i am considering to buy one of the following for a first car. 944 turbo, mini cooper s, toyota supra turbo, mitsubishi 3000gt. does anybody have any suggestions on what to get?

 

The only thing on your list with any warranty left is the Mini S. If it were me I'd go for that. Those other cars will be pricey to fix if something goes south.

My $0.02

Matt

 

What's your budget?

I suspect you'll get alot of biased answers to your question here I would look at the Mini and the Toyota, and wouldn't consider the Porsche or the Mits.

 

I traded a 99 (last year they were made) Mitz 3000 in on my 02 MCS. The Mitz is a dog.

I still have the MCS and will never sell it.

 

would the 944 be to much in maintenance
i also want something that is fast, and that can handle. i know the mini can handle, but i don't wanna spend too much money on suping it up

 

The block is half of the 928 five liter V8. Normally asperated, it has a torque curve that is as flat as a board. The balence of the car is much better than the mini, and with the Turbo, it sure would be a gas! The suspension may be getting tired, and doing the rear suspension is such a pain (it's a torsion bar set up) that the Hayns manual doesn't even cover it! I hade a 944 for a couple of months, and if you set it well for a turn, it was AMAZING how nice it felt.

Read European Car, thier website has a build up of a nice, used 944 turbo. It will give you some ideas on what it takes....

I'm not sure if I agree the Mitsu is a dog. If you get the AWD and Turbo set up, it friggin fast! The enthusiasts have serious passion for them. 0-60 in under 5 seconds is easily within the cars reach. Without the turbos, who knows!

By the time the Supra had a turbo, it was pretty big and heavy, I'd pass on that one.

The Mini is a gas! I love mine, and it's up against some serious competition in the garage. If it fits the rest of your needs, it won't dissapoint you.

Matt

 

I'd be leaning more towards either the Supra or the MCS. Even though the Supras are older, they still get respect and looks on the streets and tracks. And are still rare enough that every little punk kid is not going to have or every third car will be the same as yours. I've seen some real nice ones around, with some real bigasss turbos inside. What generation would you get if you can find a good one?
The MINI is awesome. Great little beast. So much fun in pretty much any weather. A little under powered though. But if you have the coin an extra 60hp-80hp or so will do. It's awesome right from the factory in looks and funfactor.
Just took a red 350Z roadster for rip today. I'd want that thing as a next car. Wicked good fun.
Cheers,

 

i would get the latest supra

 

did you both post the question and then answer the question? I'm so confused...

 

no i didnt answer my own question, i answered mini-madmans question

"What generation would you get if you can find a good one? "

 

I had my choice of MANY cars, and I chose the MINI for many reasons. The MINI is in a completely different class than those cars in the handling department, but it is slower. It really depends on what type of car you want, I almost feel sad that you're comparing the MINI to cars like those.

Go get a Supra and rice it out - who knows, maybe you'll be one of the few that sticks with the fad for more than a year.

 

The VR4 is very fast... had a hard time keeping up with the rex I had
(ofcourse until I did some ECU tuning on it... )

but out of your list, I would just get the MCS. so much easier to get it
to where you probably want it (unless you are looking for a drag racer).

 

Well, by the cars that were listed - it sounds like he wants speed a lot more than he wants handling, so I'd assume the MCS wouldn't be the right car. It isn't exactly the fastest car for the price, but it is the most balanced car, and it can handle better than almost anything out there.

 

The 944 is a fine car but can be very expensive to repair. Heck, EVERYTHING is expensive to repair these days.

The Mitsu is a piece of turd. Heavy and they had lots of drive train issues.

The Supra is kinda of cool but old school. It is also a fat, heavy turd.

If you can afford to own any of these cars, then you can afford a MCS. The difference is when you spend the money. With the Mini, it will be up front. The others are going to cost you a lot more over a few years. It's probably a wash.

At 70k miles with the 944, you can count on certain things requiring replacement. Power steering will begin to leak - in 1991, that cost me $1,000 to repair. If the cam belt is not replaced on a timely basis (35k), you WILL blow the motor. In the late 1980's, a timing belt was not a cheap deal. Wonder how much it costs now?

I LOVED my 944 (1985). Sold it in 1991 and bought a 911 Cabrio. I liked the 944 better. It handled better and was more comfortable. I can't imaging wasting money making it handle better. It was amazing right off the showroom floor.

The 944 S2 is a good choice, too - if you can find one.

I'd choose either a low mileage, pristine 944 Turbo/S2 or the MCS. Two completely different animals, though. The 944 handles like a dream, the MCS is fun like a go-cart. For daily driving around, nothing beats the Mini.

 

But I wouldn't agree that the Mini is well balenced. It handles well despite it's lack of balence (look at the F/R weight distribution and the tendancy to understeer). The 944 is the most balenced car I've ever been in! The S2 and the Turbo are the way to go though......

 

You want a car that'll get yous some respect?!

The car that teaches you!

Of course, this wouldn't be too bad either: FD RX-7

I'd actually get that over a supra to be honest. Either of them.

ORRRR you could somehow pull a miracle and find a decade old NSX...


ORRRR why not an older M3?

 

oops! Did I say the Mini was well balanced? Didn't mean to. But I agree, the Mini does well in spite of its weight bias, but then all FWD cars are like that, yes?

And I agree. Nothing I've ever driven is/was as sweet balance-wise as the 944. You can initiate and control a 4 wheel drift while holding the steering wheel just the left index finger and thumb.

 

Unless this kid has a nice size wallet pointing him to a 944 or any of those old cars is a mistake... if he wants something that isn't gonna cast him alot then the new car is the ticket... otherwise he's gonna be spending alot of money fixin stuff especially if he ends up driving the thing hard #2 this being his first car... getting a fast car with only drivers ed under your belt.... I've been driving since I was 11 been on the track since 14 no main roads till 15 it is def in you best interest to try to take it easy at first... practice with the clutch for a year so that in tight spots you don't stall out and so on, of the cars you listed the 944 and the mini are the only quality quality cars. frankly the other two are lame tuner cars, they are cool when they are tuned to be cool you never see a stock 3000gt aka shadow I think is the GM version and the supra stock is not a sweet car either really in the sceme of things all they are gonna do is break on you... and if you are wanting to be like the guys in the magazines with all their sweet gear you are looking at tens of thousands of dollars... my classic mini is no where near flashy and the motor alone has well over 10k in it on the last major re fit, this is not counting the previous ones and not counting the 2-3k I bet the machine shop bill will be, this dosn't even include suspention and body and paint and interior and seat and on and on and on. If you are gonna get into something know what you're doing done try to build up a car and then you stop at some point and you are like every other tuner around msu... noise canister for an exhaust wing, sterio and rattle can paint job... from a tuning point of view if that is your purpose any of the cars will do because all of a sudden lines start to blur, but if you are talking stock I would go mini or 944 (if you can keep it up) and no to the guy who said all FWD cars handle well... shiver it's the devil I tell ya this thing under.... you know the rest. But ya buy what you can afford in the long run not what you can afford now.

 

i dont know how old you are... but all 4 of these cars are wildly different...

mini is all about handling.. cept when you spend the dougn to make it fast.. as you said you dont wnt to spend the dough to make it fast so why bother.. S is fast out of the box, handles like a dream, but it'd be murdered by the others in a straight line...

944 turbo is the most balanced car ever... but it's expensive... especially after you brought it... i'd get this almost certainly if you have the room and the know-how to fix problems... when it is perfect.. it'd be the best of the 4

3000GT is a nice GT car... nice comfy, but not particularly sporty, and VERY thirsty... if you do alot of long distance trips, stock 3000GT can fulfill the bill...

Supra is more of a tuner car.. its a crime not to just mod a bit on a supra... engine's PRETTY reliable... and a real bomb if tuned up... but unless you are willing to spend the dough... its kinda pointless to tune the supra with just bolt ons...

i'd second a hachiroku (corolla coupe AE86)... a true driver's dream... not fast, but wags its tail like no other car... and a very good car to learn how to drive...

 

But if you spend a lot less on the car, there's a lot more money to spend on parts and repairs! so the math isn't as biased as you say......

Even if you spent $13k on a real nice 944 S2, you still could fix a lot that went wrong or wore out before you equal the cost of a new Mini.

Matt

 

no way a nice 944 for 13k... try 19k, and as far as parts... have you priced porche stuff, it's not cheap especially for something like a 944 it's up there with some of the collector cars, you could always get non oem but meh. a 20 something year old car that hasn't been driven much (say it has 20k miles) now gets bought and used as a daily driver... a car that has been a weekender all it's life won't like being a daily driver 20 some years later.

 

how about a used is300 manual trans., after some mods

 

I get the Mini just because it's a BMW and you can join the BMWCCA and get involved their excelent organized track days. Many BMWCCA chapters offer track days close to $100 LESS then other groups like SCDA.

MCSs ARE fast with a few mods. Be it that I was running in the novice class, this week at Lime Rock my MCS was eating up everthing else out there. Nothing like lapping 6 brand new M3s twice in a single seson! The best part is I never did find my MCS' limits, so I know it's even going to get better.
After this track day, I highly recomend the Mini S.

 

from talking to a friend, it doesn't sound like it takes much to make the MCS faster. he replaced some pulley and his exhaust and it is pretty quick.

 

do u kno how much it cost? do u kno how much hp it added?:smile: