Generally speaking, no performance sports car is a robust daily driver. 10 year old used ones triply so. Whether it’s a 3000GT/Stealth, a Camaro, a Mustand or a Porsche Boxster you are going to be spending time and money keeping it up. A car like that is a enthusiasts or hobby car and you need to brace yourself for the fact that you will be repairing it more than any other used car. That’s the price you pay for “turning heads”.
You have 2 questions to answer. 1) Is turning heads worth dealing with the near-certain cost and hassle of owning a sports car? If the previous answer is yes then, 2) is the 3000GT more reliable and/or more head turning than other used sports cars?
What year Integra? An Acura/Honda will almost certainly be a more reliable than a Mitsubishi in general terms. My ex had an Integra and it held up really well, I can’t remember the last time I saw a 3000GT still on the road.
In this case it is a 1999 GT3000 with 109,052 miles, versus a 2000 Integra with 135,000 miles.
You’re right about the sports cars but I’m under the impression that the regular non-turbo base model of the GT is not really a high performance sports car, so it is much simpler and less expensive to maintain - is this correct? Because if it isn’t, that would be a big downside and I might go with something else.
I’m also looking at a Lexus SC400 coupe - red, V8, loaded, looks pretty slick, Somewhere around 6 grand (it’s a 1995.) You know anything about that?
Man, I was going to link to a Toyota Supra for sale at a comparable price because it was an exceptionally nice car that my friend owned and played with, but damn! Those things are going for $30k USED.
Yeah I just talked to a Toyota dealer the other day, he told me the Supra is now a highly collectible model so it’s skyrocketed in price.
The Integra is selling for so cheap that part of me suspects it has a lot of problems, although the guy who is selling it swears that it’s in excellent shape (of course he’s going to say that) - on the outside, at any rate, it looks good,and the leather inside looks pretty nice. It’s going for about $4000 which seems too low to really get a quality car for, so I kind of worry that it’s got skeletons under the hood.
The Mitsubishi has far fewer miles, it’s more expensive, it looks just about brand new in the photos - it’s about two and a half ours away though, so I want to know as much as possible before my dad and I make that trek. I wonder if this:
is true? If so, it would lead me to believe that the regular non-turbo GT isn’t the maintenance-intensive vehicle that the more powerful version may be.
All things being equal the Interga would be my choice. The Interga is intended to be more of a daily driver than the 3000GT and will probably be much better in the gas mileage dept. My ex’s was on the smallish side, but the interior space was well used. The 3000GT is a bigger car but all that space is in the front and back, not in the cabin.
Generally, no. The non-turbo base model is less of a performance car than the VR-4, but that’s not really the point. Yes, you won’t need to worry about replacing a turbo booster and a high-tech suspension system but that’s not necessarily where the problems come in. Whoever owned even a base model 3000GT probably bought it as a toy and drove it accordingly. The engine was revved hard and the brakes were used up, god knows what shape the tranny is in. It shared the vast majority of components with the sportier version and those components were designed to be light and fast, not durable.
If anything, by buying the base model you are getting the problems of a used sports car without getting the real benefits on the road or track.
A friend in HS owned one of those, probably the same year. It was a great car, not as much fun as a Supra or a 3000GT but much better comforts and features. I can’t say how durable they were though. Generally Toyotas (Lexuses) back then were very sturdy cars.
Well I shot an email (through the contact form on the car-search website - the only way possible) to the guy selling the SC400. I hope he responds to me; the thing looks damn nice. (I’m wondering if I should even be posting these links because I’m giving these ads more exposure to potential buyers, but here it is.) It’s a little annoying that there’s no phone number listed for the seller - I’d really rather call him. My leeriness of dealing with anyone advertising “custom break caliburs” not withstanding.
A different ex of mine had the Mark II Supra in college and it was pretty cool. She said that back in 1996 or so some guy pulled up alongside her at a light and offered her like $20k for it on the spot. A 10 year old used car, I can only imagine what that’s worth now if it’s still in that good of shape. My college buddy had the Mark IV and it was a dream, I could have bought it off him when my Mustang crapped out and he was upgrading to a SUV for the kids. Wish I’d have follwed through on that now.
Be very careful doing this kind of price math. Price means very little when it comes to used car quality. The 3000GT is probably more expensive because it’s a much rarer car and a much more “pure” sports car. The Integra is a more conservative design and a much, much more common vehicle. It might be a better value simply because it’s seen as just a used car while the 3000GT is seen as a collectible, like those Supras.
If you are really considering the Integra get it checked out my a mechanic and let that be your guide. The used car market is great right now because the new car dealers are slashing prices due to the economy. You can get some steals so long as you aren’t looking for a collectible. $4k is actually a pretty high price for a 10 year old used car. My 10 year old Olds Alero with only 75k miles would probably barely fetch $2500 on the market.
Yeah, I appreciate this advice. I really do. Given that I have an $8000 budget here, that gives me a good deal of options so I’m somewhat leery of only spending half of that when I could be getting something of higher quality for a higher price (even though I know that could is totally hypothetical here.) HERE is the listing for the Integra - it looks pretty damn good in those pictures considering the age, especially on the inside. I know it says “helogen” and “cruse control” but I spoke to the seller on the phone and he seems to be Indian so I’ll give him a pass for that. (Not to imply that Indians are stupid or something, just that English seems to not be his first language.) Seems like a legit dude, at least over the phone, and it’s a hell of a lot easier to drive to Indy than it is to Huntington, so it’d save me a trip.
Ultimately it’s going to come down to whether or not I like it when I test drive it, because it seems pretty small in those pictures and I’m used to large cars with a lot of room. But hey, maybe it’s time for a change. The backseat seems pretty useless but I don’t plan on having passengers back there very often.
Well, Spoonful of Awesome doesn’t say how long ago this was but I’m guessing it’s not that recent. His not having maintenance issues with a 6 year old Stealth that still had readily available parts has little impact on what it will cost to own a 12 year old Stealth that’s been out of production for almost a decade now.
(You seem to be pretty knowledgeable about buying used cars. I’ve bought a lot of used vehicles in the past, including 4x4s and a motorcycle, over the years, and all of them wound up eventually becoming money pits because I didn’t get them checked out thoroughly enough before purchasing. My dad coming along this time should help with that, though.)
To each his own, but buying a 10 year old used car is a crap shoot. It just is, even if you know what you are doing and do all the due diligence and have it inspected. If I were you I’d be eager to spend 50% of my bankroll on a decent car that I enjoy and save the rest in case that car goes belly up and needs repairs or a replacement. Then you’d be able to roll the dice a second time with another $4k vehicle.
I really think that 3000GT is priced the way it is for cache and scarcity, not nuts and bolts value.
The most practical thing to do would be to use that $8000 to buy a used 5 year old Civic or Accord Coupe. Maybe get lucky on a eBay auction for a RSX or something.
By the way, look at that listing for the Integra - is it my imagination or is there a rear windshield wiper on that thing? That’s a rare but handy feature on cars as opposed to SUVs. I had one of those on my old 4Runner and I really liked that little touch, especially during the very rainy summer season here.
By the way, I know it’s a weird question but will several rifles and shotguns (up to 48 inches long) fit easily in the back of that car (the Integra), along with one passenger in the front?
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Argent Towers -**, I’m getting the impression from this thread that you’re not really a driver. This being the case you may well want to go with a much more “mainstream” sort of car and forgo some of the looks. The more mass produced, boring family cars are going to be far more reliable, you will get them at a better price and they should be cheaper to service.
Mind you…that being said buying any second hand car is a crap shoot…but do check it out first with a mechanic - I alsways did this and didn’t go far wrong.
I must also admit that the Celica GT4 I bought second hand was indestructible and lord how I loved that car…
Very common feature on hatchbacks and fastbacks. Most cars that don’t have a trunk to obstruct the road spray from the rear window have them. I think they might even be required in the US.
I was once very into 4x4s and I knew a great deal about the various merits of Toyotas vs. Jeeps, full-size vs. mid-size and what kind of lift, shocks or tires you need to get through the woods without having to be winched out by an annoyed friend; I have little knowledge when it comes to smaller vehicles, especially sports cars. If by “not really a driver” you mean, not into modifying cars for speed/handling, you’re absolutely right. I used to be pretty invested in modifying 4x4 for the trail and camping and other outdoor activities. But that was a long time ago.
I used to have the baddest 4Runner on the block and I spent a lot of money tricking it out, not with flashy doodads or performance enhancements but with off road gear, though I never did get a winch. But for all the time I spent off road, I enjoyed more all of the heads that turned when I would take my vaguely third-world-mercenary-technical looking monster for a spin around the college campus.
When it comes to the kind of cars I’m looking at right now, I know next to nothing. But the time has come to switch to a smaller, more fuel efficient vehicle, at least until I can amass the money to get something like this restored and not have to worry about all the gas it would eat.
I’m in the market for something fuel efficient and reliable, sturdily built, and fairly easy to repair, with parts availability. But at the same time, I’ve still got to have some style here. So it seems like the Integra, Prelude, and possibly the SC400 are good compromise - practical, but sporty enough that I can still get some fun out of my daily driving.
Would an Integra be able to tow one small two-seater jet-ski, on a single trailer, behind it for about 15 miles? If I did get the Integra I’d have more than enough money left over to get an older jet-ski (unlike a car, something like that would be a fun “project” if it needed a little fixing up, since my day to day activities wouldn’t be dependent on it the way they are on a car.) I’m close to Lake Monroe and it’s great for jet-skiing in the summer but I’m damn sick of renting one every time I want to go for a spin.
Cool. It would just be one watercraft, one of the older Yamahas with a compact design. (I’ll tell you, jet skis have just gotten bigger and bigger and BIGGER over the years - they’re swollen to practically the size of a small runabout nowadays.)
Careful with that line of thought. The 3000GT is…a GT. A Grand Tourer. It’s heavy, not particularly quick, and not a car with much of a sporting bent. If you find one, and it’s in good shape, it’ll be a great car to cover a lot of ground in, comfortably. They aren’t particularly competitive in ‘pure’ sports car things. (parking lot racing, Drag racing, etc.)
It’s flashy, in the way a sports car says ‘look at me!’, but there are better picks if what you want is ‘fastest from point A to point B’.
It’s rarer because it was built during a period of time where all of the manufacturers were making their sports cars technological marvells and charging a buttload of money for them. The 3000/Stealth, RX-7, Supra, and Corvette were all $40k cars when that was a good $10k higher than most people wanted to spend on a sportscar. That’s why the Miata did so well at a little more than half the price. The Corvette had the benefit of a built in demographic, the others, not so much.
If it’s comfort and the ability to carry speed you’re looking for, you might consider Lexus and Infinity too.
