How long did it take to find your DSM?

[JoeBob]

I've been waiting for a decent DSM for about 2 months now. Decent in my terms would be relatively low mileage (under ~100km's) and 2g. Anyways I havent found any that fit under this criteria.

How long did it take ya'll to find your DSM?

 

[rivet0r]

Unfortunetly, it took over 6 months before I found a 1G in decent condition, but I did find it.

 

[JoeBob]

Wow,,,seems like either you guys find yours within 2 months or have to wait half a year. Since I've been looking for over 2 months now I'll probably have to wait half a year

 

[1gE.T.]

I didnt find my car. My car found me

 

[DSMNightmare]

First one took me about two weeks to find. It was in great shape but not 100% the DSM I wanted. I wanted a 5 speed and all I could find at the time was a A/T. Also at the time I did not realize the importance of the AWD. But I went ahead and bought my 95. It was good to me but two years later I found my dream DSM that I always wanted. a 97+ AWD 5speed. Honestly I would not have been able to get it if I did not come across a great job in the mean time. I got the car for a steal but like folks have said before dsmtrader is where I found my 97 AWD and I had to drive from ST Louis to Indianapolis. It was worth it for a reletivly "virgin" DSM. The only mods on the car were to the suspension, cone filter, and 2.5" exhaust and the car was a 1 owner.

 

[IMMORTALSPYDER]

Searching on dsmtrader.com and autotrader.com and many other websites is essential. I took a train to Connecticut from Maryland to get mine.

 

[IHeartTurbo]

It took me about 5 minutes. I was looking for a car, any car to replace my POS '85 Saab 900 (non-turbo) and one day my mom was like I got a car for you to look at, it's white and it's got a spoiler (that was a big deal for me back then when I was a semi-ricer) and its loud. I said aight and we hopped in the car and drove towards my aunts house. What should have been about a 7 minute drive turned into 5 minutes when we met my aunt on her way to work. She let me drive her the rest of the way to work in the Talon and I fell in love. I got it for real cheap, too. $1200 with all the mods in the my info except the ACT 2600 and the free mods and EGR blockoff. It's not in the best condition, but replacing everything is half the fun.

 

[OddyseusDSM]

mine was just waiting to be fixed in our driveway. i fixed it and was in love ever since. i had to sell it due to a problem i had and have been stuck with a '94 sentra E (light and fun car but nothing like the DSM). i have been looking for one since which is going on almost 2 years. i always find the best ones when i have not a dime, it sucks, when i have the money i know i will probly never find one.

 

[eclipse4wd]

i took me 3 months to find mine. i traded a kid from out here for my 90 crx hf with a b16 swap v-afc, act clutch 14.440 1/4mile. for the 92 laser awd with no second gear and 114,000 miles in stock form. im a dsmer at heart. so the rex had to go. now i put a new tranny,clutch,flywheel,t-case,slave. and all the mods i have to date. im a much happier man no 1/4 mile yet cant wait

 

[JoeBob]

Cool I thought dsmtrader.com would only be for the states but its for Canada too. The only one within my area is $23k tho, 78k kms. Damnit Canada is such a ripoff for cars

 

[jrivard00]

I found mine in about 2 months after I decided what car I wanted...to think I was going to opt for a 240SX. In any case I bought it from a friends uncle's friend who is a dealer for a good price. Then after a year and a half of owning my eclipse, I wrecked her. So, I felt like I owed her for being good to me, so I rebuild her and gave her a nice face lift (body kit), rebuilt the motor, and refinished interior from grey to black...and that's when I became a master mechanic, autobody tech, and interior furnisher in the year or more it took me to put her back together better than new with new sexy curves and an attitude to boot.

 

[Tyler_Baker]

My car's history: The guy I bought it from came from Alaska (1st owner) and the tranny died on him, so he traded the car to a mechanic for some work done on his other car. Well the mechanic couldn't fix "god damn imports," so he traded the Talon to some kid for wheels and tires. All this time the title was never transfered, so it was still in the guy's name. Well the kid fixed the tranny, and put a boost controller (bleeder valve) on it (no boost gauge) ended up running from the cops on I-5 cause he didn't have a title. As you can imagine he knocked his motor to death and they caught him and impounded the car. The title was never transfered for two years. The guy I bought it from paid the $233.00 impound fee and got car back, but it didn't run.

I work at Smucks Auto Supply, with my buddy who has a 60 trim 93' FWD. The guy I bought the car from comes in and chats with us for a while about cars, and offers me the Talon. I go to look at it, and the body was in near perfect shape. The massive oil leak protruding out from under the car made me cringe. It had a 141,000 miles on it, Kenwood Deck, Kenwood speakers all the way around, 600watt JBL AMP, 2 12" Bostons, and a basketball! I paid him $233 and towed it away with everything. Swapped a new motor/tranny in and sold everything else on ebay. Keep your eyes open there are always deal to be found. I just got lucky.

 

[laserspeeddemon]

wow thats amazing

 

[Tyler_Baker]

Something I left out, the guy that ran from the cops came into my store cause he saw his car, and wanted it back. It was running with a new motor/tranny, and mods. It went something like this...

Him: "I'll give you $500 bucks for it"

Me: "No, I have some work in it, I don't want to sell it."

Him "Dammit, you don't even know anything about that car!"

Me: "I know how much boost I am running, SOME people don't like yourself."

Him: "Better watch where you park it, I WILL GET IT BACK."

and then he threw out a sick one wheel burnout through the parking lot. Now I keep it in the garage. .

 

[laserspeeddemon]

You could have him arrested you know

 

[Mitsuclipse91]

I was just looking for a car period and ran across my 91 eclipse gs for $1500 at a mom and pops dealership...offered 700 plus tax tag and title... $776 walk out and got it... One month later found a 1990 tsi awd for 1500 picked it up too

 

[SchmeelDeal]

Got my first introduction to DSM about 5 years ago when a friend of my bought a Laser N/T. He was so stoked about having it and bragged that it could blow away anything at our high school. He was pretty pissed when I blew him away with my big bad '81 Ford Fairmont Station Wagon. with its massive 200cubic inch straight six engine. Oh and it said Shaggin' Wagon on all four sides in chrome letters. (Just had to throw that in).

After my shaggin wagon reached around 175k it totally died, so I was in the market for a new car. I had red about turo version of the DSMs and how fast they were or could be so I decided to look for one. I came accross a '91 Laser RS AWD Turbo that appeared to be in good shape with 90k on it. When I took this beast for a test drive I was amazed at the power (I was laughing like mad scientist doing 120 the highway like nothing). I just had to have the car, the fact that the car would quickly veer to the right if you let off the wheel made me have second thoughts. The dealer told me that I could have it for $1900 and that he would align the wheels which would fix the veering problem. All I had to do was put $200 down, which I did of course, then I could come back with the rest of the cash and pick up the car.

Came back a week later to pick up my car only to find that it would not start. To top this off, that idiot would only give me $100 back. I was steemed and argued for a long time with him with no avail. And this guy was a catholic church priest. Could't believe how I got ripped off.

Went and bought a Beretta GT 2.8 V6 for $1500, ran it about 60k miles then the case cracked while on my way back from a Pittsburgh Pirates game going 75 on the freeway. All the oil poured out and the engine locked. I junked the car.

I was now in the market again. I knew that I definetly wanted to buy a DSM. Definetly wanted a 1g. While driving my Dad's old police car ('89 Dodge Diplomat with a 325 and police intercepter tranny, BAD ASS) for about six months, I absolutely could not find a Eclipse/Laser/Talon in decent shape anywhere. Then I stumbled accross the add for my current car, '92 Plymouth Laser RS Turbo AWD. Car had 97k on it and was in immaculate condition. Only a few rust spots on the top by the sunroof. Everything else was perfect. Paid $3495 for the car. Upon looking through the glove box, I found receipts, for a brand new tranny with install fees at 76k miles (so that's why the car shifted like butter).
I think I got a good deal, what do you think?

For the first year and a half (45k) the car ran perfectly. No major problems except for warped rotors. That brings me to the present, when my engine pretty much hit the shitter. I was cruising down the road, unsuspectingly when all of a sudden my whole car just jerked like crazy. Then it just started sputtering and wouldn't run worth a shit. Exhaust sounded like a lawn mower too. Came to found out that I had busted to exhausted valves and cracked a cam gear, and the bearing in my water pumps went out all at once. I have no idea how the hell this happened. There were no warnings signs at all. Car was running great and was road raced only on occasion. Maybe once every two months.

Costed me about $1500 altogether in parts and labor to get the two exhaust valves replaced, the cam gear and the water pump. Had all the belts changed too. After all of this, the car now blows oil heavily into the intake, and the dipstick pops out no matter what. It even pops out at idle speeds.

So I have decided to get the engine rebuillt and park it for a while. Gonna move down in the food chain and drive a cheap ass geo metro until my baby gets fixed. Hopefully, with a rebuilt engine and a tranny with 45k on it (mostly highway miles), I will have reliable vehicle that I can make into pretty damn fast and nice car.

What do you all think? Have I made a wise choice to just get the engine rebuilt and start from scratch, or should I have looked for a nother DSM?

 

[Redpest850]

well, it didn't take me long to get mine. I was going through a lemon lot, where there was a bunch of other cars, one day and i say alot of cars on the lot that i actually liked. So i drove around the other side of the lot and i found my 95 eclipse RS...the only problem with it is that on the back and front bumpers the paint was a little messed up. Call it an impulse buy..I bought my DSM for only $4000 and it only had 72k miles on it when i bought it.

 

[E-CLIPS97]

I bought my 97 on ebay. Fully loaded with leather. Had 69k miles when i bought it. Paid $4000 for it plus $800 to ship it to me. Book value at the time was $8900. I think I got a pretty good deal.

 

[basketcaselaser]

92 laser rs turbo. bought it a couple of days ago only because it was so cheap. only 75k on the odometer. the place i bought it from said they didnt know what was wrong with it, maybe a bad motor. but its CLEAN.
im tearing it down this weekend. we shall see.

 

[Flash]

I guess I could say I always wanted a 2g Eclipse ever since the '97's came out. I knew nothing about DSM's when I got her. I didn't even know that having a turbo was so important, I guess I just got lucky. I got pretty bored with my other hobbies. I would get an RC car and within 2 weeks have it fully modified and carbon fiber everywhere. I guess you could say I can't leave things stock for too long. So then I searched around for a 2g Eclipse for about 4 months an found Annie, I named her Annie because she was a little orphan girl that needed some work. BTW, she still does.
Basically I needed something new to keep my hands busy and my wallet empty.

 

[Fut TSI]

Once I entered the car market I wasn't sure what to buy. It was going to be my first car, so I wanted something good.
After I researched for a couple weeks, I found out about the DSM's, well actually Eagle Talons at first. So I researched more about them.
I'm from a small town, so there were none around to look at.
I went to trader.ca and found a few listings for some 1G and 2G Talons in Toronto (about 9hrs drive from where I am).
About a week or two later, I hopped in a car with my parents to go and look at them.
I really wanted an AWD, but I couldn't find any... But I did end up finding a 91 TSI, Black with the Silver Skirting... I couldn't leave with out it! So I bought it, and got all the registration done in one afternoon then drove her home...

I've had some major problems with it though. But it's running alright at the moment. Now that I've put about $3000.00 of repairs and such into it, I'm almost ready to start modifing it the way I want.

 

[WI_99'GST]

it took me like 8 months, maybe 3-4 of those being months where i quit looking, then my brother called me up after he saw my car sitting in the "just recieved" lot of the dealership he bought his celica, then i called and i ended up buying it even before there was a for sale sticker on the car! WEE!!

AJ

 

[BlackTalonSi]

I wasn't even looking for one when I found mine....I knew they were badass cars, but I was actually trying to put 2gether a homemadeturbo kit for my Civic....I just stumbled upon a 92 Talon TSi AWD 5spd sitting behind this guys house collecting dust...it had 89k miles and had a broken timing belt...the outside of the car needs a lil work but nothing major, the inside is immaculate, some1 took GOOD care of it...at 1st the guy wanted a grand, but later on came down to $500, I COULDN'T pass that up.....I'm in the process of rebuilding the block, I already have a brand new cylinder head, so she's coming along...I decided to just keep my Civic a daily driver(best thing for it...has 240k miles), and bust some a$$ with the talon on the weekends....I CAN'T WAIT to get her up and running...hopefully I will by this summer......

 

[DSMeclipse4G63]

Hmmm ever since I think 89' I wanted a dsm so I guess you could say15 years about. But really I had a modified civic runnign decent numbers and I finally had enough to sell my civic and purchase my dream car a 2g dsm. I looked at cars.com and autotrader.com drove many cars and found a 95' with like 74k on the clock no endplay and in great condition with ALL the options. The only problem is that the kid who drove it before(for 500 miles) bumped it in a curb and the 95 bumper was messed up a little, you could only tell if you were under the car... and besides I was going talon conversion anyways. At first I wanted awd but then realized I wanted a little better handling and top end so I went fwd....Ive never regreted my descision at all.
Andrew

 

[paranoidTSi]

Wasnt really looking for a car, but was offered from a ex-friend my now eagle talon tsi awd, now I call her Taylin. ex-friend as in he stole my friends car, screwed me over with all the damage done to my baby and took off to another state.