chris111179

Hello all, I am looking at buying my first LS1 powered car, the car I am looking at buying is a 2001 Trans Am Convertible. The car has 182K and the dealers asking 6k. It has new tires and is extremely clean. Does this sound like bad price? Also how much life does the LS1 still have in it? I'm looking at making this car a street/strip car. I was thinking Intake, Cam, Tune, Exhaust, Suspension upgrades, along with beefing up the transmission and drive train. Any ideas on how I can get maybe 300-350RWHP out of this car? or more that doesn't effect reliability very bad. This is a great forum I have been lurking for a while.

98CayenneT/A

I personally would not pay that much for a 182,000mi convertible, for a couple thousand more you can get a pretty clean less than 100,000 mi. t-top car. And the ls1 trans am is 300+ whp stock

chris111179

Well I sound like a complete idiot, thanks for the info. You guys on this forum rock.

Bocefus

iTrader: (17)

Yeah, no way would I pay that much for a 182,000 car. You could probably find one with half that many miles for that kind of money if you look around.

madmike9396

iTrader: (29)

Exactly what he said. take your time and look around. you can find a better deal

ULTIMATEORANGESS

iTrader: (4)

asking price is too high and so is that mileage.

id keep looking.

welcome to this site.

98CayenneT/A

Do a quick auto trader search and put any distance for search distance and put any mileage and that will give you a pretty good idea of what ya can get in general

chris111179

Ok sounds good! I'll get on it asap, price did seem a little high to me.

madmike9396

iTrader: (29)

where are you located ?

chris111179

New Hampshire.

ULTIMATEORANGESS

iTrader: (4)

was that dealer offering any type of warranty?

just wondering because thats a high asking price.

murphinator

iTrader: (2)

the asking price sounds high for the miles as others are saying , it should be less due to miles even if its exceptional. I have had real good luck with high miles cars including my 6 speed car (front & center in sig pic below) it is currently sitting at 239,000 miles ,engine/trans/rear are all unopened originals and the car is way nicer than my other 2 cars , highway miles are way easier on a car so don't dismiss high miles cars only you are seeing the actual car here , maybe you have looked at other lower miles cars and this one is simply much nicer. But do get the price dropped to a more realistic one.

Have you seen the silver 6 speed z on c6 chrome wheels listed on Maine CL right now ? recent trans , NC car looks real clean Ive watched the price keep dropping he is at $3500 right now 217,000 miles. If your going to mod it buy a super clean high miles car so its nice and your in it for short money and have plenty leftover to replace/rebuild the drivetrain with modded items.

Also the convertible is heavier so takes more money in mods to get same results as hardtop not to mention needs at least a rollbar to race at the track as soon as you hit 13.49 which wont take much effort , sticky tires should be right there stock, where your looking to race it look for hardtop car, part of the premium the seller is asking is for the convertible.

Happy hunting.

chris111179

I talked with the owner, all the miles were highway, the car already has a boalor exhaust, intake and a roll bar. Brand new tires and new chrome rims. My mom knows the owner of the dealership because shes a CFO at a gm dealership. So I have some wiggle room in the price. Does the exhaust, intake, tires, rims, and roll bar add a considerable price? Im not to familiar with sports cars.

madmike9396

iTrader: (29)

offer him 4k

Bocefus

iTrader: (17)

Mods typically do not add value to a car. New tires are a good thing though. Check it very carefully for rust, especially in the undercarriage, along wheel whells since its a rust belt car. $3500-4,000 would be a more realistic price for that car. Keep looking if they don't want to come down to that level. Realistically, as a typical dealership trade-in they probably have 1-2 grand if that into it. Why would someone put new tires and wheels on a car then just dump it at a dealership? It might have a hidden issue.

chris111179

Well I found out more from my mom this morning, the car is actually the dealerships owners private car, he used it as a show car, I asked for some undercarriage pictures and wow. The original stickers are still all over, all of them look very clean, the owner told me that it was never ran in winter and was stored in the showcase, which now that I think about it I always saw this car sitting behind the glass in the showcase. I will offer him 3,500-4,000 and see what happens. From the pictures he sent me it looks like it was only driven in the summer, no mud on the insides of the fender wells. And the top is very smooth and doesn't appear to be sun faded. He also sent me a time slip from a few years ago, around here there is only one real drag strip, but local airports do a makeshift drag strip for people to run anything, The time slip had a lot of numbers on it that I didn't really understand but the 1/4 mile time was 12.5 or 12.6. Does that sound reasonable. He had slicks for it that he said he would through in with it because I mentioned my mom and my family.

98CayenneT/A

You should ask him performance wise what all is done. I say that because if it was a stock vert it would run probably around a 13.4-13.8 quarter mile time so I'm guessing things are done to it

ExMoparSRT8

iTrader: (1)

Dam I guess he's just trying to make a profit. Guess you'll have a dream with goals to build a engine if he lets it go for 4k