z28luvr01

Obviously, what actually turns out to be better for you depends on what is actually wrong with your car. In any case, I don't think I'd bother fixing the GA unless you want to keep it. Put it this way: You said you can probably get 3K for the ATV. Let's say you do that, get the 3K, and you find a Quad 4 in the junkyard. Between the engine and any other parts you may need to get the car running it'll probably cost around 1K. then, after fixing it, you turn around and sell it for $1500 (I think twice what you paid for the car is pretty optimistic). So, 3000 - 1000 + 1500 = 3500. Now,, if you just decide to sell the GA for $500, you have $3000 + $500 = $3500! - plus all the time you would have spent fixing it.

Now, I'm not normally one to tell anyone how to spend their money, but I think at this point, for you the ATV has to go...no spare cash + no job = need to sell something to get cash. Fix whatever things you mentioned in the other thread and get what you can for it ASAP. With that cash and some sort of diagnosis as to what is wrong with your GA, you can better determine how to proceed. I honestly wouldn't expect more than, say, $500 for your GA in its current condition. The engine is doing too many things for a prospective buyer not to notice that there's something wrong. If you end up getting a newer car, might I suggest....I can't believe I'm saying this.....a late model Hyundai Accent. Those things have no resale value -There's an ad for a 2002 3dr near me with 60K for $3995 (click). Honestly they're fun little econoboxes, plus you got the balance of a 10yr warranty which should get you through college. Remember, you just need a car for getting where you need to go while saving up for your dream car. I'm speaking from experience....I had a POS 1984 Dodge Colt throughout my college years. It had 85 champion thoroughbreds under the hood, half of which were taken away when I used the AC. But it ended up giving me minimal trouble and allowe me to bide time until my Blazer was ready.

The Astra is one sweet looking ride, especially in OPC trim. I hope they wise up and bring the 3dr here and not just the sedan.

You're a poet and you don't know it! The more I look at this thing, the more I think it's fantastic. This level of attention to details has not been seen on a GM car since the 50s.

Someone sent this to me in an email, and I have to say that this plane is hot: Photos of The First F/A-22 Delivered to Langley AFB These are photos of the F/A-22 (Raptor) as the first aircraft delivery was being made to Langley AFB in VA. Langley is to be first operational AFB for the F/A-22. The Aircraft flying along with the F/A-22 in several of these photos is the F-15D, which will be replaced by the F/A-22 since testing by the USAF has verified predictions that the F/A-22 would be several times better than the F-15. In actual in-flight (simulated combat) operations against the F-15, one F/A-22 was able to operate without detection while it went head to head against 4 F-15's and (2) F/A-22's against (8) F-15's. The F/A-22's scored missile hits (Kills) against each F-15 Aircraft and the F/A-22's were never detected by the F-15's or ground based radar.

Those guys are right. Do some simple diagnostics before you give the car a death sentence. Draining the oil is a great start. If there are any metal parts in the oil, your engine is toast and needs to be rebuilt or replaced. If it has coolant mixed in, it'll will look like milkshake-ish. If that's the case you either have a blown head gasket or a cracked block. I would also do a pressure test on the cooling system. That'll force it to leak wherever the weak points are. It's basically just a hand pump with a PSI gauge on it that attaches to the radiator (or wherever you pour coolant into the GA). One of you can pump the pressure tester while the other looks for leaks. Head gaskets aren't that expensive, but they're a lot of work to change...expect to spend at least a full day doing it, more likely a full weekend. While you have the head off, it's probably a good idea to have it checked for warping or cracks. Remember, the car did overheat, so the head may have sustained some damage especially if it's aluminum. Some minor warping can be machined out at a machine shop. Anything more severe, and it will need to be replaced. Just throwing this out there, but I'll bet you can find a Quad 4 in a salvage yard for a pretty reasonable price, with probably less mileage than yours. The more reputable yards may even offer a warranty with the engine (usually 30 days or 3 months). Here's one with 100K from a '95 GA. Earlier I saw one with < 50K for $650. Who knows...this may be the route you want to take anyway...you still had that ticking sound to deal with, which could mean more major work down the road even if you repair your current problem. To put things in perspective, for the money that it's gonna take to fix up your Grand Am, it's going to cost you a heck of a lot less than finding a car that's going to be any more problem free.

For what it is, I like it. The exterior is very well done and at least doesn't look like a Tahoe with $5K in add-ons from the JC Whitney catalog. The interior is fantastic...far and away the best looking GM interior I've ever seen. I love the center stack that flows into the console, and those gauges are just sick.

I'll post a link because this pic is freaking huge: http://www.seriouswheels.com/pics-2006/200...V-1920x1440.jpg

I just got in for the night. I'm glad to hear you are OK. I don't know if you've ever experienced one,but you really don't want to deal with a tornado if you don't have to. They're very unpredictable. Once we were hit with a small twister that destroyed our yard, my neighbor on one side and across the street, but left the other three houses on the block untouched.

I'll take the Echo. My sister needs something to stand on while she washes her Avalanche.

If it helps. here is an enlarged photo of the RH side: Looks like there are no screw holes to speak of. Come to think of it, I believe the marker lights in my dad's 97 Skylark clip into the bumper as well. you might be able to either pry it out as cmattson said, or just grab it around the edges and give it a tug.

Very cool, Walt. The G6 looks great in red. Can't wait to see the pics.

Only one problem I see with that:

As far as your suggestions go, I don't think you can go wrong with either of those cars. Everyone I know who owns/owned an SC2 swears that they're pretty bulletproof, if a little unrefined. The Acura will be all right as well, except you may be left wanting more usable power. If you're pretty sure you can get 3K for your 300EX, and another 1K or so for your GA, that might be enough to get you into a high-mileage 97-up Grand Prix GT, like this one, or maybe even a GTP.

Have a good one!

Since I can't go through a single "What should I get?" conversation without recommending a Cobalt, here goes: Get a Cobalt. You won't be sorry :-D OK, now that I got that out of the way, I sort of agree with Sixty8's suggestion of a gently used PA, just because of you guys' tendency towards and familiarity with big GM cars. HHRs are pretty huge inside. With the seats folded down there's almost as much flat surface area as a compact pickup. Here's an off-the-wall suggestion. How about a minivan/CSV? They're great for road trips, and when you need to lug stuff around you can still fold or remove the seats. If you need a truck, you could go for a gently used S10/Sonoma. They're cheap to obtain and maintain, get good highway mileage, and they're tough as nails.

For what it's worth, 2004 GTO sales picked up after GM started putting incentives on them. It was quite a performance bargain, but few saw it that way. The 2005s have for the most part moved fairly well on their own. The appearance upgrades and the extra 50hp probably were a part of that, or it could be that the car was just a slow starter. Well, this thread was about the concept and a couple of pages back you added that you didn't think a production Camaro would have a V6. Why would you bother participating in a discussion that you're "tired" of? Not trying to pick a fight with you but, keep in mind that this isn't real life. You don't have to participate in any conversation that you don't want to. I know you're not a Camaro guy, no biggie. Just move on to a conversation you'd rather be a part of.

Agreed. It would have made a fine PA replacement and could have soldiered on for a coupe of more years until the Lucerne was ready. They went through all that trouble to save the Bravada and convert it to the Rainier, and gave the Alero doors to the Grand Am...why not save a far superior automobile?

What's the good word on the "Bel Air" sedan? There was a lot of commotion about it on cz28 a couple of weeks ago, but not so much now.

If that's the case, then we'll see the Fbodfather's head on a pike by Jan. 10. For the body, all I can say is that I expect a more proper coupe than the 3rd and 4th gens. Fbodfather is saying that the body is like the C6 in that it's a new design with cues from all past generations. Probably no chrome bar. Quad circle taillights would be sweet....anyone else want that to be an across-the-board Chevy styling cue? For the engine...I'd say they up the ante and maximize the buzz, and put an LS7 in it. Six speed tranny is a given.

Sixty8 I'm so sorry. I can't say I've been in your situation, but I have gone through a few times in my life where I've felt nothing but despair. Whatever you do don't take your own life. Realize that God put you here on this great big ball for a purpose. You're a father to Sofia and a friend or relative to many. All of these people want you alive. There's some great advice for you in this thread, especially the part about volunteering to help others. You'll be surprised how good you feel when you know you've made someone else's life a little better. Stay away from drugs. It's like putting ice in your radiator to stop your car from overheating. All it does is mask symptoms. It doesn't fix anything, and may make things worse if you start to become dependent on them. As another possibility, have you and Marcia looked into the idea of counseling from a neutral third party to try to fix things between you two? Most people don't like to, but sometimes that's what's needed. And you may not even have to spend a fortune to do it, lots of churches and non-profit organizations offer services like that. Any relationship can be saved if both parties are willing to swallow their pride, acknowledge their role in the dispute, and move forward towards a common goal...in your case Sofia's well being. You may or may not ever love each other again, but if you can at least forge a working relationship with Marcia and settle peacefully without the help of lawyers, then it'll be all the more easier on Sofia. I don't know if anything I said makes sense or is of any good, but know that I'll be thinking and praying for you. If you want to talk more, PM or IM me.

Sorry about that. I gathered from your responses in the "Car Spotting" threads that exotics and classics very rarely come your way. IIRC, you once said that a Camaro or Firebird sighting is as "special" as car sightings get around your nek of the woods. I apologize for my remarks. I stand firm in my beliefs on the G6 though. Just so you know, my favorite Pontiac of all time is the 1967-68 Firebird. That car was bold and aggressive, yet classy. I see at least an attempt of that in the G6. As I've been saying all along, though, it's the details that GM really screwed up: the clear lense taillights, the rub strip in the middle of nowhere, the chrome molding along the beltline...all of that stuff takes away from the G6's appearance. Here is a sketch of what the pre-Lutz G6 was going to look like: I admit that I like that snout and the wheels, but the rest of the car looks like, well, disjointed. The strakes on the side (which most likely would have been accomplished with cladding) draw extra attention to the beltline, which really needs to be hidden as much as possible (a la the yellow SEMA concept) because it's the worst aspect of both this G6 and the one we got. The line along the rear quarter looks interesting, though it's hard to tell where they were going with this sketch.

* Avaiable Fall 2006 j/k. I like how it looks in orange, though I still prefer the black/silver two tone ones.

I :wub: that color!

how's this? I see where ocn is coming from. I don't think he meant any harm against BV. He was born during the time when Pontiac was giving all their cars the in-your-face boy racer treatment. I think some exposure to pre-1985 Pontiacs is probably essential to understand why some of us like the G6 as much as we do. Based on what he's said about his hometown, he might not get that exposure too often. This might be a good book for him to start with. The mid-to-late 60s Pontiacs in particular were beautiful in the simplicity of their designs. Though the high-performance editions of the day (TA, Judge) got scoops, stripes, and spoilers, the cars didn't need anything tacked on to them to improve their appearance. During the mid-80s Pontiac began to rely heavily on plastic cladding to differentiate their cars from their GM cousins. Some of it was rather tasteful (Sunbird, early GAs), and some of it was rather excessive (late 90s GAs, mid 90s GPs, some Bonnes). The Firebird and 97-03 GP seemed to be exceptions to the rule, as any cladding they had was applied sparingly. The G6 marks the abandonment of that design philosophy for a return to the 60s-era philosphy of simple clean shapes. Perhaps the reason why the G6 looks odd to some is that it was originally designed to have side strakes, sqinty cat's eye hedlights, etc before Lutz came in and made his changes (Remember that drawing of the red G6 that Cspec posted a while back that was in the G6 brochure?) I still think the G6 we got is a good car that is a few minor detail changes away from being great.