I feel your pain dude.

One important thing to remember, is eBay is not a performance parts store... never buy ANYTHING car realated there

 

Yeah, I know. I was just using that as an example. I couldn't really think of where else to buy an intake for $50 so I used ebay. Just trying to say that you can add 10 hp for a lot cheaper than a few thousand dollars without much difficulty. Besides that, 10 hp isn't that much in the overall scheme of things. You'd probably barely notice it.

 

you would prob. not at all notice it. Figure that is 10 more HP at the crank so to the ground its like 3hp or something.

 

So, its been a while since this thread. I know that its a kinda epic bump, but I didn't want to start a new thread, so I dug this one up. I might as well jump right in. I totaled my Blazer. I was leaving a friends house and, long story short, hit a utility pole. I bent the axle and crushed the side. Totald, according to insurance. I'm only getting $6200 for it. So, I've been looking for a car. It's causing a lot of controversy at my house. My dad gets all pissy when I mention certain cars. My mom just finished telling me how I'd hate driving a straight stick and my dad telling me that foriegn cars (like most of them aren't built here anyway) cost more to maintain because parts are so expensive. I, having never owned or even driven anything foreign haven't a clue if this is true. So, thats what leads me back here. Are maintenance parts for Eclipses REALLY more expensive than so-called domestic cars? I've been looking around, spark plugs are no more expensive (he used them as an example, saying they were '3 times as much as they were on an american car) than they were on my Blazer. Neither were the wires. I doubt they use some magical type of oil, and you can use your garden variety oil filter. So why do they keep telling me they'll be more expensive to maintain?

 

Because they don't feel like researching it. Lets put it this way, 2nd Gen. Eclipses and 1st Gens are a cross breed between mitsubishi, chrysler, and dodge. This means your automatic tranny is not very good. The manual lasts longer but don't push to much power through it or it will shatter on you. I found some kid through a couple guys I know who was selling his 2nd Gen. GSX for $500 because he had riped the engine in half trying to fix it and lost parts. Now I found my neighbor is selling a 4g64-t motor that has been built for performance because he keeps destroying the trannies in them and can't seem to find another one for it. *he's an idiot and if you don't ask for help I won't give it to you* Finding a tranny isn't hard and for a built 4g64-t you need a performance tranny. So I'm buying his 6-bolt engine for $1,800. so, lets recap, 6-bolt performance motor + car, so far I've payed $2,300 and I need to buy the tranny still, so I would have *according to what you got for the blazer* $3,900 to spend on a performance tranny and whatever else I wanted. My point is, you can find the deals you need, it just takes time and a good bit of asking around.

 

I really appreciate the info man. They've not talked me out of an eclipse, but they have forced me out of it. Since I'm 17, a good job is hard to come by. I don't make much money, and so any major repairs would be hard for me. My parents told me, and I quote 'if you buy a foriegn made car, you're on your own. We won't help you fix anything that goes wrong with it. That means if the transmission goes out like it did on your blazer, you pay for every cent.' As much as I'd love to get me one of these, I can't. I had one that was cheap enough. It was a 2000 5 speed with under 100k for 4500. I'd have had a bit of money left over to blow on something or save or whatever. But no. Its foriegn. My parents are dead set against foriegn cars. I tried arguing and they just yelled at me and told me to shut up. I'll just wait until I have a real job and then buy what I want (a 99 GSX would be nice...)

 

Well tell them thats perfect. Because the Eclipse was built and designed in Chicago Illinois : )

 

The 1990-1999 eclipses i mean... after that they are Mitsu : )