Mitsubishi 3000GT Buyer's Guide
The 3000GT (1990–2000) was Mitsubishi's technology flagship: twin-turbo 3.0 V6, four-wheel drive, four-wheel steering, active aerodynamics and adaptive exhaust, all in one committed package. Our single sold result, £11,475 for a 1997 VR-4 Twin Turbo in August 2026, prices it far below the nineties Japanese royalty (Supra, GT-R, NSX) it was built to fight.
Know your versions
One generation in our catalogue (Z16A), sold in the UK as the 3000GT and in Japan as the GTO. The car that matters is the VR-4 specification: twin-turbo 6G72 V6 driving all four wheels, initially with a five-speed manual and, from the 1994 facelift, a six-speed and revised styling without the pop-up lamps. Naturally aspirated, front-drive versions existed in other markets (and as the mechanically related Dodge Stealth in America) but UK supply is overwhelmingly turbocharged. Import cars from Japan are common; UK-supplied examples are the rarer find and worth verifying through the paperwork.
What to pay
One result is one result: £11,475 bought a 1997 VR-4 Twin Turbo. We will not build tiers on a single sale, but the number itself is the story: this is a car with the specification sheet of a six-figure exotic trading at hot-hatch money, and the gap to its Skyline and Supra contemporaries is qualitative fact even where our data cannot yet quantify it.
What goes wrong
Complexity is the theme. The 6G72 twin-turbo is fundamentally strong but the cambelt service is critical and access-heavy in the crowded bay, so demand evidence of one on schedule; while in there, the rear bank's plugs and any oil leak get expensive purely through labour. Turbos, intercooler pipework and heat-hardened vacuum lines all age, and boost issues usually trace to the latter. The transfer case and AWD system need correct fluids and dislike abuse; clutch replacement is a big-labour job. The gadget count is the real ownership risk: four-wheel steering, active aero and (on cars so equipped) electronically adjustable suspension all fail individually, parts are scarce, and many cars have had systems quietly disconnected, so test everything and price accordingly. Rust hits rear arches and sills on neglected cars, and kerb weight punishes tired bushes and brakes.
Our view
The 3000GT is the contrarian pick of the nineties Japanese performance boom: more technology than any of its rivals and, at our £11,475 result, a fraction of the standing they enjoy. That discount exists because complexity scares people, and it is the whole opportunity; a VR-4 with working systems and a documented cambelt is a lot of car for the money and unlikely to get cheaper as the survivors thin out. Buy the most unmodified, most complete example you can find, and walk away from anything with disconnected electronics and no explanation.
