Advice Needed

[sars]

Hi there.

Due to the baby on the way, I have to buy a large family car in the near future and I can only pay 10k - 12k for it. Now I'm looking at 01-03 Mitsubishi TJ Magna VRX, but somebody told me the magna has bad reputation and it may be a 'Bomb'. I've never drive a magna before so I just wondering what do you guys think about magna VRX? Is it reliable enough? In that price range any other recommendations? Thanks a lot.

[R33GOD]

have to say go a BA xt. very reliable car. they go for around 10k for a good clean one.

[Do-Luck]

I know of a good (it's shit) AU Fairlane, V8, on gas for sale

[ashneel]

magnas are a great car. they are cheap and are fairly reliable.

only thing that sucks about them is the resale. you pay 10K for it now in a year it will be worth way way way less then that.

as long as you do the usual service it right and do the odd 100k service all shouldbe good. i had one and drove it to 200k and it still went strong with great milage with a tank

they are common to have noisy tappets also.

for more info you can ask the guys at www.aussiemagna.com/forums

[West]

R34 4 Doors!

[ashneel]

he wants to spend 10K

4 door 34 turbs or non urbo will be more

[RBPOWA-(TJ)]

series one Stagea .... WAGON

[llama_au]

Magnas of that era are great provided their service intervals have been adhered to. Plenty of power, room and comfort. But resale is ratshit, as has already been mentioned.

[Phatboy]

Noooo.... don't doo it! FWD is evil!

[_Ryan_]

magnas are a great car. they are cheap and are fairly reliable.

only thing that sucks about them is the resale. you pay 10K for it now in a year it will be worth way way way less then that.

as long as you do the usual service it right and do the odd 100k service all shouldbe good. i had one and drove it to 200k and it still went strong with great milage with a tank

they are common to have noisy tappets also.

for more info you can ask the guys at www.aussiemagna.com/forums

BULL SHIT

My mum has one f**kING LEMON.

DO NOT BUY ONE

fiances friend had two, f**ken lemons.

Stagea if you can afford the upkeep, get some Racebrakes RB74 pads tho, they need them!

various subi wagons at that price range, mates wrx is ten years old, and in bad shape, so just be careful

34GT-V Sedan should be in the price range.

Might be able to get a Legnum or Galant

[Phatboy]

There's a reason they renamed them then stopped making them all together

[ashneel]

BULL SHIT

My mum has one f**kING LEMON.

DO NOT BUY ONE

fiances friend had two, f**ken lemons.

Stagea if you can afford the upkeep, get some Racebrakes RB74 pads tho, they need them!

various subi wagons at that price range, mates wrx is ten years old, and in bad shape, so just be careful

34GT-V Sedan should be in the price range.

Might be able to get a Legnum or Galant

oh wow 3 lemons by chance that came into your family and the whole generation is bad???

what was actually wrong with them???? i had a 3rd gen as a second car which was a 99 model. bought it at 99000 did a full 100k service which as normal was $1100 that car ran with no problem at all till 200000 ks till i did another major service and sold it and car is still going strong as i see it often.

sure you had a bad or your friends had bad experience with them but they arent bad cars. they are pretty well built Australian cars but with shitty resale value. reason they closed was they took a risk with the new 380 which didnt sell as well as they projected and they went under. not because they built a poor quality car. the car is top quality but just looks like poo. but a VRX from the 3rd generation which is 1998-2005 they actually do look good and are great cars.

for what the OP is after a magna would be fine for him. they are still newish and at great price with very low ks. you cant go wrong with that.

if you take care of a car the car will take care of you. its very easy to neglect a car which then turns it into a lemon car with things constantly breaking down.

if you have a look at car sales there is no nissan even under 15K that will be perfect for the OP and the new bub

go onto mitsubishi and there is a ton of magnas and veradas there with full luxury option. yes a lot of ppl are selling them for cheap but 90% of them are selling it due to the resale so new purchasers might as well take full advantage of it.

[rh1n0]

+1 for Magnas. Many of my friends have had one (or two) and my uncle loves them. He says he will never buy anything else. I guess he'll have to one day though if he wants brand new again.

The only other thing as far as reliability goes would be a Camry, even though my mum had a lemon. Not sure what the prices/models (year) would be though.

You can't take one or two examples of cars and say that they're all lemons. You'd have to look at previous owners, maintenance, etc.

[adis]

If you can spend around 16g, get a 2004 honda euro. can NOT go wrong with it. Perfectly balanced car. 2nd we owned in out family, really smooth quality car.

[PhilKenSebben]

Magna's are great. For the first year or so. Then they go pear shaped, hence the re-sale being shite.

Commodores.......well they're cars. Lots of little things go wrong/break constantly.

Falcons, the AU was shite, the BA is basically the same. The hood lining will cave in if it hasn't already and been glued by the caryard, every plastic pocket cover will be shagged, the steering wheel will disintegrate in no time flat, and the re-sale is a bit ho-hum. But that 4lt straight six has been used since the invention of the wheel and has been constantly upgraded over the years, so it really is bulletproof. There's a lot more old falcons running around than old commodores for that very reason, despite holden using the 3.8lt v6 for 10 billion years. The only notable exception to old commodores running around is the bloody VLs, and we all know why that is.......

Oh and the Hondas, used to be fantastic. Now however they are made in Thailand, so I can't vouch for them yet till they prove themselves, but then so is my brothers new Hilux....

Edited March 24, 2009 by purpleisafruit

[_Ryan_]

oh wow 3 lemons by chance that came into your family and the whole generation is bad???

what was actually wrong with them???? i had a 3rd gen as a second car which was a 99 model. bought it at 99000 did a full 100k service which as normal was $1100 that car ran with no problem at all till 200000 ks till i did another major service and sold it and car is still going strong as i see it often.

sure you had a bad or your friends had bad experience with them but they arent bad cars. they are pretty well built Australian cars but with shitty resale value. reason they closed was they took a risk with the new 380 which didnt sell as well as they projected and they went under. not because they built a poor quality car. the car is top quality but just looks like poo. but a VRX from the 3rd generation which is 1998-2005 they actually do look good and are great cars.

for what the OP is after a magna would be fine for him. they are still newish and at great price with very low ks. you cant go wrong with that.

if you take care of a car the car will take care of you. its very easy to neglect a car which then turns it into a lemon car with things constantly breaking down.

if you have a look at car sales there is no nissan even under 15K that will be perfect for the OP and the new bub

go onto mitsubishi and there is a ton of magnas and veradas there with full luxury option. yes a lot of ppl are selling them for cheap but 90% of them are selling it due to the resale so new purchasers might as well take full advantage of it.

all cars had had the timing kits done etc... every mechanic who went near them mentioned they were time-bombs etc... and my mum still has hers, POS

BTW, PLENTY of stagea's under 15k!

also, commodore or falcon may have a crap interior(as does the maggot), but mechanically they seem to do better(partners mums commo matches my stag year for year, km for km, and is still in similar conditon)

[ashneel]

you still fail to mention what was actually wrong with them.

so if your mechanic looks at at stagea and say 2-3 more and goes "its a time bomb" you will belive that???

all cars have faults mate. none are 100% perfect (as mentioned above) and you will always get a batch of lemons with every car.

sars it will be in you best interest if you go to a car yard and take cars that interest you for a drive.

you will always get mixed opinions on a public forum. i myself will never get a magna again simply due to the resale value but if you are interested in the magna its best to go tot he magna forums and do your homework there.

[_Ryan_]

you still fail to mention what was actually wrong with them.

so if your mechanic looks at at stagea and say 2-3 more and goes "its a time bomb" you will belive that???

all cars have faults mate. none are 100% perfect (as mentioned above) and you will always get a batch of lemons with every car.

sars it will be in you best interest if you go to a car yard and take cars that interest you for a drive.

you will always get mixed opinions on a public forum. i myself will never get a magna again simply due to the resale value but if you are interested in the magna its best to go tot he magna forums and do your homework there.

*interior is falling apart

*weak door hinges

*hoses letting go

*trans issues

*ECU caught fire

*heater core failing

that was one car

he said they are all f**ked, not just these

[(OO)SKYLINE(OO)]

How the F**K did your ECU catch fire?!

[ashneel]

most likely held a blow tourch to it hahahahahahaha

never have i ever heard an ecu catching fire. like EVER

*interior is falling apart=not sure how that can happen. i puled mine apart many times and the clips holding the panels are freaking strong as so either previous owners broke em or gypsy did lol

*weak door hinges= never experienced it and been a member of the magna forums for a while now and never came up with that problem with anyone.

*hoses letting go= again never have had problems. ppl on the magna forums are running supercharges on stock motors with stock internals and no problek with the motor or hoses there.

*trans issues=again never have had problems. ppl on the magna forums are running supercharges on stock motors with stock internals and no problem with the motor or trans and no upgrades are htere for a stock magna box so all these cars ran stock box.

*ECU caught fire= again WTF never came across this with any car

*heater core failing= never had an issue myself or heard any one esle with this problem.