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I know 3 people who had VR4s. One of them was a red 91, the other was a dark green 95 (facelifted model), and the last one was a pearl 99 (last year model, only 45 made it to the US). The first one was simply terrible. There was always something wrong with it. The 5-speed on the earlier models was very weak, especially since the car is so heavy. Lets just say that this one wasn't well maintained, so I won't use it as an example. The second one (95) was a lot better than the first. The guy had it for about 2 years. This one had the 6-speed tranny and the updated look. It was somewhere around 450whp and was properly maintained. The guy never launched it hard from a stand-still because he said that even the 6-speed tranny will break due to the weight of the car. He had minor issues with it every now and then, but nothing major. The car ended up being sold because he said that 1) it didn't have much potential because it is really heavy, 2) They are very expensive to get to a high hp level, 3) Once they get to that level, major driveline parts start breaking which can be very costly, and 4) They are very difficult to work on. The 99 was by far my favorite. It was just like new, with only 32k original miles. It belonged to a good friend of mine, so it is the one I drove the most. The guy babied the car and had some major plans for it. It was serviced at the dealer, garaged, and only driven in good weather. He drove the car hard, but didn't abuse it at all. To make a long story short, the guy ended up selling the car because there was always something wrong with it. Within 20k miles of owning it, the lifters (common problem with Mitsubishis) and the tranny were replaced (both under warranty).
The car was also slow in its stock form. It feels fast when you're driving it, but in reality it's not. At the time I had a 96 Lexus LS400, and from a highway roll they were really close. I know that this sounds like total BS, but this is no joke. The VR4 (stock of course) barely pulled on the LS (also stock). So then we raced it against some other cars that belonged to our friends. The first was a 99 Cobra with an intake/exhaust, the second was an 01 VW GTI with an intake, GIAC chip, turbo back exhaust, and the third was a 97 Z28 (auto) with bolt ons. The VR4 got beat by every single one of them! Verdict: All the guys mentioned above ended up selling their VR4s for the same reasons. They are heavy, expensive to upgrade, difficult to work on, and keeping them in good shape can be costly. Before I got my first Z, I had seriously considered the VR4 as an alternative. But after driving it several times and knowing people who have owned it, I completely changed my mind.
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20:00:36 03/25/07
