Good cheap muscle car

[Aphix]

What do you think about a Dodge Stealth? It has AWD and is pretty high performance.

[rockfan0005]

Originally Posted by Aphix

What do you think about a Dodge Stealth? It has AWD and is pretty high performance.

A stealth would be a good car, but finding one at 3k would be a challange.

EDIT: yeah well I posted that before i did some slight research, you can get one for around 3k pretty easily, so a stealth would be a good car to go with, itd handle the snow like a champ, itd be fast (low 14s if u get a turbocharged one), the gas mileage isn't a total killer but its around 19 mpg, but overall it seems like this would be a very good choice.

[Chad82]

In my experience, the maintenance on the stealths/3000gts tend to kill you. Personally I would not suggest it as an alternative to a "cheap muscle car".

[Chad82]

Oops, forgot to post more.

An oft forgotten car of the past is the 86/87 (earlier years are impressive too, just not as much) Buick Grand National. They are increasingly hard to find, and the value is known amongst collectors, but you can on occassion find one of these forgotten gems for a steal. The launch on these is quite amazing. The standard 3.8 turbo puts out 240+ BHP and 350+ ft-lb of torque. The super rare (somewhere around 550) GNX put out 276 bhp and 360 + ft-lb torque.

The standard Grand National ran low 14 quarters and the GNX ran mid 13 quarters. I once saw a video of one set up to a dyno pumping out 1000+ hp and allegedly was street legal.

[Aphix]

Lol I was thinking about that and I wish I could find one of those. There is actually a woman in a small town here in nebraska that i drive through during the school week that has a grand national. Its actually not half that bad looking but you can tell they havent tried to keep it looking nice.

In my experience, the maintenance on the stealths/3000gts tend to kill you. Personally I would not suggest it as an alternative to a "cheap muscle car".

What kind of problems have you run into when fixing these cars? Me and my dad sorta do car maintenance as a hobby, so some problems wont be discouraging.

[Chad82]

Most common thing I have seen on them was master cylinder problems. Also, if I remember correctly the timing belt (think it was a chain, been about 6 years since I owned my 3000GT) was nearly impossible to get to. It just overall was an engine that wasn't friendly to work on.

If I had the money just sitting around for weekend car, I would pick up one of the occassional "Brand new" 87 grand nationals that you can find (like under 100 miles) that go for around $30k.

[Aphix]

Why are the 3000gt and stealth so closely related? I noticed even the forums were merged together. Is that because the similarity in engine?

[Chad82]

Both of the cars are DSM (Diamond Star Motors).

It was a joint venture by Mitsubish and Chrysler. They did the 3000GT/Stealth and the Eclipse/Talon/Laser together. I believe the Galant in the mid-90s also went there.

[planet_keeper]

3000gts and stealths are nice. Im looking into some vr4s myself right now but like people said, 3k is a very tight budget for one. You might be able to find an early base or sl model for that much but not the TT, awd versions and its not going to quite be the muscle car you want, imo.

[Aphix]

The cars I plan to buy are going to be wrecked and most likely from an insurance pool or something. I agree it would be hard to find one for 3k lol.