For The People Who Know Cars, am i making a good decision Options

[ojrman]

Yo. I see ther has been some topics about cars and what not, Right now I have a 1999 Saturn SC2, Dont ask me why I got the damn thing just I donno I just turned 16 when I got it and I wanted somthing to drive so thats what I ended up with.

I put about 3000 miles on it in 3 months, in that timeperiod i went through 4 transmissions, Thank god for the Warranty I donno im fed up with this damn car and im getting rid of it, the car has 48,000 miles on it and Im tradeing it in, the best price i got was $5200 for it, another place waS going to give me $5000.

The Dealer that was going to give me 5200 for it has a 95 Pontiac Firebird 3.4l v6 sfi, Great condition, only $4700, that leaves me with $417 after state stuff and tag transfers ect. this is what the Pontiac looks like




Now the other place with the 5000 deal has a 95 GS Eclipse all black and they want 5000 for the eclipse, My mind is set on the Firebird but if anyone else thinks different or w/e, I donno im just looking for a second opionion

[jesterrace777]

What are you looking for? Reliability or just looks? From the sound of the trouble you have been having with your Saturn I wouldn't get either the Firebird or the Mitsubishi. Mitsubishis while being fun cars (especially the ones with twin turbos in them) like to burn oil after 100,000 miles and they like to smoke after only 4 or 5 years of use (might run you into early trouble with air emissions). The Firebird is made by Pontiac and if you take a look at the Consumer Reports list of "DO NOT BUY" cars You will find that the Pontiac label comes up more frequently then any other make. Not saying that either of these two are terrible cars but I am saying that there is a good chance you could opt out of one set of serious problems only to buy another. For a car with looks and reliability for that price might I suggest a Toyota Celica. I know someone with a 1990 Celica GT that has 185,000 miles on it and the engine runs very smooth (No irregular idle which is common in older vehicles) and they have never had to make any major repairs on it. Sure the Firebird and Mitsubishi have more power but you can make additions to the Celica to fix that problem.

[ojrman]

Man I was planning to buy a 1994 toyata celica with 115,000 miles, for about 3500, but i missed that deal, there was also a ford probe, base adition but that sold too, so now im stuck with either or, bahh i know i should have done it sooner, well, ill try to keep looking but it looks like im going with the ponitic, i mean i had my brother check it out and its was bought from a dealership so, I would think that they would fix anything that was wrong with it, Oh well, well see what happins, i wanna get more opinions too, Thanks for ur's jester

[LunarEclipse]

I bought a 1986 Isuzu Impluse for $450.00 from a local jukyard. best car Ive ever had

[ojrman]

what in the hell is that, im to lazy to look it up :-p give me a link or take a picture of it

[staticFLINT]

get the eclipse...firebirds are ugly...

[ojrman]

ok i forgot to mention, the eclipse is manual, needs a new clutch cuz the ball baring needs a replacenment to so while changing the ball bering why not change the clutch?. .. . . it also has 160,000 miles,

the firebird has no problems when i drive it, has alot of pickup and rides very nice, very good stock sound system 16'' alloy wheels 35%tint all arround, but 110,000 miles, rides nice for that many miles tho

[MartialXboxArtist]

Get a Honda or Acura

[ocojaa]

QUOTE (MartialXboxArtist @ Apr 8 2003, 12:03 AM)

Get a Honda or Acura

I'm with him.

[ojrman]

i dont have a bizillion dallors here man! not till my 600dallor week job starts

[pkpss]

QUOTE (MartialXboxArtist @ Apr 7 2003, 09:03 PM)

Get a Honda or Acura

Although I really wanted to (wouldv'e bought an RSX if they kept it looking more like the older Integ) I bought a 03 Corolla.

[ocojaa]

QUOTE (ojrman @ Apr 8 2003, 12:21 AM)

i dont have a bizillion dallors here man!  not till my 600dallor week job starts

You can get an older one (mid 90's) in good shape for your price range if you look around.



The Corollas used to be looked at as slow, or economy cars, and I know they still are compared to other cars, but they're getting much nicer as far as looks and performance goes.

This post has been edited by ocojaa: Apr 8 2003, 04:30 AM

[MartialXboxArtist]

Acura is a divsion of Honda and they make the world's best cars. Quality is UNMATCH for the price. Not to mention they are the cleanest cars on teh road and I think they are still the only car company to pass the CA strict pollution test..

[jesterrace777]

Sorry you missed out on that deal with the Celica man. But let me tell you, you didn't miss a thing by not buying that Probe. The Probe lives up to it's name (Anal Probe that is). That car is also well known for having problems. Once again not all Ford Probes are bad cars but they tend to have more than there fair share of problems. You didn't miss a thing with that car. Unless you are getting some kind of killer warranty or a good trade in deal on your problematic Saturn through a dealership I would highly recommend going through an independent seller since you will always get more for your money from dealing with an individual. I can't believe the dealer is trying to charge nearly $5000 for that eclipse that has 160,000 miles and a clutch that needs replacing. That is utterly rediculous, The dealer probably gave the guy about $2,000 for the trade in on it. Then they vaccum the car out and detail it and slap a sticker that is more than twice what they picked it up for. I have had three cars so far and only one of which I picked up from a dealership and it was nearly one of the biggest mistakes of my life. After buying the car ('92 Mazda MX-3) 1. I discovered that the cars door locks badly needed to be replaced so automatically $150 down the drain. 2. The car looked a little funny in the front and I found out it had been previously wrecked and had a poor repair job done on it. 3. The paint started peeling shortly after I purchased it 4. I noticed the the 4th gear was grinding unusually so I took it in and it turns out the synchros are shot so I had a tranny that would need to be replaced in the next couple of years. 5. The year after I bought it, it failed air emissions horribly and needed an new ECU to fix the problem ($600 part). So amidst my despair I decided to sell the thing off for about $500 (since no one was going to give me anything more for it in it's current condition). I originally paid $3,450 for it and purchased it out of state so I couldn't exactly return it very easily. Anyways I had just done a couple of minor adjustments to it and took it out for a spin when a spot of good luck hit me. . . quite literally. I stopped behind a truck that was delivering a load of mulch to a house and the guy didn't see me and backed up thereby rearanging the front end of my MX-3. He was fully covered (company insurance) and it was clearly his fault, and no one was hurt. Anyways to make a long story short the Piece of junk that I was going to sell off for $500 was bought off of me for $2,300 by the other guy's insurance company as they declared it a total loss. I never thought I would be so happy to be in an accident. Anyway just keep that in mind with dealing with a dealership.

[maximusg]

SSGet a new Holden SS 2003 model... the best car you will ever drive... The ute is better then the sedan aswel.