Quote: Originally Posted by pihun Don't like... 8. 305 engine need a lot of upgrades 7. 700R4 trans need a lot of upgrades 6. suspension need upgrades and tuning 5. brakes need a looooot of upgrades 4. electrical system need some upgrades 3. darn heavy 2. hot start problem (cursed Chevy starter) Maybe is what all about, upgrades is what makes it fun. If you want a car that doesn't need upgrades you better buy a Mercedes GT1. And the number one "I don't like" is the stereotype of "white trash", among others, maybe I should buy a crappy nissan an go to a nissan forum and start complaining - I don't like japanese trash... ...get the point? Btw: I searched the "why you like your thirdgen" tread and can't find it, can some one point at it, I have a list... I like the white trash thing.....

one of the easiest to swap fuel pumps are thirdgens

i just hate how weather stripping gets old. thats about it. thats pretty general for cars tho

Just do not get that, almost everyone who see's my thirdgen loves it....

Yeah I never got that comment up in Canada, but who cares really? lol, it's not like it's an insult or anything?

Chevy actually installed a secret cup holder in the space between your left a$$ cheek and the door if you put the drink under the seat belt it stays there just fine

lol! i do that! it works pretty well, especially with those 32 oz snapple bottles.

Haha i actually just discovered this last week! Works for 500ml water bottles as well!

i actually took my door panel of to fix some stuff, and the door is a great place to put your wallet when you're driving or getting gas

what i dont like is how all the crap gets collected under the license plate and i also dont like having 2 different sets of rims front to back.....forces you to break all the tires down when and if rotating.

im sure the rest of you guys have posted the more....i dont feel like reading thru 17 pages of it.

Shitty interior pieces.
LEAKS EVERYWHERE
Wish the 350 was lowest ci engine.
Everyone thinking I suck at driving when they hear that stupid air damn scrape every time I hit a hill with more than a .00000000000001% grade.
Wish the t-56 was the standard manual tranny.
That's about it.

I been a lerker on the board but I have to jump on this.... Lol

all I wanna say is THE F#CKEN RATTLES

Everithing alse I love about the maro. Who ever had it before me took good care of the car...

I LOVE EVERY THING ABOUT MY THIRD GEN STRIPED AND RE BUILT FROM SCRATCH

All the money I have to spend to get it to where I want it to be, but after all is a 20 year old car But I rather Have A $800 dollar car with $20.000 in upgrades than the other way around

I hate how 95% of our car parts are easy to find and fairly low in value, but the other 5% are expensive and impossible to locate.

(And with my new vert, I've got about 20% that I'm going to have to fabricate!!)

I often get trunk space envy when I see other people go into their trunks. Of course, the fact that my trunk is jam packed with paranoid emergency objects such as jack/jackstands, extra oil, gascan, and various other tools doesn't help.

The RS V6 isn't all that powerful. Then again I probably wouldn't know how to behave with an enthusiast approved V8.

As others have said, the door makes an odd clanking sound when shutting - except mine does it regardless of window position.

I also hate that the PO ordered this particular RS with no options...i.e. the only way to get into said trunk is to open it with the door key - which is on the same ring as my ignition key, meaning I have to have a spare on me/detach the original or shut the car off. Then, in cases where there's no electric power in the car... I have to stick my arm back there from the back seats and pray.

I can't stand the suspension, if theirs a small twig on the highway I feel that twig, every little pore and cell of that twig! It may just be mine but every bump, every little thing make the whole car shake and rattle, especially the doors.
Not to mention who was in charge of designing the 3rd gen doors and hinges?!?!! Seriously. I think everyone knows what I'm talking about when it comes to the sagging doors, pins and bushing.
The uni-body doesn't help if you've bought the car from an idiot who got rear-ended and tried to make it all better with 1/2" of bondo across the side, then a few years later the sheet metal and back end starts cracking and your door won't shut because the back panel has shifted ever so slightly forward day by day and it costs nearly a $1,000 to get that all straightened out. Not gonna happen.
The weather stripping and seals. Enough said.
The little bits and pieces and tiny minuet metal pieces or details cost more than you could ever imagine.
Other than that I'm proud to be an owner of an American made muscle car lol :P

Headliner and door panels. Thats it pretty much.

Im going to have to say how my freshly painted ferrari red iroc is puffing disgusting blue smoke on startup. Try to impress people and you get a cloud of smoke out the exhaust.

You can change the hinges, get them all from TDS and rebuild it.
If the car was in an accident, you should get it fixed and once everything is straight weld on frame connectors. Car will make a tremendous jump in handling/feel/chassis stiffness.
Weatherstripping and seals suck but again, must be replaced. There are products out there you can put on to protect them and prevent squeaking and drying up.
The little bits and metal peices cost alot of you add them up.. Set a budget every year and roll with it till you get to the goal!

I dont like that the speed parts from the 80's still cost just as much as they did then, and that alot of parts are no longer made.

i hate how every single electrical pig tail plastic clips is brittle and most missing because of cracking

yeah I dont mind not having that glove box
its probably the only design without one...which I like
although I guess it would be okay with the cops when you
keep your gun in the console because you
never did have a glove box which is proper storage

the thing I dont like about 3rdgens is the only thing
-on the V8s the exhaust is typically not centered on the car
there seems to be enough room on the connections to do
a proper installation as I have seen on custom cat back work
although there are even alot of pix posted here where the whole
system is off towards the drivers side at least four inches
my RS 3.1 is perfectly centered yet invisible from the rear

Im exactly the same, my trunk space has my jack, my jack stands, a crapload of tools, spare alternator, spare water pump, and spare serpentine belt, and a full size spare tire, along with my broom stick for my hood, lol

mainly right now the only thing i have to complain about is all the rattles

i have other complaints, but they were cause by the PO, like my carb didnt have a choke, and when i bought one it broke.. guess that was my fault though

and my doors sag so theyre a pain to shut all the way, and my window motors are slow

Too much plastic in the interior. The squeaks and rattles drive me nuts. I have a convertible and the squeaks are even worse. The white trash stereotype will fade with time. Really, how many times do you see one of these on the road. Most of them were so beat up not a lot of them remain in nice shape. They are coming into the classic category soon I think!

that i dont have one

the only thing wrong with mine is i am lacking of a ****** to ride around in it with.

the only problem with mine is the engine can overheat pretty quick, if you drive on slower roads with the a/c on. other wise its a great car!

(P.S. the 'white trash' comment doesnt apply if you live in a 'white trash' area, then its just your neighbors )

Destroyed the passenger panel assuming the screws were just stuck >.<

Some of this stuff I agree with, but most of it seems maintainence related - *any* 20+ year old car is going to have these problems, and the extent of the problems is going to correlate to how the car's been treated. Difficulty with finding the 'proper' clips to replace broken parts was an annoyance, but jury rigging something else is always a sinple option (<3 velcro tape... )

Most of the 'design flaws' like the passenger floor hump or some engine access restrictions are really part of what makes the cars unique, and often the challenge is part of the fun.

I actually *like* the ride on the car, including the handling. We've got a 91 Z thats not finished yet, so Ill withold an opinion from a performance point of view, but the 'heavy' and loose feel of our RS 305 makes it one of my favourite cars to jump into. The lack of horses is of little concern - the car makes *wonderful* torque - I absolutely love that its running at such a low RPM, compared to the 'average' car today.

The fuel effeciency is great on the 305, and if you're using a 350 (or a modded engine) you shouldnt really be concerned for fuel effeciency - traditionally sports cars and fuel effeciency was mutually exclusive (or at least not a design priority) - nitpicking that your performance engine is inefficient is just silly.

I can understand the concern over the lack of cup holders, but dont share it. No one is getting in the car with anything other than a water bottle >.>
I suppose if you're driving to work while eating breakfast in the car or something... *shudder*

Oh, and the upper brake light completely obscuring mirror vision of the lane directly behind you annoys the crap outta me, but its just a simple swap out to a earlier year's glass...

Kinda like hellz_wings was saying, if theres something you really *cant* stand, theres a fix for it. A lot of them arent that difficult.

Theres nothing that comes to mind as something worse than a minor inconvienence that cant be fixed, given time and effort.

LOLOL nothing like carrying a mobile parts house with you at all times! hahahahahahahahahahah
If I ever goto a cruise night, definitely making sure I meet your acquaintance in case my serp belt snapps!!!!! LOLOL

lol, its left me stranded too many times.. well twice, but thats too many times to me, so it made me paranoid, so i make sure i have everything so i can fix it if i break down on the interstate, but of course it hasnt died on me for a really long time, but i guess its better to be safe, lol

One thing I don't like is that there are not enough NOS parts for the car. You can build a 69 Camaro from scratch including a new body, but can't get NOS or aftermarket kick panels.

How hard can it be to get a NOS spare tire panel. Only seen one in black in the past 3 years......cost me a fortune off ebay.

I'm not a fan of the nasty looking third brake light in the rear hatch area but I'm OK with it given that its not nearly as ugly as what they had in 1986. The car rattles too much and I hate VATS. Other than that, I'm pretty happy with the design and subtle changes in the later model thirdgens.

I like the 86 third brake light.. It's unique, the only year they had it up there!

I hate how there are no cup holders cuz I can only get a drink when someone else is in the car too.
lack of glove box
all the ratteling
heavy doors
heavy hood
whole car is just too heavy when you think about it
350 only has 225 horse but atleast it has 330 torque
slow windows
ttops are a hassle
squeky shocks
people think you are white trash for owning one
I hate how alot of people have wrapped them around trees making them hard to find in good condition but it does make it so parts are alot easier to find!
But man do I love the hell out of my Camaro!

Some of my friends fight like kids about riding shotgun.

the one thing I hate is I have invested so much money into it I no longer feel safe leaving it anywhere where I can't see it at all times

manually putting the top down,Ive had other convertibles where its nice to just unlatch and press a button...

A few things from my "list" so to speak:

- I also have the typical rattles
- factory headlight output is absolute garbage
- Weak engines and transmission combinations are a real disappointment, especially when Ford was using the same transmission and working wonders.
- Front air dam is prone to getting scraped VERY easily as mentioned.. and you dread it when people turn around to see "that idiot ******head that doesn't know how to drive"
- Terribly weak rear ends.. right up to 2002. Meh.
- Instrument panel colors aren't terribly appealing
- INTERIOR COLOR SELECTION IS CRAP. I'm the only person I know who has a factory black interior car, and it drives me nuts. Even the GRAY interiors were nasty looking in comparison to some of the other cars out there at the time. We got the short end of the stick from GM.
- As mentioned, parts are easily insanely easy or hard. Always one or the other.


Here's my biggest grief...
There aren't enough people taking care of these cars for whatever reason.. people will spend boatloads on a beat to **** foxbody (I know, I've had one and had many other cars) yet a NICE third gen barely goes for $2,000 around here. I love these cars, but I don't see many nice ones. I just wish I saw more respectable people driving them. They deserve their spot in history, and I love them. All of them. Eventually I'll own another Fox mustang, an 80's Monte Carlo, and a Formula (or a GTA), but my Camaro will always stay first.

There is a lot of ground to cover in response to your post. So I'll break it down point by point.

Yeah this is pretty common. SFC's can fix this but honestly GM should have designed a stiffer chassis all those years ago.

By today's standards yes. Compared to other vehicles of the day I'm sure it was similar. You can't really say OMG that sucks because 25 years later the cars are so much better! GM should have done it like that 25 years ago! That doesn't make any sense. You have to keep things in perspective. Its easy to bitch about how something sucks 25 years later in comparison to today's cars. Keep in mind that you can't reasonably take what is possible now as a benchmark for comparison to components and systems that were designed 30 years ago during the 1970's after the release of the second generation cars.

Well I'll be the first one to crucify GM for many of the engines that went into these cars, (LG4, L03, Iron Duke, etc.) but at least some of the engines were comparable to their Ford counterparts. Namely the 305 and 350 TPI engines. Even the V6 was good for its day for economy purposes and OK performance when coupled with a five speed transmission. Again the blame for this should be targeted at the entire industry. The main difference in Ford's favor is that Ford had a lighter car than GM did. Then again if GM had followed suit what we'd have ended up with was likely going to be nearly as ugly as a Ford's Fox Body or Dodge's Daytona/Plymouth Laser, etc. platform. Just imagine a squared off version of the Gremlin's *** with grid patterned tail lights a flat wedge shaped nose with pop up headlights and a Firebird logo on it. Nearly everything in the 1980's was a throw away econobox looking pile of crap. The Firebird/Camaro and Corvette went a different way going for a sleek and aerodynamic body that emphasized handling and style. Again keeping proper perspective performance was decent in the TPI cards for the time.

As for the transmission comments, I'll have to agree with you there. I do not know why the T5 is so bad compared to the Ford version of the same transmission. Or what it is about the Ford car that enables the T5 to handle tons of abuse while the GM versions fall apart even behind stock 305's.

I can count on one hand all the times I've ever scraped the front end of any car on anything. Anytime I have I wasn't paying attention or didn't give a crap about the vehicle in question. (Rental car etc.) Not pulling up all the way onto parking stops, curbs etc. greatly reduces the amount of damage your car's air dam will sustain over the years. A little forethought or lack of forethought other drivers have is not really my problem, or yours so long as you aren't one of them.

Again this is one of those "hindsight" type of issues. The rear end was strong enough for the time and remains so for simple bolt-on power levels. The fourth generation cars however should have had this addressed. There really is no excuse for that.

Are you talking about the gauges/gauge faces or the instrument panel plastics? In either case I think GM went with what looked best. Color accented panels were not something that was the style back in the 1980's and didn't get wildly popular until people starting thinking of Honda Civics as "go fast cars." The gauge faces look fine to me as do the colors on them. The white face gauges / indiglo gauges are something that came about later on, or at least were popularized later on well after these cars left production. Then again I may be talking out my *** and missing your point.

I have to take issue with this part of the post as it is simply not accurate. What colors would you have liked? Third gens (not all years mind you) came with your choice of Red, Tan, Black, Grey, Blue and even an orange'ish colored interior. There were many subtle variations of these colors as time went on as well. The bulk of the interiors are either some form of gray, tan or black with the occasional red interior car, but that's probably because the dealerships wanted cars that had the widest possible appeal on the show room floor and you have to factor interior color with exterior color matching as well. A blue interior wouldn't have gone well with a red car or an orange one. Blue interior with a yellow exterior would have been an atrocity as well. So I'm not exactly sure why you would be complaining about this and how we somehow got the short end of any stick on this point. The interior color options for thirdgens far exceed that of most cars today and probably exceeded or matched the options of their competition. Namely the Mustang which had similar color options as well.

Well I don't like this either. Worse yet is that some small and seemingly minor parts cost a fortune while some larger and more common parts cost next to nothing. There is no correlation between part complexity, or size and the actual cost of the part in today's market. Or at least that's how it seems to me.

As for the last part, I think its the nature of the beast. There isn't much you can do about it. No sense getting bent out of shape about it. I just appreciate nice thirdgens much more as a result of it.

no cupholders!!! that bugs me the most.
and i cant stand the spider webs that always show in the paint on the nose and rear bumper.
t-top seals are garbage, other than that i love my iroc

Ilove my 86 Z-28 also since I only paid 700 dollars for it and put around 3500 in it so far and the only problems I have are the heavy damn doors and the cooling system seems to have a new problem every week.
Other than that it has a 350 TPI out of an 86 vette with a stock 700R4 which I am fixing to replace with a turbo 400 and a 12 inch currie rear set.

Why do people complain about the heavy doors? I don't get it. They are on hinges and if you have trouble opening and closing them I suggest heading to the gym. I'm not exactly in good shape and I find closing and opening them to be easy. Now I can see bitching about the door sagging issues but that fix is relatively easy.

thats what everyone means when they complain about the heavy doors is that they are so heavy they cause the doors to sag.

Its an easy fix and much of the time it comes from people hanging on the doors to get out of the car as well as throwing them open too hard etc. Even after 20 some odd years many if not most of these cars have passenger side doors that open and close almost like new. Every thirdgen I've had has been this way. Most of them haven't been that bad on the drivers side either. So if you take care of the thing and aren't careless with it the problem is barely even a problem. New hing pins every 20 years or so isn't out of the realm of reasonable compared to other consumables in these things.

Not really since just about every vehicle from that era had hinge problems, the full size trucks and S10s/Blazers were just as bad (if not worse).

lol I never had a problem putting my drink against the seatbelt between me and the center console.

1.) Crappy t-top seals.

2.) The fact that you can slip something through the windows and steal the car. Although if you lock yourself out with the key in the ignition in the on position you can hit the window button to roll it down.

3.) The squeaks and rattles DRIVE ME NUTS!!!!

4.) Not being able to play a CD in the car without it skipping every 2 minutes because the car is so stiff (which ironically makes the suspension so great for handling and cornering).

5.) The fact that people are ignorant even today about these cars and think that we all have Mo-Hawks. Jeez.....

Other than these few things I'm happy with my car. There are some other small annoyances but nothing I can't live with. I like that there is alot of space on the passenger side. I DON'T like how the cabin is so freaking big though. It's a big cabin for a passenger/sports/pony/muscle car.

I hate how every single state your car becomes a classic when it is 25, but only in Nebraska you have to wait until the car is 30 before you can get the plates. Plates for my car are expensive! I cant wait until my car is 30 so I only have to pay the one time $60 plate fee!

I love my Camaro lol the only issue i have is frame flex but that's why SFC's are around.

MY ABSOLUTE #1 HATRED....the freakin stereotype, if I'm not a red ne@k, I'm white trash...I MUST have a "Camaro crash helmet" (since MuIIet is offensive now apparently) and be listening to Motley Crue, OR my personal favorite (this ones out of left field).... a drug dealer!...WTF??!?!

*As far as the doors go...they're a mile long. Get used to it or go get a civic lol

*Transmissions - whether or not this is true I'm not sure but I heard it from my college instructors who were high up in industry, one was a Ford tech for his entire working life, the next worked at the AZ proving grounds through the production of our cars and the third was a regular GM tech. Now I was told the reason Ford had the stronger T5's was because Tremec had a better deal with them, so theirs could handle the abuse giving them an upper hand on GM, again its word of mouth it sound logical though. The proving grounds instructor tested the T5 with the 350 and it came out a bust, they grenade, hell you can grenade one with the 305 if you beat it hard enough! (along with the rear)

* The cup holders...ok you can do the seatbelt trick, get a buddy to go with you or heres an idea (watch out this ones tricky!!!) Put it between your legs, I drive mine like that alot, WITH a manual you just gotta mind your cup. Also a convenient spot is on your right side tucked between your body and the seat belt.

*t-tops... they're fun, suck it up and drive on I hate leaky seals as much as the next guy but it wouldn't kill you to replace them, or bring a towel.

*Fake torx....ok I'll give you that one I thought I was retarded for not being able to take out a torx lol


* Handling - Put some polyurethane bushings on there and some SFC's, get some new struts and strut mounts / shocks....boom stiff suspension and no more body roll and get some IROC or GTA sway bars / a wonder bar it definitely tightens it up a lot

Overall I love my car and if someone wants to knock me for it they can shove it while I walk on them.

*******#1 reason I love my car *********

Its a freakin tank. I had a girl pull out in front of me while I was going 40, I t-boned her, totaled out her car and had a rippled fender and a bent hood corner, i grabbed the hood and pried it back, and bought a new fender for 20 bucks, didn't even tweak my frame at all, and her car was undrivable. In my eyes, I won. lol

I have to agree, I like the third brake light on top of the glass, it makes it unique.