I purchased a 1989 Firebird XS for the wife. By looking through the form I see that they were only manufactured for Cal. Does any one have an Idea how many were manufactured?? Thanks for all your help.

XS, that is a new one to me... Take a pic and post it... Definately an interesting find...

XS was a term that Oldsmobile gave to some of their cars back in the 70's, but I have never seen a Firebird XS...

Also, what engine, and options...

John

The XS was built in 89 IIRC for the L.A. area market. It was basically a "regular" firebird with Firebird XS badges on the fenders.

Kind of like the RS was back in 87 & 88 then.



JOhn

Exactly. IIRC their was also an SCE made in 1994. It stood for Southern California Edition.

Mr.TurboTA is pretty knowledgable about the XS's and the SCE's.

I was at the j/y a while back and saw a firebird xs,didnt know about it but yanked the badges off nonetheless.........it would be intresting to know more about that bird...........

Dealer added package for a specific market area. Cool badges but thats about it.

XS= Xtra Slow??
Kinda like RS=Real Slow??

thats to funny! Ive never heard of a XS either,

Well guys,
To start with, the big first thing it had, was the Trans Am Aero Package, without the Trans Am hood and taillights.
The other thing was, it was first released to three major areas to see if it would take. It did. It became known as the Sport Appearance Package.
Starting out with 1989 Firebirds with just the 6 cylinder engine, later in years, it came with the 305 TBI engine as well.
This was an option over the base Firebird.
In the Los Angeles area, it was known as the Firebird XS (with Firebird XS badges on the front fenders).
In the Sacramento (again, in California), it was known as the Firebird SSA (with Firebird SSA badges on the front fenders).
There was another market, Denver, CO., but to date, I have never seen any kind of badge for that one.
It was released to see if people would want the Trans Am looks, with the base Firebird performance.
Seems to have worked out very well!
I have a NOS set of Firebird SSA badges, as well as a set of used Firebird XS badges.
These cars get around, huh?


Hope this helps,

George

George is spot on, as usual.

I referred to them as a dressed up Firebird. They had the exterior badges, there was also one inside IIRC it was on the radio/AC bezel plate.

the ssa was only manufactured in Sac and the xs in LA. there isent much diffrence except for the name. only about 750 were made of each during the 89 year for about 3 or so months. the cars not much in engine power but because of the amount made they hold a value of around 10k to possibly 20 if its still compleatly original and in mint condition.

The Factory radio is long gone.

Where did you get the info on how many were made?

Really the only thing that I have done was to put GTA tires on it.

I will keep the orginals which are still in great shape

I was going to put a Trans AM hood and lights and painted it green for the wife.

And put a rear window defroster on it.

I don't think I will mess with it.

Actually been working on a rear window defroster switch.

Thanks for the help

i got the info from a guy who said he was a salesman for the firebird ssa. i dont know if he realy was the salesman for it or if he was just tryin to look cool around an ssa owner. so im not so sure on what the real specs are.

i would check out www.pontic.com for the history thing they have. im gana have one done on my car when i have the time and money to do so.

All the cars were made in Van Nuys, California, which is in Southern California!
They were not manufactured in Sac!
I have never seen one going for 10 to 20 grand used!
Where did you get this info?

George

I gotta agree there. There is NOTHING special or rare about a Firebird XS or SSA. Its just a grocery getter Firebird with T/A bumpers and ground effects. The market is so weak on 3rd-gens right now that 20 and 30,000 mile Camaros and Firebirds have a hard time selling for $5,000. There's a big difference between rare ..... and desirable.

could you get a base bird with ground affects that was not an SSA or XS?

my sister had an 89 base bird with ground effects (2.8 auto ttops). we sold it to a guy in wyoming or somplace that had a TA get tboned to death. he was going to swap out the drivetrain (and presumably hood+spoiler+taillights)

was this an XS/SSA that i let go ?

Probably.

I have seen '89s with no emblems on them.
The thing that I don't know is, were the emblems installed by the dealer? Or factory?
Also, I have never been able to find out if they used an emblem for the Denver area.
So, it is possible that it could have been from that area.

Hope this helps,

George

Starting in 1989 You chould have gotten a Firebird with the ground effects from any dealer. It did NOT get the T/A hood or the Aero Spoiler, but otherwise it used the same ground effects as a trans Am, They used option this through 1992 on the base firebird. In 1991 & 1992 it was much more common to have the option, so much so that its unusual to see a base firebird without the ground effects.

John

I always wondered where my FirebirdXS emblems came from!

Cool,you got them.....

Ahh yes, that's where I got them from

I have a 89 Bird that has the full gfx package but no badging. I need to get a PHS package to see if it was one of the Denver cars or what.

I did not know that... or at least I totally spaced it. Probably seen that sort of thing before but didnt pay any attention is more likely

When the cars first came out, they were only to those three areas.
I don't know when they were able to be sold at any dealership, but they were sold anywhere after awhile. Slaes must have been good enough, cause later,they did sell at any dealership.
In 1991, you could get the 305 TBI engine as an option.

George

Learn something new every day

I actually started this thread. A little over a year ago.

Well it is really to bad my 89 Xs was totalled by a rearend accident. I will be parting it out in a few weeks

Sorry to hear about that!

George

Thats terrible.Glad your alright tho.

Im just wondering if their is anyway to tell if your 89 bird is a real xs, because mine doesnt have the badges or anything.

Mainly the package WAS the XS emblems... so if you don't have them, then why would you think you had an XS?

Actuaaly it had the trans am ground effects and the bumpers. Most base firebird came without the GFX. Without the Trans am Rims, hood and tail lights, or performance package.

I believe a six cylinder 2.8 auto in 1989

Correct, but couldn't those have been added since it rolled out of the lot? Lots of people add GFX to base-model cars.

I be;lieve this because the guy advertised it as an XS and was wondering if there was anything specific i could find that and xs has and not a base model

Trans AM ground effects v6