The hardest decision I've ever made Options

[turbohcar]

Here I am, lost in thought, wondering what a logical man would do. I have a 1997 Chrysler Sebring with 76k miles on it. Sitting in my driveway right now is a Black 1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse GST Spyder convertible w/ a manual trans that I'm test driving. It has 73k on it and is in pretty good condition. The dealership is going to make me a good deal because I work there. They'll give me $5000 for my car and they want around $9000 for this Spyder. The convertible top has a problem with the frame and needs to be repaired in order for the auto drop top to work. Right now I have to manually do it. There is also a small hole in the drivers leather seat, nothing major. What would you do?

A. Trade in the Sebring and finance $4000, make payments.
B. Trade in the Sebring and sell my 91 AWD Talon thus making my daily driver and project car one in the same.
C. Don't buy it! It's a bad deal.

If I do buy this car, it's going to serve as my daily driver, thus the mods will be kept to a minimum. MidwestDSM can attest to it's beauty and driveability. I love driving it but I'm not sure what I should do. I'm afraid of the dreaded crankwalk but the clutch feels firm with no symptoms. What would you do?

[SCCA Stang]

sharp car. Crankwalk aside, leave it a nice daily driver, something that wont get you pulled over for noise issues, less mods the better chances that the crank will stay true. Wouldnt hurt to have the thrust washers replaced every 40k or so.

Rule of thumb, dont make your daily driver your race car. Id say buy it. Sebring wont sell outright, employer or not, you are going to take in in the rear trading it in.

Mod the awd1g. Leave the black beauty queen alone and she will service you well for miles...

Crankwalker.

werd!!!!!

I agree 100% with spy

[MidwestDSM]

I agree with Spy on this one. After riding in the Spyder, I honestly would buy it in a heartbeat.

[xian 1g]

add one more agreement to spy's words. If you ever have a project car, it's the rule of 2 out of 3. cheap, fast, reliable. with dsm project car's reliable is usually lost, you will break things, but it can be cheap and fast. having a daily driver as well as a project car has kept me out of 'testing the waters' group, and able to drive and be happy even when the project isn't driving.

[turbohcar]

That's the option I'm favoring most. I won't do much if at all to this car if I do buy it. I just fear having to fix something major, like a bottom end. Downtime would be a major issue. The oil pressure gauge is at 3/4 of the gauge flux at 3000RPM doing 70mph. I'm not totally sure but I know my old GST wasn't quite that high but my 91 AWD (w/ higher oil pressure shim) is. I'm not sure if this is a warning that the ball and spring oil squirters are partially clogged or not. How would thrust washers help prevent the walk? I always thought the walk was caused by oil starvation of the crank when the poorly engineered squirters clog.

This car looks as if it was babied most of its life and seems pretty reliable. Hopefully, things work out for the better either way. It is SOOO much fun to drive though!! Tomorrow I find out if I can afford it for sure.

[turbohcar]

Good GAWD I wanna be an insurance agent! Maybe then I can make lots of money on poor bastards like me that get themselves into trouble. Insurance on this car (full coverage) is going to be $258 monthly w/ a $1000 deductible and $290 w/ a $500 deductible. At first, the secretary asked me if I was sitting down. When I replied no, she said well you better because the premium is a little over $1700 every six months because this car falls under the "high performance" clause. It almost makes me want it more, just to say that my agent overcharges me because that car is faster than most. This policy is through Country Insurance.

Tell me who your insurance is through and how much you're paying. My family and I are thinking of switching companies and I would like opinions of the cheapest, most supportive companies. Here's a link to that thread:
http://www.dsmcentral.com/invision/index.p...t=ST&f=1&t=2266

I've got three tickets (one of the three taken off because of class), and two accidents and I'm paying $100/monthly liability only on my 97 Chrysler Sebring. I'm 20 yrs old as well, which I'm sure doesn't help the picture. I'd say the service is mediocre at best. Of course, with the Spyder, I'd have to be on full coverage because I'm financing.

BTW, the VFAQ page I'm basing my crankwalk theory on is here:
http://www.magnusmotorsports.com/crankwalktheory.htm