Hello! New to the car scene as a whole, i'm a college student and I am saving money to buy my own car (thinking about the evolution as I fill in love with it since I was a kid).

But since I don't plan on staying here in Kuwait after am done with college, I am afraid that transferring a car out of town could be 1) Pretty expensive 2)Not allowed for certain models and I think u got my point.
but at the same time I am afraid if I wait until I move to another country it'll be too late for find an evolution anymore.
so what do you advise me to do? wait until am done and move out and have fun with a 350z til then? get an evo and have fun?

also Hello from Kuwait to y'all!

 

Hello / Welcome

Thanks for joining us on the boards. Search around as i personally dont know all that is involved in moving a car from one country to another

All of us here have that "EvO" bug

 

"nice" Evos are becoming a bit of a rarity. Most I see for sale have built engines installed, or otherwise heavily, irreversibly modified. Evos seem to be going the way of the Civic in that as time goes on, it may get harder to find one close to stock (which most of us would highly recommend vs built/modded/etc).

 

Like Kaj said they will be harder to find but in 5 years probably still around.Untouched examples are rare now. Depends also if you will be searching for a specific year or model (RS for example). I would wait to the point when you leave country so you can see the car in person to give a thorough inspection. Just enjoy your Z for now and learn as much as you can about the car.

 

Of course it will get more rare as time goes by because Evos are pretty old already. Note also that the value is going up in certain countries. So my suggestion if you really like it, just get rid off your 350z and get an Evo now before it's too late. Later once you finished college you might even be able to sell it at a higher price than your purchase price. I'd also suggest to get either a 9 in any variant, 8MR, or 6 TME coz those are the ones more sought after and increasing in value faster.

 

IMO this is really bad advice.

 

My advice would be to go to a local evo meetup or find a local shop that specializes in evos and talk to some people about what it costs to own/operate/maintain an Evo in your area. These places are also where your likely to find people you want to buy an evo from.

 

How so?

 

Some of the car value websites seem to be catching on. Carfax through dealers will throw you a wholesale and a retail value based on vin and miles.

When I bought my Evo in '17 it had a value of 15.5k on the report, as of today it is at 22k.

 

You should always assume your car will depreciate in value. Especially if you're using it.

For example, a clean 50K mile Evo might go up slightly in value over the years, or it might not. The catch is that if you buy a 50K mile Evo to daily drive and park outside, it won't be a clean 50K mile Evo when you want to sell it. Plus you'll spend a lot of money on gas and insurance during that time.

Never think of a car as a speculative investment unless you're really going to park it indoors for years.

My advice: Forget about expensive cars during college. There's plenty of time for that later in life. Focus on studies and socializing, because both of those are much harder to come by after you graduate. Cars will always be around, though. If you've got extra cash burning a hole in your pocket, put it in savings or invest it. You can always buy a nice car with the appreciated funds after you graduate.

 

Yes I know, but Evos have been gaining value just like many other top JDM cars. Worse is it should not depreciate much anymore like other normal cars. So like I said above IF he really likes Evos then go ahead. The main reason to buy is still for liking it but the value gain is icing on the cake that is possible to benefit, that's my point. So nothing wrong with that. But if he is not sure if he really likes it then of course don't buy. This is compared to keeping his 350z which will keep dropping in value than Evos.

I do agree with your general advice that not to have fancy cars during college and focus on study. However we don't know his financial situation or how rich/poor he is, and he seems to already have a 350z anyway, so such advice might not be relevant to him anymore.

 

Nope. That's a horrible mindset for buying a car, sorry. Especially something as basic as an Evo, compared to actual collector cars.

 

You're still making the same mistake: If you daily drive the car, it will almost certainly depreciate. Plus it's expensive to operate and maintain relative to cheaper cars.

It's fine to buy an Evo if you can afford it, but don't make the mistake of thinking it's a good financial decision.

 

Of course it won't gain value like a Mclaren F1 or a 250 GTO, but where I live it is gaining value noticeably. For example, price of TME now is double than 3-4 years ago. A 9 and 8MR are increasing around 20-40%, while 7 and 8 GSR raise up about 15-20%. How about where you live, does it at least maintain or still depreciating like any other normal cars?

Please also read carefully and understand the context of my whole post, not just focus on certain segment. I said IF you like it then buy, the value gain or maintain is just the icing, so the main reason to buy is still because you want it and not to invest eventhough it may have the potential to gain value on it. Again this is relative to a 350z.

 

Nope, not really true at least in where I live. Many Evos are quite high mileage already but yet their prices are still going strong, as long as the car in reasonably good condition. Mileage is easy to cheat/reset so people look at the actual condition and not so much focus on mileage. This is similar like many other JDMs such as R34/32 GTR, NSX, Supra.

Again like I said above, buy if you like it and surely can afford it. The value gain is just the icing.