why are people asking so much for a 1g

[RiceKiller_TSi]

I've owned my 93 TSI for 9 years and I've pretty much babied it. Its got "zero" rust particles on it and with 216,000 miles it blows the doors off of nearly everything on the streets. I paid $8900 for it back in 96', and it was worth EVERY penny. I wouldn't get rid of it unless somebody t-boned it. I guess thats why 1gs are so expensive.

 

[marcmsj]

i payed $3k for mine almost a year ago and i think i got a pretty good deal. little problems here and there but nothing major..

i think pretty soon these cars are gonna be collector's items and just as hard to find as supras... almost everyday there's someone wrecking their car

 

[Littlebeeper]

Makes me want to jump on the fixer upper about a mile or so away. Its a 1G FWD turbo. has beed rebuilt but the idiot didn't know how to do the belt so it jacked up the valves. Got another car so he wants like $500 or so. Paint ain't pretty but the price is ok

 

[Thomas91169]

sometimes you get lucky and someones selling a 1g awd that they dont know what its really worth and just want to get rid of it. then again sometimes someone sells a 1g that the know exactly what they can charge for it and still get what they wanted. if i had a 1g in good condition, decent miles and shape, id try to get around 3k for it. and being in cali, id prolly get it too.

i dont think it has anything to do with the 7bolt C-Walk. after all, i was on this site and knew about 7bolts cwalking well before i bought my 97. cwalk doesnt phase me, if it happens, it happens. there are far worse things that other cars have wrong with them(such as the ford 4r70' tranny suckage that ive dealt with numerous times), id take cwalk as a reason to build a motor with forged internals.

the market has alot to do with it also. people nowadays want a car thats easy to mod, has either awd or rwd, and is cheap as hell. well the 1G AWD fits into that category. as well as being able to be sleeperish looking to fool its competitors, or it can be made up to be just as clean and beautiful as its curvy 2g bretheren. the turbo awd fad is in full swing, and shows no signs of giving up.

you gotta pay to play the game.

 

[mavisky]

I payed $5000 for my 92 nt back in 1998 with a timing belt job and a 6 month powertrain warranty thrown in. Car had 72k on it then and noone had ever done the timing belt. Bastards.

 

[its3much]

In florida a CLEAN unmolested 1g that is in GOOD condition is really,really hard to find so prices go up. I can dig it

 

[Bostedquest]

After I get mine running nicely, I will not let it go for anything under $5500-6K...

Why, hella mods, and a clean body. Hell, nearly $475 in guages/sending units alone...
Hell the engine will put down over 500 Hp and run deep into the 11's. Then you need to go big time to get more... bigger turbo (already have a T4E) and aftermarket rods.
The 750's would probly take it to close to 600 HP.

And yes I already have a few people interested, they just want it running "steadily" because reliability and a turbo DSM do not go hand in hand.

Also I paid under $500 for mine, but that was with a HG blown motor and a VERY rough interior.
I already had a 3K motor built ready to go in.
Fixed all but the head liner and the front seats and repainted the interior to a much nicer black with white to contrast the exterior.

 

[dirk3]

And yes I already have a few people interested, they just want it running "steadily" because reliability and a turbo DSM do not go hand in hand.


Don't agree with you at all.. Ive had my problems with my car, but nothing any 15 year old car wouldn't give me.. All in all I have had really good luck with my car.. It's never left me stranded. However it does take consistent matience to keep it working.. You want to crank out 500 hp yea it will probably become unreliable. You want to beat it up by taking it to the track and doing repeated launches, HUmmm your going to go through clutches and trannies. Drive it like a sane person and wholla it's a great fun reliable car....

 

[Bostedquest]

And yes I already have a few people interested, they just want it running "steadily" because reliability and a turbo DSM do not go hand in hand.


Don't agree with you at all.. Ive had my problems with my car, but nothing any 15 year old car wouldn't give me.. All in all I have had really good luck with my car.. It's never left me stranded. However it does take consistent matience to keep it working.. You want to crank out 500 hp yea it will probably become unreliable. You want to beat it up by taking it to the track and doing repeated launches, HUmmm your going to go through clutches and trannies. Drive it like a sane person and wholla it's a great fun reliable car....

1. There is something called the "quote" button.
Try that next time.

2. I have owned the car for a grand total of maybe 2 1/2 months. It that time it has only ran for maybe 10 minutes (and that is being generous). So Me driving it "Like a sane person" is not an issue, the damn thing does not even have tags yet, so no it has not been on the road. It has not moved in that afore mentioned 10 weeks.

3. During trouble shooting, I fix one thing, and something totally unrelated to what I just fixed/repaired starts screwing up.

4. Like I said, the engine can put down over 500. Has it? yeah freakin right. I would love the damn thing to START and run worth a crap when it is supposed to, IE when I turn the key.

5. Hell even WHEN the damn thing decides to run worth a crap I will not take it past 10 PSi, simply because... well I do not want to break anything that I will have to fix yet again before I can sell it.

6. I want to get rid of the car. Period. IMHO the car is far from anything resembling reliable in any form, other than its ability to get on my nerves.

7. I am going back to something reliable, and starts and runs like it is supposed to 99.9% of the time. I find that the purchase of the engine (and subsequent build up of said engine)2 years ago, and then the cars that were purchased to put this engine into to be a HUGE waste of time and money.

If you do not agree, fine, don't You cannot tell me that my opinion of the situation is wrong, hence it is called an opinion.

 

[paranoidTSi]

2. I have owned the car for a grand total of maybe 2 1/2 months. It that time it has only ran for maybe 10 minutes (and that is being generous). So Me driving it "Like a sane person" is not an issue, the damn thing does not even have tags yet, so no it has not been on the road. It has not moved in that afore mentioned 10 weeks.

You WEREN'T the original owner, the other owner could have easily abused it and gave it to you.

If its giving you such problems why has it been parked for 10 weeks and since you seemingly recently purchased it this could have easily been avoided if you took the time to look over the vehicle before you bought it.

Turbo vehicles aren't reliable as a whole anyway except for NEW ones, turbos require more maintence than n/a vehicles. Think about it, a turbo vehicle isn't appealing to someone that needs it to pick up their kids or run to the store a few times a week (few are a exception), for the most part they appeal to teens/young adults that want speed. This presents a problem with the car being beaten to death before you can even get your hands on it, because may average joe morons think cars are self maintaining and that it will last forever without regular oil changes, timing belts, etc.

So, while hotrod a is spending all his money on performance parts, the car is falling apart..needs a new timing belt, power steering pump, etc. The person continues to buy performance parts and forgets about general maintence and repair.

 

[dirk3]

Maybe you should learn how to buy a car.. It was obviously not well taken care of. Service records, compression check, you know the basic things anyone should look at before spending there hard earned money.

 

[RiceKiller_TSi]

If you buy a turd and spend five grand on it, its still a turd.

 

[boostedinaz]

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

This is why DSM have a reliability stereo type. Most people buy the car for cheap because it has problems, then they expect to be able to throw mods at it. If you buy a shit car it is going to take a bit of work to get it back to a good running car and that is before you start making it faster. Part of buying a used car is knowing what you are getting into. I bought my Talon knowing it smoked and didn't have long to live, but the body and running gear were in good shape. Now I am rebuilding the motor and will have a nice looking, good running car, but I had to spend 2K to get it that way and NOW I can think about mods. If anyone on this board is buying a performance oriented car and hope for reliability then sell it and move on now. Performance, 10 year old cars, and reliability don't go hand in hand. Some people have good luck other have worse, but for the most part we are all beating on 10 year old cars with alot of miles, things break.

 

[1993eclipseGS]

I just got my 90' Tsi AWD off of a 50 year old lady, About a month ago. 60,000 original miles, 1 owner car. She bought it BRAND NEW when she was 35. She knew nothing and I can guarntee the car was never even at the stock full boost... It was MINT. I paid $2,400.
I had it about a month and spent $4,000 into it already, Between mods and replacing everything just incase.

I bought my last car for $1,400 and spent around $10,000 on it, HAVE RECIEPTS.. For about 1 year I kept it.

Left on the fmic, Piping, Act2600 clutch, act flywheel, Walbro 255 pump, ss clutch line, Brand new mitsubishi head, Every gasket had been replaced, 4 brand new tires/brakes/rotors/calipers. White/gray vinyl seats, Reverse glo gauges, sylvania lights, 2 1/2" downpipe... ETC ETC..

I sold it for a louzy $1,700. I took off ALOT of parts and tried putting it back to stock before I sold it, But all that shit I just didn't feel like removing, Oh well.

ALMOST everyone wants everything for free, They try to nag you down and down and down. I had someone offer me alot less then $1,700 for my previous car. I just told them get off of my property. Idiots.

 

[bkblazen2003]

book value n nyc for a 1g is about 1200. people sell it for much more though. i just searched on non dsm related sites for my 91 tsi. i found a bone stock tsi in queens, ny for 1200. talked it down to 1000 and took it home. it only needed an alternator. the car had 88,000 miles. mint inside and out.

the owner did not know what i was talking about when i called it a dsm

 

[Bostedquest]

I bought the car simply because it was a Turbo DSM, and I already had a built motor for one.
The condition of the car was decent, minus the worthless engine and interior, which I already said, I had a replacement one sitting on a stand waiting for a home.

Yes I am well aware that a turbo car requires more maintenance. I do not have a problem with that. What I have a problem with is dealing with a car that seems to fight tooth and nail NOT to run (the fraker is the opposite of Herbie... Herbie fights to run, this one fights to be left alone).

My attitude was not that bad even 6 weeks ago to-wards this car.
But as the time goes on, and it continuously fights not to run, I am getting more and more tired of dealing with it.

I tackle each new issue with a logic tree that soon is all out of wack, and nothing makes sense.
3 weeks ago... The car fires and starts right up after installing engine. Runs rich, but it runs. Never to start again since.

I see that the fuel pressure is 7 PSI too high (45 ish), I get an adjustable regulator and get it down. Fuel fouls spark plugs left and right (pressure at 35 steady). Ok logical thing is weak spark. And I check for boost leaks, none.

Nope, strong spark. But I replace the coil anyway. No change. No start, fuel fouling plugs to no end.

My SAFC says that cranking RPM's are below 190. Ok battery/starter. Both test good.
The battery does not drop below 11.6, and the starter only takes 230'ish amps.

Replace the battery anyway. 1st try, goes to 200, no start fuel foul. 2nd. Replace plugs, RPMs down to 150. Fuel foul. 3rd. Nothing and I mean nothing no crank, nothing. I return the battery.
I can hear the fuel pump kicking on and that is it. All electronics and controls work fine.

I start going over everything, all the fittings, all the sensor plugs everything.
I pull the ECU and sometime over the past 10 days or so it blew a cap. Ok, no biggie, pulled it and barely damaged the board resin. Got the new ones installed yesterday.

I was preparing to pull the engine/trans to start chasing wires but said frak it and did the starter bypass. So, I make a starter bypass with momentary switch and the thing cranks like mad now.

So tomarrow I might be finished reinstalling the IC lines and ECU to try it again. But 99+ degree heat is not much incentive to go out and work on a car that you are sick of looking at.

That has been over the past 7-10 days.

I have no problems in dealing with issues, and repairing things.
But I also expect to see improvements or progress, solutions when I repair or replace something that may be causing a problem.

I knew the car had a bad motor, the shifter and shifting was tight and the car was 100% stock. The idiot (which ever past owner) decided to run it with a bad HG (1" section between cyl 1/2 was gone). Again, this was all engine, and I already had a replacement ready to go in. So that was not a big deal.

So yes, it has been a troublesome and very tiring road trying to deal with this POS. And as I said before, once it is running semi reliably, it is up for sale, and I am getting something I can have a little more faith in.

 

[Defiant]

Because they can get it.

No more are being made. It's the only car like it, particularly in AWD.