hyundai Accent. For that tidy sum, you’re treated to roll-up windows, no A/C, a design that’ll look dated by next month, and a lifetime of heartache and woe.

But as you already know, that 15 large will stretch a lot further if you take the time to browse Kijiji and eBay Motors. So let’s pretend that you really do have $15,000 and that you want to make every penny count. What are the best cars you can buy?

1. 1999 Porsche 911

The first of the water-cooled 911s, a blasphemous smudge in the company’s history books, can now be yours for only $13,910! For that kind of money you could either have a Hyundai Accent with roll-up windows or you could have the quintessential rear-engined sports car in your driveway. The history of the 911 stretches back 50 years, which in car lives makes this first water-cooled model like the student entering high school: a little unsure of its identity but growing up fast. Through a series of relentless improvements, the 911 has matured from a terrifyingly charming curiosity into a more civilized instrument for everyday use. This automatic-equipped example will ensure that your daily grind is as uneventful as home room. Sure, this particular example has 143,000 miles (230,000 km), but that just means that it has a vast depth of experience to share with its new owner: you!

But that’s not all, five (5!) more sub-$15k used cars are after the jump!

2. 2002 Audi S4 Wagon

Maybe you’re the kind of enthusiast that wants it all in their daily driver, and who could blame you? Your wish list includes, rightly so, twin-turbos, AWD, wagon body style, and a manual transmission. Then look no further, because your salvation is here in the form of this here silver Audi, itself a direct descendent of the Ferdinand Porsche-designed 1936 Auto Union Type C. At a Buy-It-Now price of only $13,961, this German thoroughbred has everything on your wish list AND navigation, Bose sound, heated (white and black!) leather seats, and a sunroof. Try getting those options on the Type C! Ok, so 117,000 miles (km) and a dodgy reliability record are slight drawbacks, but surely the pros outweigh the cons with this seductive silver siren. Next!

3. 2003 Range Rover HSE

Nothing tells the world you’ve arrived like a Range Rover. It shouts “I’M A BOSS” at the top of its lungs. Combine the supple leathers with BMW’s 4.4L V8 underhood and you’re ready for a magic carpet ride. Speaking of carpets, Britain, and Germany… Battle of Britain anyone? It was tenuous, I’ll admit. It was also 70 years ago. Tomorrow, when you roll up to that swanky bar in the HSE, the only thing people will be asking is “I wonder what he does”, not knowing that the answer is “get deals”. So get some!

4. 2001 Porsche Boxster S

Roll up to your bro’s place in this murdered out Porsche and he’ll lose his motherf*cking shit. He spent his money on the lowly Accent, and you just drove up in a mid-engined Porsche with some of the purest handling money can buy. His girlfriend just became your girlfriend.

5. 2008 Volvo C70

You don’t have to plunk down a cool million on a Koenigsegg Agera R Convertible to get a Swedish drop-top. No sir, for just $12,083 this low-mile C70 is yours. It even comes with the 2.5T engine so you can leave those Miatas in the dust. The catch? It was in a bit of a fender-bender and appears to have been repaired by blind immigrant labourers with no metal-working experience. In true Ikea fashion, some assembly required. Still, it’s a drop-top turbo-Swede!

6. 1947 Packard Clipper

If you really want to stand out from the pack, look no further than this ’47 Clipper. The Clipper featured of raft of innovations in American car design, as How Stuff Works describes, the 1941-47 Clipper boasted:

Concealed door hinges, rotary door latches, a low-slung double-drop frame, broad areas of glass, and the banishment of the archaic running boards were also Clipper features. So was the double-link steering design, incorporating a cross bar and idler arm with two cross tubes between the steering brackets and Pitman arm, to allow independent wheel movement; and the canted rear shock absorbers, with a fifth unit to absorb sideways.

Impressive stuff, and yours for only $14,215 and available for pick-up in… Bogotá, Columbia.

Leave us your most sensational sub-$15k finds in the comments section below, or join the conversation on Twitter at @carenvy!

See you next time!

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