A pally of mine is getting a steady job soon. He wants a new car. He asked my advice the other day: "Matt," he said. "I'm thinking about getting one of the 2004 SRT-4s"

"Sweet" I repplied.

"Yeah, I can afford it now that I'll have a better paying job. I'll probably save all winter so I can make a good downpayment this spring."

"Uh-huh." I muttered as I contined to watch Tough Crowd.

"You think I should get that SRT-4 or buy like a 99 Turbo Eclipse like you and work on it?"

"I don't drive an Eclipse."

"You know what I meant."

A commercial comes on and I actually start listening. I don't want to type the whole convo so I'll give you the gist:

HE wants to get either a brand new SRT-4 and maybe work on later when more aftermarket parts come out OR get a late model 2nd gen eclipse and work on it. He's going to be making enough money to pay for either one but I don't know which would be a better choice for him. Eventually he wants to go off and be an animator and I'm not sure how he'd be $ wise then. He doesn't have hardly any experance in working on cars, BUT is willing to learn and probably would do some minor stuff to the DSM.

anyway any thoughts what do you think I should tell him?

I'd get the SRT-4. They're awesome cars, with gobs of potential, though not quite as much as a DSM I guess. But, you get the bonus of a factory warranty, on the car and the mopar upgrades.

If I could get a new car right now, I’d probably pick up an SRT-4, it's pretty impressive.

-Ben

The SRT-4 is one of the fastest cars for the money out right now. I'm not a fan of the Neon line but I'd sport one. Crazy fast little cars.

I want to see how those cars hold up after about 2 years before i would buy one.

That's what I was thinking too. Although the 2.4 turbo engine looks to be solid, it wouldn't be a bad idea to wait. However, any 2nd gen Eclipse he's going to find is still probably going to have well over 50k miles on it. He'd work on it too, but I'm not sure how much. He's had like zero car experance although seems willing to learn. I just wonder if he'd be better off with the already faster SRT-4. I'm still not sure what to tell him. $ wize a good 99 turbo eclipse is going to run him in excess of 11grand while a brand spanking new SRT-4 is only 20grand total.

keep the info comming. I'm suppose to get back to him by the end of the week.

get the srt4 can be modded with mopar parts and have the factory warranty remain

you know I've wanted an SRT-4 bad myself. were it me I'd probably buy it. Maybe I can convince him to swap me once I finish up the Eclipse.

of course that's a lot of parts I don't think he'll want to buy.