Interesting you say that... the modern day Opel GT shared a platform with the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice, which had the SS engine in their upper trims. The GT and Sky were nearly identical save for a couple small details like painted areas of the taillights and a euro spec rear fog light.

I get the novelty factor, but this is a pretty low spec, ordinary wagon overseas right? This is probably going to go to an enthusiast who will swap in a M54 and make it a “m3 wagon” clone...but not for 12k.

My wife and I are in that bracket and I can’t stomach the thought of a 1k car note unless its a 2 or 3 year loan. We bought a jeep GC last year and even at $600/mo its cringey to see that much coming out month to month. Maybe we’re just cheap or old fashioned — but even averages hitting $700/mo holy shit. 

The bulbous back and tail lamp treatment makes me think of the Nissan Leopard/Infiniti J30

for 15k you can actually get a “JDM dream machine”, not the USDM tribute of it. Or you can get a hiace, Delica, Bongo, or any other quirky actual JDM vans. Certainly looks clean, but lots of options out there for 15k.

Average mileage (pre-covid mind you, I don’t know what it is since then) for a car is about 12k. At average mileage, we’d be looking at 204k. So this averaged less than half of the average annual miles, putting it roughly in the lowest quartile of 2005s (I know median <> average but bear with me) if distributed by…

Well yeah, if you narrow your criteria to specifically to that of an S2000 you’re only going to want an S2000. You were 1 second away from “and a Honda badge”. There are plenty of good options for 2 seat performance roadsters at 14k.

Why would you be against buying used luxury cars? CPO lux is amazing since someone else takes the initial depreciation hit and you still get practically new cars, and often within the same generation its practically the same as a brand new car. 

NP. These have hit the rad/nostalgia factor and have been going up in value quite a bit. I woudl like to see the engine bay, but everything else looks reasonably good. Even if moderately modded (going from A pillar gauges), thats a NP.

Drop in the turbo unit from a T bird or XR4Ti and you’ll have plenty of power. Depending on the kit, it could be a direct bolt-in. This seems like a fun build and fuck-it-why-not money if the rest of the pieces are there.

A leaf, with more range, newer tech (and really, newer everything) is cheaper. Why would you get this?

They did from 08 (I think?) onward on the drivers side. My 07 Sky redline doesn’t have it, but I got a spare set of seats with a power height adjustment switch and mechanism. The mechanism can be retrofit to earlier seat frames but tbh I assume that the non-adjustable ones are lowered as much as possible, so you’re…

Yeah thats still a crazy good deal. I’ve got a redline and been watching prices raise 15k+ for pretty much anything (at least asking). A RL Manual is also the highest sought configuration which factors into it too.

It takes about 10 seconds and its a breeze. 

I’m 6'0 and it’s fine? I mean its not a giant cavern, but it isn’t horrendous either. 

$8700 is an absolute steal in this market. Wow, I would have expected near twice that, which is where comparable redlines are landing. Great find!

The fender needs to come off. It’s not as bad as it sounds...just a few small trim screws and one in the door where you’ll need an extension. I’ve had to replace my sky’s battery MANY times thanks to a parasitic draw (which I think is linked to an old radio install)

Yeah I nearly lost my coffee when Rob mentioned the M103 as “torquey”. Granted the automatic trans that all the US spec models got was not doing it any favors, keeping revs pretty low (and 2nd gear start), but its pretty standard for the time (180ish, high in the rev range). Lovely engine, super smooth and sounded…

I guess this is NP for the person who wants a lifted forester? But I’m trying to understand the “why”...I would think its going to be limited to light offroading, plus it has a manual and peaky turbo engine which is not ideal for anything rough. If that is the goal 8500 gets you into some decent purposeful vehicles…

At least the GLHS you posted is a reasonable representation of something that was fast for the era. The base models were pretty awful, but then again this was the era of the iron duke camaro and lima mustang.