Noob question... should my gf buy it?

[Vitus]

Hey guys and girls, how are you? I stumbled across this site and boy am i glad i found it.... WOW hats off to you guys, wicked site!!!!!
My Gf is looking to buy a 94 camaro with a 3.4 V6 and a Auto transmission. car only had 79'000kms, yes Kms, i'm in Canada. the low milelage seems a little fishy, is there anything you guys can tell me to look for that can tell me if anything has been tampered with? and are there any problem areas with this car i can look for.....
I have an 82 Cultlass, and with that car its the rear frame rails and the inner rocker panels.
Any help you guys and girls can offer will be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!!
David

P.s. forgot to add the asking price onthe car is 8K CAD

[Question]

Re: Noob question... should my gf buy it? 94 camaro....

8k CAD, so like 6k US..or what? If so, pass it up.

[Vitus]

Re: Noob question... should my gf buy it?

ya i think it's like 6'500 USD....
so you are saying that the price is to high?

[black98V6]

Re: Noob question... should my gf buy it?

well as far as the price, well the car is worth what someone is willing to pay. Now if you want to know what to look for first off get the car on a lift, see if you can find any evidence of frame damage, look at the crossmember under the engine, we refer to this as the K member, see if it's beat up or straight, look for any leaks around the trans or evidence of the rear main leaking. As you go back look along the rails on the side and back to the rear subframe again for evidence of damage. Finally check out the rear end, if you have it off the ground see how much play there is in the rear end by trying to rotate the driveshaft push it up and down, side to side, check for slop in the U joints. Look to see if it has an aluminum driveshaft, that could be a sign that it was raced.

Overall the 3.4 is a stout little engine, so long as it has been serviced I don't see any major problems aside from oil leaks in the future due to breakdown of seals over time.

If it has power windows see that they both go up and down without much noise, these are a common weak point in our cars.

Since it's a camaro flip up headlights are not an issue.


If all that checks out it's proably a pretty good car, good for the price?? well that is going to require some research and go with what you want, or she want's I should say.

[Vitus]

Re: Noob question... should my gf buy it?

Thank you very much for ur insight!!

ok. just wanna ad some info. she really knows her **** when it comes to finding collision damage, and mileage tampers..... no problem.
she is quite the grease monkey and knows her **** when it comes to mechanics (im too embarrassed to tell yall how much she taught me, and how she even works on my muscle car).
..... im hoping someone can post some info about common problems/issues that these vehicles and powertrains see!!! i heard about GM's leaky seal issue and apparantly these cars arnt effected. the car is low mileage (they say the guy walked to work) well loaded. and with T-tops (she loves convertibles but this is a cheaper version to buying a new roof every few years) .... she is very serious about buying it too, she already knows her sales pitch on getting the terms she wants (assuming it all checks out, if a monkey wrench is thrown in she will have to change her course obviouslY) ...... just wanted some of ur thoughts.....
one specific question.... WHAT KIND OF LIFE ExPECTANCY COMES FROM THE POWERTRAINS?? (obviously i know the answer is variable, but cam someone give me an average range?)
thanks loads guys in advance!!!!!!!!

[99 RS Camaro]

Re: Noob question... should my gf buy it?

i say keep looking........i was origionally looking for '87-'92 IROC-Z's when i was looking for another ride, when i came across my current ride, '99 nbm camaro, t-tops, a4, pw/pl, 70xxx miles......paid $3500 for it, wasnt wanting/looking for v6 but i couldnt pass this deal up, and i figured, hell, later on down the road i could sell it for almost two times as much as i paid for it

[dreaded_hope]

Re: Noob question... should my gf buy it?

The first thing you'll notice when you start looking at cars and comparing them to prices in the states is that they aren't even close. They can easily find an 00 WS6 for 11 grand. Here to find that car for that price it'd practically have to be a write off. Most of the WS6's I see for sale are still in the 30K range. They're just alot more rare up here.

I'm from the Edmonton area and I can tell you that 8k for that car isn't that great of a deal. It's probably a mint condition example as you said it had fairly low km's on it, however the price still seems to be a bit high. I'd say tell her to check out a later model, like a 95 1/2 - 02 with a 3.8 v6, as I've seen many for sale that can be had for the same price with the same milage. That way she starts out with a model that's not so old and with the 3.8 which gives her a headstart performance wise also plus many more options for modification if she chooses. Hope that helps.

[black98V6]

Re: Noob question... should my gf buy it?

life expectancy, I know we got guys on here with well over 100k miles.

I could give you alist of all of the issues with my car but it's a 3.8 and manual.

If the car has been well taken care of then yes she could go 160k miles. As far as GM and leaking seals, well most of us have leaking pinion seals and at least those of us with manuals have leaking rear mains, (3.8). For that car there really are no common issues, the 3.4 started life as the old 2.8 and by the time it became a 3.4 built in the mid 90's it was pretty well refined and most of the bugs were fixed.

[shenanigans]

Re: Noob question... should my gf buy it?

3.4 will be pretty reliable...

6500 USD is a bit much... I woudl pay like $2-3 for a 3.4L



off hand 93-95 had 3.4Ls (160 hp)
96-02 had 3.8Ls (200 hp)

You coudl possible get up to a 2000 for $6,000 pushing it a little but have seen people on the boards do it. I say keep looking around but then again I don't know how hard it is to find a car in canada.

[Vitus]

Re: Noob question... should my gf buy it?

you guys are really great!!!
she says she doesnt care too much about the price because she is just trading in her import convertible and as long as they give her a fair trade in (she only expects blue book which is what they offer) then she will be happy!!! she expects she might have to pay 2-3grand on top for the car. if they can make it 2k or less she will not pass it up, but if they can make it 2-3k she will have to "think about it" anymore than 3K and she forgets about them..... she doesnt even mind its an hour and a half round trip, cuz she can enjoy her convertible on the freeway while she is at it!!!!
no common problems thats good!!! she is looking for something that is easier to maintain, she has this convertible and she doesnt wanna have to be buying a new roof every 6-10yrs (plus her engine is worth 4K to rebuild cuz u need a specialist to do it). so t-tops it is. its a dealership so the price is expected to be high, but theyre going to warrant the powertrain for 30days, and they offer 10 (or 15?) days trade in allowance if it turns out to be a car thats not for her. yeah, private sales are cheaper, but you dont find them "taking it back a week later" or "fixing the engine if crap happens 3 or 4 weeks later" ....
she has been waiting for one that is specificly, "t-tops, with power features, auto, v6" but she cant find one, these guys are the only ones who have what she wants.
she also looked on ebay to see if she can import one for less and.... they were all so expensive its not worthwhile (we live about a 20min drive from the border of washington state) ..... one thing that may account for the price differences is if you live on the east coast where most cars start getting rust only a year or two later obviously cars become worth less. we live on the pacific and get nearly no rust. (yeah rust buckets exists, but a cars gotta be 15+ years old to have any signs of rust)

[Vitus]

Re: Noob question... should my gf buy it?

Hey guys... well she didn't buy the car..... the car came up clean with an accident report... but the passenger rear fender was not the same as the driver side rear fender.....looks like passenger side had been removed from a couple years off camaro...the way i could tell is that .. well you know how there is that strip running along the middle of the car so that if someone opens there door and hits your car it will hit the rubber strip... welll on the driver side it was only between the front tire and the back tire... on the passenger side it was from behind the front wheel, all the way to the back of the car... the section behind the rear wheel had a groove moulded into the body for the strip and the other side didn't... also .. no way the engine in that car has only 79"000kms... i could hear slight tapping comming from the lifters, and sounded like the power steering, a/c or waterpump.. couldn't tell, one of the things driven by the belt was going.... and on top of that the car has aftermarket wires going all over the place... there was a hub of about 15 or so wires connected to one point that was bolted to the passenger inner fender well... some wires went across the engine bay, some when in the car from the passenger firewall, some went in from the driver side firewall.... was a mess and under the dashboard was worse.... wires all over the place.
Was one car i didn't feel sorry walking away from... what a POS.

she looked at the screws around the dashboard to see if they have been turned (maybe he drove without the cable for a while to lower the mileage) and they were iffy it was hard to say ..... the glove box was jammed for some reason, none of us could open it, there was a puddle of water and sludge under the spare tire, the tail light was leaking..... etc etc etc

she still wanted to consider buying it if the price was right (plus they offered to guarantee the wiring for 30days) but i told her not to and she pissed off the sales guy with our finds ..... he sarcasticly said (while holding a clean accident report, ok, well if you guys want to make your own discoveries thats just fine)

there was silicone holding the a rip in the seat together.

does anyone know why there would be a wire attached to the spark plug wires???? like it was spliced in, we couldnt figure it out, they even got the mechanic to check and he said "maybe after market guages" .....

the wires thing was a real piss off, i mean, someone put all this work into installing them, and then did a half assed job at taking them out

[HokieBird]

Re: Noob question... should my gf buy it?

The random body panel is really shaddy and I wouldn't mess with a car when someone has been tinkering with wiring. Good luck finding something in better shape.

[Vitus]

Re: Noob question... should my gf buy it?

oh and i forgot to mention, we drove an hour and a half round trip to see this POS......
anyways... its funny how the salesmans stories change too..... here is how that went.....

she phones and asks a guy about the car and hears the following "oh yes, thats a good car, i remember that customer he used to walk to work and thats why the mileage is so low, he just traded it in for a new car" (she hangs up thinking, wow that sounds reasonable)

we walk in there and deal with a different sales guy and we hear the following "yes, i cant explain the wires and i cant prtend to know about the mileage. we know nothing about the owner, never met him. we got this car on a trade from another dealership. wow this car is really dirty i guess we havnt detailed it yet"

then the manager comes out and says "you know the reason that puddle is in the trunk is cuz we just detailed the car" (we never disputed to him that it was sludge and water, nor that it was full of woodchips in the trunk and therefor a real ****ty detail)

the shop guy (who was being told to remove the wiring) comes out and starts saying "oh yeah. the owner of this car was a real enthusiast of gizmos and nic nacs. he had all these little gatgets and gizmos. and that wire spliced to the spark plug wire you can totaly tell he just had extra guages"

ok. so when everyone has something new to say that contradicts the next guy we are pretty sure that theres some bad ethics going on in this workplace. its funny what you can come up with when you deal with more than one guy...... **** gets revealed. fishy **** though.

also the ad said the car had a fresh tune up with new belts and crap, with receipts, so ...... we think kewl. they produce a receipt for the belt i suppose the install is implied.... no.... after fishing around she finds the belt still in its factory wrap hidden under the spare tire.... wasnt ever installed..... GAY!!!!!!