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Starter Car?

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I'm 14 and looking for a good year round car to drive that still has potential to go sideways when I floor it. I'm thinking something like a 2009 Buick lucerne super that I can turn into my own little project car. Does that sound like a good starter car? If not, any suggestions?

  • 4 weeks later...
On 5/4/2026 at 12:43 PM, crvette_guy said:

I'm 14 and looking for a good year round car to drive that still has potential to go sideways when I floor it. I'm thinking something like a 2009 Buick lucerne super that I can turn into my own little project car. Does that sound like a good starter car? If not, any suggestions?

Nothing front wheel drive is going sideways when you floor it. 

4 hours ago, crvette_guy said:

I don't know why i didn't consider that it had fwd

There's not a lot of choices for RWD in the big family sedan space. Charger, 300C, Town Car, Crown Vic, or if you go a lot older, Impala, Roadmaster, Fleetwood. Crown Vics and Town Cars really don't have the performance to be doing sideways stuff. Charger/300 with a Hemi is your best bet for that.  I wouldn't want to see you doing that with the Roadmaster / Fleetwood.  They have the ability, but they're classics now and should be preserved.  Outside of that you're looking at Germans (too expensive to maintain) or Lexus / Infiniti. 

29 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

There's not a lot of choices for RWD in the big family sedan space. Charger, 300C, Town Car, Crown Vic, or if you go a lot older, Impala, Roadmaster, Fleetwood. Crown Vics and Town Cars really don't have the performance to be doing sideways stuff. Charger/300 with a Hemi is your best bet for that.  I wouldn't want to see you doing that with the Roadmaster / Fleetwood.  They have the ability, but they're classics now and should be preserved.  Outside of that you're looking at Germans (too expensive to maintain) or Lexus / Infiniti. 

@crvette_guy - I just thought of one if you really wanted a northstar and a larger sedan. You could get the final generation of Cadilac STS. 

The first gen CTS-V would work also, but they're harder to find cheap while also being in good shape.  Still, the first-gen CTS-V is just a standard GM 5.7 or 6.0 liter and dead reliable. You can get it with a manual also.  It might be worth spending a little more to go this route instead of going with a cheaper Northstar powered car in the long run.

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