Ok I currently have a 99' Malibu LS with about 53,000 miles. I recently was offered a 96' Talon Tsi with 103k on it for 2,000 with no known mechanical problems. I'm going to go look at the car this weekend, but should I sell the malibu and buy the Talon? The only downside to it seems to be that it's an auto
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I would scoop it up if it were in good shape. If I were you and had a nice car already and had a performance vehicle offer, I'd make sure every aspect of the Talon was what I was looking for. There are a ton of used cars out there but once you buy one it seems to be hard as hell to get rid of it if you dont end up liking it. I'd weigh heavily on the Auto Trans aspect myself......2000 is a good deal tho. Good luck with the choice.
If it's the right price, I'd snag it in a fricken heartbeat. Lucky you, I'm a DSM FREAK!!! The 2G DSMs over all are a decent car. Arguably better looking than the 1G, but they have the 7-bolt 4G63. It's pretty much the same as the 1G 6-bolt, but for some reason they have a problem with crank walk. It's a common problem, not every car has it, but nobody knows what causes it for sure. But once it starts, time for a new motor. Hard starts, oil pressure drops, and the clutch not returning when in a corner (you said it's an auto, so forget that one) are common symptoms, among other things. If this particular engine isn't showing the symptons, that's a good sign, but there's a few other things to look for. Timing belts tend to go very quickly after 100K. Make sure it's been changed, and if not, change it. Trust me, if you break it at 6K RPM, time for a new motor. The 4G63 is an interference motor and if the cams get too far out of time valves and pistons have sex and the rest of the motor aint happy about it. The pistons are higher compression in the 2G, and the heads (in my opinion) flow a bit better so power is decent. If you want to make a ton of power, OE is the way to go. A 1G block with a 2G head and pistons, a few other parts, and you're rockin it. The automatics are ok, but make sure it's been well maintained, and also the axles and differentials. If they're beaten on too much they break. Trust me. Check out my profile. I own a 1G Laser RS, identical to the older Talon TSi. If you need any answers, feel free to PM me or shoot me an e-mail.
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if its awd drive then yes
if not then no
Its FWD. The other thing I was also looking into with this car was the possibility of swapping it to a 5-speed after buying it, because honestly for the price, I really dont want to pass up this car. It blue books at almost double what the asking price is. The girl who's selling it told me shes taking it to a mechanic to check it over to see if theres any problems so that i'll know before I buy it. Like I said for 2,000$ this seems like the deal of the year here.
well since i have no car i would buy it
but you already have a nice car with half the miles
and oddly enough the blue book on your malibu is only a few hundred bucks more than the talon
Yea thats why I'm tempted to sell the malibu, the value is dropping like crazy. It was worth about 5500 last year when I bought it and now it's down to just barely 4000. I might as well get rid of it now while I can still get something out of it.
i just did a blue book on it and it was 6300?
odd, for private party value i blue booked my malibu a bit ago and got just over 4000
Slammed Ohv (Baby Lenko) wrote: I recently was offered a 96' Talon Tsi with 103k on it for 2,000 with no known mechanical problems.
Yet, but I guarntee you will shortly after buying it. If you can keep your malibu and get the Talon then sure go for it. I would never keep a DSM as a primary vehicle though. Trust me they are extremely unreliable. You say you want to swap the transmission to a 5-speed? Thats good because I give it a few months and it'll be slipping. DSM's have known tranny problems. Talk to anyone with a 1G DSM and they either double clutch or have a rebuilt/replaced tranny. Pass it up. Not to mention FWD's are very hard to hook up stock yet alone when you put some power to it.
Figure IF you buy it, to only get another 40k miles out of it.
oh and in the mean time, expect a lot of repairs..
LOL, alot of DSM haters, I have 340,000+ miles on my 96 Talon Tsi AWD auto and 189,000+ miles on my 96 Ecslipse Spyder GS-T.
Never had any huge problems with either one of them, it's simple take care of your cars and they take care of you.
isnt a 96 a 3rd gen?
why the mention of a 1st gen?
keep the malibu... just asking for trouble by getting a DSM IMO
You may as well get it as it's worth twice as much if it's in decent shape.
While it is the slowest, FWD with auto is probaly the most reliable combo, most of those also haven't been beaten on the way the awd 5 speed cars have been. My FWD auto dsm was by far the most reliable car I've ever had and saw way over 100,000 put on in a few years with not even a belt or battery needing replacement. Only money put into it was oil and a timing belt change as maintainence. It should last as long as any GM car easily if it hasn't been beaten on and you shouldn't have to worry about any tranny, transfer case (obviously) , or clutch probelms either. At least get it and then sell it for more if you change your mind.
I thank god every day that I bought an LS1 instead of a DSM.
...what was I thinking...
LS1's never blow up;
Spray that puppy... 02 sensors are overrated.
Don't get it if you won't have a 2nd vehicle to drive when it breaks down. As plenty of people have mentioned, they're very unreliable.
As much as I'd love to get a dsm, i myself can't handle the unreliability factor.
Now if you could keep the malibu, I'd say go ahead and buy it and sell it for double.
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you know why DSMs break down? because stupidass kids get them and beat the living @!#$ out of em. Toledo is a HUGE DSM town, thanks to Showdown motorsports, and everyone i know that takes care of there DSMs, drive them year round, No Problems, the ones that think theyll never break and beat the piss out of em, dun dun undthey break. like previously stated, do the routine maintence, take care of it, dont beat the hell out of it, and it will go forever, just like ANY other vehicle. i had my TSI for a lil over a year, and i miss that car greatly...never had any prob with that either. I babyed it though...
Buy another parts car if you want a DSM.
Rabbit(AKA RedAssassin) wrote:Slammed Ohv (Baby Lenko) wrote: I recently was offered a 96' Talon Tsi with 103k on it for 2,000 with no known mechanical problems.
Yet, but I guarntee you will shortly after buying it. If you can keep your malibu and get the Talon then sure go for it. I would never keep a DSM as a primary vehicle though. Trust me they are extremely unreliable. You say you want to swap the transmission to a 5-speed? Thats good because I give it a few months and it'll be slipping. DSM's have known tranny problems. Talk to anyone with a 1G DSM and they either double clutch or have a rebuilt/replaced tranny. Pass it up. Not to mention FWD's are very hard to hook up stock yet alone when you put some power to it.
sorry but dont talk crap about a car you know nothing about.
yes dsms can be very unrelialbe. a fwd auto is the most reliable i think, and a 5 speed will not slip months after. trannys arnt the strongest point in them, but its the awd transmisions that have the bad wrap fwd trannys are hold together much better. ive only been thourhg 2 trannys of my fastest dsm (low 11's) and thats on nitrous. the only thing i have is a act 2600 and my new tranny doesnt even grind, even with 90 plus launches on it. yes i may be on the luckier side but your just feeding fire to rumors.
Bad trannies are not from rumors. Its from expierience. Everyone is right, they probably are unreliable because of the way people treat them, but you cant help that. All you can do is treat it good when you get it and hope for the best. usually it doesn't work out that way though.
i agree with black widow cavy.
my bro has a DSM seen here :
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/470873/1
it has treated him good, he picked it up used with not much miles on it. it was taken care of well and lots of dealership records and stored for i think a few years..
he test drove a few dsm;s b4 the one he bought and most were beat up pretty good.
as you can see the motor is out awaiting a rebuild. not sure if he is going with a stroker kit or not. he blew a head gasket and decieded to do everything else right while he was in there. for a while had all the major bolt on mods and DSM link up and running, but he ran too much boost(22psi) and that was the end of the stock head gasket.
reliable car? just depends on how you maintain it and mod it. I wouldnt have it for my everyday reliable car. His other car is a older honda accord. With the new motor in and that Shep trans i really dont see anymore issues coming up.
up to you man, i personally would keep the malibu and get the dsm to tinker around with .
good luck
Newsflash:
All anybody can say is don't get it because dsms have 'tranny probelms"
THIS IS A FWD AUTO CAR!!!
Not your friend who launches his awd 5 speed car from 7000 rpm at every light. An entirely different tranny and configuration. A 210hp fwd automatic car is not going to have any tranny issues 99% of the time.
DSMs are only unreliable if they're not maintained. I had over 150K miles before I had to do anything at all to mine. And even then it was minor stuff. The automatics are pretty much sh*t if you try to add too much power, but that's the case with any automatic Mitsubishi used for the DSMs. Do they have issues? Yes. Are they junk? No. It all depends on who owned the car. I'd buy my buddy Mike's GVR4 in a heartbeat because he drives like my grandmother. But if my buddy Brian tried to sell me his GVR4, I'd tell him to eat it because I've seen how he treats it. Same with that Talon. I'm not saying there won't be issues, just don't write it off for what it is.
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