Wow Krk, just ignore all of the hostility in this thread, there are alot of Jealous people in the world and many of them reside on the internet..not only are they jealous but they are also cheap (ever wonder why the hot deals forum is so popular?).
My brother got a $40,000 sports car when he was 17, granted he bought it used for $18,000..but it was still an expensive and powerful car (Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4) with an insurance premium that would make most of the cheapskates here on ATOT cringe with the sight of zeros on his statement.
Heck, just ask how many of those who say they have a "cheap" car how much they spend on their other interests, or if they have a $1,500 POS honda and have spent over 4K in stereo or some other ricer mods...it is all about how you prioritize *your* budget and *your* life, don't let others make decisions for you as only you know what is going on in your life.
If you can afford a $30,000 car from working hard then good for you, if your parents are well off enough to buy you a nice $30,000 car then good for them as they want to put their money to better the life of their child, I can only hope I can provide for my children when I get old enough and actually have some.
I also love all the people in here who claim to be *experienced* at age 20, heck I am almost 27 and I know I am the furthest thing from experienced even though I used to do alot of hi-po car work and raced at the local dragstrip constantly.
If I were looking for a good car under 30K I would look at either buying an Audi A4 1.8T, Subaru WRX, or a Ford Focus SVT.
However if I were you I would look at something that has a considerably higher MSRP and buy a model that is one or two years old so that someone else would have taken the depreciation hit...for example.
A used BMW 325 or Z3
A used Audi A4 or TT (I love the TT)
A used Honda S2000
A used Subaru WRX
A used Ford Mustang GT
etc etc etc....
there are plenty of deals to be had on a higher budget...like I said my brothers car was a $40,000+ sports car which he bought slightly used (few years old and 50,000 mi) for less than half. It was a great car and until someone broadsided him it was in perfect condition...even though he was younger he was very careful with it and he never got into a major or minor accident with it.
Personally I always went for cheaper cars as I liked other things which are expensive that people can give me a hard time over ...the things that interest me though hold their value much better than cars which is another reason why I never invest too much in autos...I took a big loss on one of my cars and swore that I would never again put as much into a car as I did that one, and I only invested $7K in performance/paint work and the car cost $7K so 14,000 total which by car enthusiast standards is next to nothing...if you want alot of car and have good value retention buy something nice that is also slightly used, you will take the least hit when trading in...remember a car isn't like a nice watch or even a TV set/home entertainment that you can use for a long time, cars generally get traded or sold before they reach 100,000 miles and they have high and frequent maintenece costs so the more you can recoup when it is time to trade/sell the better off you are.