Looking at different cars, need help

[ashortyazn]

Hello, I'm new to AF, and I'm looking at several different cars.

One of the first cars I been looking at is the Mitsubishi Eclipse, 2nd generation GST/GSX. I personally like the style, body , extras, and the low price tag that comes with it. However, I have heard several times that the quality of a eclipse is questionable, if not bad. It is also about 8 years old. I see however, that the aftermarket is huge.

Another car I been looking at is the Dodge SRT-4. This car is fast(0-60 in 5.5-5.8), new, and have a good price for its performance. About $12-15k used, with 30000-50000 miles on it. I found out though, that Dodge is discontinuning the Neon line, including, the SRT-4. The aftermarket for SRT-4's is small too, unless Neon stuff fits on the SRT-4.

I consider price, speed, design, performance, and quality when buying a car. I have about $0-15k to spend. What do you guys think?

[drdisque]

the aftermarket for the SRT4 is NOT small, you can find pretty much everything you could want, they just don't sell it in ads in the back of import tuner, you have to call up specialists like Hahn and Buschur Racing.

The 2 cars are of similar quality, but as you say, 2G DSM's are older.

[Chad82]

Anything else we need to consider? Do you prefer FWD over RWD or do you not care? Interior size? Passenger room? Cargo? By performance do you just mean straight line sprint or do you want to be able to take twisties at 60 MPH?

[JLad10687]

The SRT-4 is a terriffic buy. You wont be dissapointed, especially if you could find one for 12-15G.

What about a 2000-2005 Eclipse GT, they have 200HP, they are a little fat, but still a nice car in the price range.

Maybe a 95-98ish M3, they're probably in that price range.

[harrymay]

i test drove a srt4 for a couple of hours, its a damn good car, with a mitsu engine. I like it a lot, and with neon having a pretty descent amount of aftermarket parts. the insurance on them is quite high though

a 95-98 e36 bmw is a good choice too, its rwd and is much more of a drivers car, however, parts are more expensive for these and you need to dig a little deeper to find any aftermarket.

if i remember right, the 2nd gen eclipses had bad trannys, they were pretty weak. i would go with 3rd gen i.e 2000-2005. better trannys and better engines.

[drdisque]

the SRT4 doesn't have a mitsubishi engine.

[harrymay]

i knew that, im thinking of the other neons, same as the lancer if im not mistaken.

[drdisque]

no neons have ever had the same engine as the lancer.

The next generation dodge compact and next generation lancer are slated to have the same engines and chassis though.

You may be confused with Mitsubishi eclipses which had dodge engines and a host of V6 FWD chryslers which had mitsubishi engines.