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Im a year 13 student at the moment. Next year Im off to university. Im planning to buy either the 250 GT/300 GT or 350 GT. I see quite a lot of cheap ones listed on trade me/auto base/ auto trade with low k's and are in good condition.

We have had a 250 GT before and it handled the roads quite good. It has a lot of power and the acceleration is somewhat decent compared to our new car- the Mazda 6 Atenza. My dad sold it because it took quite a lot of gas. But he mainly drove it in town so thats probably why. We live in Whangarei and the Uni Im planning to go to is in Auckland.

Im just planning to use it for going to Auckland and back to Whangarei for visits. So mainly long distance driving. My dad might not agree to buying another 250GT or anything with higher cc because he thinks it has low fuel economy.

I want your guys' opinions whether this is a good choice to buy- either 250GT/300GT/350GT. Also, I want to know the common problems with these cars and whether it is expensive to fix. Again, it will be used MAINLY for long distance driving. If there are other alternative cars, please let me know. My budget is around 5-7 grand.

Thanks :)

Your dad is probably right about the fuel economy, with this type of car starting to become unpopular, therefore prices falling due to lack of demand.
Avoid any of these cars if they have the CVT transmission. An automatic transmission specialist told me recently that he's aware of a number of these cars being scrapped because of transmission failures rendering them uneconomical to repair.
Otherwise, if they have the conventional automatic transmission, they seem to be fairly reliable.

Can the 250GT use a 91 octane or below?

No, 95 or above is recommended for this model and it is important to use the recommended fuel.