One of my better Craigslist finds: Project Beatrice - 2g DSM. Flame on.

[Frankie675]

Since I moved to FC a few months ago I have noticed that I don't drive at all, even during the winter it was only to go snowboarding and back. I had a newer Xterra that I found on craigslist for 14k. So I decided to sell it and do some change-aroo's. I ended up selling the Xterra for an easy 17k and watched craigslist for a month for my next car! My new car had to be awd, manual, turbo'd, and a good deal. Here is a list of cars I have owned so I had a good idea of what I was looking for.

1990 Nissan 300zx Twin Turbo - Bought for $3000 - Traded for $5000 towards the wrx
2003 WRX - rallied it all over Texas and Colo and had to trade it before it shit the bed - lost money
2007 WRX - worst car i've ever owned - lost even more money
1990 Eagle Talon TSI AWD - Bought for $500 not running - took 8 months to get it back running - sold immediately for $3200? - I have no idea how that happened.
1995.5 Audi URS6 - Best car i've ever owned. Bought for $3000 (242K miles and still boosted hard) - Sold for $3300 + new MacBook Pro

I've owned other cars but you get the idea.

I had my eye out for 1990's Audi S cars, especially an Avant, but nothing was posting that looked worth it. I checked out a newer A6 that was a great deal, but I didn't want something bad to happen to the fragile, and very hard to work on, 2.7tt, and have a money bucket. I found some ok bmws, but not taken care of at all. I went back to look at some wrx's and dsm's, and according to their posts - "In Perfect Condition", but were anything but.

I then found exactly what I wasn't looking for: Mitsubishi Sports Coupe. Posted only a few hours prior in Denver. Click on the link and it's a 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX with 80k original miles, owned and garaged by the original owner, 70 year old lady, for a killer deal. I called and said I had the cash in hand and would buy it for asking price that night, no questions asked. And I did. Her son sold it to me. He thought it was a junk car because it wasn't a Chevy. He even took off a couple hundred for no other reason than he didn't think he was going to sell it for a couple weeks.

Needless to say this car is perfect. It's a blast! Like a go-kart. Everything feels and looks brand new. My easy goal is 300hp and to keep it as stock looking as possible. No FMIC, no stupid exhaust, or loud bov. I want to avoid the ricers who want to race at every stop light. I just want a fun car that gets me snowboarding.

Heres what I'll currently be doing:
DSMlink
16g
Bigger SMIC
K&N Drop in filter
Bigger injectors

The HDR pics make it look good, but after a good claybar'ing, waxing, and a lot of cleaning, my neighbor came out and asked if it was one of Mitsubishi's new 2013 models.

[Generic]

Nice 2G, if you can find one unmolested like you did they are great fun cars.

I'm currently trying to figure out how to dump my Chrysler 300 and get into something more useful (AWD) and fun.

[Generic]

Speaking of project Audis

http://denver.craigslist.org/cto/3938170709.html

[Keyser Soze]

Nice find. You gonna tell us how much of a deal you got? I had a 2g Talon with plenty of go fast parts. Lotta fun. Would buy again.

[Grim2.0]

Speaking of project Audis

http://denver.craigslist.org/cto/3938170709.html

Yup, had a guy that wanted to trade his 2000 Audi A6 2.7 for my SV. 150,000 miles I asked him three times, "how are the turbos, are they still pulling 100%"? He says yup they pull nice and strong. So jut to humor myself i say ok bring it down and i will check it out. That damn thing couldnt get to 60MPH in 10 seconds, it was terrible! the turbos were spinning up as i could hear them but they weren't pulling at all! Once those cars hit 100,000 miles they are junk.

[Frankie675]

Yup, had a guy that wanted to trade his 2000 Audi A6 2.7 for my SV. 150,000 miles I asked him three times, "how are the turbos, are they still pulling 100%"? He says yup they pull nice and strong. So jut to humor myself i say ok bring it down and i will check it out. That damn thing couldnt get to 60MPH in 10 seconds, it was terrible! the turbos were spinning up as i could hear them but they weren't pulling at all! Once those cars hit 100,000 miles they are junk.

Yep the 2.7 scares me, but it would be perfect if it didn't require an engineer to work on.

http://denver.craigslist.org/cto/3938170709.html - Thats a pretty good find for that V8 and 6spd for that price but it could potentially be a money bucket too.

[Generic]

Ditto on that, as much as I love the Allroad I do not want an Audi with the 2.7

[Frankie675]

Ditto on that, as much as I love the Allroad I do not want an Audi with the 2.7

There's my issue. I want the avant but it would have to be urs6 - and they only one i seen for sale recently wanted a little too much more than I was willing to pay, or a B6 - but those are impossible to find in avant, let alone manual too.

The good thing with WRX wagons is most are owned by responsible people, but they keep the prices a little higher. I had a rental Forester XT that I loved, but those are also hard to find in a manual for a good deal.

Thats where the DSM fit the bill. The reason I wanted a wagon is so I can ride up to the slopes at midnight, sleep in the car, and shred early without having to deal with the drivers. The DSM has enough room with the seats folded down to fit my 5'9" body in the hatch.

[Grim2.0]

There are over 5 Audi A6 2.7's on Cl for sale all in the same range, 4,500 to 5,000 all of them the same year 2000 and all of them 100,000 to 150,000 miles. They all had the same scenario/issue.

Took it to a shop: My car doesnt feel like its going as fast!

Shop: Yea your turbos are shot, give me $4,000 and your car will be all good to go.

20 hours to drop the trans and pull the engine to get to the turbos, 3 hours to swap the turbos.


Fuck those cars!

[Aaron]

To be fair 100,000 miles is pushing it on any turbo car, turbochargers just don't last that long. But in a Talon they cost $1000 max, and can be replaced in an hour.

[Sully]

I had the '97 Eclipse GST and it totally kicked a$$ up the mtns for me to hit the slopes.. I put studded snow tires on it in the winter (FWD) and it plowed through just about everything. Sold it to a kid who was about 20 years old with about 90K miles or so on it.. Was a great car and the turbo still worked well too!

[bulldog]

Pretty good find. Although been a member on a Eclipse forum for over 10 years (owned 1g and 3g) and those 2G GSX's are notorious for being unreliable; especially after tuning. Maybe you will get luckier than people in my clubs, but seem many go out and this is why most went to the Evo (and the 3G's are 3.0 V6's)!

Always wanted that car, but as you see I skipped over the 2g because of the horror stories I heard. Guess all depends though.....

If I remember right it was the crankwalk that had major issues on this car.


EDIT: Here is what I found that was issues on my car club:

The problem is the center crankshaft bearing. It has sides on it that are supposed to hold onto the main bearing web & keep the crank centered in the block. The tolerances on the sides are too large, allowing the crank to move. Only way to fix it before it grenades your block is to drop the crank & replace it with a correct one. Once the crank hits the ignition timing wheel, you'll need a whole short block.

Another guy:
After 8 months of research, you really can't get rid of it. I have talked to many tuners personally about it. They said the only way to get rid of it if you HAVE it is to do a 4G63T 6 bolt motor swap or swap the bottom end with a 6bolt. To prevent it, try not to tune your car up so you have to get a clutch kit as well, some tuners believed that it was the aftermarket clutch kit that gave it a higher chance to get crankwalk. Theres really not cure or remedy at all, and many people on the forums pretty much given up. Even 6 bolts are prone to getting crankwalk as well, its just that the 7 bolt engine has higher chance of getting crankwalk.

[bulldog]

owned and garaged by the original owner, 70 year old lady, for a killer deal. I called and said I had the cash in hand and would buy it for asking price that night, no questions asked. And I did. Her son sold it to me. He thought it was a junk car because it wasn't a Chevy. He even took off a couple hundred for no other reason than he didn't think he was going to sell it for a couple weeks.

Anyone else thinks this is a bit fishy? A 70 year old lady owning one of the top tuners of it's year (and fasted Eclipse). Maybe, but seems odd. Even if she bought it new she would have been about 55 years old!

And son thinking this is a junk car and hard to sell when the GSX is the hardest Eclipse to find (1g and 2g; including the Talon TSI).


Either a epic find...or a great story

[Generic]

Anyone else thinks this is a bit fishy? A 70 year old lady owning one of the top tuners of it's year (and fasted Eclipse). Maybe, but seems odd. Even if she bought it new she would have been about 55 years old!

And son thinking this is a junk car and hard to sell when the GSX is the hardest Eclipse to find (1g and 2g; including the Talon TSI).


Either a epic find...or a great story

Having friends in the DSM community I've seen it happen a few times. Common knowledge isn't all that common

[bulldog]

Having friends in the DSM community I've seen it happen a few times. Common knowledge isn't all that common

True! Amazes me then if sellers do not research a little bit what they have though as GSx's are pretty rare. About as rare as finding a good condition 300ZX!

I don't trust many people though...as you can probably tell as I questioned the story and would if I were a buyer.

Unless you meant common for 55 year old ladies to buy tuners....I have yet to meet one. I believe there is a 50 some year old man in my car club, but not a lady

[Aaron]

And she bought it with a stickshift? Even more weird.

But it does happen, and from reading OP's post I'm sure he looked it over prior to buying it. At 80,000 miles if it'd been trashed the turbo would be long gone, and you can tell pretty easily if it'd been modified in the past. So even if it wasn't owned by Grandma Goodcookies, sounds like he still got a great car.

[AOK303]

TO be honest the Eclipse of that generation was sold to alot of older people my neighbor who was 50 ish traded his corvette for 2 of them brand new at a dealer and i know about 10 other people who bought them brand new and they were bit older. SO a lady in her 50's buying a Sport red Coupe does not seem far fetched, and for how old she is when she was learning to drive she would of learned both, the GSX was not sold in auto unless factory ordered for a while too so if she wanted the AWD version and not the gs-t she would of had to buy a manual

And the 2.7 is not that hard to work on, getting turbos for them is easy doing the work is not hard a day todo DIY. b5 avants hard to find b6 avant manuals hard to find in colorado but not that hard to get,
finding a 3.0 a6 in manual and avant would be hard to find. but all of them have more then average cost for parts

[bulldog]

TO be honest the Eclipse of that generation was sold to alot of older people my neighbor who was 50 ish traded his corvette for 2 of them brand new at a dealer and i know about 10 other people who bought them brand new and they were bit older. SO a lady in her 50's buying a Sport red Coupe does not seem far fetched, and for how old she is when she was learning to drive she would of learned both, the GSX was not sold in auto unless factory ordered for a while too so if she wanted the AWD version and not the gs-t she would of had to buy a manual

And the 2.7 is not that hard to work on, getting turbos for them is easy doing the work is not hard a day todo DIY. b5 avants hard to find b6 avant manuals hard to find in colorado but not that hard to get,
finding a 3.0 a6 in manual and avant would be hard to find. but all of them have more then average cost for parts

I agree as the 3rd Generation Eclipse is the same way....however it is rare for a older person to go for the GSX (turbo, AWD) or the GTS (high compression V6) as they cost quite a bit more since they are the top of the line Eclipse; but yeah maybe the AWD is why they chose it, but there were many other more luxurious choices for a 55+ year old. Each Eclipse has about 6 different models that look very similar. So just because people see a older person in a Eclipse it is rare to see one in a GSX or GTS since those are all based on speed and their best version of a Eclipse sport car (since Evo took over in 2003). The lame RS model was like 140HP with a 2.0 4 cylinder and very affordable. Like I said I am a huge Eclipse fan so not putting them down, just saying I have a lot of experience with them. I am 35 and one of the older members on my car club (bought car 10 years ago new though when I was 25).

As for people talking about the turbo, the issue is the crank on these models which is not going to to result in a new turbo, but new engine! It is not a issue on all the GSX cars though and seems to be random. Although tuning these hard does seem to make the crankwalk issue worse.

Saying all that though I believe Franky did his homework since he has had similar cars before and I think he may have got very lucky and got a killer deal! Like I said these models are hard to find much less in great condition with 80K miles and are fun little cars. I have a 2003 GTS with 76K miles and that is even amazing for that year.

Anyways welcome to the Eclipse club Franky. Hopefully I'll get to check this car out one day
This is the club I joined http://www.club3g.com/forum/ (Small section for 1g and 2g, but a wealth of info) Maybe check this one too http://www.team-2g.com/mitsubishi-eclipse/

Here is mine (got a lot of mods on it myself) And yeah I get flamed about this car myself

[bulldog]

Here is a cool link that compares Eclipse 0-60 times and 1/4 mile times (stock)
http://www.zeroto60times.com/Mitsubi...mph-Times.html

Eclipse comparison (GSX/GT or GTS):
1990 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX 0-60 mph 6.8 Quarter mile15.2
1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX 0-60 mph 6.3 Quarter mile 14.7
2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse GTS 0-60 mph 8.0 Quarter Mile 15.9 (yes I know mine is the slowest; it's why I modded that bitch right away; 0% interest was hard to pass up; went to buy Evo)
2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT (V6) 0-60 mph 6.0 Quarter mile 14.3

[AOK303]

I still think Frankie found a Hell of a deal i was more saying to the people who were like why would and Old person have a car like that. You also have to remember the Eclipse was the affordable Sport car in the 90's
It was no like how it is now with every brand having a Sporty 2dr for sale. and the other cars it would of been compared to at the time for price would of been Integra GSR, Civic Si, Mustang, 240SE, Neon Rally verson, celica or she would of had to gone up about 10k for Rx7, 3000gt, S2k, Miata, M3, S4, Mustang GT, Camero, Firebird, Supra. the 90's era sport cars didnt have the variety it has today

And being in colorado, More GSX were sold here then any other state and 40 to 50 is mid life crisis age where Sporty cars are bought thats not that old she is only 70ish now. you also gotta remember what her other options at the time was for a regular car, most did not have 2 motor options, were slow comparable and the body shapes were horrible full 180 from what they looked like prev model some were good some like the escort/tuarus were .. yeah horrible

[asp_125]

... and, you gotta remember back then, when the GSX was new there wasn't any used ones that had depreciated enough for the kids to afford it and make them into the tuner cars they are now. They were more like a secretaries car back then... cougars' sports cars.

[bulldog]

I still think Frankie found a Hell of a deal i was more saying to the people who were like why would and Old person have a car like that. You also have to remember the Eclipse was the affordable Sport car in the 90's
It was no like how it is now with every brand having a Sporty 2dr for sale. and the other cars it would of been compared to at the time for price would of been Integra GSR, Civic Si, Mustang, 240SE, Neon Rally verson, celica or she would of had to gone up about 10k for Rx7, 3000gt, S2k, Miata, M3, S4, Mustang GT, Camero, Firebird, Supra. the 90's era sport cars didnt have the variety it has today

And being in colorado, More GSX were sold here then any other state and 40 to 50 is mid life crisis age where Sporty cars are bought thats not that old she is only 70ish now. you also gotta remember what her other options at the time was for a regular car, most did not have 2 motor options, were slow comparable and the body shapes were horrible full 180 from what they looked like prev model some were good some like the escort/tuarus were .. yeah horrible

True....Evo came out in like 2003 and changed Mitsubishi's stance on the Eclipse sport car. Poor 3000GT got discontinued

As I said earlier I went in 2003 to buy a Evo, but since that was like the first year it came out they would not negotiate one penny on it or even offer the 0% interest. Frugal me couldn't buy a car for sticker price so I settled for the GTS.

So wish they still had a AWD Eclipse. At least my GTS and the newer Eclipse got MVIM (variable timing). Weird mine was the only 3g Eclipse that got it (GTS model; not even the GT model got it).

Although Eclipse is gone and was discontinued