My base has been more car than I wanted or needed for my 5+ years of ownership, but I'm not a 20 year old speed freak, either.
If you do the tune-up, pads and rotors yourself, you could easily bring the car up to par for under $1k. The most expensive thing will be the tires. Depending on brand and current sales, tires will run between $125-$350 each. I recently did pads, plugs and tires and my bill was around $700 (did everything myself except mount/balance tires).
