2002 mitsubishi lancer?

[McGyver]

so my friend is look at a few 2002 mitsubishi lancers. they all sound good and look clean, but is their anything that go especially wrong on them? and based on that choice of car (which matches his needs) any other recommendations on cars to try under $9000?

thanks.

[Bimmerista]

Hopefully he's not spending a full $9000 on a 2002 Lancer.

If he's looking at compact cars or something simple, the Toyota Corolla & Nissan Sentra are great cars. I'd avoid car brands like Kia or Saturn.

[nando]

why on earth would he want a base lancer? nothing worse than an "OZ rallye edition" bright-yellow lancer with all of 140hp. yuck..

there's a lot of other cars for $10k I'd rather have..

[McGyver]

he doesnt care about cars that much. he just wants a car he can put 40k miles a year on as a dd and take road trips thats minimally sporty. and he say an es for $4900.

[Dermeister3]

um.... BMW e30?

[Lunner]

he doesnt care about cars that much. he just wants a car he can put 40k miles a year on as a dd and take road trips thats minimally sporty. and he say an es for $4900.

Eta coupe with lsd and a chip. Add a spoiler and some reemz, I'm sure your friend will think that makes the eta 'sporty' if he's looking at lancers...

[Bimmerista]

um.... BMW e30?

An e30 is the last car I'd recommend anyone to buy.

[rustybullet]

Hopefully he's not spending a full $9000 on a 2002 Lancer.

If he's looking at compact cars or something simple, the Toyota Corolla & Nissan Sentra are great cars. I'd avoid car brands like Kia or Saturn.

Hyundai's are great. my gf bought a 2008 Hyundai accent. car is solid all the way around, she puts shit ton of miles on it every week and it has been running great ever since.

for 9k he can buy something like a late model infinti g20, honda prelude, acura integra, a nissan 240sx if he wanted to have a little fun.

all great cars with more options and reliability.

[Jand3rson]

why on earth would he want a base lancer? nothing worse than an "OZ rallye edition" bright-yellow lancer with all of 140hp. yuck..

there's a lot of other cars for $10k I'd rather have..

Don't forget those baller 15" OZ wheels.

[McGyver]

yeah, he doesnt know shit about cars. a 20 year old e30 would get him killed. he needs something that is zero maintenance, has good gas mileage, and will take 80k miles in 2 years in stride. basically any "project" or "tuning" car would be inviting disaster for him. he would also prefer a sedan.

[Jand3rson]

4-door Honda Accord. I'm not being sarcastic at all.

[thebornotaku]

4-door Honda Accord. I'm not being sarcastic at all.

Accords are great cars. My family had a '94 for the longest time, and I've driven various different years as well. Typical Honda build quality and know-how, and that's a good thing.

Sub-9k is a pretty broad range depending on where you are -- any other prerequisites?

I'm a pretty big fan of older, simpler cars (hence my driving an old Volvo...), so one of my first suggestions is typically a Volvo 240, 740, 940, etc... basically any of the RWD ones. 85+ for 240s is what you want to look for... those have the B230 (2.3l 8v inline four) that's shared between pretty much every rear wheel drive Volvo after that point, so parts are cheap. There's tons of room in the engine bay for either n/a or turbo models, so working on them is easy as hell. Other obvious upshots are their known reliability, and they're pretty safe and comfortable cars. Downsides are that they're getting quite old -- suspension components will be pretty shoddy if they haven't been replaced (especially in the station wagons), and n/a ones are painfully slow. Like "Civics will walk you" kind of slow.

Then there's the FWD models that came later (850s, early V70s and S70s). Harder to work on (due to the more cramped engine bay), a little spendier on parts, but generally more comfortable, much quicker compared to 240s and 740s, and less abused than the older cars. You can generally pick up good examples for 6-8k and they're still pretty reliable cars.

[Jand3rson]

Yep, I got my '99 V70 XC for $6k, and the only thing I've had to fix so far has been the rear brakes.

[bimmer_E30]

I like my 99 honda civic Sir...9k all day for the win.

[thebornotaku]

Yep, I got my '99 V70 XC for $6k, and the only thing I've had to fix so far has been the rear brakes.

listen to this man. V70s are the tits.