CmaroNEgen

Hey everyone, I am in the army currently and am thinking about picking an LS1 F-Bod in the fall, not this upcomming fall but next and wouldnt mind becomming a bit more educated on them before I buy. I am only waiting til then because I am in the middle of paying off a small loan right now on a snowmobile, I have about $1000 left on the loan, I need what ever credit I can get before my purchase of one... I plan on selling my snowmobile and using the $3k I get from that toward a down payment on an LS1 F-Bod, the fall after upcomming I will be fresh out of AIT and will have about $5,000 to put down on a camaro. I was initially thinking about picking up a 96 Cobra for around $10k but I was told to go with an LS1-F and that it would eat up a 96 cobra. I am in search of naturally aspirated power, I am not into dumpin $20k into a rice burner to achieve the HP and tourque that the Camaro etc etc already offer, and I dont know about you but a nice borla exhaust sounds a hell of alot better then a APEXi system, I mean they sound like HUGE BUMBLE BEEs. I do have some concerns however, one being, can I pick up an F-Bod for $12k or less ??? I am in the market for a vert, Ttop as my prefference or just a standard hardtop I just like the top being open and blasting. I am in the army and I hear the insurance is discounted alot but even that, I hear a camaro is more expensive to insure then a vette, but I also hear a cobra is more expensive to insure then an F-Bod LS1. I also would like to know what to stay away from, what to be careful of, what to keep watch of, what to look for etc etc when buying an LS1 F-Bod, I want the best car as possible and educating myself on one would be the best thing. I am no amatuer when it comes to cars but this one I could use alot more info on.

ActionJack

Welcome to the board and good luck shopping for an LS1 when you can. I am sure you will get allot of info from the board and may even find a referral for a nice LS1 to buy.

Sheomet

Welcome to the site. You should be able to find an older LS1 for less than 12K if you look, check the vehicle classifieds forum, lots of cars for sale in there, also check AutoTrader.com. As far as which one to get, you should know that they all perform about the same, and since you would be getting an older one it would have the LS1 intake (98-00) which is easily upgraded to the LS6 intake. And what kind of snowmobile do you have, I love to snowmobile and I have a Viper. I do lot's of riding in Maine because I go to UMaine. I only did 1,000 miles this year because of the crappy winter, last year I did almost 3,000 in comparision.

MikeG

iTrader: (33)

You should definitely be able to find a 98-99 LS1 car for 10-12k. I picked mine up for 11k with 49,000 miles. Definitely test drive as many as you can, and listen for odd sounds coming from the drivetrain/rearend. Listen to the engine run, make sure its not ticking or knocking, etc. Also run a CARFAX on cars you're looking at.

SSniperTACP

I'm not sure if your in a big military town, being in Maine probably not, but stay away from the rinky dink "We finance E-1 and up" car dealerships. They're only out to take Joe's money. Your right in doing your homework about the F-bods, good on you. This is a good website to constantly check out for info. Before I got mine, I was constantly asking strangers who had an F-body how they liked them and how they ran. I quickly found out that they all loved to talk about their cars A LOT and were quite helpful. After buying mine, I see why. What I'm trying to say is, if you see an F-body at the gas station or parking lot somewhere, ask them about it....you'd be suprised just how much you'll learn. Also, dude what kind of MOS did you pick that your AIT is going to last until next Fall??? Either your delayed enlistment or the army's gonna make you a doctor! Either way, when you deploy, and you will deploy, make arangements for storage of your car, DO NOT put it in the mass storage area where everybody else parks. It will get F'd up, like when my buddy's new silverado got ran into by a forklift in one of those places. Whatever the case, good luck with your shopping, hope you find a bitchin car sooner than later.

CmaroNEgen

Yes, well my MOS is 91D, I am an operating room technician, I am currently a senior in high school... I am going to be 19 in Feb, but I figured I would do some planning ahead... I want to develope a real love for these cars because I am definately one to change my mind alot, I have never driven an LS1 F-Bod before, as far as Camaros I have driven a 1968 Camaro 350, it wasnt in perfect shape by far, the guy wanted $16,500.00 for it, and I could definately see something so much nicer for the same price somewhere else. I would NEVER, go to one of those finance anyone dealers, or a dealer for that matter, I would go with a private sale z28 because though I would want an SS, I simply cant afford it. Initially I looked into alread modified rice-burners etc etc, that fast n furious bulls_it, come to find out the only thing they had in common with the two words fast and furious was FURIOUS, what you will be when you find out you spent $15k on some slow as_ civic SI that puts our 160Hp stock, OMG 160 TO THE WHEELS YIKES IM SCARED OF THAT POWER hah. I wanted a car that I didnt have to put money into for it to be bada__ and this is DEF it, and at a sweet price. I just know that a bone stock z28 isnt going to be perfect for me, I wouldnt mind putting some chrome z06 rims on it, or the gunmetal z06 rims, do alot of people do that??? is it respectfull because I think it looks cool, but I also wouldnt mind NOT having cheap chevy rims on my car, and putting some real nice ones. all in all the car will be pretty much stock, I am not going to do a thing to the interior besides put in a system probobly, I want leather, no cloth what so ever for me, I hate GM cloth. I would have to go with a 98 probobly to be friendly on the price, which is fine, I want a convertible or Ttop, I would love that, PLUS !!! you can hear the exhaust alottt better id think haha, it would be bone stock besides a killer exhast system, I wish I knew what to get for that though, could someone provide me with info on the perfect set up for that? I hear stay away from flowmaster... I want the nastiest most intimidating sound, any HP that it can give me, with a real nice quality product... and if you could give me a list of some basic mods for the car, under $1000 to pick it up a bit, would it be a LS6 intake, exhaust system and headers??? I hear the LS1 is rated at 305hp but dynos at like 318.5 stock, is this true??? please help haha. the questions may be dumb but I would rather be dumb and become smart, then act smart and be dumb in the long run because i spent money poorly

Joker

I would strongly recommend that you buy one from someone on the board who is looking to sell, at least you know that it belonged to someone who is an enthusiast, someone who cared about their ride (most likely anyway) and took care of it.

I personally know of several z28s both M6 and A4 with decent miles on them for $10,000 to $15,000, from 1999 to 2001, that would provide a decent loan of about 36 months for a decent interest rate depending on your credit.

If you go the dealer route, DO NOT purchase any warranty from a dealer, these are designed with a several hundred percent markup and provide "backend" profit for the dealer. It is not uncommon for a $750.00 extended warranty to cost the dealer about $75.00

Car dealers/salesman are NOT your friend, ever, no matter what they say. If their lips ae moving, they are lying to you, end of story.Period. They are trying to sell a car and are very good at it, they do it every day for a living, most people buy once every four years on average and suck at it.

Also, never, ever let a dealer set up your financing, they add interest points for themslves and you pay extra for their profit for doing NOTHING. Always go to you bank or credit union, let them know what you are going to do, and have the financing set up in advance, then go shopping.

The only exception to this would be when there is an interest rate special that beats what you can get (usually on new cars only), and these dealers will be very quick to tell you "oh but you didn't qualify for that rate", thats when you say no thanks and walk away.

A dealer tried that crap with me, saying I didn't qualify for the 0 percent interest rate because of my credit saying I had to pay like 14 percent, I shared with him that I have perfect credit, have never missed a payment in my life, and could finance anything he could come up with and if he didn't cough up the 0 percent I was walking out and to another dealer...amazingly he was able to get the rate by "making a phone call", I still told him to get bent and went to Scoggin Dickey Chevy and had the exact car I wanted dealer traded across town, got the 0 percent, and no hassle at all, the deal was done in less than 45 minutes. I drove back over through the other chevy dealers lot and gave him the finger.

No car is worth taking a screwing on. Diligence is your best friend, and by the time you get back, you may even be able line up an SS or ws6 if you are really lucky, the Z28 will be no problem at all, you can find a real nice one with some nice mods already done, of course half the fun is doing the mods yourself!

I would begin putting as much money as you can in a mutual fund, these average about 8 to 12 percent depending upon the type of fund it is, and monthly payments to yourself in one of these compounding interest can literally pay for your ride in full and then some. ( I bought a classic 1969 vette with a 427/435hp this way, took three years of 300 per month in a Vanguard Index fund compounding at an average of 11% yearly) Also, make sure you take advantage of the GI bill, the college education you get will be priceless.......

The LS1 is an amazing engine that will put out loads of power just in its stock form and responds extremely well to modifications. Mine hauls *** and eats ricers with no prob. It takes very little to get these cars in the 12 second quarter miles (and the baddest cars from the sixties were lucky to get into the 13's, old muscle cars are always faster in the memories of many people...)

Also, look up the car throught the insurance agency or carfax for accident history, body shops are better than ever these days, and a car that was nearly totaled could be brought back to lok like new with no signs at all to the average person. As you will have learned in the military, cover your ***. And thank you for your service to our country.

Sheomet

Basic mods to do are the LS6/LSX intake for a 98-00, any lid, catback exhaust or true duals, long tube headers, etc. Then you can do handling mods, better rearend, slicks, gears, converter if you have an auto, heads and cam, nitrous, the mods list for these cars can be endless. If you do a search you will come up with enough info to boggle your mind.

CmaroNEgen

camarols1... I am looking to spend about $4k on a sled for next season, I am looking intoa 2000 Polaris XCSP 600, they haul and put out about 118HP stock and the gen 2 chassis is unreal for handling, they say better then the edge chassis because the edge has alot of skilift... I have no credit right now, zero, it isnt bad it just isnt there... therefor in the fall it would be virtually impossible to pick an LS1 z28 up with no credit and only $2500 to put down so what I am going to do, I am going to use my $2500 cash that I have from basic this summer, and go into a credit union and apply for a $4000 loan for a sled using my $2500 cash to put down at my credit union, so the loan is acutally $1500 but without that amount down I wouldnt get it ( feel free to correct me if getting the $4000 loan with $2500 down is wishful thinking, I just want to be able to ride and build some credit... kill two birds with one bullet haha ), and then I will ride it for the season and love it to death, I love riding SO much, its going to be hard to give it up. but I will live out the year without a car ( next school year ) unless I grade early and am able to go to AIT school before summer, then the loan will be paid off and I will have another $2500 at leaste for 10 weeks at AIT. ( hopefuly ill get to go before summer ). What I plan on doing is selling my sled for $3000, and then using the other $2500 that I get from AIT while I am away ( considering we dont need to pay for anything ) and then I am hoping to have $5000-5500 to put down on an LS1 z28... I want to stay under $14,000 for the car, i will have had that snowmobile loan payed off, it will be a $4000 loan with $2500 put down, and me paying the rest, I will have whatever credit that gives me plus $5,000 down to put on an LS1, do you think I would have a problem with doing that??? getting the loan with whatever little amount of credit that snowmobile loan gave me and five thousand dollars down??? on a $12-14,000 Camaro??? Please bring me back to earth if I am dreaming haha. and yes I certainly would use this board as the first place to buy my LS1, I would be able to find out anything I wanted from the enth. owner and chances are it will already have some things done to it... I want to keep my camaro simple but baddd. I would have it bone stock cept for a new grill to replace that plastic one, an SS hood... nasty sounding exhaust system ( this is really key ) it is sooooo OMG SO! nice to have a badass sounding car, and to have the nuts under the hood ( no pun intended hah ) to back it up is very nice... though I would like a classic, they just are not as fast, theyre beautiful but not as fast as people believe them to be. is there a classifieds thread in the forums here??? I would be happy with the 305HP-318HP the stock z28 puts out, but I wouldnt mind having a bit more, how would I go about that without spending an *** load of cash or using spray???

CmaroNEgen

Oh and another thing, would you reccomend anything else besides engine mods??? I wouldnt want to have a car that is all over the road with the rear breaking loose evertime I give it gas...I wont be getting an A4, def an M6 LS1, I mean if I dont need it then I dont want it but whatever mods you could recommend that are still friendly to my wallet would be great, what do the 3:73 gears do for you, is that something I should invest in??? and how do you feel about LS1 wearing z06 rims ??? is that tacky or trashy, should I do that or go aftermarket for the wheels.

SSTAR

invest in the search feature on this forum. it will be your best friend. you can search all about whatever mods you're thinking about, and even those you dont know about yet. there are TONS of threads about "what mods should i do next??", etc, etc... and if you'll take a look around you'll notice tons of f-bods w/Z06 and aftermarket wheels..... take your pick. its all your opinion, of course, whether they look trashy or not. biggest tip i can give to any n00b------READ.