Hi all,

Glad I found this forum. I'm an Australian living in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. I've always liked American muscle cars and I'm looking for a nice American muscle car now. I took a 96 Z28 convertible for a test drive today and it was one hell of a car. I just have some questions - sorry if these have been asked before.

When I drove the car, the transmission seemed to be shifting too early. It would shift up at around 3.5-4k instead of running up to red line. In my wifes jag, if I switch to sport mode, the engine runs up to red line every change. Is this normal for a camaro?

How hard is it to do major work on the engine? When I looked under the hood the engine seemed to be a long way back, and it looked like it might be difficult to get the rocker covers off and the heads off. Not like on the old school V8's of the 70's where getting rocker covers off was quite a simple task.


Anyway, here's the link to the add.
http://motors.souq.com/v8-camaro/6624645-EN/#pic

The car is very low miles, but it's a Japanese import so those miles could all be in stop start traffic. Mechanically it looks quite good - engine is clean, no ticks or noises, doesn't drip any fluids, brakes work well and pull the car up dead straight. There was just a clunk when I accelerated as hard as I could which the owner says is a loose transmission mount.

There are some imperfections in the body - nothing too serious.

Asking price is equivalent to about $5500 US dollars, which seems about right considering it's an import and US cars are a little more expensive here than in the USA.

 

When you where drive if where you holding it to the floor. Shift points are controled by the computer and it is assume if you want to wind the car out you would hold it to the floor. You can also manually shift it.

Transmission mount failures are pretty common there are some upgrades out there.

Yes they are hard to work on. Some people get used to it but I have never heard a first timer ever say "wow those valve covers where easy to change"

The biggest weak spot in that 96 is the Opti. You should ask if it has been changed if so what type was installed and when. It will be good information to have. Also the fuel pump if it has not been changed it may need it soon.

 

Thanks Gorn, I appreciate your advice. Anyway I made this guy an offer and think it's lower than he's prepared to take. Maybe he'll change his mind, but if he doesn't it doesn't matter. There's always next time and they aren't going to run out of camaro's are they.