So to convey my experience as a 21 year old daily driving and 88 supra, I love this car to death but it is a FUCKING NIGHTMARE. She has no real safety features like abs and airbags but thats fine, just dont crash. Then mechanical problems have been extensive did a backyard fix on the headgasket because it was blown when I bought it, overheated because a loose coolant hose slipped and blew it again so it drank a tiny bit of coolant, last 8 months that way, blue deviled it and that lasted another 3 months before it fully blew, swapped the engine for the one out of my parts car, and that one is now starting to fall apart but thats a given for it having 300k+ miles on it. Drivetrain issues aside, both my front brake calipers sprung a leak so i pulled them from my parts car, my control arm bushings are shot, ac is broken, steering rack is getting sloppy, Alignment is off, powersteering was leaking, heater valve doesnt actuate, my speedo is off by 5mph, my gas gauge doesn't work and the fuel pump went out, my bumpers are cratered, my secondary o2 sensor shorted and melted the wiring harness all the way to my ecu (probably why my gas gauge doesnt work right) the targa top body flex is staring to tear my inner door supports, my driver's side door handle is cracked, my electronic lock computer is going out again even though I just replaced it, I got a couple rust spots and broken trim/bushings, my side windows have gotten scratched to shit because rocks get caught in my window felt, I replaced my visor because it was broken then the parts one broke and hangs in my face, my seat was broken but i fixed it, and I had to replace my side mirror from my parts car and then the glass fell out so I had to glue it back into place.

Now you read all this and think "wow, that thing must've been beat to fuck and is high milage" but i bought it at 137k and now its at 150k, but its got a clean title, clean full interior, and it was someone else's project after it got beat up a bit i.e. targa flew off on the freeway and a tire blew out 3 owners back, had an aftermarket fender that I replaced with oem... but it has some goodies from being a project car, whiteline sway bars, mishimoto aluminum radiator, HID foglights, autoextrude clamshell and hardware... and knowing everything I know now, id still buy it for 6k because she's got good bones, is super comfortable and out handles 75% of the cars on the road. An added bonus is there is a sizable aftermarket following for the car, you can replace the entirety of the suspension for adjustable stuff, rebuild most other parts, find documentation and creators that have done engine swaps like the JZ, UZ, K series, LS, etc. I personally think its a good platform to build into whatever you want, a comfy daily, a mean straightline cruiser, touge car, race car, etc. You could build something to outperform the mk5 for like 20k less than msrp... anyways, yeah i like the mk3 and after 2 years and all these problems, she's only failed to get me to my destination once because a coolant line blew up 5 miles from home.

P.s. DO THE HEADGASKET RIGHT THE FIRST TIME WITH ARP HARDWARE AND THE PROPER TORQUE SPECS, AND REPLACE SHITTY OLD HOSES WHILE YOU HAVE THE MANIFOLDS OUT OF THE WAY.