coblertyler

I saw this car for sale in central Mo and think its a good deal, however I tend to get blinders on when I buy Camaro's, as my last one (92 RS) was rusted beyond beyond repair and had to junk the car. This one is a 2000 Camaro z28 Convertible, 117k miles, $5400. Appears to be in decent shape. Asked the seller if it had rust on the car, and he said there was no rust and was a solid car, which leaves me skeptical. Looking for advice on the car and what to look for when I look at it.

ULTIMATEORANGESS

iTrader: (4)

i dont like the color or convertibles. hazed headlights leads to believe this car has been left outside. not the worst thing im just saying.


overall it looks solid but you need to look it over closely and if you can bring someone that has experience with these cars.

Mean87SS

iTrader: (21)

Make sure it drives OK... I like drop tops.

murphinator

iTrader: (2)

undercairrage is where rust will be on these cars since the fenders are plastic and doors fiberglass. Look at the floor pan seams and the rear subframe especially where it contacts the floor pans. Lower radiator support is another area that commonly rusts out , and the seams around the strut towers under the hood , these are all pretty easy areas to see.

A lot of convertibles are put up for the winter months - at least by the original owner.... if you see a lot of gray paint/primer looking metal on floors /rear subframe , rear bumper supports etc... without any signs of rust it may be no or few winters.

Verts can be hard to sell as they are heavy and the top is a wear item , rips , rear windows cracking ,hazing , coming unsewn ,etc... look at the top closely . Also you need a roll bar installed if your ever going to take it to the track as even a stock LS1 Z28 should have no issue running faster than the 13.99 rolltop rule for a ragtop

I would get under the car , as well as look down into the corner around the headlight and look for damage on the passenger side - I see the rust spot on the upper radiator support right in the area where it would bend in an accident , when it bends it breaks the paint then rusts like that (underhood photo)

Also it has no plates on it so be careful if it has never been registered in the sellers name that you can get proper paperwork to buy it , title in his name , no lein holder etc.... while your at it check the title to make sure it doesn't say salvage or have any issues with an innacurate odometer.

Overall the car looks pretty good and the strut towers don't look rusty in the area I usually see it , the miles if accurate are on the low side and in 16 years someone could surely log 117k while keeping a car off the road during crappy weather , I bought a no winters 98z 3 years ago with 131k at the time.

What state are you and the car in ? you may be able to find someone in your local forum section that could put an eyeball to it for you.

coblertyler

I live in Hudson IL, the car is for sale Moberly, Mo ... here is the add: http://columbiamo.craigslist.org/cto/5440602557.html

murphinator

iTrader: (2)

the drivers side seatbelt guide is missing , the belt will chafe your neck until you get that fixed. Look through the regional sections and find the one that includes where that car is located and see if anybody is close enough to check it out for you since you said in your first post you have issues being subjective when buying a car.

At a minimum try to buy it for less , I like to say its worth what your asking but this is what I can afford to give you right now , nobody likes to be told its only worth "X" , remind him its winter and its a ragtop , in a few months convertible buyers come out of the woodwork so you need to be ahead of them if it ends up worth buying.

AronZ28

iTrader: (2)

Its been driven in the winter. Easy way to tell is the bolts on the radiator support by the air cleaner will be rusty. I wouldn't buy it until I had it on a lift and looked under it real good. $5400 might be a decent price provided it doesn't have a ton of rust underneath.

FYI I paid $8000 a few years ago for a 1998 Z28 rag top with 93k miles on it. 2 adult owners, never wrecked, never driven in snow, 6 speed manual, perfect top, great paint. It was a lot cleaner than that car in the pics.

Firebrian

$5400 is not bad for any serviceable LS-1. I actually like A4 convertibles and this color blue, others will too. Imo convertibles are worth more than hardtops/TTops. Not everyone wants a Z28 or Trans Am to race it. It really comes down to how much money you'll need to put into it. It's good that it has fresh tires, ensure they are a quality set with a good rating. If you want to push performance you'd probably prefer a soft tire compound seen on the V, W, and Z rated tires. Lower rated, all season tires would be fine if you plan to just cruise around. My '98 Z28 came from the factory with T rated (118 mph) tires and hence the speed limiter was set to 115 mph from the factory.

You can probably find a clean, 50K mile A4 vert for around $9K-$10K. In my mind that would be a better value than a 120K mile car for $5K-$6K. Number of owners, documented history and maintenance, etc also effect the value. This car has enough surface rust in the engine bay to suggest it saw plenty of cold, wet weather, maybe even snow/slush/salt. A garaged car that was driven mainly in warmer and dry weather wouldn't show that stuff. The quarter panels on these cars are metal so check those as well (magnet on the sides and wheel lips). The top on this car looks clean and unstained. It's probably been changed out already. Make sure it was done properly. Looks fairly tight in the photos. I don't think you could get SLP chrome wheels on a Z28 so these must have been added, a slight plus. In any case they are probably worth more than the plane Jane painted ones that a Z28 would normally come with. The factory air lid is still in place, a sign the car has probably not been modified. Muffler delete is an odd one. Are the CATs still there? Will the tinted windows be in spec? Seats don't appear ripped up which would be out of the norm for this many miles. The dash doesn't looked cracked either.

There are numerous posts over the past year in the "What's it Worth" section that will give you all you need to know about the good and the bad of each year, and each model. RPMWS6 has some classic "info" threads you must read. The good thing about a soft top is that you don't have to worry about the issue of roof paint bubbling as seen on all 1999-2002 hard top and TTop models. At 120K miles there is plenty of stuff that could be worn out. I took my '98 A4 Z28 hardtop to 115K miles in 2009 and other than some rattles in the suspension it had been pretty much trouble free. That car would be worth $4K today. If this car has nothing that doesn't work, feels tight, runs great, paint looks nice, then it's possibly a decent value. My local dealer had a 2000 Z28 M6 vert with 42K miles back in 2014. They were asking $12,500. That car was worth around $10-$11K imo. M6's bring about 8-12% more.

Ask the seller what flaws the car has. If they can't name anything, move along. Literally, they should be able to rattle off a couple dozen items if they have any eye for details. It's a 4 hr trip so you don't want to waste your time. There are plenty of cars in the Illinois/mid-west region. I've taken my share of 4-8 hour boondoggles to look at cars "needing nothing" only to find out the seller was dreaming or hallucinating. I had one guy tell me a 1965 Dodge Convertible was fully restored to #1 condition so that his daughter could drive it to college. That heap turned out to be a #4 condition rust bucket that didn't have a single body panel or piece of trim that wasn't heavily rusted or pitted. The top was ripped to shreds leaving the car open to the elements. I couldn't find a single part on the car that didn't need restoration. The only good thing was that it was only a 90 minute trip for me.

z28SSilvest

The rust under the hood would make me a bit worried.


Also, not a huge fan of convertibles (unless you put a roll bar in there then they look kinda badass).

senicalj4579

iTrader: (41)

Just looking at the engine bay I would assume its been neglected. It looks like hell. I hate verts but that's me. I would run away.

Nathan C

Since it has no rear plate, I would be curious when it was driven last.

z28SSilvest

I think OP has taken our advice and abandoned the thread altogether.