Hi everyone, I’ve been a member on here for a year or so now as I like to read about peoples cars and stories but this is my first post.
My name is Mike, I’m 25 and I live in Wigan. I’ve been a big admirer of the 3000GT and GTO for years now but am finally looking in to buying my first one within the coming months. Ideally I’d like the car to be my daily driver if I can find one reliable enough.
I have an initial £3,500 to spend on the car (this could be stretched for the right car) and plan to have the interior done in leather as well as replacing the dials and gauges as well as some very minor body modifications such as new rear and head lights.
I have a few questions if anyone could help me with them that would be great.
Do you think it’s better to pay for a car in good shape or buy one for around £1,000 and have the engine rebuilt? I can live with a battered body while saving for the respray but reliability is important.
Does anyone know the approximate cost of having an engine rebuild?
I’ve drove the GTO twin turbo before but what are they like to live with as a daily driver?
Is it worth paying that bit extra for the 3000GT and are the bigger turbos really that much better?
I hope to see you all at the July GTO birthday bash, even if I’ve not found the right car for me I plan on coming down for the day.
As a side note and if anyone is interested or wants to cast an opinion (good or bad I don’t mind) these are the cars I’m currently looking at.
Now, there are two ways of looking at this, do you want to buy a car that’s a grand, then get it home and have to spend a fortune on it, buy cheap, get cheap. What you should understand is that really good ones are getting thin on the ground and people are now asking the true value for their cars. I know I wouldn’t let mine go for f*** all!!!
Buying a car that has history is much safer, will cost more and a leather reupholstery will be the best part of 12-1300 squidlies, also there is a buyers guide on here, someone will post the link I’m sure, read it, take it all in coz it will save you heartbreak in the long run.
When you get one of these, if you weren’t a mechanic before you will certainly become more knowledgeable
I use mine as a daily driver, get so much satisfaction from it. I think if you have a garage queen, do not use it much, you could be asking for trouble. Just my opinion, but mind you, loads of other people have said that too. These are the ones who have been involved with GTO’s waaaay longer than me!!!
The 3000GT’s were the UK version and as such have had more exposure to the salty winter roads here and get attacked by the rusty worm, there are good ones sure, but the GTO imports, again this is my opinion, there are guys that will go pah!! but the GTO has had less exposure, also I read a lot of comments, so base my opinion solely on that.
Ask any questions as the guys on here are the weirdest bunch you’ll ever meet, no just joking, the most HELPFUL you’ll ever meet, and really friendly. Took a mate to the AGM and he said that the camaraderie was unbelievable.
Welcome on board, join the best club on the GTO/3000GT, and ask away
Looking at those links that you have posted, that 3000gt looks very good value for the mileage and mod’s already done. All uk GT’s are manual and have leather. the uk was supplied with about 500 official cars so they are RARE think like RS500 rare and you are on the same page! Sadly the GTO import has tainted the market and driven down the price.
buying a cheap one to fix is not going to work well as a daily. chances are that you will find more wrong with it that you thought you had taken on.
Personally i would go for the GT, but as mentioned rust is a problem (as it is for any 20yr old car) dont think that just because you are buying a GTO it will not have any rust! (Japan is a small island adn i have seen my fair share of rusted out GTO’s) the GT in the link looks like it has been rust protected so maybe worth a look at that price.
a few tip’s for rust checking is a must with any old car. in a GTO/GT i would pay attention to the sills behind the front wheels, mechanics like to lift the cars up using the sill here thus crushing it and it rots away. The boot compartment, take a screwdriver with you and remove the boot bins (posi drive) and the wheel arches suffer too.
other things to look out for is the gearbox. A tired gearbox is no cheap fix and it will just lock you out when it’s had enough. 2nd, 3rd and reverse are common failures. A notchy 2nd gear is common and doesn’t spell disaster, generally it will smooth out when warm.
ECS is also a common failure, but if you are looking to modify it can be a barganing chip.
@Paulw has pretty much nailed it here to be honest , have a look at the buyers guide on here its quite comprehensive as to what to look for .
I think the most reliable cars in the club have been the daily drivers , they tend not to like standing for months on end , as for the buy cheap idea that is a definite no in my mind , these cars are generally cheap for a reason and if you need a lot of work doing the price mounts up very quickly , a good one will have you grinning from ear to ear , a bad one will totally ruin your experience of these very underated cars
Having it as a daily driver is loads of fun if what somewhat problematic only in this sense that you’ll always get some douche dinging your car in a supermarket car park, occassionaly jealously phelm left as a lovely surprise, nob ends driving into you because they can’t see you!!! wtf other than that I’ve brought up 3 kids whilst owning the gto, pushchair travel system fits in the boot with shopping and you can fit kiddy seats in the back.
Easily fits a family of 4 in fully loaded with luggage to France and back, as long as they don’t move and always fits the mammouth tent in with family and sleeping goods for JAE. Finally has proved reliable and ehem!! economical for travelling to multiple appointments on during the day.
And when your family tells you to grow up and buy a more ‘family’ oriented vechile, punch them in the face.
My advice as a trader and seeing what goes wrong on a daily basis i would get to listen to the gearbox when cold and drive it before it gets warm.
Make sure it changes gear properly as they will kill your dream to fix if it has problems
If a previous owner has not changed the clutch when it was worn and damaged the synchro’s trying to save money you may get a bill for most or some of the following…
1st or 2nd gear synchro’s £315 each
1st and 2nd Gear Synchro hub £400ish
3rd or 4th Synchro’s £70-80 each as is reverse for a 6 speed
5 speed gearboxes you can only buy the synchros with the hub and that kit is over £600 !!!
With those sort of prices you need to make sure of the gearbox you need to make sure the gearbox is working properly.
I might also ad to what the guys are adding above that clean mint cars are fetching proper money and modded badly cars are worth very little as you start shrinking the market of who you can sell it to. People want stabdard cars or modded cars that look standard for insurance company purposes.
Buy a straight one, do nice mods and make it mint and it will go up in value rather than down.
I glad to hear you say that Gavin because I am expecting my first at the end of the year!
Welcome to the club Mike. All the advice given above is good. When I was looking for mine at the end of last year I memorised the buyers guide and did everything it told me to do. Its an extremely well written guide and will p**s off the seller when you are doing test number 416 but honestly its far better to do it. I use mine as a daily driver and its brilliant. Comfortable and refined around town and an animal when you want to open it up on a sunday afternoon. I would suggest going for a 3KGT over a GTO but I have never owned a GTO so I can’t put up much of an argument for it. Other than you are more likely to get a lot of history. I would suggest buying through the club if you can. The cars will be known by members on here and there will often be a build thread you can read through.
If not through the club then make sure you get a lot of history. And I would save buying a cheap one to fix up for your second GT/GTO once you know your way around it better!
Good luck on the hunt dude and get some pics up when you have your girl!
