Hey guys. Well, here is what im dealing with. Its nothing personal, or anything like that so thats why im posting it up on here because im just looking for some helpful insights. My girl has a 96 Cavalier Ls Convertible. And for lack of a better term, she absolutely loves it. Its the first real car anyone has ever given her (I bought it for her about 5 or 6 months ago, and repaired the notorious rod knock for her and shes been driving it ever since). Now were starting to have issue after issue. Check engine lights for the O2 sensor (again the notorious Bosch sensor that keeps kicking the 141 code, coolant leak thats coming from the heater core, needs brakes all around) its just getting to the point to where shes starting to get tired of the nickle and dime of the car. Again, she does love this car, and she loves is too much, she (Being a typical female sorry for all the females reading this) was backing out of a parking spot and rubbed the side rear quarter panel against a lawn care trailer and did a LITTLE bit of damage to it, called me bawling her eyes out, making me think she just totaled the car. Literally all was damaged was a small dent under the moulding and some scratches. But she hated herself for it. Now, with that said, we have been thinking of selling the car, and buying her another car. Now she has made it PERFECTLY clear she wants another Cavalier Convertible.

Now, I have been looking for them here and around the Chicago area and have come across a few really nice ones. I know there are a ton of you guys asking why get rid of one problem and get into another one, or why sell a car thats paid off and get something with a payment and so on. Ill explain why. Even if she buys the car, it will be financed for a max of 2 months. Due to her coming into some money in mid december. I know for a fact she is bc I have seen the statements from the account. And she will have more then enough to pay the car off. I want her to get financed just to get her credit rolling to have some sort of credit. A little is always better then none, and plus this will give her a score. Plus she would litereally only pay 2 months on the car, then she gets her money, then pays it off.

Now, for the cars I found. Me and her were talking and I really wanted to get her into a 00+ Cavalier Convertible, she likes sunfires, but she adores her red Cavalier. So pretty much it has to be red or black, and trying for 00. Well, finding a 00 in Illinois is like finding a needle in a haystack. So I actually came across 3 diffrent cars, but they were all 99 Z24's with really decent mileage, and there all convertibles.

The first one is Red, Black top, typical Z24 interior black with red speckle, and 100% MINT!!! They have 32 pics of this car, and it is beautiful! This is the #1 choice if we were to get her another car. Here is the great things about, interior is clean as hell, no rips, no burns, no nothing. Body is clean as a whistle, no rust not even under the doors, none, no scratches, and runs smoother then my 00. Tranny feels great, shifts smooth, no warpage on the brakes, and ac works great too. The huge plus to this one is it only has 59,500 miles! VERY low miles, and very well maintained. They gave me a carfax on her, and its a one owner, older couple, bought brand new, and traded out about 4 months ago at some chevy dealer here in Illinois. I cant recall the name. Now the bad, they are asking $5995 for the car! I know kinda high. But I hate to say it, well worth it. I blue booked the cars retail and it comes back at $6440, so its still under retail value, but still kinda steep.

The second one I found is another 99 Z24 black, all exact same options as the red one, and just as clean. a scratch here and there on the bumpers but litereally nothing else. Tires are brand spanking new (They have the little nipples on them) and car rides smooth, and feels stong and solid, just as the red one did. The plus side, there asking $4900 for that one. The really only downside is the mileage at 86000 miles. Still not bad for the year. Carfaxed this one also, and it came back as having 3 owners, the last one traded it out about 5 months ago. Engine sounds good, and everything sounds fine.

The last one worth looking at is again a 99 Z24, EXACT SAME as the red one above. Drove it around, and it felt great. Clean too. Only issue I can see is the front bumper has some scratches, and the hood has a ton of paint chips from road debris. Nothing major, just all cosmetic. Everything works on this one too, ac/heat, top everything. There asking $4500 for this one, and it has 89000 miles on her. Again, tires just replaced and feels solid.

Now thats my question. What would you guys do. Wait till we actually find a 00 and chance getting it with high miles, or go after the 1st red one with low miles but kinda pricey. Im just trying to find out what others would do. She wants another J and it HAS to be a vert. So what do you guys think. Please dont say dont buy another one, or get something better, bc this is what she wants, and ultimatly its going to be her money, with her paying for it. I know its up to her, but again, I just want to hear some opinions. Another reason Im asking is she gets her money in December, and I dont want to snooze on one of these cars, especially with the decent amount of miles they have on them and wait till she gets her money, then not only will she not have a car, but were stucking looking everywhere for another decent one, make sense? This way, if she goes ahead and buys the car, we can take our time and sell hers, and not worry about her not having a vehicle. Thanks guys!!

i wouldnt get any kinda of jbody for more then 2500. even a droptop, id say get her into another type of car that has a convertible body. the first gen soloras are really nice. or even a s2000.

Yeah we talked about that. But the S2000 would just be impractible since we both have kids, and well, Chicago winter isnt something for that car to ever see. The solara's even tho are nice, she doesnt want to pay that kind of money. If that was the case, I would have told her to find a convertible G6 since to me, those cars are nice as hell, and fit kids in the back seat too, but she wants to keep it as cheap as possible. Plus she just loves the Cavalier convertibles. So either way she will get herself another Cavalier convertible, so thats not the question. Plus from what she says, it fits her. Shes really tiny (100 LBS soaking wet with boots on) so small chick and small car works. But the funny thing is how u say nothing over 2500 for any type of J. When retail values of these cars here are (In great shape) still over 5 g's. But nonetheless, I can see where your coming from. But I would like her to stay with the J's since in all reality they are reliable when maintained, and the are easy and cheap as hell to fix. Plus I dont think its her car thats driving her nuts, I think she just wants something a little newer thats all. Either way, like I said, its her money, so she can buy what she wants.

I would go for the first red one for $5995. That doesn't seem like too bad a price to me since the mileage is so low, it's in great shape and it is a vert, which as you said, are pretty rare in these parts, at least in that good of shape.

I would love to have the money someday to get a 2000 Ultra Silver Metallic Sunfire GT vert. It's the only body style Sunfire I haven't had yet .

Thanks Carrie. Thats what we were thinking about. But after talking to her more about it last night, she finally tells me, she fell in love with the black one. She loves the red car, but she likes dark colors alot more. And since the price and mileage isnt that bad, were gonna see what happens. I would really like her to get the red one, but like I said its her money. So if she wants the black one, then if its stil avalible, she can get it lol.

And I looked for a sunfire vert, but those are even harder to find, in good shape, in the 00 year. I found one, but that was litereally beat to crap, and silver nonetheless. But I passed on that one bc it was really beat up, and had high ass miles!!! Literally like 156k

Geeez where do you find all of these verts. I want one and I cant find @!#$.

Hahaha, I actually just looked on Cars.com and Found all 3 of them. And a couple more. In illinois there actually not hard to find, just I was hoping to find a 00 and thats just not going to happen lol. And I see you never saw a sunfire vert. Lol, they are sexy tho, but finding one with good miles, and not very overpriced is hard as hell lol.

Dang, I'd make a weekend trip out of state for a cheaper MSRP, or find a by owner sale. I bought my 01(not vert though) for 2200 with 18k miles here in FL.

The red one seems like the best bet IMHO, 1 owner - low mileage - great shape... Usually if a person takes good care of exterior/interior, they probably take good care of it mechnically as well.... Around here verts are always going for 5k+ usually I see them 00+ but they are usually fairly high mileage and average condition. You might be able to get them down a lil on the price too... If SHE doesn't mind spending the money, IMO it's worth it... and if she wants credit, don't pay it off in 2 months. Paying interest builds credit. @!#$, have her set up an account specifically for the car payment, and put the money in there that would pay it off, and just have it auto deduct every month. She wont get jack for credit if she pays it off so soon. They dont particularly care for that.

Mrs. Jazer, u are 100% right. I really want her to get the red one, since that just means I might not have to work on it as much, lol. But like I said its up to her. The black one was very similar, but it just had higher miles. Same thing tho, one owner, no accidents and such. so the black one isnt bad just about 30k more miles.

And about the credit thing, yeah I know, but if she does that, since she has no credit right now, her interest will be high, especially since its a older car. So she will most likely spend double for the car if she pays it off with payments. This is more of, see I did buy something with credit, but paid it off early. Yeah 2 months really aint anything, but it will at least get the ball rolling. It will also be alot better then nothing at all. But we will see. I may go back this weekend with her, and have her look them over again, and go from there. But thanks for the advice, Im going to try and push her into the red one lol.

Mike A.K.A SNEEZY wrote:And I looked for a sunfire vert, but those are even harder to find, in good shape, in the 00 year. I found one, but that was litereally beat to crap, and silver nonetheless. But I passed on that one bc it was really beat up, and had high ass miles!!! Literally like 156k

I know exactly which one you're talking about . Poor thing. I saw it on Auto Trader a week or two ago.

Have you checked out Auto Trader and Craig's List? You may luck out on Craig's List and find a good deal on one being sold by the owner.

Yeah I saw the silver one on Cars.com. It actually made me sad to see the bad shape it was in. Sombody really hated that car lol.

I havent looked at autotrader yet, but CL has only 97's and she wants to get away from 96-97's since hers is a 96. And yeah I know CL somtimes you luck out, thats how I found my vert lol. Im going to go and check auto trader right now and see what comes up. Thanks carrie!