Hello ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the channel. My name is Mark Rodin. In today's video, we are going to be going over the top 10 best rear-wheel drive JDM cars for less than $5,000. Yeah, it's kind of a mouthful, but we're going specific today, man.
We're doing the top 10 rear-wheel drive JDM cars for less than $5,000. Why? Because I like JDM cars.
I love rear-wheel drive cars. and I like cheap cars. So here's a list of those things combined.
Also, I know this is kind of a small list compared to what I normally have been making, but dude, I used to make top 10s all the time back in the day, and only recently have I been, like, making, like, the top 15s or top 20s or stuff like that. And so I was like, let's take it back to the roots. And on top of that, I wanted to give myself a little bit more time to work on another deep dive, because I haven't made a deep dive in quite some time, but those take a lot of time to make.
So, I was like, okay, we'll make a short video today, and then that way, the rest of my time today I can spend working on the deep dive video. But anyway, guys, let's get right into it. I almost just did the outro thing.
Let's get right into it with number 10. And that, Anna, goes to the Toyota MR2 AW11, the first generation of the MR2. Unfortunately, it's going to be tough for you to find one of these under $5,000. Honestly, you might even be able to find an SW20, the second gen, under $5,000, but that's going to be even harder. So I'm just going to go with the first gen, but just know that if you want an MR2, if you have the patience, you might be able to get a second gen. Either way, though, the first gen comes with a 1.6 liter inline boat, making 124 horsepower in its rear wheel drive.
124 horsepower. horsepower is obviously not like you're not going to be going up to mom, you know, and be like, mom, 104 horsepower, call the authorities because I might commit a crime. But it's enough when the car weighs as much as it does. Also, I'm going to say it, people hate me when I say it, people make fun of me in the comments and start bullying me, but it has mid-engine.
So it experiences something called snap oversteer. Be careful of that because if you're a new time driver, it might catch you off guard and you might crash into a tree. And I don't want that to happen.
Ninth place is the goat, the goat, the Lexus LS400. LS400, the LS400 is just, dude, it's a freaking icon at this point, and for good reason, I mean, they do everything you could possibly want a old Lexus to do, it has the space like a Lexus wants, it has a reliability, and it honestly gets a decent gas mileage for being a V8, which, by the way, it comes with a 4-liter V8, making 270 horsepower, going to, of course, the rear wheels, it is, yes, okay, on paper, when you first see a LS400 for the first time, and you're like, huh people have been talking about these cars let me go look on facebook marketplace to see how much they cost and see if i can buy one you you probably will be like okay this looks like old man jenkins car that he used to drive to bingo every night but look at them modified you know just some simple mods too you don't have to go crazy you don't have to like slam it like most people do if you just want to keep it like a nice comfortable daily driver just do some simple mods and these things can look good they're not going to obviously break necks that often because yes they are grandpa's car but dude you You're not really buying an LS400 to break necks anyway. Eighth place, however, is going to one that everybody always over-exaggerates the pricing on, the Nissan 240SX S13.
I want to make it very clear, I live in the old Connecticut of the United States of America, so we experience winter. As a matter of fact, that's coming up, and it makes me actually depressed just thinking about it, because I freaking hate winter. So most of our cars have rust, and so a lot of our cars are cheaper because of that.
Up here you can find an S13 for under 5k if you're patient. They call him with a 2.4 liter inline 4 making 145 horsepower in the rear wheel drive. Like I said I want to really elaborate on the fact that I said if you're patient.
I hate when people are like oh you can buy an S13 for under 5k okay let me go look. on Facebook marketplace right now. I live in freaking Florida where there's no rust on any of our cars.
Let me go look at it real quick. Oh, would you look at that? They're not under 5k, buddy.
You look for 10 seconds. All right. If you want a car for 5k, you got to look every freaking day for like a month straight until you find the perfect deal. It takes time, but that's what you're going to got to do if you want an S13 for under 5k.
But in my opinion, I've seen them plenty of times under 5k. It still can be done. Another one that for some reason people over-exaggerate the pricing on, number seven is a Lexus SC300.
This car... Yeah, okay, I want to make it really clear, by the way, though. You are not finding no manual SC300 for under 5k, and if you do, it's probably a scam.
You're going to get robbed, they're going to stick something out of your booty hole, and you don't want that. Unless it's me. You don't want that, alright? Either way, the SC300 comes with the legendary 2JZ. The 3-liter inline-6, making 225 horsepower, going to, of course, the rear wheels.
It's not the GTE, so before you're like, oh my god, what, this car can make 1,000 horsepower with, like the Mark IV Supra? No, unfortunately, you can't. It's not the bi-turbo model, it's naturally aspirated.
So in turn, it also has some weaker internals. But I've seen people on the forums say that you can get these things up to like 450, 500 wheel horsepower on stock internals. And that's decent, man. That's plenty.
And on top of that, you're not strictly buying an SC300 just for the horsepower, realistically. They are kind of a luxury car as well. So you're kind of buying it for a good mixture of both. Sixth place, however, is going to, in my opinion, probably the worst choice on this list.
But I put it at sixth because it looks cool. The Toyota Supra Mark III. I kind of lie, there is one more choice on this list that I think is a little bit worse than this one.
but yeah it's it's just so hard to find a mark 3 supra under 5k that's actually worth it and so i would just be careful they come with a 2.5 liter inline six making 200 horsepower in their rear wheel drive you can find obviously like turbo model mark threes but they're not going to be under 5k uh you're getting the naturally aspirated ones and realistically those engines aren't aren't aren't aren't anything special and the cars are kind of heavy they really aren't the best choice for less than five thousand dollars i'm going to be honest they're really old They're probably going to be unreliable. They can't make that great power, and they're kind of heavy, but they look freaking sick, man. Fifth place is another one that's probably not the bestest of choices, but definitely a little bit better than the MK3 Supra.
The Nissan 300ZX Z31. And the reason why is because you can find these under 5k quite often, so you can find a more clean model than a MK3 Supra. And that's all that really matters. Most Japanese sports cars, that is really all that matters about them, is their age. Their age is what destroys them, and so you've got to find one that's been taken care of for those 20 years.
And most of the time, that's hard to do. These cars come with a 3.0L V6, making 222 horsepower going to the rear wheels. and i would say like i said since the 300zx's are just overall cheaper than mark iii supra's i would say it's easier to find one that's been taken care of under 5k than it is a mark iii supra the only other downside to a z31 is obviously the the engine space working on these things i've heard are an absolute nightmare so just keep that in mind and on top of that they're not the best looking but hey if you can if you like them you like them man it's all personal opinion obviously just be careful when going to work if you're like a new mechanic yeah probably not the best choice all right fourth place this one is the one i was talking about earlier that is actually probably the worst choice on this list because it's the mazda rx7 fc i mean listen fc rx7s are freaking unbelievably cool everybody knows that but we also all know that they're also incredibly unreliable it's just too high maintenance and since they're so freaking old at this point chances are some of the previous owners didn't do the maintenance and so you're gonna have to you're gonna have to deal with that They come with a 1.3 liter two rotor rotary engine making 160 horsepower in its rear wheel drive. What I think the best bet for you to do, honestly, if you want an FC so bad for under 5k, is buy one that just doesn't have rust. Make sure it doesn't have that much rust.
The engine can be, it can be a fucking... oh i just swore my bad but it can be a freaking 250 000 mile hoopty as long as it doesn't have rust and then just take the engine out and put an ls in it man and just have some freaking fun or honestly take the engine out if you want to stay true to the rotaries just put a different rotary and it's going to be more reliable before you start blowing apex seals all over the place third place is going to just better than everything so far the lexus is 300 uh pretty much just a smaller sc 300 and smaller is better so we're putting it a bit higher Comes with the exact same freaking motor as the SC300, by the way. A 3 liter, inline 6, making 225 horsepower going to the rear wheels. Called the 2JZGE.
Not the GTE. Same thing. Does not have the turbos.
Cannot make as much horsepower on stock internals, but still can make decent power. Like I said, it's just a shorter wheelbase, lighter weight SC300, and obviously that just makes it a little bit better. You can even possibly find a manual one for under 5k.
I've seen them under 5k, but they are absolute clap boxes, so be careful with that. realistically the best bet for you though is buy an automatic swap at the manual and then just have an absolute blast to drive this freaking thing around and uh they're they're obviously super fun sedans also obviously slightly better for than coupes so that that's also better but we're going right back to a coupe oh you thought i was done with the coupes no i am not sir because second place is the infinity g35 coupe i know that like for some reason in the car community nowadays people are like i don't like take VQs. I want to be different. Look at me, man. I don't like them.
I don't know why. Maybe because people take them to takeovers, but that shouldn't be a reason to hate a car, but I do because I have low IQ, but they're great cars. They come with a 3.5 liter V6 making 287 horsepower in their rear wheel drive. I hear everybody's complaints that, hey, you can't make that much power on a DE VQ35.
Listen, I know you can't make that much horsepower on a DE VQ30. I don't know why I'm saying it that way. VQ35 DE. But you don't really need to when the car already has close to 300 horsepower.
from factory and on top of that they're incredibly reliable they're incredibly fun they look good in my opinion yes they're a little bit heavy but you gotta have something on top of that they're newer than a lot of these cars in this list so they have a lot of better tech and everything like that in them they're just overall i think really good platforms vqs especially for their price right now let the other people hate on them in the community because they're keeping the prices down for us honorable mention time because it's not japanese but i think it should count that's low-key kind of racist because i'm just kind of putting all asians into one video but come on man it counts it's the hyundai genesis coupe bk1 uh you're not finding a bk 200 5k and if you do do not buy it because they're scamming you uh i'm specifically talking about talking about the 3.8 liter v6 that makes 290 horsepower going to the rear of the wheels uh that's the facelifted bk1 by the way there's so they oh god it's so hard to explain they had like a bk1 with the 2.0 turbo or whatever that made 210 horsepower then they had the 3.8 liter v6 that one made made 290, then the BK2 came out and made like 340. in the in the uh in the v6 and then the freaking inline four made like 250 it's all over the place over here but in my opinion the best choice for you right now is the bk1 3.8 they're cheaper and they have the 300 horsepower but if you want more power it's so hard just look it up if you want a genesis coupe just look it up i can't tell you enough about them they're too much and first the best rear-wheel drive japanese sports car for less than five thousand dollars is without a doubt the mazda miata nb i know people are going to make fun of me because i'm just following the youtube trends everybody on youtube's like buy a miata yeah that's always the answer but let's be honest man they're saying that for a reason they're right these things are an absolute freaking great car to buy right now they come with a 1.8 liter inline four making 135 horsepower going to of course the rear wheels and i know people are going to be like well that's low horsepower okay if you're buying a japanese sports car For straight line speed then yeah, obviously don't buy a freaking me out I don't know why I have to tell you this you should know this but use your freaking brain But most of us that are buying late 90s Japanese or early 2000s Japanese sports cars less than 5k that are rear-wheel drive Let's be honest. We're not buying them for straight line speed We're buying them for cornering abilities or for drifting and if that's what you want You really don't have much of a better option than a freaking me out of right now They're actually still reliable reliable and clean for under 5k And I know you can buy an NA as well for less than 5k, but in my opinion, there's no point when the NB costs pretty much the exact same. It's just a better NA. It's just, I don't even know why I have to sell people on this, but for some reason I do. I get comments now of people trying to hate on the Miata because they want to be different or cool or whatever.
Yes, they're getting overpriced, okay? I'm not trying to say that they're still a great and incredible deal, but in my opinion, they still are a good deal in a world where freaking every Japanese sports car nowadays is costing stupid amounts of money. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that is the end of today's video of the top 10 best rear-wheel drive JDM sports cars for less than $5,000. I hope you guys enjoyed. If you did, please be sure to like, comment, and subscribe to the channel for more content just like this.
Do I look like I'm insane right now? Please like the channel. Please, guys. Like the video. Like it, please.
Anyway, thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you guys... Let me know what other videos you'd like to see.
I mean, that's obviously... Hey, I always tell people. I go off of recommendations.
If somebody recommends a video, chances are I'm going to do it. Obviously, if you're telling me, like, ranking all Monopoly board games from worst to best, I'm not going to do that because I don't play Monopoly. And this is not a Monopoly channel, clearly. So, I'm not going to do that.
But if you give me an actual decent recommendation or something, I'll... I'll do it, man. I love recommendations. I love getting them. I say this quite often, and people do leave recommendations, so I'm not saying, like, you guys are, like, not doing it.
I'm just reminding you guys, you know, hey, recommendations are always welcome here on the Mark Roden channel. I appreciate it. Because I feel like I hate freaking YouTubers that, like, don't take their audience's opinions into account.
Because it's like, dude, they're watching you. Like, you have to provide for them. It's not the other way around, man. They're not providing. It's like, I'm providing for you guys, you know what I'm saying?
it's like i need to to satisfy you and so it's like i don't know why they act like oh they don't know what to talk about i'll make a video that i want to make it's like no do what they want to see so again leave a comment and if you want to see something chances are it'll it'll be made now it might be made in like two weeks from now because i'm really bad with my upload schedule but it will be made anyway thank you guys so much for watching i appreciate it that's and have a nice night