I've got a chance to pick up a black/black leather '93 vr4. It has 60k miles, 5 speed, one owner. It's in nice shape, never wrecked or anything. It's a friend of mine and he says $5k will take it. I have always liked these cars, but I no absolutely nothing about them. Could someone tell me what I'm getting into here? I would use it on weekends and being all wheel drive maybe in the winter. Any advice would be appreciated-especially if $5k is a good price. Thank you!

 

If it's 60k original miles, it's a hell of a deal imo. Pics would help evaluate it. I must say, don't plan to drive it in the winter all that often. Ground clearance is an issue in deeper snow, and the amount of power it has leads to traction issues on parking lots of ice. I've driven mine in the snow a couple of times just to fool around and do awd donuts, and I can say that it pays to have a Jeep as a back-up. Don't get me wrong, they are good in snow, but it's just too tempting to drive like an idiot when you have to barely put the accelerator down to spin all 4...

as for your question about what you're getting into, as simply put as I can make it, a headache. It will look and run great for a while, then something random will go wrong and it won't run for a while, then you'll figure out the problem after an extended period of time while it sits in your yard or driveway. Solve that problem, and repeat. The reliability of most VR-4's I've encountered is pretty low. There's just so much technology under the hood, that there are almost always little things that never quite work right. I love my car to death, and I doubt I'll ever get rid of it, but I can say that I've paid the price for owning it, and it's the money pit I chose to stick with. If you really love the car, and are willing to deal with the downtime, I say go for it. But if you want something you can just get in and drive, and you aren't that concerned with mods and such, I'd go with an SL if you can find one. Not AWD, but more reliable and the same styling as a VR-4 (minus active aero and potentially chrome rims, since you have a '93). So there ya go, 2 cents from a '93 VR-4 owner.

 

Thanks for the reply-I honestly thought I'd get more sooner. I appreciate the honesty about the reliability issues. It may cause me to think twice about it.

 

I'm going to second 3kVT. Don't buy a VR4 if it's your only car. Because it will break down at some point in time. If you are really good with cars, and now the 3/s platform well then def jump on that deal! The 3000GT VR4 is a very fun and fast car and it looks great too! But in the long run it will cause you pain lol.

Where are you located because I'll buy it if it has the original 60k miles.

 

I looked on the net for you and found some 3000 GTs with less milage for around the same price. I dont know what state you are in or how far you are willing to travel but a quick list of cars are a vr4 (I know you guys said there were reliability issues) with 74k for 5300 in minnesota, another gt in texas with 83k miles for 3500, an SL in PA with 59k miles for 4500, and one in CA with 79k for 4,400. I got all of these off of automedia.com. I didnt list all of them but the paramaters I used were all Mitsubishi 3000 GTs between 0 and 90k miles for less than 6.5k. Again I dont know your price range or your location so I tried to keep it pretty general. If that site doesnt work, you could try e-bay.