ak47man90

iTrader: (2)

Found a 06 on autotrader for 8,000 was wondering what you guys would do, thanks.

06 SS

It seems a fair deal to me. If it has new(er) brakes and tires and passes an inspection of the suspension, there should be a lot of life left in it. If you intend to drive the wheels off it of course, if it is to be sold in the future, might want to look at something newer with less miles.

JP_GXP

Honestly, no.

Nacho SS

iTrader: (4)

The practical side of me says this, because it can be a decent, powerful DD for cheap.

But at the end of the day, I really don't like FWD V8s...so this is probably my vote.

DP 08 GXP

iTrader: (3)

then why did you buy your car? im not trying to be a dick or sound like an *** just curious.

mike690003

iTrader: (2)

Nacho has a G8 GT, he's just not saying anything yet


If you have ~3k saved after buying the cat, then that can go towards the tranny repair.
And if you can get the car for 7k, then yeah!

BuickRacer

I leased my '07 SS, and if I had to do it over again I would go another route. To anticipate a possible question, at the time I did not want another Dodge Charger R/T in the family and I knew the SS would be used primarily for work, hence the call I made. In any event, $8,000 for a 100K mile car is too steep.

Pauls325

iTrader: (1)

no warrenty to worry about upgrade the trans ans buy a turbo... **** you could buy a nearly new ls4 on ebay for like three grand

Nacho SS

iTrader: (4)

Understandable, to be honest I knew a fraction of what I know now about these cars. I knew it was a FWD V8, I just didn't know it would give me as many problems and headaches as it has given me. I got a smoking deal at the time and I needed a car to drive. I figured it would be a decent looking DD with power. I learned my lesson, not to make your DD your race car.
I wish....I dream of having one. The Pontiac dealerships around me are no more. G8s are getting hard to find around here, I guess people recognized the value and jumped on it.

20SS07

That's why I got mine. Glad I leased though and not purchased. The SS served me well and I have no regrets I liked the car, but it ultimately wasn't what I really wanted. Had too much of an itch to get a truck and it's more practical for me. However I wish I would have extra cash to get a secondary "fun" car.

dewd87

iTrader: (2)

I bought mine with 130k miles 2 months ago for $6500. But it has all the receipts for work done to the car and was driven by a guy from GM and was taken care of. Only thing needed done was 2 front tires put on and an front end alignment. But the transmission was just built so that was a big deciding factor for me.

JP_GXP

Most people don't know what their driving... Just thought "Oh, that looks like a BMW and is on sale!"

Not bashing the G8, bashing people for not knowing what they're driving. My step-dad's debadged, V6 look alike GT.


I'd love a White Hot GXP. There's one I see every once in a while and it is just

Nacho SS

iTrader: (4)

Yeah I have always had a fun car around but its usually in parts in the garage.
Yep, they are very sleeperish. Its so hard to find one around me for some reason though.

CenTexSS

iTrader: (2)

My brother always gets dumbfounded looks after he walks a car that retails for double of the G8's value.

Most notably a new M3 on the highway. And a Lexus ISF off the dealership he works at. Salesman was trying to show the car off, and proceeded to fail lol.

nmp0098

I finally gave up on my '67 Grand Prix after 7 years, got my money back out and spent it on my '07. It was a hog (4000lbs), but I had dreams of putting a diesel in it. Next time I'll go much lighter (even the G8 is too heavy for what I really want) and start with some one elses abandoned project that has all of the bodywork done. For the moment, and I can see where this wouldn't matter in Cali or other warm places, I can pull away from a light right now and accelerate in a turn while a Camaro spins in the snow. IMO, everyone should have a 12 second DD and a totally different caged race car in the 10's or less.

I'm not trying to run with Camaro's or G8s at the strip by the way, I just want to have some fun, suprise some people, and stay ahead of the new crop of hot V6's hitting the streets.

Edit: I do want to point out that the new Camaro and G8 both have traction control and stability control, so they are fine in the snow. Also, my point was that if you are looking for a DD then I think it's a good car, but if E.T. is your goal then look elsewhere. But if you are cool with the car and looking to add power and the body is still clean, you'll get some good years out of the body and you can mod it to death for much cheaper than buying a lower mileage car.

JP_GXP

The week after GM announced the death of Pontiac, my local dealer sold all 10 they had... All but 2 were base models.

What sucks is my step-dad got his right when they came out, he could've got one of the first 888, but he didn't know what the 888 edition was until he signed the paperwork and got home... Plus he was 3 or 4K upside down on his Tundra...

Nacho SS

iTrader: (4)

Had a whole response typed out about my project cars so far that was quality literature then firefox froze/not responding . This time it will be shorter.

I started out with a 69 Nova. Read up on here, found a low mile LQ4. After an intake swap, oil pan swap, and !truck accessories, I dropped that into the Nova with a cheap T56. Found a nice big cam for it, went with some porting on the heads with a Cadillac transplant valvetrain. 12 pt cage. Tubbed. Prostars. Wanted to get an 8.50 NHRA cert on the chassis. Did this completely on a budget, it took forever. Every part was used/reused from something else. Deal hunter to the max. Junkyard dives.

The car was my dream car. But I had to sell it with college coming up. Nobody to drive it/maintain it. Wouldn't put it up in storage. Sold the car as a roller for super cheap and kept the LQ4 and T56. I also sold all my DJ gear at the time (5-6k in gear) and most of my music recording/producing set-up. College rolled around, got a decent scholarship for grades and a sport, so I saved some money.

Tried to make my Monte my racecar. Went with a pretty much unrestricted exhaust, aggressive tune, NANO shot, harder suspension set up....I hated it. For a DD it became very inconvenient. I learned my lesson, sold off my parts locally, and returned the car to a stockish state.

I then wanted another tinker/project car. I was looking for 69 Camaros but even unrestored I got wide eyed. Champagne taste on a beer budget . Out of nowhere, a 1970 Monte dropped into the gunsights, and I got a killer deal off a grandma on a garaged SS454 that had just over 88,000 original miles. After trying the drag car route, I decided I would go absolutely nuts and make a 2 ton boat a road race/pro touring/lateral g car. (Cue Stupidity)

Proceeded to gut the car, take out every single interior piece and sell it off. Sold off every single stock drivetrain piece. Fired up the trusty MIG and built a 12 pt. cage with door bars, custom mini-tubs, front inner fenders, threaded front a-arms, watts-link for the 9in rear...all with the help from a special group of friends. Built some custom sleeved coilovers out of some struts. It was a labor of love, we built parts of out thin air and made them work on the car. We followed no set guidelines at all.

Dropped in the LQ4/T56 and my good friend TIG'd some custom long tubes in exchange for about 10 full details I churned out for him. Surprised me straight up on my bday, I was floored. Fabbed up an x-pipe with some magnaflows and I never had a happier day in my life when that car turned over. Bought a used Baer Big Brake kit for super cheap, found a way to make it work. I went from not knowing my way around a garage to being proficient with so many random tools and understanding every nook and cranny of the car. Tinted the car, found some chrome rolling stock in 19x9.5 and 19x11 for cheap. Mounted some tires, tinted it out. Tin dash, autometer gauges, completely spartan.

Took it to a friend's body shop, did the prep work, deleted all the badges, door handles, key holes and emblems. pneumatic doors but so illegal.

Coilovers on near-death low setting, they since have been adjusted since the pic. Bone jarring ride, smells like raw fuel, lopes hard, scares children, no girl wants within two hundred feet of it.

Rims and Tires have been switched to 17" Kodiak Racing RTs and some Hoosier R35A compounds.

Ended up with this after 2 years.



It's been a wild ride boys. But I love it.

Sorry for the tangent.

LS4SPEED

iTrader: (3)

Damn Nacho, way to ruin a survivor car, certainitly not what I would have done, but oh well not my car. Looks good tho, I do give you much props, that's a lot of work for such a young guy with limited knowledge and resources, way to go, good job!

gixper

That sir is a beautiful car...I found one at the junk yard, but the wife said HELL NO! Too many projects right now..between the Lark and the 14! And no way I'm giving up either one of those. Nothing like doing 9 seconds in the qtr on 2 wheels!

nmp0098

I hate it when that happens.

I love that Monte too. I'm a huge fan of shopping for deals and doing your own work to hot rod a car where you can, so major props.

To the OP, I don't blame anyone who wants a G8, because I do and it already is a legendary car. If you want to get a daily driver now and turn it into a race car eventually, then the G8 is a great candidate. But if you just want to get into the 12s in your daily driver, you can get a used Grand Prix for a lot less right now and build it up for a 12 second 1/4 for cheaper than you can buy a G8 GT and do the same, even with the fire sale and the fact that just turning off torque management does wonders. I know that G8 has a much higher ceiling and RWD > FWD for performance, but my Grand Prix is the most fun to drive FWD car I've run across (the GTPs, turbo Cobalt SS and old vtec Civic SIs also come to mind) and will beat a lot of higher priced imports (which are actually the cars that I want to beat).

By the way, there is a Caprice cop car coming that will hit the police auctions in 3-4 years too. Just because the G8 is going away doesn't mean there won't be more fun cars. There's the V series Caddies, a rumored 1-series killing Cadillac, faster Buicks, and the promise of more SS Chevy's. So you can get the Grand Prix now knowing that cars are going to keep getting better anyway and even though the G8 seems like the pinnacle, one day G8 owners are going to wish they had a newer better car too.

As an aside, with my '67 I ran into a wrist pin that had gouged the cylinder wall and a cracked block, and then a thief who stole my Edelbrock Performer intake and carb (and some tools, including all of my sockets and wrenches) after I got a new core. Then the car just sat for the last 6 years in my Mom's driveway while I went to grad school, got married and bought a house. I sold all of my Pontiac V8 parts, and the only old school V8 stuff I have left is my 351 Cleveland. I'm starting with my 12 second daily driver (cause gas is still cheap and will be for a while and I want to drive it now), and I'll worry about my race car later.