Looking for a standard v6 estate auto or standard legnum.

[vinnieb]

Just joined....literally. I worked for Colt Car Company within a mitsubishi showroom around 10 years ago. Since that point I've had a soft spot for all Galants, especially the V6. I've driven every make possibly since then, apart from a Galant! I have two rather large dogs ( 22 stone of them ) and need an estate car. However I don't want a run of the mill car, so I think that this is fate working and now the time has come to satisfy my hunger for a Galant. I currently drive a '96 Mercedes E36 AMG avantgarde auto. Its a 3.6 straight 6 normally aspirated AMG unit which has covered just 105k miles. This car will be staying with me for the foreseeable future as its an absolute joy to drive and shocks quite a few people when required, but its not 'Dogue de Bordeaux' friendly, hence my desire for a Galant estate or a Legnum. I've been looking for a while now but just haven't found my car yet. I was hoping that maybe a few of you could possibly educate me on what to look for and what to stay away from as I want to get this purchase right! Thanks for reading and hopefully a few of you good hearted fellow humans can help a man in need out.
Cheers,
Vinnie

[BillHardy]

My first Mitsi was the V6 sport manual est and it was a cracking drive,look out for rusty rear arches,the engines are very good,gear boxes can sometimes give issues,i moved up to the VR4 but am also currently looking to get a V6 sport est as a daily driver,there are a few about but good ones seems to still fetch a decent price,also the standard alloys are quite soft and buckle easy

[Nick Mann]

Not much to add over Bills summary really. The auto V6s are quite sluggish compared to the manual V6s. Later autos are better from a reliability point of view, IIRC. I think the earlier ones had a different spline on the torque converter/input shaft and had a tendancy to shred the splines.

[Rambaud]

I changed from a Galant saloon to a V6 estate as I needed more room. It was only meant to be a stop gap for a Legnum/VR4.

However, over 2 years later I still have it and continue to be impressed with it. The V6 engine is excellent - and, IMHO, the equal of the BMWs, Audis and Mercedes I have owned. And it does over 30 m.p.g. - which is pretty good for a heavy automatic.

If the economic conditions were better, I would probably get a Legnum.

[Scanny]

get a post 2000 manual estate and get aftermarket alloys on it. i just happen to have a set looking for a new home if you want them
http://www.clubvr4.com/forum/garage_...vehicle&id=388
regardless of whether you are into modifying cars or not, buy my front strut brace for it. they do understeer very badly in the wet but that front brace makes a huge difference.
in the 2 years that i had it i did not once break down although wear and tear items did need replacing but that happens to all cars. lower ball joint arms are weak points so check for any knocking noises when you shake the steering wheel.

i would emphasise going for a manual as i have heard that the autos are pretty bad in snow. i did lose a few days 2 years ago but last year i had no problems at all with winter tyres. i can even supply spare standard alloys if you have the storage space to keep them as winter wheels which is what i did. they are in my shed now with winter tyres but they are no use to me now