Howdy, Well it seems that I just can't do anything right with buying cars! o No: The tranny on my 97.5 Regal GS is slipping and slowly dieing, thank God for the performance shift button. The car has 88k miles on it and other than a few random quirks and issues works great and I love it..... however the tranny costs ~$2k to rebuild, dang FWD trannies! The car is only worth about $4500 now and after I put ~$2500 into it to fix the tranny and put new tires on it I'll want to keep it for a while, maybe another 3 years, but by then it won't be worth anything. I own the car free and clear. My delima is do I keep this and fix it and risk it becoming a money pit or do I sell it now while it still works and pick up something else for a long term vehicle? The way I see it I have 2 options: Fix the 97.5 Regal GS's tranny, new tires and some other minor things and save up to start building the 65 Riv with a turbo 6 and TH200-4R that I have planned and start driving it in the summer and turn the Regal into a beater or Take out a loan and buy a 65k mile 96 Impala SS w/a 5year/100000 mile powertrain warentee and drive it for the next 5 years. However the Riv-Cruiser will be on hold till its paid off and I've saved up the money for the 65 Riv. I did the math on the gas mileage and insurance and its a wash. Minor maitanence issues are actually cheaper on the Imp but all things being equal the reasons I'm interested in the Imp are the warentee, long term resale, and risk of the Regal becoming a money pit. Any thoughts guys?
I say dump it I just dumped my o2 Granprix GTP supercharged with 30K noticed the tranny was acting up so I traded it got 15k and put it down on a new truck those tranny's have lots of problems you may end up rebuilding another time if you keep it. It is all a gamble I just got out while I could still make a few bucks if I sold last year I could have made more but once the tranny was mis shifting I said enough is enough and three radios in 2 years. Good luck Bill
The impy (and all 94-96 B-Body LT1's with the 4L60E tranny) are also known to eat tranny's.....and OptiSparks. Sounds like you're gonna need a second car no matter how you roll the dice. I look at it this way - If I pay less than 2K a year for "using" a car Im ahead of the game. If you haven't put anything into the Regal last year or this year....paying to fix the tranny puts you on "schedule" and barring anything BIG, you should be ahead of the game next year again - and you get to start on the Riv. Buying the Impy puts you on hold again. Another option is a used 94-96 RoadMaster sedan or wagon :Brow: much cheaper than the impySS and basically the same drivetrain....plus its a BUICK !!
Um... look at what I call my user type. I like EFI, Overdrives, and other modern conviences. Anyway, Alan I think you might be onto something, though with a twist. I'm thinking 96 Roadmonster wagon, black on tan, replacing the 4L60E (so it doesn't eat it) with a T56 and stepping up to a GN 3.42 posi for the rear end. While the car won't have the nice warentee, I keep hearing that 3rd party warentees are only worth about 4 time the value of the paper they are written on. I might try darkening up the wood and adding some custom interiour stuff, though first thing will probably be a cool hood, caprice bumper and some how make the Buick grill match it or make a custom Al one. What ya'll think?
Ok, forget brand loyalty for a moment but what is the most reliable V8 powered, RWD, 4 door car out there that could realisticly be aquired for under $15K with decent miles? It would probably be too much to ask but getting a stick too would be nice but I can't think of a single 4dr, v8, rwd car with a stick.
$14,900 - I even Saved you a C-Note Looks SWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEETTT too :Brow: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=2496314371&category=6131 This one's a 528....only 11K, buy higher mileage http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=2496314371&category=6131
I think you should bite the bullet and buy a Dodge Magnum with a Hemi. :3gears: :beer :bglasses: :jd: :Smarty: o No:
Alan, I think you skipped over the first part of the qoute "most reliable V8 powered RWD, 4 door" to get right to the stick part! BMW's have never really been known for their reliability, even thought they are a lot of fun to drive (no offense Marco, since you work there, allthough you are never on the board anymore anyway). I would think a Lexus or Mercedes would fit that bill better. You can get a real nice one with decent miles for under $15k. My buddy just bought a 94 S420 Mercedes with 70k for $13k, and that was about an $80k car new. I bought my 94 LS 400 (they also have GS') 18 months ago for $7k, and you could probably find a late 90's one for $15k or so. IF you have ever driven a luxury car, you know that there is a big difference between that and a newer Toyota, Honda, etc., even though many are essentially made by the same company. And I pay my Lexus mechanic the same $75 hour that he charges for the other Japanese cars. Just thought I would pass along my $02. Although I keep thinking about test driving a Magnum too. I am just afraid it will have the same poor build quality as my wife's 02 Durango RT and most other newer American cars, and that I will be disappointed (at least until I floor it). Of course, $30K will be you a real nice 2000 Mercedes that will probably last you another 150k miles.
Well.... I thought I had it figured out and I was just going to fix the tranny but now the power steering is acting up and once again I'm considering different cars. I'm still kind of thinking about a 96 Roadmonster Limited Estate wagon but again its a GM car from some of the darker days of GM tranny manufacture and there ain't many of them under 90K miles anymore. So really I'm looking at something ment to just buy and put gas, water, oil in, change the brakes when needed and just plain drive it. Horrors upon horrors I'm considering a '99 Jeep Cherokee sport 4x4 and a '98 Volvo V70 GLT turbo-I5 AWD wagon. Its $6K for the Jeep, $9K for the Volvo, and about $5K for the Roadmonster intial buy in. Jeep gets about 20mpg combined on 87, the Volvo 25 combined on 91 and the Roadmonster gets I think about 21 combined on 87. I'm sure the insurance is equal or cheaper for all these vehicles than what I'm driving now. What do ya'll think? Which is going to cost me less in the long run?
you want tranny problems... If you want tranny problems buy the jeep. I had a 99 grand cherokee that had two trannys and a transfer case replaced under warranty. My friend had the same tranny problems in his too. Keith
THis car doesn't have any of the features you want but it's under 15K lol http://www.parkplaceltd.com/webinventory/details.asp?id=3882
Here is a picture of the 1997 Mercedes S-320 I bought on Sunday for $10,800. Meets most of your criteria.
Yes, Auto, V6 RWD, although they come in V8 models as well. I wanted a V6 since it is may daily driver and this way should average about 20 mpg. I bought in on evilbay after a few drinks on Saturday night :laugh: I should get it next week.
