Speedmonster185

iTrader: (1)

I have a '00 Trans Am that I don't want to be driving this winter. I've been looking around for cheap cars/trucks to get that I can drive around in. I live in Indiana so I don't have much in the way of a whole lot of snow or hills or anything, I just don't want to be driving my good car around in it when there is some. I was over at my girlfriend's apartment the other day and I looked across the parking lot and saw an older camaro for sale. I walked over and took a look. It was an 89 RS with the 5.0 in it. It says $600. Today I saw the guy start it and drive it over to his truck, which needed jump starting. The car started up just fine and drove over, sounded pretty good and didn't sputter or anything, so I went over to talk to the guy. This car isn't pretty by any means, but I don't need it to be, just get me around. The paint isn't so great looking and it has one moderate sized dent(maybe 5 inches in diameter) on the front edge of the pass. side wheel well. He had the hood open to jump start his truck so i got a look inside there. He said he doesn't think that its running on all cylinders right now, but it does run good. He said he thinks maybe a spark plug wire melted or something? But anyway, as I was standing there I could hear a ticking noise that sounded just like when one of my spark plug wires in my TA got unplugged when it was running after we installed my LT's, so I think it is something to do with the sparkplug. Anyway, what do you think? Should I get it? I know its not is good condition, but its really cheap and thats what I was looking for. All I need it to do is get me from place to place, and no driving on the highway. Plus I like the idea of it being a camaro for some reason . Do you think it's worth getting and trying to fix? It still runs just fine anyway, just not right. Thanks

Gold Z

iTrader: (3)

A lot of us have beaters for work cars so there is no shame in that. For $600 I don't know how you could go wrong. Don't forget to check with your insurance agent first to prevent any surprises there.

Speedmonster185

iTrader: (1)

Ok, thanks. Any ideas about that cylinder? Thats my biggest worry, that it might be something bigger than just a plug or wire gone bad somehow.

I forgot to say that the odometer isn't working anymore so I have no idea how many miles it has on it. I would guess a lot. Not that I really care, thats all I can get with what I'm willing to spend.

Edit: Oh yeah, and it's a hardtop, no t-tops, which is actually nice cause at least then I don't have to worry about them leaking cause its so old.

DubyaSsixTA

iTrader: (1)

Definitely get it. Just be sure to do the basic tuneup (fluids/plugs/wires, etc...). I'd also look for a temp. sensor to kick the fans on at 200 degrees instead of 230ish (factory setting for these older V8 models). $600 is a deal for that thing if it's running. My beater in the sig has been great the past few months and has been well worth it keeping the T/A resting.

Speedmonster185

iTrader: (1)

Ok, a couple more questions. I went over there to take a closer look at it and tried to talk to the guy, but he wasn't home(his phone isn't working right now either), and there were a couple things that would need fixing. A few that would need to be fixed for sure and a few that would just because they are annoyances.

The main thing is the steering wheel is very loose. Dangerous maybe even. It looks to me like someone put a late 80's or early 90's chevy truck steering wheel in there, and maybe they just didn't do a good job, but the wheel is sitting about a half an inch off of the end of the steering column, and has that much play in it. The wheel will actually tilt left or right or up and down until the edge of the wheel touches the top of the steering column, which means the outside edge of the steering wheel will move in any direction about 1-2 inches. It also has some play turning left to right, but that might just be because the car was off, I'm not sure. Anyway, it seems dangerous even to drive it with the steering wheel like that, is it easy to fix? Is there just something I need to tighten down?

And a couple other things that would just be annoying but don't need absolutely to be fixed are the door handles on the outside and the armrests on the door on the inside. The handles are really loose and wiggly. lol. The door still works but it feels really flimsy and I don't know how much longer I would trust those handles to hold them shut. Then the armrests on the inside of the door are actually coming off. Like falling off. I puched down a little on one of them and it made a little bit of a ripping sound and started to go down a little more. How hard would it be to fix those things?

So, how hard do you think it would be to fix that stuff, or how expensive would it be if I don't do it? Thanks for all the help!

Speedmonster185

iTrader: (1)

Oh and the odometer said about 60000, so it was probably at like 160,000 or 260,000 when it stopped working, but I don't even know when it stopped working, so it doesn't really matter.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

See my reply in the Midwest section.

Summary: I think you could do better. $600 is cheap, but once you start fixing stuff it'll cost you a lot more than just the inital buy-in price. Plus, for a specific winter/snow car, an F-body is just not the best choice.