Help Me Buy A Car! Cant decide...
 

Alright, giving the girl a hand shopping for a car that is RELIABLE. She is not a car guru, I`ll be the on fixing it...

Budget: 5grand Plus she's got a MINT 01 saturn for trade value (2grand mabye?)

Car #1 is a 2003 Nissan Sentra seR spec-V in awesome shape. 195,000km`s, new rubber and pretty much stock. 6sp trans, LSD etc Seems to have alot of pep, handles the road well and seems RELIABLE. Dealer listed at $6900

Car #2 is a 1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder. Body is 9 out of 10, automatic, fwd, TURBO on 19" wheels (235-35-19) The soft-top will need some attention within the next year, engine is quite dirty looking but nothing a detail cant fix. 225,000kms Private Sale... $4000

POST YOUR OPINIONS Looking for negative feed back of both

http://www.autorvworld.com/autorvwor...7289-small.jpg

http://images.craigslist.org/3k13o13...e9330b1da8.jpg

comparing the two then sentra but the qr2.5 has headgasket problems

eclipse... it's an older car with turbo and high mileage that would be something to think about

I remember a thread on a Sentra SE-R forum where some guy wanted a motor swap but his GF didnt let him, so he poured a bunch of nails/screws/rocks into the crankcase to ruin his current engine. Still worked afterwards, lol

does it have to be a sporty car?
i can think of a few others

think away... :) The others she's interested in are celicas and tiburon gt, civic si's etc... so far we've got it down to these two.

celica gt or gt-s is good reliable and peppy

civic sir and integra gsr will be on my top of the list

edit: a good condition GSR maybe hard to find though

for extreme reliability http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/rd...454973998.html

for more fun http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/bn...454954157.html

protege's are great

when you guys say peppy - what do you mean?

-it has a lot of "pep"
-celica gt or gt-s is good reliable and peppy

Usually a 4cyl, tends to have a twitchy throttle but great for driving around town.

Downsides are that the difference between 25% throttle input and WOT is nothing aside from the engine screaming.

for me, 'eclipse' and 'reliability' never felt right in the same sentence.

i have a gt-s, bought it with 90k on it, at 121k, had no problems so far. only thing ive had to do is a regular oil change :)

What's wrong with the Saturn?

who said there was anything wrong with it? ;) Its a... saturn... :puke:

Peppy is sporty? Not a sport car but a sporty car.

I believe you can get a decent Celica with 6k. Very liable, ok gas milage, fun to ride with razor sharp handling except the engine has absolutely no balls and suffered from the fail-wheel-drive maladies. Get a manual one if she can drive stick because the auto ones are slow as snails. Not to mention there are a loads of trunk space in that tiny little car.

I used to own a 97 Eclipse Spyder. However I was a non-turbo and I never had any problems whatsoever with mine. The turbo for this generation is an entirely different story. They are unreliable and can be a lot of work especially if the car doesn't have a great maintenance history. I would prob go for the Nissan if these are the only two options you have.

Bought the Nissan :)

so how much boost is it running and how much WHP is it putting down?
you should look into the HKS T51R turbo.

What options did you get? Is it modded in any way? I had a 2k3 Spec-V, as well. I loved that car. Although, one of my major gripes is the car's desire for premium fuel. The QR25 sucks it down, big time.

LOL @ Eclipse

Congrats on the purchase

Those Mitsubishi's aren't known to be the most reliable.

I would probably go with the Sentra

If you want proven reliability then most Honda's or Toyota's are a good choice.

Good choice, DSM's aren't exactly known for rock solid reliability.

Premium? regular sounds cheaper on a stock car...?

No, no mods whatsoever. I hear the catalytic converters like to explode so we're looking into getting a header and intake and leave it stock after that.

I had an 02 Spec-V, yes you must run Premium gas unless you like detonation. If you only get a header the car will sound like poop, also budget for a cat-back at the same time, something with a small muffler. The QR25 is a big 4 cyl and will sound good if the exhaust is done right. I had the AEM intake and it worked very well.