Welp, I announced a while ago that I was getting rid of my fleet of rarities due to lack of time, tools and place to restore them. Not to mention, I need to concentrate on buying a house here shortly. Anyhow, I've been looking for a daily driver for the last month and a half or so. The experience has been quite frustrating. From salesmen lying about the condition of the vehicle, to cars that are overpriced, to discovering the ridiculous mileage people put on their cars these days, it's been discouraging to say the least. I drove a "like brand new" '00 Regal GSE whose brakes didn't feel very firm, acceleration was less than exhilarating, and had the SES and ABS lights pop on. This is all on top of needing a wheel hub right off the bat. Then I looked at an '01 Grand Prix GTX that "just has a misfire". It had a misfire alright, but also had leaking valve cover gaskets, and.......a radiator full of motor oil. :icon_eek: So this is how things were going. I was quickly running out of options in my price range. It had to be reliable, but something I also wasn't going to get bored with. I wanted it to be something I looked forward to getting into everyday, not "something to get me from point A to point B". This was going to be the first time in my life I'd have car payments, and I didn't want to regret the purchase for the next X years.
There was another car listed on Autotrader that I ignored for a few weeks, thinking if the cars I'm looking at with between 80k and 100k miles were in this shape, what were the chances that one with 112k was going to be decent? It was also fairly cheap for a dealer, which didn't help the doubting. But since everything else had fallen through, I figured what the hell. Went down to look at it 2 Wednesdays ago. It actually was in damn nice condition cosmetically. May have to touch up the hood and front bumper cover, but that was about it externally. It didn't even have a single door ding in it, in spite of being a Chicago car all its life. Interior-wise, the steering wheel controls and driver's side power door buttons were a little worn. The leather on the front seats is definitely creased, but no tears or cracks. That's about it. Mechanically, the a/c wasn't working, which wasn't good on a 90?+ day. The rear passenger window didn't work either. Front struts and rear tires needed replacement (front tires were practically new). It had a red top Optima battery, so at least I know the previous owner wasn't a total cheapskate. All in all, not much to complain about so far for the price.
I took it for a spin without the salesman (who wasn't the pushy sort at all). It was out in the middle of no man's land, so the test road was a one-lane, 55 MPH endless stretch, and I took full advantage of it. The brakes were firm, the steering was tight, the trans shifted smoothly, the ride felt solid (in spite of the front struts issue), and it took off like a bat out of hell. :icon_razz: As much as I wanted to find an excuse not to buy the car (didn't want my replacement to have just about as many miles as my current, 17+ year old cars), it started sinking in that it wasn't going to get much better than this for the price. I did, however, find water in the spare tire compartment when I pulled over to check to see if all the features were working. This was cause for some concern.
I bring it back, and talk to the salesman about some of its issues. He was puzzled by the water in the trunk thing, though he said he had seen it before, usually due to the detailers not shutting the trunk all the way when they power wash the car. He said he'd have it looked into. He also had it pulled in right away to investigate the a/c issue. We start talking price in his office while they're doing that. He was asking $7,700 out the door (I always talk in OTD prices). I said I don't think I could pay that much without the a/c working, and all the other problems. He went back over to the shop to see what the results were. It was going to cost them approximately $350 to get it working. He said he'd be willing to fix it for the price, but he couldn't fix anything else for that price. I offered $7,300, but he said there's no way he could do that price with the a/c fix. I had to ponder this. I told him I would take the night to think it over, and let him know tomorrow. The thing holding me back was still the idea that I had to say my new car has 112k miles on it. But as I talked it over with my dad, I realized that was an absolutely STUPID reason to pass up what appeared to be a very decent car for the price. AND....it came with a 3mnth/3k mile powertrain warranty! :icon_eek:
I called him back Thursday, and asked if he was guaranteeing that the a/c would be working if I purchase it. I didn't want them to fix whatever they diagnosed, and then realize that wasn't the problem, and tell me "tough". He said "I told you it'll have a working a/c, it'll have a working a/c, whatever it takes". So then I said I had one more identical car to look at a bit up north this Saturday. If he could do $7,400 out the door, I wouldn't even bother looking at that one. I'd just come in Saturday to pick up his car. He said he'd have do to some calculations, and give me a call back. When he called, he said the absolute lowest he could go on that car is $7,500 out the door, which is exactly what I was hoping for. :icon_wink: So I put it on hold over the phone with my credit card, filled out a credit application on line, got the approval Friday, and I rode down with Matt (Euro) to pick up the car Saturday. :willy_nilly:
I was still a bit uncomfortable with the decision I had just made, but after a week of owning it, I'm glad I did it. Regardless of the mileage, there's a pretty clear difference in driveability and comfort vs. my other cars. The a/c is ice cold, they couldn't find a leak in the trunk (nor have I found any after several heavy storms), and the rear passenger window just sorta'.....fixed itself the next day. :icon_neutral: And so, without further adieu, the new car...
2001 Grand Prix GTP Special Edition
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v379/RareGMFan/GTPSE/Exterior1.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v379/RareGMFan/GTPSE/Exterior2.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v379/RareGMFan/GTPSE/Exterior3.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v379/RareGMFan/GTPSE/Exterior4.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v379/RareGMFan/GTPSE/Exterior5.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v379/RareGMFan/GTPSE/Exterior6.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v379/RareGMFan/GTPSE/Exterior7.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v379/RareGMFan/GTPSE/Interior1.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v379/RareGMFan/GTPSE/Interior2.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v379/RareGMFan/GTPSE/Interior3.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v379/RareGMFan/GTPSE/Interior4.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v379/RareGMFan/GTPSE/Interior5.jpg)
Just before I left for the meet yesterday (thought this was a cool shot)...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v379/RareGMFan/Meet/RareGMFan8.jpg)
And then from the meet yesterday...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v379/RareGMFan/Meet/RareGMFan2.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v379/RareGMFan/Meet/RareGMFan1.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v379/RareGMFan/Meet/RareGMFan6.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v379/RareGMFan/Meet/RareGMFan5.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v379/RareGMFan/Meet/RareGMFan4.jpg)
The car is fully loaded, minus a Bose system, which is fine by me. But anyway, there you have it. The organizer of the Gen I Northern IL meets has bought a Gen II. Hell has now frozen over. :icon_mrgreen:
Looking good D...
Time to update the sig pic and cars list!!
When you said there was water in the trunk I knew it was a GP. lol It is a common issue cured with urethane due to the taillights and sometimes the rubber spoiler grommets being rotten out/gone. Nice ride!
For some reason, I normally hate the Special Edition wheels, but on that Black car, they look good...
nice car. but I guess with the new car payments the dollar tree in the back ground of the one picture is the new place to shop?
Tim
Its a nice car. But really wouldnt just fixing up at least one of your older cars be alot cheaper than car payments and 7500$ and interest?
Quote from: pontiac6ksteawd on August 19, 2007, 03:29:02 PM
Looking good D...
Time to update the sig pic and cars list!!
Thanks. I'll make a sig pic soon. Been meaning to make a new one, anyway. Windy City Pontiacs and w-body.com have much smaller restrictions on sig sizes, so I don't have one on either site at the moment. The list isn't too far off. Only one AWD has sold so far, and now the edition of the GTP SE. I'll update it when I'm done with the sig pic.
Quote from: TGed on August 19, 2007, 03:49:37 PM
When you said there was water in the trunk I knew it was a GP. lol It is a common issue cured with urethane due to the taillights and sometimes the rubber spoiler grommets being rotten out/gone. Nice ride!
Thanks! I don't think that has anything to do with what I saw. This was a pretty hefty sized puddle in the spare tire storage. Lots of leaves and such, too, which led me to believe the salesman's theory that it was the detailers fault was probably accurate. I haven't seen a drop since I bought it, and it's been raining like Seattle here the last couple weeks, so I think I'm in the clear.
Quote from: TGPvsTIII on August 19, 2007, 07:08:12 PM
nice car. but I guess with the new car payments the dollar tree in the back ground of the one picture is the new place to shop?
Tim
lol, nah. $206/mth is not exactly a challenge. In fact, even though the loan is for much longer, I plan to have this thing paid off in under a year. I want to buy a house by then, and I don't want the car loan biting into what I'll be approved for. Between selling off the cars and thousands in spare parts, on top of whatever my normal payments would have been, I think this is more than plausible.
Quote from: Prospeeder on August 19, 2007, 07:56:06 PM
Its a nice car. But really wouldnt just fixing up at least one of your older cars be alot cheaper than car payments and 7500$ and interest?
I'm sure $7,500 would have done wonders for any of the cars. Problem is, as I mentioned in the very beginning of the thread, I don't have the tools, and much more importantly, the time or place to do everything necessary to make any of the cars 100% reliable. If I kept any of them, I'd want them rebuilt from the ground up. And if I did that, there's no way in hell I'd use them as a daily driver. Not to mention that would take a long time to complete, and I'd need another car anyway while doing it. Trust me, I've been tossing around all sorts of ideas because I really didn't want to give up the cars, much less do so to go into debt on a newer car loan. Unfortunately, the only logical conclusion is that I need to get rid of them, and get one normal, reliable daily driver.
You're selling your AWD's?
looks good but no engine pics?
grinders - I'm selling everything. I sold one AWD last summer. Guy said he wanted the other one too, but I had one disaster after another happen after that, so the selling of the cars was postponed for a while. But now that I have a daily driver, I can finish up the minor repairs, and get them the hell out of here.
scott - Yeah, I kinda'....forgot about engine pics. :laugh: But I figured everyone's seen a stock L67 a few million times already, so there's not much to see. :icon_wink: The interior and exterior on this car, however, is not as common.
Can you PM me with pics, or a link to some pics, and info about the AWD you have left?
Damnit D, you and I are both selling our STE AWD's.
if anyone selling an AWD 6000 is in the washington area and are looking to get rid of it for under 2k in good running driving (and Braking, i know that teves system) I would be pretty interested!
I will sell you mine, ship it to you, for 2000...
ship it to me for 2000, lol whats wrong with it? and whats it look like?
Will send you a PM..
EDIT: sent you a PM and a thing thru MSN messenger..