I'd like to put the LS1 in everything or the Northstar hehe
From a GM standpoint. The Northstar requires getting around all those computer goodies or retrofit somehow

Speaking of the Corvettes and the 3rd gens...how many have driven both? I got a ride in an 89 Vette and I can tell you they feel closer then you might think, however there is virtually no back seat (on the convertible I was in) and the seats feel much different. Not a bad experience though. I drove a last gen Eldorado and that felt odd, and sat in a 4th gen Camaro (think it was, or Firebird -some time ago) felt much smaller then the 3rd to me. They do feel modern though
BILL

 

I WILL buy a car off of eBay and had arranged to buy one before a local buyer appeared... in that case we had agreed to share shipping expense and threw a price around. Obviously it helps to know what things really come under scrutiny, more so then being in person because there are many typical signs of a poor eBay user/seller.

I love eBay and I say will, but by that I mean the inherant drawbacks don't frighten me too much.
I've learned a bit about cars that I've gone after and that is one key. Research the history or recalls and the like.
Again, I can't defend out and out deception but if the seller won't show you images you request, I'd be on my guard then.

There are certainly some interesting stories here. Before looking on line, the car selling magazines like Hemmings, Auto Trader and the spin offs present quite a good feel of the used market over a broad range of cars.

Bill

 

I have purchased and picked up a total of 3 cars from Ebay. I too have found the descriptions vague at best. For some reason though, it hasn't discouraged me yet.

I've bought or helped friends buy and then pick up:

1988 Beretta GT. For $700, it was better than you could find around here and he needed basic trasnportation. Took us another $200 to pick it up. It was in OK condition, however there was a serious rust problem that was not mentioned in the auction.

1986 Fiero SE w/GT GFX. I found this car when I was in my Fiero phase. I showed it to the same friend who bought the Beretta GT two years prior. He liked it. We bid on it and didn't win immediately. We were outbid. We then got a private offer from the seller - Apparently, the kid who won backed out. We then got the car for $550. We drove 5 hours to pick it up. The buyer forgot to mention that the front bumper had a big, softball size impression in it.... He also did mention that the engine needed work, but when we dug into the car later, we found out we have 2 cylinders with piston rings that were nearly dead.

Next car was my IROC-Z. I had been looking for an 85-92 "Z" car with TPI, T-Tops, and all power options. This one happened to meet all of those criteria and looked clean from the pictures. I made him a private offer and the he accepted. I went a week later to pick the car up. In the auction, he said it needed 2 front tires. Well, it needed all 4. He said it ran "smooth and strong". While it was strong, I can't believe he said smooth. The tranny mount was busted as were both motor mounts. Ugh. When we got there, in Tacoma, WA, the guy was charging the battery at his house... I got a little scared. We had over 800 miles of road to cover on the way home.
Quick glances: According to the seller, "Dash & console are excellent". YEAH RIGHT. Dash was fine for the year, but console. It was HACKED to bits. The seats were described as: "are very good. Driver seat shows some wear, but no rips or tears." Whoa tex... The drivers seat is destroyed. Looks like a sumo has been driving it for the last 15 years.

On the outside it was described as: "Pictures show paint a little optimistic but still shows very well, body is nearly perfect, no dents or dings, and no rust ~ clean and straight".

The body was straight for the most part, however there is a golfball sized crunch right where the fender meets the nose on the drivers side and another in the rear quarter.

NOT TO MENTION RIGHT BEHIND THE P/S T-TOP THERE'S BONDO!! I noticed it first when I was putting gas in it the first time.

Anyway, there was a lot more.

Overall, I like my car and I feel its a good project base and am happy with my purchase. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this is a G92 car.

Anyway, it is a good thing to be leary on Ebay. ESPECIALLY when looking at even 5+ year old cars, let alone 3RDGEN's.

 

I think that just about takes care of any desires to buy an e-bay car...


John

 

Were you thinking about it?

My personal feeling was from finding the trouble areas with my cars and asking about those up front, then typical things like brakes and tires. When I was asking, I sent multiple emails as not everything you typically address in car shopping comes to mind initially. That was the case with me, but the images of the car were VERY high quality and large as well. The sellers were not young people either.
If you shop for the same car you find on eBay locally and in other sources you should know what makes it worthwhile to use eBay.
There are items you can get with no reserve that really make an auction one of the best options around.
Bill

PS- While thinking more on this, I remembered a TV report that said eBay offers more coverage on cars then other items it auctions so utilize those safeguards. One feature is they have inspectors check out a car if you so desire, so I have heard. I haven't researched this so someone might want to look into that.
I heard nothing about a cost on this.
Bill

 

mine was inherited to me...im the 2nd owner...mom bought it back in '87 brand new & its still in the family & always will be

we had talked about having the title transferred from her name to mine back when i had turned 18 but we just couldnt seem to get together to go up there & get the title transferred...

when i turned 19 we finally went to the DMV & got the titled transferred so now i pay the insurance,tags,mods,& whatever goes wrong with it....so i know all the history of it & what has been replaced

btw,this thread is still going strong after like a year-cool

 

Thinking about putting car up for sale... so, I just wanted the message gone.

 

When I was in grade school I saw a lot of 3rd gens round. At that time I didn't know anything about anything to do with vehicles. Everytime I saw a 3rd gen Camaro or Firebird I just stared at them. I had a rough time telling the two apart for some time. I didn't really pay attention to any 3rd gens after that. But I've loved the 3rd gens eversince that first interaction with them so long ago.

Then my freshman year in highschool I saw a black 3rd gen Camaro. It was an 86' IROC with t-tops and chrome IROC rims. It was the most beutiful car I have ever seen. I wanted that car so bad. That year I had a class with the kid that owned it. He was a year older then me. In that class I said I was going to get a car exactly like. Little did I know 2 1/2 years later during my junior year I was looking for an IROC Camaro. I wanted an 85' cause that was the year I was born. I kept looking and looking and found nothing. I kept remembering my freshman looking in the Tradn' Post seeing numerous IROCs and Camaros. Then one day on eBay I found it. A black 86' IROC with t-tops. It was in southern Illinois. We went down there to look at it. I came home with a brand new car. When I drove it to school Jerad(the black IROC owner) saw my car and said a few things about it. I didn't care I had my dream car.

I didn't realize what I said freshman year about me getting a car like his until I started writing this. The only thing I havn't done that I said I was going to do was get chrome rims like his. Instead I'm working on getting a 5.7 TPI. Something his deffinately doesn't.

sorry so long.

 

Well, even though I don't own it anymore (R.I.P. ), the story of my old '89 RS...

My mom bought it brand new September 6th, 1989. 11 and a 1/2 years and 56,723 miles later, it was mine, as a high school graduation present. It was fully pampered until March 9th, 2002 with 96,500 miles...when it was sold to a 16 year old girl. Within 6 months, legend has it it was in a tree

My Z28 I've had for 2 1/2 years, and will always be with me. I've done what I wanted to do to it, and it is mint. Beyond mint. So mint, it isn't even funny. The only thing keeping me from another beloved third gen is the fact I need a daily driver, so payments on the Grand Am are reality for another 35 months. After that, the $$ will be available for a third gen...unless a 5th comes out that I need to have. And apparently, that's a possibility!! Time will tell....

 

I am happy to say my car has been in my family its whole life. It is a white 91 RS 305 TBI, T-5 and t-tops. My dad bought it brand new in 91 and me being only 19 right now, can barely remember going with my parents to get it. As of right now it has almost 133,000 miles on it and it is in great shape for the miles. My dad takes great care of his cars. Everything on the car is stock, even the exhaust which has some holes in the i-pipe. My dad said he wanted a z28 305 (because it was a manual) when he bought the RS but the insurance was going to be about a grand a year because of his driving record. A few days after he got the car he put Z28 decals on it inplace of the RS ones. Although i get to drive the car whenever i want to, he still wont give me the darn thing Oh well, he eventually will. Sorry for the long post, i just like the fact the car has had only one owner, and thats us.

 

in nov 2001,at one of the various car audio/security shops that i have worked for,the manager was trading in a 43000 mi '89 rs convertible on a s10 pickup because his wife told him the car was"too sexy" for him to drive. it never made it to the lot,i had the paperwork from the bank filled out before he left to go to the lot. the dealer was gonna trade him even for it.they will pry this car from my cold,dead fingers....... personally i would have traded the wife in(probably why i'm not married anymore).he still calls me trying to buy the car back(not gonna happen)

 

couldnt have said it better my self.

 

I got my 87 iroc 350 tpi with t-tops from going down to where everyone shows off there car at the huge dunkin donuts parking lot every night. I saw the iroc for sale and the guy wanted to get rid of it before he left for college and he only wanted 1500 for it. So i looked at it and test drove it and got the car for $900 and there wasnt anything wrong with it except minor rust on the passenger side door.

 

I bought my Camaro from a guy that was fixing it up for his son, he had it like new and replaced the motor... but his son turned his nose up at it because he wanted a Honda.

And with the gunmetal paint it looked like a DeLorean to me, I'm a big Back to the Future fan so that didn't hurt.

 

I got my 1991 Camaro Rs after searching for I wanna say a good year. I had only about $2000. I was a sophmore in high school and wanted a Camaro so badly. My dad was driving home for work one day going a different way than normal. He spotted a grey Camaro. The color stuck to him because we had seen an 87 Trans AM like that but for too much $. The Camaro had 79,000 miles the owner bought it new in 1991 and got every option you could on an RS best of all it was $3000. I was at my cousins house and my dad called me and said what the number was. I called and the car sounded amazing. The next day we went to look and bought it. I later found out they only made about 2,000 Camaros in Gunmetal Grey that year. The car was wonderful until winter. I live in Illinois and well... in the winter they use salt and it basically ate away my right rear wheel-well. I am in the process of fixing that.

However I've been looking for a stick F-Body for a while knowing my Camaro is gonna rot away in the near future. I did some searching on Autotrader.com and found a near mint 1989 Firebird Formula 5spd, WS6, 305TPI HO, and all sorts of goodies. It turned out to have over $2000 in reciepts. i bought it about a day after I saw it for $4000. I haven't gotten to drive it because I need to sell the Camaro. The 10 minutes or so I did get to drive was the most fun and fastest ride I've ever had. I never really understood how TPI could be so much faster, but believe me it is!

 

Formulas ROCK!!!

But I think I might be a little Biased...

John

 

#1i got my lisence at 17, wanted a car to drive, uncle had givin my dad an 88 civic for comute purposes but dad never used it any more just sat out side, i learnd to drive stick in it and paid up 500$ for it to my uncle, i gave him the money im sure hed have let it go for free. drove it hard for a while and sold it cause it had problems. i hated it after a while, come on its a civic

#2went with no car for a while, high school comes around junior year, i drive parents 2000 jeep grand cherokee larado, that thing is nice, radio sounded very good and had 4x4 option, quite a fun car, all said my parents generosly said enough driving our car let get you one of your own. ok i said, mostly cause i was buging them the whole time.

#3went looking online for an import, thank the star i didnt find one, found three camaros, two 3rd gens 4th gen lt1 auto, but it was purple and dad said it was for gay people, if i had taken him for a ride in it then hed know its not for the faint at heart, the one i got was a close to mint black with gold trim 84 Z28 that had 5speed and lg4 not blazeing fast but it was a damn v8! and i was 17, i was floored when dad oked the car.
after driving it somethings needed attention, turn signals flickersed, flasher shorted out (replaced), lower radiator hose replaced, stabilizer link was bushingless and i got a new one, high pressure hose got replaced, got it aligned, oil change, leaky front struts replaced, still have old crap rear shocks, i want kyb's, that was all back in april of 02, just today i got my hatch struts new in the mail from third gen resource but hey are at my parents house in plano(im in tyler), new vavle cover seals and coolant temp sensor as of two days ago, runs like a dream, i wish all used cars were this damn nice, jeez.

has now almost 60,000miles on it
in 1983 a man trades in a porche for this car new and drives it until 2001 or 02 sells it to a mechanic at the dealership in irving where he bought it, guy has too many cars never titled it and wife say git it outta here, not a big loss to him he has bad *** cars, i get car 2nd owner with a sweet looking car that like to get cops looking my way

 

My 86 TA had one owner before me. A lady towed it into her backyard after her husband passed away, it sat there from 1995 to 2002 when she said I could have it for free if I towed it off her property. I'm in the middle of restoring her right now, no rust and a straight body and now has a 383 stroker in her

 

Ive loved F-bodies since I was a little kid, always wanted my first car to be one.
well I got lucky. for my 16th birthday my dad got me a car. 85 Firebird with the 2.8L. it was my cousins, he had a hand full of debt and needed money quick so he sold it to my dad for $3000.
that car had more than its share of problems and realy lacked power, but I loved it any way. it's demise was some numb nut not paying attention and slaming into me as I was comming off a one lane bridge. when the insurance company totaled it I vowed then that I would own another f-body.

fast forward 8 1/2 years. we were innitaly looking for a second car for my mother in law to drive to and from work that would be great on gas. a little econo box if you will. well I had been talking to my dad and when comparing I realised the car we already had a 94 Dodge Intrepid is just as good on gas as my dads 99 Chevy prism. so I got to thinking and talked to my mother in law about her taking it as hers and letting me pick a car for my self. luckly she said that would be fine, as she realy likes the intrepid.
so I immedatly knew what I wanted, any year third gen Firebird or a 91-92 Camaro(prefer the ground FX on 91-92) well sadly I live in an aria that its very rare to see any year f-body in good condition. every one I saw for sale looked like total crap. well one day wile driving home on the interstate my wife looks down off the exit and sitting under a tree at a little hole in the wall car lot she see's the camaro I own today. a 91 RS with the z28 high rise spoiler. sadly we still had a couple of months b4 income tax so I figured it would be gone b4 I had the chance to get it. well the couple of months pass and it is still down there. dont know why it didnt sell. they cleaned it up a bit and put it out by the road every day. I know this because I frequently drove past there just to see it. well jan finaly came this year and the w2 came in. I immedatly went and actualy looked at the car. it has the LO3 which I was excited about, because wile the lo3 is far from great its my first V8. it also has every option you could get on an RS in 91. I talked to the owner of the lot and he said he'd take $2200 for it. since we didnt have the tax return yet I asked if he would hold it for me for 30 days with a $100 deposit and he agreed. well we ended up getting it a tad sooner than the 30 days due to my persistance in wanting it but thats a dif story.
finaly came the day to pick it up I went in to the lot with $2100 cash in hand. the owner wasnt there so they told me they would call when he got in. finaly 2 hrs later the call comes in and I go to get it. we get all the paper work done then as Im leaving this guy comes up to me and says I was smart to put a deposit on the car, when I ask why he told me some kid had just came in with his dad wanting it and they had cash in hand, more than I payed for it. to bad for the owner of the lot I guess, but good thing for me I was able to come up with that first $100.

 

1992 Firebird Vert: bought it as a wrecked repo out of Gary, Indiana for $500. My dad and I fixed it up for me to drive when I turned 16. (I was only about 13 when we bought it) I worked hard core on my grades so I could afford insurance and I have driven it for about the last year and I love it more and more every day. Recently put in storage for the fall/winter.

1986 Camaro IROC Z28: My mom had a friend from work who would come over every once in a while to talk. She was the original owner of this car and I just fell in love with it. About six years later, she called my house asking for input about some problems with it. After an alternator and a fuel pump later, I asked her how much she wanted before she repayed me for the parts. $1,000 bucks later, I have another project.

 

My car is a dark metallic blue 1989 IROC-Z, with a 305 TBI engine, I found it in the internet, in Feb 2000 I was looking for a Forest Green '92 Firebird (my dream car...) but found the deathmobile instead. When I saw the pic of the car it was a mixture of love and pity... I called the dealership and asked them if they would accept a deposit with a credit card and be willing to hold the car for 3 weeks (tax check was coming, lol) so they held it and 3 weeks later we drove 2-3 hours way the h#ll out to Podunkville aka South Barre, VT and I bought it on sight. The brakes were shot to hell, there was cheap-@ss Alpine cassette player installed, wires were everywhere going to Godknowswhere and there was no horn and no wires in the steering wheel that indicated a horn had ever been there, even now I have a horn button under the dash. the power seat still worked but was broken and leaned to one side, and the power antenna was not working and ther were band-aids holding it up...Within a month the starter went, within 3 the ignition went and left me stranded 25 miles from home and the car had to be towed - my husband found out pretty quicky that you can't really hotwire a car with pass-key with any ease...then 6 months after that another wire went and the car would just die while I was driving then I would have to try to pull over as best I could with no power steering and jiggle a wire under the hood and then the power would come back on and I could go again, finally my husband and grandfather found a wire way underneath the engine that was frayed and repaired it. A few months after that we kept losing power and replaced the battery and alternator, just to find out it was another frayed wire. This car is an electrical nightmare.
I am unsure of how many other unfortunate owners the car has had, the previous owner was a guy named Russell, I hope he wasn't the wire cutting/brake line cutting turd... and when I looked it up on carfax, it gave the 1st place of registration as Aiea, Hawaii - long way from Vermont and Massachusetts.

 

I'm over the 35 years of age hill now but don't feel it.
Judging from the posts on this thread, seems alot of younger folks are getting into F cars, and by and large mostly Camaro. Not sure if it's just the fact Chevy is the big boy of GM, but I'd put my money on that.

My parants cho/ose to push the daily driver aspect and push toward getting a lease on a new car and always sell a used vehicle when it outlives it's usefulness. I didn't drive until around 1990/91 and rode bikes for years and years instead. The freedom of driving is easily taken for granted but as unfriendly as it is to the environment... I don't think I can give it up w/o a fight. Hope they find someway to change from fossil fuels but keep our cars running and performing!
Like a previousls poster, I started on what felt like an import but was actually a 1970s Plymouth Horizon. It astounds me they kept making these things into the 80s....Horrid but good on gas (the only saving grace besides parking space!!) I insisted on choosing what car I wanted to own...as well it should be...so I got a cosign bank loan and bought from a Ford dealership, trading the Horizon on a 1982 Olds Cutlass Brougham, which is still a car I enjoyed to this day. Both suffered from mechanics...actually the first downfall was more dramatic.... The other 82 was a nicer color but went due to picking up my 1984 Eldorado. The Eldo shoulda been a keeper but that one started to lose the winter weather battle (which means you have to deal with mech upkeep AND body work!) I'm in the same boat still so I hope to take on the challenge of living with harsh winter and keeping a cool car. Hope against hope & fingers crossed!
Bill
Bill

 

I see I messed up thanks to the keyboard memory buffer...it's super slow..
Here's the tracklist for my own cars driven:
78 (IIRC) Plymouth Horizon [transverse 4 cyl]
1982 (NOT handmedown! hehe) Olds Cutlass Supreme coupe V6 Buick.

...second 1982 Olds Cutlass Brougham (both had sunroofs!)

1984 Eldorado Biarritz with stainless steel cap...black and red leather int. (I miss the most)

1989 Firebird 'Formy'/'Formie'/Formula 350 TPI

The Caddy had about 120+K last time I owned it but my 1989 Firebird had 44K when I got it. Now it has just turned 121K
That's daily driving for ya
Bill

 

bill,you're NOT old.i'm 37 myself,got a pierced tongue&eyebrow. i listen to bands like Manson,etc.you're just like the rest of us ,a 3rd gen F-body fan.if you're saying 35 is over the hill,then i must be older than dirt

 

Didn't start out looking for a Camaro, hell didn't even know anything about them. I just wanted something other then the lemon Chrysler Laser I previously owned. I test drove everything that looked cool to me at the time. After test driving the 86 black Iroc it was sold. I had a grin from ear to ear finally driving something with torque and a few extra hp than I was used to.

I am the 3rd owner. The 2nd owner only had it for 2 years. The 1st owner babied that car a lot. He never or very rarerly put his foot into it. One of the injectors was clogged with carbon when I took it to the shop, but compression after 130,000 miles was still at factory spec!

So had a lot of fun with it, but now that I am in college I can't afford to keep sticking money in to the 'Roc. (I have so many plans and if the car is there with me, I will never have money) So it is being stored at home until I graduate and can afford to stick some large monies into it.

 

Bill, I am not far behind you, I am 29. I listen to stuff like Staind, Deftones, Audioslave, Tool etc. And I also wanted to add that I actually prefer Firebird's to Camaros, but the kind I would like are almost non-existant in my area (1990-1992 with an 8 cylinder engine AND a manual transmission AND T-tops- lol- I have to dream on). The only sticks I ever see have a 6 cylinder in them. One of my Camaros had a stick shift but it was a 6 and had that tin can exhaust noise after awhile. Not pretty.

 

As a reply, I'd say...don't forget the whole Hot Rodder spirit and code that anything they build can be redone and improved upon, it's not set in stone. Alot of people looking for a list of options in a used car, which is fine of course, but there are plenty of third party manufacturers helping and aiding the custom cause. I think it usually and most offen comes done to the size of the owners wallet. I'm sure if money were no object we would see at least twice as many nice rides on the street these days!

As for age.. I just think 35+ and over is just about half your life, though some would say 50 and over, ya never know. I think compounding that is the fact I'm so retro minded, as most lovers of dated cars, music, fashion, etc. hehe

 

Ive noticed that F body drivers come in all forms and thats why I like them. Mustang seems to be the same type of people, but camaro and bird guys are different. There is no mold that everyone fits, its everyone is different. Ive met everyone from punk rockers to girls driving fbodies. Old and young it didnt matter. Its sad to see the fbody leave, as for now, forever. I hope that GM gets on the ball and brings more to the plate other then the Vette and the GTO. the GTO is still out of range from some people. We need a good under 30k sports car thats RWD, 6spd and a MONSTER engine. GM, just look at my sig ok?

 

(Off topic and I know it) What REALLY ticked me off is I went into target and I saw this book called the Complete Sportscar book (or something like it) and I flipped through it. I saw Corvettes (no disagreement) but no camaros or Firebirds ... BUT THEY HAD MUSTANGS!!!

John

 

Well if you simply had to include a Ford, what else could they have possibly used?

 

See Sig.

 

I bought mine off my dad. He originally had a 69 Camaro with the 350 that I was kind of hoping to inherit, but he traded it for an 87 irocz with the lb9 and $4000 cash. So I bought the iroc for $1000 from him and have not looked back since but... :hail: 69 Camaro

 

Well i got my car Back in 1993 and i own a 1992 Z-28 5.7 25th Anniversary White with Red Stripes. i am the Second owner. it started out in the early summer of 93' i had some cash saved up and during the summer i worked full time, so when i was walking i saw the 92' in a dealer inside the office building. i went inside and asked the manager how much he wanted for the car, he told me he wanted 8,000 cash and 10,000 to finance it. so i worked harder and managed to get 5,000 and i asked my parents for the rest of the cash. and so we went and looked at tit test drove it and by the end of the day i had the car in my driveway. eversince i have owned the car. i have a few upgrades like: k & N filters,Flowmaster,Baer brake system, cross drilled disks all around, 3:73 gears posi, 20" IROCS, hotkins Torque Arm Mount,Lower Trailing Arms,Rear Suspension Package,Strut Tower Brace,Performance Sway Bar Set,Sub Frame Connectors. and also a sound system i am working on. that's just a few of what i have done to it.

 

I bought my from the original owner who was going to tow what was left of it to the junk yard, so I bought it cheap and here it is today 2 1/2 years later and still nowhere near done with it.. But when are you ever done working on a car?

 

Well my story is kinda funny. My camaro is my 2nd car.. my 1st had nothing but problems it was an 87 Vlkswgn glf. I finally got sick of fixing it. one night i flipped kicked it off the jacks and drove it into my garage wall. The next day I asked a few friends where i could get a desent car for cheap and one of them said yeah I know a guy who runs a garage and has a camaro for sale. only 600 bucks. I didn't know much about camaro's at the time exept they looked cool... I sold a PC i had and took my whole pay check and went out and bought it. She ran nice till after winter. I amazingly only got stuck twice. The trans blew out and then I blew another trans and then finally the engine.. but she's running better then ever now. Its only a V6 (well for now) I did a 2.8-3.4 swap into it and have a few other cheap or no cost mods. Now I could probably change the tranny with my eyes closed.. every week end I am ripping something apart. And I am the 7th owner, it was passed through a family a few times.. and her lisence plate reads EVIL. I named her Lydia.

 

Well my story is kinda funny. My camaro is my 2nd car.. my 1st had nothing but problems it was an 87 Vlkswgn glf. I finally got sick of fixing it. one night i flipped kicked it off the jacks and drove it into my garage wall. The next day I asked a few friends where i could get a desent car for cheap and one of them said yeah I know a guy who runs a garage and has a camaro for sale. only 600 bucks. I didn't know much about camaro's at the time exept they looked cool... I sold a PC i had and took my whole pay check and went out and bought it. She ran nice till after winter. I amazingly only got stuck twice. The trans blew out and then I blew another trans and then finally the engine.. but she's running better then ever now. Its only a V6 (well for now) I did a 2.8-3.4 swap into it and have a few other cheap or no cost mods. Now I could probably change the tranny with my eyes closed.. every week end I am ripping something apart. And I am the 7th owner, it was passed through a family a few times.. and her lisence plate reads EVIL. I named her Lydia.

 

I got a new twist to this. How about how did you get your car back. Heres the story about two months ago I saw an ad for a guy wanting to trade a 67 stang for a late 80's early nineties f-body or fox body. Don't hate me but I always had a soft spot for the 67 stang because that is what I learned to drive a stick in my father who has since passed away had one back in the day. My GTA was holding a salvage title so I thought value for value it was a good deal. Well I started missing my TA right away. The stang didn't handle as well needed lots of work and yada yada. So I am browsing e-bay (you might have seen it) and I see my GTA with only one bid at a thousand bucks. I figure because of the salvage on it and new paint job that alot of people would suspect the car to have hidden damage, so the bidding was staying low. I called him and made an offer which he accepted and I am picking her back up tonight. So after a small hiatus I am back on the boards.

 

Applies to old Chinese attage: "What goes around comes around."

I wish my 95 Formula Convertable would come back around

John

 

Even traded this...

Which had become an impractical vehicle to drive to the trail, I off-road. And which I was looking to pump even more dollars in if I were to put the 35" tires I won in a raffle on.



for this...

Which is our 6th current vehicle, but makes a practical 3rd vehicle over our 72 Skylark (in need of an overhaul) and my 89 Cherokee (lifted and big tires for off-roading too.)



And hence the reason the 'Bird is being called Free...

 

Keith_INDY,
THAT looks IDENTICAL (with exeption to the later wheels) to my 87 Formula when I bought it.

NOW for the kicker, My car was orginally sent to Coral Pontiac GMC Truck on North Keystone in Indianapolis. I Bought the car from a guy up in Anderson....

John

 

It is a small world we live on...

 

I was lookng for another Grand Prix to buy, in order to replace my tired '89 SE, (The wife has a '96 SE, hey, I like the W-body) but instead of finding another beat-up 88-90 GP, I found an ad for an 88 GTA, with 89k miles. Said it needed some work. Guy was honest, we test-drove it, I WAS IN LOVE.... The power... It sure is a good replacement AND upgrade from my poor Grand Prix. I'll miss that old car, sniff. Oh well, I have a NICE car to get over it with.

 

I bought my cousins 88 Iroc-Z The Flamed1 He always knew I wanted to own the car. One time I was going to take over the payments b/c I was driving it to work and every where any ways and he bought a new Z-71 and it came down to where I couldn't afford the payments. A few years later he tells me he is in debt with a new truck payment car and house. It was about to be picked up as he had not paid on it for a year and all he owed was 1,700 left after paying 25,000 plus. So I ask what's wrong with it b/c it always blew the transmissions. Oh it won't shift out of 1st gear. O.k I can deal with that. So I call up the collection agency pay them the money. And I went and picked up the car In Northern Ca and brought it home In So Ca.. And got the trans fixed came out to be just the governor gear. I then started trying to restore the car back to show room condition. Then I figured I could never do that after putting a few grand in the car and it was to far gone. So I bought another 88 Iroc-Z and sold the Flamed1..

 

I bought my 1989 GTA brand new. Like the others I know its history except when I have my Senior Moments. Allen

 

I was really into Camaros when I was 14, and by the time I was 15 I was determined to have an Iroc-Z as my first car. I know, you're thinking a kid shouldn't have a car like that, but you know you wanted one when you were a kid. I was 15 and of course I didn't have a lot of money, so I never really found a nice Iroc in the $2000 and under catagory. One day my dad came home from work and said someone at work was selling an '88 Firebird with a rip in the driver's seat and a dent in the fender. It turned out to be a dark briar brown '84 S/E with many more problems than that, but it was only $500, and close enough to a Camaro, so I bought it. It turns out you really do pay for what you get, and I got a lot of problems. Last year the car developed some sort of debilitating drivetrain problem so its been sitting around, but now my 2nd car, my Jeep, is wrecked so the bird might finally see some action again. I hate to see it sitting, but I'm kind of glad I didn't sell it. An automobile is useful when one needs to transport retarded amounts of design equipment from one end of campus to the other.

 

You mean C.R.S.?

 

Well my buddy had a 91 formula t-top 5sp car and I like it alot so I wanted one, well we were on our way home for out shopping at the mall and drove passed a pontiac dealer and there it was sitting out front so we stopped to look turned out to be a 91 gta 5.0 5sp t-top red/black leather, came back next day and it was sold BUT they called me later that afternoon and said it did not go though did I want the car still I said YES hold it for me, so I took off work drove out to to put deposit on it Oh bye the way this was july of 1991 then following day after work me and my buddy when to pick it up Fast foward to 1996 I had some $ problems and loss of job and had to get rid of her so I sold it to my brother and he said he would sell back to me when I get back on my feet Fast forward to 2003 after buy my home and kids and a wife I got my car back.:hail: Thank you ***

 

Well i knew i wanted an f-body. I looked all over town, only to find a lot of beat up cars. I eventually found 2 good ones.

It was between a red 1986 iroc-z or a cream colored 1984 firebird. The iroc had a 305tpi, auto, had black interior, t-tops, 16" alloys. It had 148,000 miles and ran a little rough. It also had a weird electrical problem with the gauges. It also needed some body work, it had a couple dings and was missing the radio antenna.

The bird had a 305 carb, auto, tan interior, hardtop, ac, only had 90k, and was near mint overall. It ran and drove great, was actually alot faster than the camaro.

Both cars were $2500. I originally decided on the Iroc because it looked so much better, but I later decided to get the one in better condition, so I got the bird, ugly as it was, and fixed it up to look a lot better (new paintjob, 16" rims, add spoiler, etc,)

Overall I am very happy with my choice.:lala:

 

I got my car in April of this year. It originally was my boyfriends car and he sold it to his neighbor about 4 years ago. (He was going thru divorce at the time) The understanding was that when she was going to sell the car, that he gets first chance to buy it back. Well she called over the winter and I fell in love with it. It only has 17,000 original miles !!!! Excellent shape but the paint needed to be freshened up since it was sitting for about 2 years under a pine tree. Well, in July we decided it was time to give her a new look. With the intention of originallity, we stayed with the white paint but added blue pearl to the clear. She looks awsome. The only other thing we needed was a new 3" Dynomax catback and new GM hood insulation. In the spring, I plan on getting the original rims reconditioned thru Keystone.

 

Well, I started looking at 85-88 monte carlos on autotrader about a year ago. One day, looking to see any new listings, I accidently clicked on camaros, and Fell in love with what I saw. I looked at plenty of camaros before buying one. To many times did I go look at one with my dad, only for it to be sold before we could make an offer. Well, a few weeks ago I was talking with my mom, she was complaining that I should stop borrowing my dads car. So she told me I needed to look harder for a car. walked to my computer, and found one on autotrader that minute, it was a 91 RS. She says we should go check it out, being at a dealer we could do it right away, that night we went out and bought it for 3500.

It was Beautifull. v8, White exterior that was spotless, red leather interior, I was in love. took it to my dads mechanic, they gave it a clean bill of health, just said that it might need new tires in about a year. After 3 weeks of officially being an F-body owner, I can say, without a doubt, that I'm glad I didnt go any other way.