To most people, the idea of traveling more than 800km to buy a
Mitsubishi 3.5-litre V6 is bordering on insanity. But not to me.
After driving a string of Magnas and Veradas for AutoSpeed New Car tests, I've
come to admire big cube Mitsu V6s. Smooth, punchy and incredibly underrated, I’ve
always kept an eye on their plummeting second-hand prices. And now was time to
buy!
In my home city of Adelaide – the birthplace of
the Magna/Verada – I was unable to track down a 3.5 Mitsu with relatively low kilometres
at a cheap price. But some web browsing revealed they are absolutely dirt-cheap
in the Eastern States – easily cheap enough to justify going 800+km out of my
way to make a purchase.
After convincing my wife, Mellissa, to come on a
‘holiday’(!) we boarded the 6am red-eye flight to Melbourne with a list of cars
to check out. At the top of the list - and the main reason I chose to head to
Melbourne rather than Sydney - was a 2000 Magna Sports with barely 100,000km
and, curiously, equipped with a factory LP gas system. The plan was to take it
for a test drive, chase down some service history and, if all went to plan,
pedal it home. The Magna Sports was Number One on the list.
After touching down, we jumped into a buzz box
hire car and ploughed east through Melbourne traffic; the Magna Sports owner had
left the car parked in their front yard with a key stashed ready for me to take
it for a test drive. As we approached the owner’s address, I could feel the
excitement grow – we were now t-h-i-s close to seeing what would likely
become Michael’s New Car.
And then we saw it.
Not a Magna Sports, mind you – a Magna Si...
WHAAAAT???
When the emotional thunderstorm cleared, I thought
it appropriate to call the owner and express some, err, dissatisfaction. It
turns out that, regardless of what the factory badges might say, any Magna
fitted with alloy wheels and a spoiler is justifiably called a “Sports”... The
owner had never heard of a ‘proper’ Sports model. Faaarrr...
So now it was time to knuckle down for some
serious car hunting.
The next stop was at a car yard with a 200,000km
3.5-litre Magna Sports. It was certainly worth a look – especially given its
cheap price – but its crappy presentation and mythical service history were a
dead-set turn off. Strike that one from the list...
The third car was a ’96 Verada Xi – the
top-of-the-line Magna-based sedan crammed with leather trim, 10-stack CD and a
host of other goodies. Around this time, I was beginning to accept the
likelihood that I wasn’t going to score a 3.5-litre Magna Sports with low
kilometres, so the auto-only Verada was the next logical choice. But this Xi was
an eye opener. With obvious signs of major accident damage, front tyres down to
the canvas and clearly no money spent on maintenance, I was beginning to wonder
if these interstate Mitsubishis were worth the trip...
But then came car number four.
A 1997 Verada Ei with 108,000km on the odometer
and an asking price of just AUD$8000. The owner had a genuinely believable
reason for sale, produced some service history and kept the car very well
presented. The only negative was the fitment of overly low springs – something
that, given the Verada’s soft factory suspension, I’d likely replace anyway. The
engine was also overdue for its major service and sounding a bit clattery at
times – so we drove the car to a nearby workshop where it was confirmed there
was nothing to be worried about.
I’d never purchased a car from interstate before,
so the next hour or so was spent on the phone obtaining a vehicle security check
and confirming that a roadworthy certificate isn’t necessary in my home State -
all that needs to be done are a VIN and engine number inspection prior to
registration. We slept on it, double-checked there were no other cheap Magna
Sports on the market and, the next morning, we made an offer on the Verada –
with cash waving in the owner's face, the owner was willing to come down only
slightly from his AUD$8000 asking price. AUD$7700 was as low as he’d go.
So now we had the task of driving home!
Driving 800km across different States can be a
slightly nerve wracking experience in a newly purchased second-hand car, so we
first checked the fluid levels, purchased some emergency oil and coolant and
checked the tyre pressures. We also re-checked the fluids at each ‘refresher
stop’.
Over the 800km trip, the Verada amazed me with its
level of refinement (what other car could offer such impressive NVH for under 8
grand?), comfy seats, effortless torque and reasonable fuel consumption – an
average of 8.5-litres per 100km. Oh, and I wish I had paid more attention to the
previous owner’s comments about how easy it is to sneak over the speed limit on
the open road – in the first five hours of ownership I’d racked up one speeding
fine...
So what’s in store for the Verada, you ask?
Well, there are quite a few options that are
swirling around in my head. The 3.5-litre donk can be easily tuned for more
grunt using Ralliart or aftermarket camshafts, header/exhaust and air intake
mods and an improved intake manifold. Alternatively, it’s an ideal engine to
turbocharge - ideas of a rear-mount turbo or an asymmetric turbo system (as
employed by Saab in the late ‘90s) are also running through my head.
All this for a Mitsubishi V6? People tell me I’m
going crazy.
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