hi
im new to this site and come from england, iam thinking about selling up my ford mondeo V6, and i want somthing more intresting i will only have a couple of grand to spend so i was thinking about getting a camaro third gen, now i know a fair bit about european cars but nothing about american cars, first up what are the general things i should look at when buying one and do they rust badly, also after doing a littel bit of reasearch the 305ci has got rubbish power output so is the engine very tunable, and are they very reliable cars.
thanks.

 

Interesting, I didn't think "grand" was a word used to describe an amount of money...i thought it was pounds of sterling(GBP or L)...maybe you could clarify that for me, thanks.

 

ok i just meant a £1,000-£2,500.

 

I would make sure that the underbody is in good shape, with litle rust...my car was never driven in the winter but it still has some minor rust underneath which acceptable...if you want a camaro with a 350 engine, then you will need to look for a Z-28/Iroc from 1987-1992. The biggest engine you could have with a 1982-1986 camaro was the 305...were you looking for an automatic shift or manual?

 

Irocs/z28's with the 350(L98) didn't have a manual transmission available.

Check the quaters and the underside for rust, especially where your feet sit. The outside corner there is where they like to rust. Giving there age, I would look for rust as the most important factor since the motor can be rebuilt or replaced. There is a tech data sheet on this site that has what engine options, transmissions, and rear ends were available per year.

Good call selling the Ford and going thirdgen!