jdustu

iTrader: (2)

oh yeah, and i don't know much about nitrous, but can it be injected by screwing a nozzle into the bellow? because i found black sealer over a small screw in the bellow....then there's all the weight reduction, no sway bars(or mounts for them) the fact that it used to have 4.10 gears and it's an automatic......i could go on, but i won't........

Ragtop 99

iTrader: (7)

I've bought my last 2 cars lightly used, less than 2 years old and 20,000 miles or less. I want to have a warranty long enough to ensure things like the A/C, P/S etc aren't going to die right away. I figure I'm going to mod the car and void the rest of the warranty so no point in paying full $$ for a new car. The savings go to mods.

I did have one problem on one car. Fixed it once and I was fine.

GRAYZ

I am with you, I always buy used cars. However, I buy'em from Budget Car Sales here in town. I have bought low mileage used cars from this guy and he has always treated me right. In a used car, there will always be something that you may not find. For instance, I just replaced the air filter and found out the previous owner had done the FRA mod and the cuts are real messy. I am going to order a SLP lid and get the dremel and smooth out his cuts. I can tell the previous owner probably had some good rims/tires on the car and he replaced them with the stock 16x8 rims and tires that have some dry rot. So I have purchased some 35th LE rims and tires for replacement. Still I bought the car for $17000 with 28k miles on it and it had tinted windows, Eibach pro kit, very good aftermarket stereo, ect.

f-bodman

I'm with you also, I got mine used with 9k miles on it for over 10g off sticker, had it a year and have found ZERO surprises, I did look at the car 3-4 times over a couple weeks though, and I'm sure I got lucky. I'd say it's worth the chance for 10 grand though. I do think it would be nice to own a car that you know no one has driven or worked on but yourself though

99PontTA

i'll never buy another NEW car because of a 84 Trans AM i bought new in 1984.........the problems were unbelievable.......one of the cylinder heads were actually mounted tilted at a slight angle because the block was drilled off a little.The list of problems was insane.......also the alignment couldnt be set properly because no adjustment left......car may have been totalled then fixed and put back on the lot..........i bought it with 100 miles on it......i got cornholed badly.I lost over 5 grand getting rid of it.......after the dealer was forced to take it back they had it stolen to get rid of it.......i was notified by their insurance company as they wre looking for the car.............GM dealers...be wary Knofpe Pontiac Allerntown Pa

jdustu

iTrader: (2)

a lot has happened in the last 20 years.......

Fulton 1

iTrader: (9)

Maybe if you'd have read all the way to the bottom you would have seen this

Texfinn

iTrader: (39)

I have never in my life bought a new car, and so far it looks quite unlikely that I never will. The newest car I've ever bought has been 2 years old.

I'm going to let other people drive the most expensive miles (the ones off the dealer lot) and I'll take it from there. New cars have problems, too.

Yeah, sometimes I've ran into troubles with the cars later on, but that's expected when a car get 5+ years old. I've found quite a few demodded cars when looking for my F-bodies, but have never bought, and never will, one. Just need to inspect them very closely and carefully.

TS

02WS6Bird

iTrader: (2)

yeah ui dont believe i have any problems at all with mine...bought it with 14000 miles on it...it was modded...still is modded the wyay he had it nothing bad tho...i mean all he put was what mods i have on there now...only thing i would have done different is GMMG...and the rest i will be doing even GMMG ill be installing for myself so its no biggy...the ca is scarcely powerful....much more powerful then my buddy's vette it seems...launches harder whins the 1/4 for sure...even with my stock tires...hes got the same ones but he raced me with only a few miles on his...mine are a bit worn form me...but this car was babied a bit ou can tell...im happy with what i got especially the last of its kind for $16,800 sounded damn good to me

jdustu

iTrader: (2)

i looked at it this way when i was deciding on waiting for magnum rt or getting a used fbody a couple months ago: I could buy the car for 7,500, put 15,000 into a 427 engine, 2300 into the tranny and 2k into the rear end( the car already has some suspension work done) and then some money for various other things and you're still at a total of around 30,000 and it'll smoke any fbody or other car you could buy new for that much.....no, you won't have a warranty, but if you drive your car to have fun they'll find a way to void it anyways.....plus you don't have 30k tied up in huge payments, so if you change your mind(like i always do) you can use the extra 22k on doing something else, like restoring '70 buick electra....hypothetically, of course

ActionJack

Let me add my 2 cents to this insightfull discussion....

I did not want new and used was so much less than book that I had to go used. In 2002 I bought my 2001 WS6 for 23,000 and it booked around 30k.

What I found out after going to ls1tech for awhile:

*The BFG KDWs on the car were not stock but much better (though only 15k in mileage out of them)

* The exhaust was Flowmaster 80, but I am not ready to change until I do
LTs.

* The dealership said my rear brake caliper is not stock.

* The 'kicker' was that the rear quarter panel had some body work and has a plug in the passenger door from when they worked on it and it has no record in carfax for this at all. But it seems sound and so I do not worry about it.

* My one rim is slightly bent and can only tell at the balance machine. I never noticed but when I had my Pirellis mounted the guy checked these out and hwas able to correct with a little extra weight. This probably happened when the car had damage to the rear quarter panel.


My advise: I know what is and is not wrong with it. I probably saved 7,000 when I purchased it. And, it is no longer in production.

SStolen

iTrader: (22)

You have to expect mods to have been done on a car like ours. You just have to be careful and detailed when inspecting them to see the extent of the mods. Sometimes they are nice like lid and exhaust because that crap can nickel and dime you to death but big cams without proper upgrades, nitrous or shitty installs can be bad news. At first I thought you were overreacting but that sealed hole in the bellow would have me thinking twice. Is power down? I would have it dynoed and do a compression test to make sure all the cylinders are good. Nitrous is safe as long as you know what your doing.... I say that but I know what I'm doing and I won't put it on my car, haha.

I'll never buy a new car. You lose your *** the minute you drive it off the lot. I got a great deal on my SS. I bought it exactly one year after it had been sold on the lot. It only had 8,000 miles on it and was stock down to the air filter. I bought it from a guy who was desperate to sell it. He was going to school and had to cut back on hours at work to keep up his GPA. The sticker on it was $31.5K and he sold it to me for $20,700 (that was cheap 3 years ago). I looked for 6 months before I found this car. It was 600 mi. away but it was a fun trip home. I was lucky because mods weren't that big just yet. I think the TR224/224 was considered a big cam back then. Anyway, the guy didn't know a camshaft from a brake caliper. The best actor couldn't act as ignorent as this guy did and I have found no reason to think so otherwise as I have modded the crap out of this car and haven't found one discreptantcy. I would say saving roughly $11,500 (between cost and taxes) off a one-year old, 8,000 mile car is a good deal. Thats 33%+ less.

nick3205

Same here. I'm sure my car had to crap beat out of it before me. It really sucks. Oh well

Z28Venom

iTrader: (13)

I know for sure that mine did.. Got the dash pulled.. all the factory sound dampener (thick black tar sheet) was totally gone. No wonder I hear every damn valve opening and closing. I guess my car was stripped of all excess weight.

I'm about it install nitrous, but guess what.... I don't have to drill a hole for the blowdown tube because there's one already there...

Oh well.. We learn from our mistakes and move on..

'02 SLP#686

iTrader: (1)

Add me to the list of cars that had been tooled on. I bought mine sight unseen - when I felw out to pick it up, my "stock" SS had a Spec 2, Skip shift, Pro 5.0, subframe connectors and cut-out... hmmm... wonder what he did with my car. The door says ZR-1 wheels - it had Chrome 10 spokes??? The DRL's and Auto headlights didn't work (fuses and unplugged the eye). Best yet - went to put a new clutch in and it had a slave cylinder out of a '98??? Makes me wonder if the tranny is a 2002???

But, all in all - it is a good car, low miles, rare color and now that all the problems are fixed - it is no biggie. I kinda like the idea that the car has been beat since day 1 - I would have done the same. Sometimes cars last a bit longer if you break 'em in right.

Oh yeah - Brand new Z28 at a local dealership out here - Pewter (or silver metallic) Vert with Cloth and Auto - less than 100 miles. They are still out there!

hepcatws6

I feel for anyone with those kinda' problems, but you have to consider how often things happen to new cars. Example: my sister-in-law bought a brand new Cavalier and two weeks later the bearings went out, my father-in-laws Escape is only a year or so old and already the computer was recalled and now the transmission is going out, another member on this site had the axle go out on his Lightning after only two weeks, and my brother-in-law who is parts manager at a GM dealer was telling me how he had replaced the same part on a guy's brand new car three times in two months (Parts production is being outsourced to Mexico.)

Its nothing new, but it seems like its getting worse. They are building cars as cheap as they can and selling them to us at even higher costs all the time.

Z28Venom

iTrader: (13)

Yea.. I expect some problems with a used car... But to find out that my car has basically been dismantled and put back together just pisses me off. I'm dealing with it..

But it just urks the sh*t outta me.

ActionJack

Amen to that Brutha

And I thought NAFTA was to bring jobs and make products cheaper. What a load of crap

02 WS-6

iTrader: (1)

Ok that’s it...Z28 venom I'm making a list of every member willing to fly over to the beautiful island of Wahiawa, at your expense and we can question this car lot thing together...United we stand brother...I'm in, whos with me...