Hey everybody. Been looking around the forums this morning and theres a wealth of information around here, and some nicely modded cars.

I've been a BMW guy in the past, but now I have an uncle thats looking to get rid of his Camaro on the cheap this spring. 1997, Medium Quasar Blue, 163k on it. He bought the car from a dealer in '00 with ~40k on it. He uses it mostly for trips around Va to see family, big Sunday driver, and runs errands about once a week with it. Typical little old lady only driven on Sundays story, but this ones actually true. HE went to high school with his mechanic and has meticulous records of everything done. Off the top of my head I can think of steering column, susp, brakes, lights, regular maintenance in the past few years. A cattle truck backed into it in 2005 and the hatch was replaced. I've ridden in/driven the car numerous times since then and it doesn't seem any noisier. No leaks and paint matches well. His lifetime gas mileage is up around 27, I was surprised to see thats common on the highway when I was searching.
My plans for the car are DD most likely. I've got an old 3 series that'll be motor/trans swapped soon and take care of leadfoot needs. Also have a 94 540 that I've been DDing for about a year. But I like the Camaro, he wants $1k for it which seems fair. I'd also like to swap the 540 over to 6 speed and take some time to refresh a lot of small parts. Plus when I don't have anything to move I'd like to use the Camaro to commute to school. Its ~200 miles, 3 hours and getting 18mpg with 93 in the 540 is hurting the wallet right now.
So questions, comments, concerns? Particularly interested in: how do y'all like these cars for DIYing, how do they work as DDs, and whats the life expectancy. I saw the mileage thread and I see a lot of cars in the 150-200k area. I drive about 30k a year and 3-400k is nothing new for me. I'd like to keep it that way. Also from searching it seems manual swap requires some fab work and rear brakes are drum?

Thanks in advance guys,
Dave.

 

The biggest thing about swapping from auto to manual trans is cutting the floor out for the shifter. Of course that's not all, though.

I've got a '96 with almost 290k miles, and it's a wonderful car to drive. Most of the miles on mine are highway, which are less aggressive than city, but it's a city driver now. These cars are awesome for a long commute.

$1k is a low price for that car, if it's in as great condition as you say. The Blue Book value of that year/mileage is $2k in fair, $2.5k in good, or $3k in excellent condition.

Specifics to your questions: get a Haynes manual for DIYing, and it's fairly easy to pick things up and fix on your own. Great as a DD. Long life expectancy if you maintain it (again, mine's got 290k). Yes, rear brakes are drum.

I hope you enjoy your new car as much as I've enjoyed mine :0)

 

Thanks man, thats great to hear. Yea seems like I'll be keeping the auto. Its plug and play basically on BMWs. And too bad Bentley Publishers doesn't make a manual for these cars.

My uncle just started car shopping in October, so it'll be June or so before he gets a new car, but the more I think about it the more I'd like to pick up the Chevy. It'd be a nice change back to my roots from the kraut cars haha. Like I said mostly a highway car going to/from school and whenever the mood hits me around town.
Plans so far are: drop, cd player, paint the plastic around the headlights, maybe wheels. And summer after next if I have another sorted car to drive then maybe a V8 rear end and some powah

 

Intake gaskets are pretty common for these car. If it is still the original intake gasket it will need done soon. Head gaskets are pretty common but if the car is well maintained (antifreeze changed every few years) and the car was not driven hard your most likely good.

I did a good bit of research and IMO the 3800 camaro is one of the better comuters out there. I used to drive 120 miles a day and I have done it in several cars over 5 years. None of them is as good all around car. It is a larger car but with my 5 speed I can get 32 MPG on the highway but with 220hp and the stick it still fun to drive stop light to stop light. It by no means a "fast" car but compaired to my 2.2 Sunfire it a rocket.

 

Yea, its not the Bandit by any means, but its beats my 3800lb-er even with the V8.

I think I remember hearing both intake and head gaskets from him. Done preventative after he saw some oil cleaning the engine bay. They can't be worse than the ones I did last week. And be reading some more, seems the head units are wired with a harness and auto tranny failure is less common than my 5 series. Pretty sure my uncle runs 89, is that what y'all are doing in the 3800?

Edit: Also seems that the 3800 is the same stock and similar up top to the Olds 98 I grew up working on. Excellent.

 

89 will do fine. That's what I would run if i wasn't set up for 93. 87 is just DIRTY. The trans will be fine if you don't beat on it and actually know how to drive a stick (Don't ride the clutch for example). The 3800 is a great DD imo and will outlast any motor you can find as long as you don't beat it into the ground and just take care of it.

 

1k sounds pretty good..my 3800 is my dd for 9 months or so and it is great..and i just wanna give you ten exploding high fives for doing adequate research lol