Hey guys. I'm new to the forum, and this is my first post (i think)... I'm about to make my first car purchase on my own, and after looking at a lot of different cars, I decided that an Eclipse GST or GSX would be a nice car to have, especially for the price.

I talked to a good friend of mine that seems to know a lot about cars, and he told me to look into 98's and 99's. I don't remember the exact reason, but he said that the pre-97's had some problems that were fixed with the 98 and that I should try to avoid getting a 97 or earlier. Do you guys have any idea what he was telling me about or if it's true?

Also, my time frame is rather short (or so it seems). I'd like to make my purchase by the last week of April at the latest. So I guess my question is: What are the odds that I will find a 98/99 GST or GSX before May at a reasonable price (under $10,000) without any mechanical problems?

For the past week (short time, I know), I've been searching Autotrader for the most part, and have been taking a glance at eBay Motors. Is this all I can do right now, or are there other valuable resources for finding used cars?

I've found that it's disappointing to find a vehicle that's 6+ hours away. In my opinion, cars have a myriad of problems, and it just seems like no matter how many questions you ask the seller over the phone, you'll still find one when you go to take a look. Luckily there's car enthusiasts all over the place, so hopefully my friends and the guys here can help me to narrow my choices down before making the long trips.

Any tips, opinions, recommendations, or whatever would be appreciated. I'm going to really be putting a lot of time into this since my time frame seems relatively short.

ty

 

Try carsoup.com. They have a few amazing GSXs/GSTs for 10k or under. I know that IN where you live is not on the list of states that carsoup is in, but choose a neighboring state and do a search. You might be able to find something within a few hours of you.

 

theres no mechanical advantage of a 98-99 or a 95-96, except that they are newer. they do have nicer bumper/sideskirts tho. its very easy to find one under 10k, just hard to find one thats stock or in good condition. dam if you were n socal you could buy mine for 10k im thinking m3 for me next

 

that's a hell of a drive from Indiana [sm=smiley6.gif]