Hey all,

New to here. Did some lurking/research; some good info

From what I can gather, the 07 SS has a few issues to look out for (rear tire wear, transmissions etc).

I'm looking at an 07 SS, 104xxx kms (approx 65000 miles) asking $11,900 CDN. Black on black, full load with sunroof.
-One owner
-One collision recorded ($1300 damages)
-tires are balding
-needs brakes
-needs a battery (wont start without a jump). they say its the battery and not the alternator. we'll see about that.

Anywho, what's a fair price on these? They said they'd give me $3k (subject to test drive etc) on my 1999 oldsmobile intrigue as a trade in.

I was hoping to get it at 11K CDN minus my 3K.

I attached a few pics, one thing I noticed was oil under the right valve cover (front of the car), and some oil gathering on the back of the motor (right side of the car under the throttle body).

 

one more thing...

manual shifts from 1-D no problem; down shifts to slow, downshift under acceleration however when shifting from 2 to 1 it isn't as smooth as the other gears.

my olds intrigue can downshift under acceleration fine, but if i downshift from D to 3, or 3 to 2, 2 to 1 without my foot on the gas it aint smooth; clunky almost. that's almost how this car shifts down to 1 but not as bad.

 

honestly sounds like that Imp will be a money pit. I would honestly stay away unless its stil under warranty.

 

Brakes and battery are probably original and if so no problems there. Use that for negotiating. A dealer will put new brakes and battery in to sell the car to you.

Tires potentially could also be original, take a look at the manufacturing impression stamp on the side wall. It should be four digit numerical, and that will tell you the week number and year of manufacture of the tire. If the tires are only a year old and are bald then there is a problem with suspension or with someone roasting the tires all day long. If they are older from 08 or 07 then they are just old and worn out. Again, use that for negotiating.

$1300 for collision is misleading... my car was keyed and the repair cost was $900. So that tells you how jacked up extremely minor body work cost. If it were 4.5k to 5k then I would worry. Chances are it was rear ended and just needed the bumper resprayed.

Oil leak... thats a tougher one. If its just the valve cover gasket then its easy. As long as its not dripping on the driveway I consider it non issue to me.

I'm assuming your Olds has the 3.5 DOHC LX5 in it. If so, that motor is more of a high rever compared to a pushrod motor. It would take some getting used to the different shift feels going from that motor to the LS4. Besides, are you saying you manually shift the transmission from D to 3 and so on during normal driving conditions? If so, leave the manually shifting to the tap shift in the gxp and use your foot to mash the accelerator pedel to half throttle to get the transmission to let go of the gear and go to a lower one.

Offer them 10.5k. After they say no, haggle a little bit untill you settle at 11k with new tires, brakes and battery. Car is listed at 11.9, that means they got it on trade or auction for 6.5k They'll do it if it was sitting on the lot for a few months. Get them to show you the most recent carfax (for free) and it should list when the car was either sold at auction or listed for sale by the dealer. I do all my negotianing over the phone. That way you put the pressure on them and take away the advantage of them trying to make you sweat and make a quick decision. The test drive of your car is BS too. Every car I've traded, I got them to 100% agree to the trade price (pending the car wasnt smashed up) over the phone. Never once did the dealer actually take a look at the car I was trading - even after I handed over the key lol. They only verified the VIN and for that, they sent some Cronie out to do that.

 

warranty is out. there's no 30 day guarantee etc; some dealerships let you take the car overnight with a deposit. I wanted to do this so I could drive it around on my daily routine (i'm a realtor so i do some mileage) and then park it overnight to look for leaks. This dealership does not do this.

 

Reading this, walk away.

 

tires are not factory. i believe factory tires were goodyear rs-a? these have a v tread, 235/50/18 (correct size i think).

they said i could do subject to inspection, and if we discover it is a battery they would replace it. they said they would work a deal on tires and brakes but i said i would rather price the car as is and do the tires/brakes myself.

as for the leak, yeah if its valve cover gaskets not too bad, but the other leak could be the upper intake plenum? i just did my olds and it was a fairly time consuming job.

my olds has the 3800 series II motor. I wouldn't manually shift the car all day, but it should be smooth if i were to do so right?

they wanted me to put a deposit on the car last night pending my subjects (financing or inspection etc) but after he gave me the report showing the 1300 hit i wanted to sleep on it. at first, he gave me a sheet saying no accidents but then i checked the vin and he gave me a sheet from an 07 3.5V6 LS. He then got me the real one and was like "ohhhhkay this one does have one minnnnor dec". not saying he did it on purpose but that was a bit odd. in canada, we have carproof which is like carfax but if its local it will show exactly what each claim was for ie. (1300 sunroof replaced due to vandalism). They did not want to provide this.

I have a feeling they want to move the car so I'm going to take my time with it. He wants me to come in today but I'm going to call and say I'll be back in January after the holiday chaos has subsided. If they sell it, then they sell it.

Thanks for the input guys.

 

yeah. years ago when i bought a thunderbird SC a dealership let me take it over night with a 500 deposit to go do my inspection etc.

i think if they let me do it on this car i'd play...

 

with my grandprix they let us take it for like 3 days to see if we liked it ,with no deposit either

 

Don't walk.... RUN!

 

what part of canada? $11,000 for an 07 is pretty good.

 

Yes they do jack it up.

 

Not liking this dealer, There all there to make money but most all will do these simple repairs like your brakes, tires and battery because they can then sell the car for way morea nd net more profit. It seems to me they dont want to make the repairs because of some reason,

I would forget about ever seeing that car and dont fall in love with that specific car because theres more, everywhere. Since you do real estate you know theres more out there.
If it was a private seller iwould understand more, but it sounds more like a shady dealer. No option to even buy an extended aftermarket warranty through them? Sounds effd

 

there was an option to buy an extended warranty through a third party but i never liked the sound of that; and have heard horror stories of things going wrong that they claim isn't covered under the policy I.E TRANSMISSION GOING BOOM.

these cars just seem to be such a good deal for what you get at the price point they're at.

i'll keep looking, thanks for the feedback!

 

I would rather buy private. There are a couple of ls4 currently for sale here on the boards. One is a monte and a gxp keep checking it out.

 

At $11k the price is pretty good but I'm not liking the dealer from the sounds of it. Factory tires are Goodyear Eagle RS-A's. Usually a good dealer will install new tires and a battery etc if needed, before they list the car for sale. I bought my '06 Monte SS used from a Ford dealership and they put new tires on it prior to putting it on the lot.

There was a black '06-'09 Impala SS on a Ford dealership lot near me recently that sat there for a good 2+ months. I don't know what they were asking but it sat there for a while.

 

Ill sell you my 08 Impala SS 60k miles, no issues at all, no wrecks or anything for 15k