I'm planning to buy a new compact in mid november and was lookin a lot at a srt-4. My questions are, what about real world gas milage, concidering I drive a good 400 miles a week and what about reliability? I want a car that I can keep for a few years and not owe more money on it then it's worth. Performance wise obviously I have no questions cause theres no compitition. What ya got for me?

 

Figure on 20 mpg on the average, all things considered. It's a well built car, with proven systems and only a few very minor faults, like a habit of melting the #4 plug wire. That may have already been corrected, some owners report "new" wires that have a 90 degree angle to route them away from the turbo. In either case, it's an easy fix.

You'll enjoy this car, trust me......

 

many owners have driven their cars a lot further than I have (I am just under 7000 miles on mine, and those are not daily driven miles, I have two cars and the SRT is my "toy")... but i have had zero problems. I would bet the 04 or 05 model year will have most issues taken care of vs. the 03's.

for gas mileage, it depends on how heavy your foot is. I have gotten a personal best of 24-25 mpg but usually average around 20-22 mpg. Remember this is a 12.5 gallon tank on the car... so with 400 miles a week you'll be filling up twice or so a week... if you really are concerned with mileage, I don't think this is a good car to go for personally... but they sure are fun to drive.

 

last tank i got 240 miles too, and it took 10 gallons to fill. So with easy math thats 24 miles to the gallon. I know the mileage at first was horriable but its gotton better with every tank. Gotta stay out of the pedal which is hard to do with this car

 

my best is 20mpg on freeway!

 

LOL @ your list of mods

 

Hey, I got one too!!! (Actually looks kinda cool)[sm=smiley36.gif]

 

As soon as you drive any car off the lot it ain't gonna be worth more than %75 of what you paid. If you want to always by right side up then put like 10grand down. In two years if it ain't reliable than your still under warranty. Beat it to crap and trust me you won't have anymore problems with this car than any other sedan.

 

As far as the fuel mileage goes, if you drive it as they suggest in the owners manual and keep from ever getting any boost, you can see the rated 30 MPG. However, once you have actually driven one the way God intended, you can throw that number right out the window and figure on around the 20-23 MPG mark. And if you add on some mods like the BOV, CAI and exhaust your gonna love to hear it and then your gonna have even lower fuel mileage. I waste sooo much gas just playing with my BOV that it isn't even funny............but it is fun.

 

I'm in the same boat you are. I too am looking for another sport compact. I test drove an SRT-4(of course), a Mitsu Eclipse GT Premium (is that GTS in the states?), an Acura RSX Type S, a Nissan Sentra Ser Spec-V, and I looked at a Hyundai Tiburon GSR. The SRT-4 was the second cheapest only beaten by the Nissan. Eclipse=$35,000 inc leather, RSX=$33,000 in leather, Tiburon=$31,000 inc leather & freight (too much for a hyundai) nand the SRT-4 =$28,700 inc sunroof. The Sentra ran @ $25000. These anr Cdn $s [sm=sorry.gif] This is no competition for the SRT-4. Firts thing the RSX needs is bigger wheels, I'm 6'3" and the Eclipse's roofline was a bit too low for me. The Sentra was a nice car it looked good it was an 03 which look better than the 04s, handled very well too but doesn't have near the power as the SRT-4. My choice is going to be (when the time comes) the SRT-4, unless I hear it has issues but that's in another thread (a bit concerned)