I went to buy a car last year and found out something i guess i was too stupid to know. EVERYTHING on your credit disappears in 7 years...good and bad. So my last new car was bought 10 years ago, since then i've bought a few projects but mostly paid cash for them. So i went to buy a new car late last summer and was like WTF!? when they gave me a lousy interest rate. They told me i have basically no credit history...it's like i'm a new car buyer all over again. They tried to put me in an Aveo...supposedly to help me, I said no thanks.
So i now have a few credit cards and stuff to re-build, but a car loan on my credit would look awesome. I wanted something cheap enough i could pay it off in 1 year...So enter the 2001 Monte Carlo SS/NA. I have the chance to get it, and i honestly liked it. Not a balls to the wall super coupe. But a nice cruiser i can drive comfortably back and forth from Detroit to Chicago. and to and from work...or any road trip i want. However i don't know dick about these cars. Are they any good?
A friend of mine says just put rims on it and leave it alone and it will run forever. Just curious if there is anything about them i should know? Any good aftermarket support? any issues they are known for?
"Formerly known as Jammit - JBO member since 1998" JBOM | CSS.net
about the only problem i know of on the 3800 motor is the intake manifold. gm made them out of plastic for a while.
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RuggedZ wrote:about the only problem i know of on the 3800 motor is the intake manifold. gm made them out of plastic for a while.
As many other cars do across all automakers. Doesn't retain heat as much. What's so bad about the specific 3800 intake manifold?
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- Sold my beloved J in April 2010 -
everything i've read about them and from first hand experience with friends etc, over time the plastic manifolds warp or crack. and the original gaskets they used on them were garbage as well. i think what i heard is that the problem usually pops up at about the 50k mile mark.
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I looked at two vehicles side by side. Forget the year, but they were identical. One was a Grand Prix and the other was a Monte Carlo. The carlo had 10K more miles..but it was MILES and MILES behind the other car. The interior was falling apart everywhere. There's a part of the dash that sticks out, and it was almost an inch above the rest of the dash.
I found two or three in my search for my grand prix, and all of them had trashed interiors..not as in they were taken care of poorly, but moreso because they just seperated and fell apart.
To my knowledge it was failure of the gasket, not the actual intake. I <3 my Grand Prix. If you can find a Monte with a good interior I'd pick it up. They do make great cruisers and you get excellent mileage on the highway..
Only thing I know of is the LIM gaskets, otherwise those motors are like the ohv cav motors, not too ballsy but they'll start everytime and hold together probably longer than the car.
"A car just isn't a car without a little blood, sweat, and beers." -- Shadowfire
^ exactly, the 3800 is hands down one of the best motors gm ever made. the intake/intake gasket is the only real problem i've ever heard of people having with them.
that motor will still hold its own too, 3.8l powered cars i think are maybe just a tad faster than your average z24. and you'll still get 29-31 mpg on the highway as well.
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my 98 gtp shows no sign of lim failure. and runs like a champ!
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