awm556

iTrader: (1)

Mondy I will be purchasing 1 of 2 cars. Choices are.....
1. 2000 Z28, loaded and in excellent condition, 33k miles. This car is in perfect shape, but it is Pewter, not crazy about that.
2. 2000 Z28 SS, loaded, awesome red machine. What cautions me with this one is that is has 70k miles, and the seats are in really bad shape, cracked, torn, and with a cig. burn. Also feels a bit abused.

Cars are close in price, my real question is, is the SS that much better of a car than the standard Z28 to look past the interior flaws and "raced" feeling? What is the normal "life expectancy" for a LS1, is 70k miles anywhere near the end?

Or should I go for flawless Pewter, car. Again, the only thing wrong with the Z28 is the color!

RONIN LSX

iTrader: (44)

I would go for the Red SS if I were you. It is easy to live with messed up seat or even change them out, however, it is not cheap or easy to repaint a car to the colour you would prefer. As for the year/mileage, 70K on an 11 year old car is not too bad in and of itself, but yeah, 33K is even better. I would look at it this way... 70K ain't **** for the LS1, it's the colour you like and sooner or later you will be modding to your liking so that 70K and ripped seat, in the end, won't be ****.

As for the difference between an Z28 and Z28/SS, I'm not sure, but I'm sure the other guys will be happy to address that for ya.

Good luck with your decision Bro!

Prorac1

iTrader: (4)

FWIW, My 97 SS had 48,000 miles on it and was WELL taken care of when I got it, and the driverside leather seat had "large driver disorder". Ive seen this in many chevrolet products from the 90s. Including F bodys, corvettes, and trucks. If you pull the cover off the seat and bring it in to an upholstery shop it isnt real expensive to fix. BTW, I like red SS's, lol. So my opinion my be skeweed, lol. Good luck on your decision. Eric L

NW-99SS

iTrader: (6)

Differences are mostly appearance. SS gets hood, spoiler, and 17" factory rims w/275 rubber. Also, slightly different springs, swaybars, shocks, but nothing to write home about. No engine/transmission differences.

All depends on your plans for the car...do you just want to drive it, or will you end up like the rest of us who spend all our pennies on the next mod? If you plan on engine, transmission and suspension mods, go for the color you like. If you just want to drive a stock (or close to stock f-body), go for the Z28.

Just my $0.02

T-Top

Dude I would not even consider a car that has been driven hard with twice the miles of a well taken care of car. Color is something that I can get over really quick, you learn to love the car that you have. The best thing you can do is to purchase a car that is in good shape, even if you are going to mod it- would you rather spend the money on mods or spend the money on crap that is breaking because it has been dogged? Pewter z28 for the win, all the way, would not consider a car with twice the miles for the same price. Just my .02, and the z28 and SS do not have many differences. There is a write up on here somewhere with all of the info.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

Absolutely not! The SS package is nothing really, the only thing that makes a significant difference in how the two cars perform is the better handling of the 17x9 SS wheels/tires vs. the smaller wheels of the Z28. But a wheel swap is a simple thing.

The other SS items barely even count as marginal improvements in terms of performance (2mm larger front sway bar, .25" larger tail pipes, and a hood that *might* provide a very slight performance increase above 100mph). What you are paying for with an SS is really an appearance package, and whether or not it's worth it is completely subjective.

Having said that, the fact that the SS you found is higher miles and seems to feel a bit beat, but is the same price as a a much better condition Z28, well to me the choice would be clear....go for the Z28. You can always add a hood and spoiler later if you really like those items enough.

I've got a pewter car as well, and while it's not my most favorite color, it's not my least favorite either. Color can be a big thing though, so you'll have to decide if you can be happy with the color before making a move, because unlike wheels or a hood, doing a complete and proper color change is a big and expensive deal.

bestlude

iTrader: (4)

+1

If you are going to be modding, go for the Z28..

01 CamaroSS SLP

if you can live with the color go for the z28. Like RPM said you can always add the hood n stuff later.

TransAmWS.6

I prefer SS's over Z28's all day, but by the way you put it the SS you're looking at sounds kind of dogged out, so I would pass on it. I would go for the Z28 if you can deal with the color, in my opinion, Pewter is nice looking when it's real clean. But, if you truly can't deal with it, you might want to wait longer and find a nicer one to buy instead, because I wouldn't mess with that SS.

parks450

iTrader: (17)

Id go pewter.....they look pretty good with something like a torque thrust. Plusbit has less than half the mileage and prolly less abuse. You dont see many pewter camaros but I see red ones all over. Pewter diesnt flow on many cars but on a ws6 and camaros they look pretty good with the rught set of wheels. A pewter ws6 looks amazing. For me I always look for a low mileage one that has been well taken care of. Color...**** if it the kind of car I want the right color is just a bonus.

Zlow28

iTrader: (11)

+1 on pewter. Im not a fan of that color either, but ive seen some really nice ones here. LS1 camaros can be made to look real nice regardless of color.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

Thing is, the LS1 SSs are really nothing special at all (mechanically) and, for the most part, just a matter of a few cosmetic items. You can make a really nice Z28 into an SS (if that's your thing) much more easily than you can make a beat up, worn out SS into a really nice car. Restoration is tough, but adding a hood/spoiler/wheels is much easier.

I know there are purists that want a "real" SS, but I can't see paying the same price for a more beat up car just because it's an SS when being an SS doesn't really mean anything but a hood/spoiler/wheels. It would be different if the SSs had come with something meaningful, like a complete LS6 engine or something (which is how it should have been, IMO).

Just my opinion.

Camaro_94

iTrader: (5)

Get the Z28. Essentially the same car at the end of the day, except it's in a lot better condition and has half the miles.

RONIN LSX

iTrader: (44)

1st question is... can you live with the pewter? If so then get it!
2nd question is... will you be modding the car?

If answer 1 & 2 are NO and YES the get the red SS! 70K ain't **** for a LS1 and it will more than last you, by the time you get your **** together to mod it. To have it painted (properly) from pewter to red is going to cost you more than you'll like.

Now I'm just going off the fact that it seems as if you prefer red over pewter, but like I said and other have said, if you can live with pewter then YES, go with that.

RONIN LSX

iTrader: (44)

BTW - I'm not speaking out of turn, I practice what I preach I guess you can say....

When I was looking for my Trans Am Vert, I found a few that were in great condition, one that needed work and even one that was slightly modded, guess which one I bought... the one that needed some work. Why...!? because it was black!

It had issues with the A4 (had no 3/4) the fender was cracked, DR seat was trashed, dash was cracked (but aren't they all) and had like 120K on the clock... but I didn't care because all that **** was going to get modded or fixed sooner or later. I'd rather put money into my engine than shell out $3K+ to turn a red or blue or white car into the black car I wanted, then on top of that the money to mod it... **** THAT!

If I could have lived with a red T/A, I would have picked up the modded one, but I knew I would have hated myself down the road for buying the red and I knew sooner or later I would be pulling that 120K LS and popping in what I wanted. And when it came time to pain it, instead of a $3K paint job, I'm just paying for a cost effective black.


The only thing that suck is it's an auto, and I wanted a 6 speed, but easy fix.... I bought a complete swap.

sundaydriver

When Camaro shopping I bought the car that was the most well taken care of car I could find. It was Pewter which is not my favorite color, but at least it wasn't red.

murphinator

iTrader: (2)

condition over miles always... if it has been taken care of miles arent real important and personally I prefer a car with a lot of highway miles because they are a good value and generally nicer than cars with 1/4 the miles around town driving , no stop & go crap , no parking lot dings , not as many entries and exits to wear out the edge of the drivers seat , not as many potholes etc.. to wear out suspension, etc..

my pewter car literally passes for a super low miles car , people see its condition in & out and say that cant have many miles on it - guesses are usually under 50k.... then I get to see the shock when they find out it has 230,000 miles on it , the drivers seat isnt even worn.

my daily driver supercharged regal GS gets the same type of compliments with 217,000 miles.

combine higher miles with worse condition why would you unless you happened to have a parts car with everything it needed and it was a deal or something along those lines.

pewter stays clean looking with very little effort like silver does and it will grow on you

blk/slvr02ss

iTrader: (21)

Pewter Z-28 !!!

staleycornell

iTrader: (6)

ummmm....both

TransAmWS.6

Completely agreed and understood. Like I said, I'm one of those guys who prefers a nice, true SS car as opposed to a Z28 or base T/A, the "exclusive factor" I guess is appealing to me. However, in this guy's situation the Z28 is a much, much better deal. There's nothing special enough about the SS where I would take one with higher miles in rougher condition over a clean lower mileage Z28. But, with all things equal or close to being equal, I have to choose the SS.