Hi. I interviewed briefly the owner of a rare J body. I hope you guys don't mind this thread. I don't know where to post and I thought you guys might enjoy this. I posted this same message to those at the Allpar (Mopar) forum. Now, I hope you don't mind as people at Allpar are completely biased against J bodies and call them junk. They cite their experience and views as proof of this. That being said, I don't flame people over cars like so many people do. Nor do I go around telling people their car is junk. Here is the cool story I posted at both forums:
I could not resist, but I interviewed briefly the owner of one of the last Pontiac J bodies in the beautiful state of California.
This Pontiac was not a lemon. I never saw such a rare survivor. Now, I know of 2 early 80s Pontiac J bodies left in Tarzana. One is
a 1984 Pontiac 2000 Sunbird 4dr Sedan parked in a residential area. It is a silver model with original plates with a sun faded red rearend assembly.
But this Pontiac 2000 I spotted today was the most reliable, rare, and clean one I have ever seen. At first, I thought it was the same one I already seen. It was identical. However, it looked better and brand new!
Here is the car: A 1983 Pontiac J2000 Silver 4dr Sedan with 176,000 miles! The owner was a working middle aged man who drives this car EVERY DAY. He says he has never done any major work on the car. It gets 29MPG on surface streets!!!!!. The car looked exactly like the 84 model except it was cleaner, shinier, and no dents. It had the same type of sunfade of the red rearend assembly. However, it was missing the Sunbird word on the trunk and the owner told me it was an 83. However, it had no letter J. It must have fallen off. It had original dark blue Cali plates and the inside was immaculately clean. No rust whatsoever. The owner also said the only work he had done was brakes and the typical stuff. No major engine problems, YET! He said his only complaint was the tendency for the starter to go out. I told him he had a 25 year old classic. He was surprised and did not realize his car was so rare. I watched him drive away. The car started right away and idled smooth.
Here is a picture (not the actual car) of what I saw:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:%2785-%...iac_Sunbird.jpg
Have any of you seen a Pontiac J2000 lately? Read my post and see what I saw.
I own 1984 pontiac j2000 Sunbird here in Ma..It was my Fl car and was shipped up north here last year...Perfect original condition except for some rust at bottom of drivers door...only 34 k original miles..paint and interior perfect...I am still looking for a drivers door skin or whole door, and a mirror switch for the rear view electric mirrors..can anyone help? Photos are avail if anyone wants to see it! May be looking to sell it in the spring, as I am looking at a vette
Peter
Nope on the j2000,but thurs I did see a 85 cav hatch gold in color with fact whl covers and looked to be in pretty good shape.I was like whoa,I see alot of first gen cavs here in nc but,hatches are really rare espec to see rolling down the road not beat the crap up.I did come across a 85 yellow vert SOLID way low miles at my local ymca and left a note on it saying if they ever decided to sell it please call me and left my info,I still have not heard a word.
