Dominasian

Hello everybody, this is my first post here, hopefully not last .
Currently i am an owner of a 1996 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX, modded, approx 280hp (not dynoed). Yesterday, while i was fixing my boost leaks I got a call from a guy telling me that he wants to buy my Eclipse for 6k$, i agreed although i spend about 10k$ total. Costumer said that this week they will want to pick up the car with cash in hand, and now i asked my self a question, what can be as fast as my eclipse, still be in style, but instead more reliable for the same price. After doing some research i finally came to a conclusion to buy 99-04 Mustang GT. I think its time for me to learn something else. GSX is a great car, but reliability is non-existent on these cars .
Now i will need your help here . Since i am looking for a mustang, which will be my first muscle car if u wanna call it, what are some of the things i must look at before buying the car. I am familiar with engine operation but with the world's most feared 4banger, so i have never dealt with v8 engines, I have heard that they are simpler than 4g63 DSM ones, but i want to make sure i dont spend my money on a junk, i am a full time college student with a low pay full time job, so i rarely have time to work on the car, but when i do spend no less than 12 hours under the hood .
Anyways, please give me some ideas, how fast this car can grow will limited amount of money put into the car, should i be afraid of any aftermarket parts installed on stang. Experience stang owners, please tell me what would you look at when buying a car.

Here are my future plans for the car:
If i will buy a car stock: i would like to have SRI, bigger throttle body, FMIC with a possibility to have a supercharger. 400-500WRHP would be an optimal car's output for me. I know with a supercharger will come a reliability issue, but i will try to maintain the car as much as possible.

What is the mileage limit for a safe purchase? Where would i look for any kinds of oil leaks ?

Thanks for reading and hopefully my questions will be answered

96t-bird

Hi, welcome.Check out the mods for beginners, and start for bolt on in this section. Good foundation for mods.

Subbz

As long as you have some experience with cars I think you'll be fine when you're searching around for your purchase. Just look for things you would normally look for when you're buying a car. The engine with stock internals as far as I know can handle up to 400hp safely, though I've heard 450 from others. I'd stick with 400 to be on the safe side. I've heard negative things about SRI and also that you won't see much result after installing a CAI. Installing the drop in K&N filter and removing the silencer from what I hear yields the same result and for a much cheaper price. If you're planning on adding some sort of forced induction a bigger throttle body is definitely must possibly a 75mm or larger. Also I haven't really heard anyone having reliability issues with their superchargers. I think a few people on here actually daily drive their supercharged stangs. There aren't really any aftermarket parts you should be afraid of, just make sure you do research on them first. I personally shop at americanmuscle.com since they're very reliable and their customer service is great. They also have reviews for each part they have and they're quite informative so it makes it easier to figure out what you want to get thanks to the reviewer's experience with those items. These cars are pretty reliable so you'll be fine with a pretty high mileage car just as long as it's not been beat up by the previous owner. I bought mine with 120k miles on it and is currently my daily. Haven't had a problem with the engine yet. I hope this helps! I'm sure even more experienced owners than I am will post their 2 cents in and help you out with your purchase.

Dominasian

what do you guys think of this one ?
2002 Mustang GT Premium, 88,000 miles

Dark Red
Black leather interior (interior is in great condition)
6-disc in dash cd changer
Mach audio system
Dark tinted windows
5 Speed manual transmission
Short-throw shifter
New high-performance clutch installed ~1000 miles ago (Exedy Mach 400 stage 2 clutch)
K&N cold air intake
Aftermarket dual exhaust (sounds great)
A/C ice cold
All scheduled maintenance
Excellent condition
No accidents
Title in hand
No problems/issues
for 7.000$

Vertigo_GT

I'm drooling. I paid 7k for my 04 GT premium convertible auto with 91k miles in March. Dealer was asking for 10.5. Bought 2 vehicles so I got them down to 7. If you can get it checked by a mechanic and it passes, sounds like a fair deal on a nice ride to me. PICTURES!!

Fillerdust

Welcome, I came from a 99 gst with roughly 300 HP to my current gt and haven't looked back. Way more fun with rwd and handles better then my old gst also.

fastbackford351

My rule of thumb when buying a used car is the closer to factory stock the better but mild mods aren't anything to run away from.

speedkills

That 02 Gt seems to be a pretty good deal.....is there a link or any pictures?

Dominasian

So i ended up buying this mustang gt. Good condition for its year, no accidents, pretty much stock except w/e was listed. It does sound good, but will do better with cats off. Here are some pictures of this pony. Not impressed with acceleration, no wonder people say that they are slow dead stock. But i guess its time for me to save some money for a supercharger with supporting mods. Went on the car meet yesterday and we did a ride for about 30 miles, raced couple of cars, and like i said not impressed, Civics were just bashing on me, although i did run away from couple of DSMs with 15PSI boost on stock turbos but that's about it. Anyways, all it matters is that i have a plan for the car, and ill just need to actualize it. 400hp sounds good enough to me if i am up for killing an average car on our car meets

Subbz

Great looking car! And yeah the stock GT isn't the fastest of cars but it's no slouch either a few mods and it'll really wake up the hidden beast inside. You should look at getting a handheld tuner and 4.10 gears next and you should really be able to feel the difference.