so i have 2 years left on active duty navy and then im getting out and going to college. i drive a beat up pickup thats falling apart so i was thinking now would be a great time to buy my dream car! only thing is i have been getting lots of people telling me not to buy a camaro and that i need to get a honda or toyota blah blah blah because i need a reliable car. the only camaros i can really afford have around 50,000-70,000 miles on them. im not the most car savvey guy out there but i know basic maitenance. i will need the car to last me for a good 5 or 6 more years. not really worried about the v6 or v8 but i do need it to be reliable. i had a 97 monte carlo last me to 237,000 but then i read about all you guys swapping engines and stuff so what would yall say? just **** it and get my dream car or go a different road?

 

If the car is taken care of theres no reason why it cant have 200k miles on it, if its taken care of it will also be reliable, you must also consider snow depending on where you live.

 

specially snow, I live in Michigan and its a b**** to drive my camaro in snow!

 

my camaro has 200k+ on it and its 32 years old, i dont see why yours couldnt survive, also i havent done anything major to it, just tune ups oil changes and also changed the clutch and what not. although the prior owner didnt take too good care of it and it does need alot of attention, but anything that old will, as they said snow is a big thing, then again a 20lb honda wont be that much better. i say go for it man! they are reliable cars that ALSO give you alot of enjoyment, and a big reason everyone here rebuilds engines are for speed and HP gains

 

i currently live in arizona and dont have to deal with that problem but am moving back to connecticut in the spring, will probably try the camaro in snow at least once. I then expect to give up and buy a junker

 

if you can control yourself you`ll be fine. This is my second winter with my camaro. My first one I ended up 3 times in the ditch, and all 3 of them I manage to get out without any help( took me at least 30 min each time )

 

first, thank you for your service.

You mentioned something even more important than which car, you mentioned your education. Focus on the prize and in the end, you can buy more than one f-body instead of settling for something.

be safe

 

Ah just buy the camaro man. I live in England right now. Let me tell you it's not much easier driving it here, but if you get the hang of it, you'll be fine. The roads here are always wet or icy, plus they're very narrow and you cant see anything around the bend because of all the foliage. But I haven't totalled her yet, so I think you'll be just fine with one.

 

I want to start by saying I love Camaro’s. All generations. I have owned them all. I say this because I know many Camaro guys will not like what I have to say. Camaro is a sports Car. As a general rule buying any used sports car is risky. Some people baby their Camaro’s but for every one person that babies their Camaro there are five that dog the crap out of it. I’ll assume you are looking at fourth gens. Since the newest forth Gen is 2002 that means your looking at cars that are at least 8 years old. I am sorry to say GM does not design cars to last 10 years. Yes many do last that long and much longer but if we could look at the original design spec from GM I would bet the estimated design life is less then 10 years. Most cars are designed to a 7 year spec. I will add Camaro’s are sought after. Their value is higher then say a Impala of the same year and miles.

All that being said If you are not a do it yourself car guy, you have a limited budget and you NEED this car to last maybe you should look at some other cars. I have seen 2004 Impala’s with 65K one owner sell for $3500. Clean as could be. That’s a car you could probably put 100K and just do routine maintenance. You should have any used car inspected by a mechanic you trust.

I drive a 96 Camaro every day. I trust it. But I went thru it top to bottom and installed about $1000 worth of parts. To pay someone to do it for me would have cost 3 or 4K. IMO your dream car is worth the wait till you can afford a late model (2010) or you can afford to have it as a second car.
And thank you for your service.

Remember this is a Camaro atheist site. Asking if you should buy a Camaro on this site is kind of like asking if Britney Spears has any talent on the Britney fan club site.

 

Do it!!! I sold my old a** 2000 Ford F-250 Super Duty Lariat with a Trtion V10 motor yeah it sucked up the gas 5 miles to the gallon! woo! SOLD THAT FOR $5000 with 230k then found my car with only 56k miles and bought it from a dealer, very satisfied only thing I had to change out the alternator after 15 years in service.