Help!!! Looking to buy 4th gen camaro but which one?
 

So I've been looking to buy a 4th gen camaro after my buddy bought one. It looks nice. He has a 95 ttop. I read online somewhere that they have ignition problems which was confirmed by my buddy. Which year is the best to get? Any suggestions will help as I know nothing about hese camaros. I was also looking at firebirds but my buddy said camaros are better.

4 things:

1. Budget
2. Location
3. V6 or V8
4. Auto or Manual

And 4th gen Camaros and Firebirds are pretty much the same car.

I'm looking to spend around $4-$5000. Manual of course. A fast engine that doesn't compromise in gas as it will be a daily driver. I live in Vegas.

It all depends on location and what's available in your area. When I was searching for my car I found that 4th gen f-bodies aren't too common where I live and manual cars are even more scarce (expect to pay $1,500-2,000 extra over an automatic with everything being equal). $5,000 is LT1/6-speed money if you want something with < 100,000 miles and loaded. Decent LS1/6-speed cars start at $7,500 here, but that only pertains to where I live. Check out what's on Craigslist.

To clear up the differences in engines...
93-97 Camaro/Trans Am/Firebird Formula have LT1 engines with 275-285 horsepower. The biggest problem with these cars is the location of the distributor (aka optispark) on the front of the engine just below the water pump. Most of the time the rubber seal on the water pump will crack and leak onto the distributor, causing a slew of ignition problems. If you want to buy one of these cars it would be a good idea to find out when the water pump and distributor were replaced. Other than that, the LT1 is a workhorse with tons of backwards compatibility. It's really just a SBC with some reverse cooling and fuel injection.

98-02 Camaro/Trans Am/Firebird Formula have LS1 engines with "305" horses (underrated by GM for marketing purposes, more like 330+ in reality). These engines are a completely new design from GM (Gen 3 SBC architecture) and produce more power from the get-go, mainly because the stock cylinder heads flow much better. Other than that, it's really just another big pushrod V8 with fuel injection. These are the "catfish" era Camaros.

Step One: You should get a quote from you insurance company on a V8 and a V6. Make sure you can afford the V8.

Step Two Look at the differents between 93-97 and the 98-02's and see which one you like best or if it does not matter to you.

If you need to stick with the V6 you really want to look at the 96-02 3800 manual's They can get real good highway mileage and "not horrible" city mileage for a 3500 lbs car. I can get 30+ MPG highway driving 70-75 MPH

The 98-02 LS1 V8's are the most desirable getting decent highway mileage and packing a nice punch HP wise but in their stock form they do only slight better than a good working 93-97 LT1 V8. Your going to have buget issues with a LS1 manual 6 speed unless it is really high miles or it needs some work.

I am thinking the "ignition problems" you are talking about is the early LT1 V8's. Camaros and Firebirds are just about the same car with different sheet metal. Almost all non-cosmedic parts swap between cars.(what you see is different but most of what you can not see is the same)

If you want a DD get a '96 or newer. If it is strictly for daily driving go with the 3.8l v6 with the manual. For looks I would try to find the RS sports package, which will be more difficult to find but the Camaro imo looks so much better with it.

I just purchased my first 4th gen, a 99 z28 t-top, its an auto and i am really liking it, its my first auto, my last car was a 05 srt-4 with a big turbo, i never thought i would like an automatic, test drive both versions first you may like the auto.

I've decided that I'm gonna stick with the v6 as that's what I can afford over the v8. If I can get a v6 with manual even better. Now! Why do I see some camaros with factory side skirts and front as well as rear bumper lip? Is that optional? Also are the 95' 96' 97' models include the same exact v6 engine as the 98-02? So the only issue is the Optispark? How often does that go bad? I've been looking for 98 and up v6 cuz I'm scared I'll have alot of problems with the 97 and older ignition problems.

The RS package adds the skirts and some other things. the 3.8 started at the later latter half of 95 (iirc) and was standard from 96+. Optispark is only on the LT1.

Oh! So the ignition issues aren't applicable to the regular v6 engines? So really there's not much different in getting a 96-02 if it's v6? Other than the headlight change from 98 and up.