jrob56

iTrader: (39)

I agree with this, I was 17 when I bought my Z, and the list of cars Ive bought and paid payments, ins, etc plus modding on are below. Good job on the brash generalizations guys. There are cheap asses in all age groups, Ill jump on a deal if I can get it, but I like stuff done right the first time.

Cheap, reliable, fast. Pick two.

I dont think cheap asses are bringing the cars values down either as the OP expressed. The fact that they are 10 years old, have questionable interior, and are kind of cheap cars...I mean it was a car GM designed in the 90s. Quality isnt a word Id use to describe much they made. But these cars make great platforms to build. Ill be hunting for a decently clean one in a few months again.

chrisb07

iTrader: (1)

I meant to take a picture and post it up on here the other day. Its always in the same place when I go get my hair cut or get Chinese food(They're next door to each other). Chinese actually sounds good so Ill snap a quick picture and post it up for all to see if it is there tonight.haha

Edit: No luck! The car wasnt there AND the Chinese place was closed!

01 ss vert

iTrader: (1)

100% agree. I've been an active F-body fan since 2002, and this is the #1 reason in my eyes for the decline. Not really ricers making the switch, but the fact that the average age of owners has dropped overall over the last decade.

C5natie

iTrader: (1)

^^
I agree. Its natural, on avg the younger crowd will have less disposable income then older established folks, and you know that cheap high performance cars will always atract a young crowd. Still there are a lot of cheap asses out there and this economy makes them worse and creates more of them. On the flip side you see people trying to make money by bringing up prices even on used parts. I know we all wanna save where possible, shoot, I landed 2 brand new Michelin PS2 tires 315/30r18 for $500 on ebay when retail is $480ea on avg. Still I bet that on Tech someone selling wouldve asked $1000 while someone buying wouldve offered $200. Lol. One thing is being smart and looking for the best prices on good parts, its another to just buy cheap china made crap just to not spend and expect great performance results.

C5natie

iTrader: (1)

Btw I dont have an fbod anymore but I had a third gen GTA so I know how it goes. Plus as C5s get cheaper the same will happen. Theres already a lot of lil douche bag kids with C5s wrecking them all over the place.

autogeek23

iTrader: (13)

I'm 20 yrs old and I have a fbody. Going to do hcie on it this year. I'm not a cheap *** and I'm not gonna rice mine out. Plan on spending $4k on it. Supporting mods. Suspension. Install all myself and $650 on a tune. You have to pay to play. I don't make a ton of money either. I just live at home. That's my secret. Maybe move out the end of this yr

MrElectric03

iTrader: (71)

I agree. There are things that can be done to keep costs down when going the performance route. My shortblock for example, I wanted someone experienced that could backup their warranty to build it...so I had Ryne build it. I used a stock crank rather than forged because he said it would be a waste, I used rods with ARP 8740 bolts instead of 2000's because im not spinning the motor to the moon, I milled and used the PRC 5.3 heads I had instead of dropping a couple grand on AFR's to get a few more horses.

Like Ryne said, when it comes to parts there are cheaper places to buy parts from so take some damn time to research where you are buying parts from and save some money. When it comes to service work either pay someone for their time and knowledge or learn to do it your damn self.

As for the young guys runining it I agree to an extent. However I bought my 96 Z28 at age 19, sold it and bought my 01 WS6 Trans Am at 20, a C5 ZO6 at age 23 and since have bought a 98 Z28, 98 Formula Firebird, and 00 WS6 Trans Am and am now 25 yrs old. None of them were wrecked. It depends alot more on the person and their maturity rather than the age.

00SSLS1

iTrader: (7)

I agree with this

C5natie

iTrader: (1)

^^
True, but we are talking in general here. You are in the minority and Im sure no one will post saying theyre an inmature young adult, maybe that they use to be. I wish I lived at home with my folks , I'd be daily driving a ZR1. Lol.

BigDaddyBry

iTrader: (15)

The flip side of the coin is F-body owners who think their 10+ year old car with 150k+ miles is worth $10k+.

DarkFox118

iTrader: (7)

oh I see that every day. What's amazing is that to them the PARTS are worthless.. but when assembled into a particular shape.. most valuable 10 year old car on the planet.

LS1Adam84

iTrader: (21)

Yeah this too is ridiculous lol, just because the car is Sunburned Orange Metallic, does not mean it is a collectors car...

MrElectric, yeah I hear you, there are ways you can "cheap" out, but when you buy a used trans, or used converter, or used rear end, or a used block and you do not take the time to re ring and bearing it I think its funny when they complain about things breaking.

This was more to inspire discussion amongst us westerners and see what each side has to say about this.

BirdsSince16

iTrader: (3)

I'm 22 at the moment bought the car I have now for $8200 about a year and half ago. At the time it blue-booked for $10,200 or something like that with 100k miles. It's got 130k on it now and if anyone asks how much I want, I tell them $10,500.

I do this mostly because I don't really wanna sell it. But it's in fantastic shape and if someone wants to buy it from me for that, I'd be glad to sell it. I know that's expensive, so if they so no, that's fine. I'd rather keep driving it anyway.

LS1Adam84

iTrader: (21)

Two sides to this.

First is you paid too much for the car, and as such does not mean anyone else would pay too much for the same car.

The other side is:

People like you help us keep the values of our cars high because some idiot says "ohh yeah that's a good price" and because of that the value of other cars stays high, ideally.

Sadly the market on fbodies is not what it once was so we really have depreciated values on our cars.

metalmilitia606

iTrader: (8)

https://ls1tech.com/forums/suspensio...sion-mods.html

BirdsSince16

iTrader: (3)

$8200 for a 6-speed WS6 with 100k is pretty good for around here, especially with the shape it was in.

LS1Adam84

iTrader: (21)

It would sell for about $6500-$7500 max around here. I do understand that these cars are worth more in certain areas of the US too.

LS1 Racing

iTrader: (15)

I was part of the F-body scene from 2000-2005. Had a brand new A4 2000 Z28, then sold it for a 1999 Camaro SS because I had to have a T56. You can see by my join date that I've been around a while, but I go even further back on the old LS1.com, where I performed and documented the very first swap in the country of the '01 LS6 camshaft into into an LS1 F-body (my 2000 Z28) back in 2001. Got out of it in '05 because we needed to buy a house, so I let my LS1/F-body knowledge lapse, as I took on other things.

I just bought the car in my sig in October 2011 with 150k miles for $6500. I feel I got a killer deal because the car was garaged it's whole life, has all the usual stuff replaced already, and drives like it has 30k miles on it.

Why is my history important?

After being out of the F-body game for 6 years, then coming back, was a big surprise. There are so many more parts available now, and at prices I would have killed for back in 2001. Back in the day, you only had a few choices in cylinder heads. You could go MTI, or Morgan Motorsports (remember them?), TEA, and maybe a couple of other regional shops. No matter which way you went, you were gonna be out $1200 minimum (in 2001 dollars) for anything with decent flow. When you could find them used, they weren't much cheaper. And then you didn't have all of the factory options either. 243s where not even an option unless you bought from the dealer for big $$ or got lucky enough to find a wrecked Z06. Everything at that time was basically a ported 241.

Cam situation was a little different. Prices were similar to what they are now, but the choices were few. The same shops selling heads offered cams, but the tech isn't even close to what it is now. Even companies like Comp and Crane were still figuring things out. A big cam back in 2001 was .596 lift/230 duration, and then you had to worry about Comp Cams 918's breaking. The tech was well behind where it is now, and I seem to remember the reverse split-pattern grind being the rage around 2004. Also, we didn't have inexpensive and reliable LS7 lifters to replace our stockers...We had to pay $500-$800 for a decent replacement.

Tuning was still a black art. You basically bought a **** Hypertech for $300, or you boned out $500 for LS1Edit and either experimented yourself or looked for someone who knew what they were doing with it. Around 2003, even in SoCal, there were not a lot of tuners who really knew what was up. Mike Morgan was good, and he taught a few guys how to do it who were successful. Mark from Andy's Auto was an outstanding tuner, but the LS1 community suffered a huge loss when he was killed in a crash in summer 2003.

Nowadays, you can buy a used Predator for under $200 and have someone like Lew (06MonteSS) give you an email tune that's 90% of what you'd get from a dyno tune for about $120 more.

Even the basic stuff is dirt cheap. Where lids used cost $130 + $40 for the K&N filter, you can get the same setup now for a little over $100. The used market is even more unbelievable: Ceramic Long tube headers can easily be found for $300 used and sometimes a little less, if you shop around and don't mind a little rust. For the most part, you couldn't touch LTs for under $600 a decade ago. And don't even think about putting an LQ9 or LQ4 in your F-body. There just weren't that many around at that time. LS2s and LS3s were in the future, and factory power meant you got a Hot Cam with .525/.525 and 216/227, or you went ASA and got more duration and lope that could not be tuned down. Today, I can easily and cheaply build a 450+ HP motor by cobbling together nothing but used factory parts. Compare that with my 1999 SS that put 378 HP/382 lb-ft to the wheels in 2002 with some hand ported 241 heads, a Hot Cam, LTs, and a tune. There are plenty of stock headed, cam-only cars that make more than that now, and they paid a hell of a lot less than I did 10 years ago.

Sorry for the long walk down LS1 memory lane, but I wanted to put some context to those who think they're paying too much for mods and HP. I have news for you: It's never been cheaper than it is now, so you ought to keep that in mind when you're nickel and diming a vendor or seller.

End of rant!

98V8gorilla

Gotta pay to play. Like it was said earlier :
You want it done right.
You want it done cheap.
You want it done fast.
Pick two.
I'm 22 have had my camaro since 18. Have done a **** load of work to it and its still not were I want it.

BigDaddyBry

iTrader: (15)

What a car blue books for and what it sells for are 2 entirely different things. The latter is the true value of the car.

Pricing your car higher than what it is worth does not make it worth that much either. Only if someone bought it for that amount would it be worth that much.

I bought mine about 5 years ago? and including shipping and CA reg and tax (which was almost $1k!) I was out around $10k (not exact, but close). Albeit it was a black auto Formula with 50k miles and not an SOM M6 WS6.