First time car buyer
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Hey /o/ I'm thinking about buying my first car when I get out to NC and I need advice on it. I've found a 1978 Triumph Spitfire near where I'm going to be living and I'm considering buying it. The seller is asking for $3000 but I don't really know anything about cars so I have no idea if its a good car or if I'd be getting a good deal. Has anyone had any experience with this car and could give me some advice?
>>14614525
Old britbong cars a shit. Looks cool, is cool, but is notoriously unreliable.
>old brit car
>first car
it will leak oil forever and for the 20 miles it's driveable you'll enjoy it
>>14614525
can you wrench? is there a shop nearby that knows british cars that can do the stuff you can't? will you have garage in case/when the top leaks?
>>14614589
No garage available that I know of at the barracks I'll be at.
>>14614525
>buying a British Leyland-era British sports car as your first car
>with no known British specialists near you
>without a garage so you can wrench on it yourself
>likely don't know HOW to wrench
>getting a bigass moneypit on a fucking private's salary
ABORT ABORT ABORT ABORT
Look, I love the cars. I really do; my dream is to take a rubber-bumper MGB, Rover V8 swap it, and take it to the track. But they are in no way shape or form reliable machines without a LOT of a work, and I guarantee you that an example that you see for sale at $3000 is not one of them. You will never get the thing running for long periods of time and you will learn to hate it. It will look great and you'll get noticed in it, but you won't be able to DD it well.
This is literally just as bad a decision as one of your friends going to a Buy Here Pay Here lot and buying a 30K brotruck with 26% APR. Don't do it until you at least have your own house and enough money for another car that's reliable enough to be your DD.
>>14614650
Alright thanks for the advice I'm glad I asked before I did something dumb.
>>14614525
You'll regret the day you bought that car for the rest of your life.
>>14614682
It's sad that it has to be this way, anon, but it does. 1970s British cars have legendary-tier shit reliability. If you had another car you could count on, I'd say go for it and just learn how to wrench as you go: they're unreliable as fuck, but they are pretty damn simple cars. But in your position I can not recommend it at all.
Why'd you want the Spitfire, anyways? Because sports car? Wanted to stand out?
Just buy an NA miata. It's basically a british roadster, except it doesn't break.
>>14615189
this is true.
OP, if you don't need to rely on the car at all and have a place to work on it and a desire to work on it it could be fun. Expect it to break down when you are driving it about 1 out of 50 times or so, maybe even as often as 1 out of 10 if hasn't been driven much lately.
>>14614737
This. British Leyland was pretty shit. Think of all the stupid crap that's gone on internally at GM over the years. Then triple it. Now you're starting to get the picture. Ever hear about NUMMI before Toyota came in and helped clean up? For one thing, NUMMI never had the strikes that BL did.
>>14614525
>first car
>1978
do it i fucking dare you
>>14614737
Just thought it looked cool and the asking price was in my buget.
>>14615906
I know your hunger, anon, and you have my sympathies. But I side with the rest; find something semi-reliable, learn to love it, and since it is your first car, you will, and then when you're a big shiny Lieutenant or whatever you people do, you can buy a spitfire, leather goggles and a white silk aviator scarf, and life your dreams on the open roads like God intended, my son.
My goal in life is to own a Honda Cub and put around on it pretending to be a Japanese schoolgirl like in my Chinese cartoons.
>>14614525
my cousine has a yellow hardtop and an aqua one too for parts. he says once the engine dies he want to swap in an ecoboost
