Ok, I have a 2000 Avenger Sport. 89k, normal wear and tear, trans aint so strong and the engine makes funny noises, the normal, lol. So I have a kit (TC1) for the car already, and the car needs paint. This summer I will have around $2700 to play with, here are my options and prices, help me match what you think would be best bet.

Fix dents, kit car, and paint - $1300
Fix dents and just paint - $900 in which I could sell the kit for some extra cash
ERT Trans - $1600
3.0 Swap - $1200

At first I wanted to kit and paint cause the car is getting lowered as well, but now I'm thinking about it, being lowered with a kit may not be my peice of pie. I know my car needs some trans help, and a 3.0 sounds nice and it also needs paint, I'm just having trouble figuring out the order in which I wanna do this all. What do you think is my best route here and selling it isn't an option lol.


thanks guys 

-Eric

Go with a manual tranny and get the 3.0 or get a I4 block for 15-1800 fully built and get a built head for about 500-700 and get a tranny to match.  Then down the road you can turbo it.  If you're not interested in turbo, you can get the build block but build it with the 12 instead of the 8 compression pistons.