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What's your favorite pre-2000 Chevy car that can be used as a DD?

shima

shima

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Hi guys, happy Friday...

I am thinking of selling my first car - a 1996 Mitsubishi 3000GT. In all honesty, it is a terribly-made vehicle. The quality is just bad all around. My automatic transmission is having issues and I am considering finally letting her go after 13 years together.

A big reason why I am ready to let this car go is because I really want to have a car with a manual transmission. Swapping a manual into my 3000GT is a huge project that I'm just not ready for yet. Hopefully one day, but not yet.

So, I'm starting to shop around for older Chevy cars that could be used as a daily driver. I'm imagining a sleeper-type car that is surprisingly fast (presumably with a small block V8 under the hood). My budget is ideally $4000 or less.

What would you guys pick if you were in my shoes?
 
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obijuank5 said:
Cavalier and saturns can rip
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Totally forgot about the Cavalier - the first gen looks pretty decent and came with a manual trans... :saweet:

I really like the look of the Impala and Caprice but they only came with automatics.
 
I always really liked the 90's Impala SS and you could get some power out of those. If you want a real sleeper I believe the Buick Roadmaster station wagon had the same or similar drive train.

95-Impala-SS-Mecum(1).jpg
 
Gm didn't make anything close in the 90s that you described there. A b body is slow and heavy, a vette or camaro are not sleepers.
I would try to find a 4 door s-10 truck or blazer from the early 2000s and V8 swap it with a junkyard ls
 
beags86 said:
Gm didn't make anything close in the 90s that you described there. A b body is slow and heavy, a vette or camaro are not sleepers.
I would try to find a 4 door s-10 truck or blazer from the early 2000s and V8 swap it with a junkyard ls
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I've always thought those 4 door S-10 pickups were kinda neat. That would be a cool project.
 
mrk5 said:
I always really liked the 90's Impala SS and you could get some power out of those. If you want a real sleeper I believe the Buick Roadmaster station wagon had the same or similar drive train.

View attachment 283851
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A LT1 is still just a basic 255 horsepower small block. Not really worth messing with in the LS world we live in. And then you still limited by a heavy b body.

That's said I thought the same, the SS was cool looking at the time. But I wouldn't want one unless I bought it dirt cheap.
 
beags86 said:
Gm didn't make anything close in the 90s that you described there. A b body is slow and heavy, a vette or camaro are not sleepers.
I would try to find a 4 door s-10 truck or blazer from the early 2000s and V8 swap it with a junkyard ls
Click to expand...

Hmmm... what about pre-90s?

The reason I said pre-2000 was because I was hoping for something that would be less of a project than my K5... but something from the 80s or even late 70s would be fine so long as it is built well.
 
beags86 said:
A LT1 is still just a basic 255 horsepower small block. Not really worth messing with in the LS world we live in. And then you still limited by a heavy b body.

That's said I thought the same, the SS was cool looking at the time. But I wouldn't want one unless I bought it dirt cheap.
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Imagine an LS swap in one of those Impalas.....
 
shima said:
Hmmm... what about pre-90s?

The reason I said pre-2000 was because I was hoping for something that would be less of a project than my K5... but something from the 80s or even late 70s would be fine so long as it is built well.
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G body for the win.
 
IMO most 80's cars were turds. Now we did have a Buick Park Avenue, late 80's I think, and it had a 3.8L that could run pretty good but still a BLAH car. We also owned a Pontiac Grand Prix GTP that's a supercharged version of basically the same 3.8L engine and it was really fun to drive in the mountains. We could also get nearly 30MPG on highway trips taking it easy on the throttle. I think that car was a 99 or 00.

Although I do really like the 80's Grand Nationals.
 
If I had to buy a 90's GM and wanted manual, I would probably go with the Camaro. Not a sleeper, but you are going to have a hard time meeting all your requirements. Those came with 6 speeds.
 
mrk5 said:
IMO most 80's cars were turds. Now we did have a Buick Park Avenue, late 80's I think, and it had a 3.8L that could run pretty good but still a BLAH car. We also owned a Pontiac Grand Prix GTP that's a supercharged version of basically the same 3.8L engine and it was really fun to drive in the mountains. We could also get nearly 30MPG on highway trips taking it easy on the throttle. I think that car was a 99 or 00.

Although I do really like the 80's Grand Nationals.
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I had an '88 GTA Trans Am and my buddies all had Mustangs. We all got our ass striped more than once by an unsuspecting Grand National but of course no manual gearbox.

Not many options for that criteria.
 
I had a 87 caprice cop car. Absolute blast on a dirt road but automatics only. I had 2 of them from a sheriffs auction. We would take them outside city limits and play dukes of hazard. My brothers 92 Iroc was pretty sweet too but definitely not a sleeper.
 
HankScorpio said:
I had a 87 caprice cop car. Absolute blast on a dirt road but automatics only. I had 2 of them from a sheriffs auction. We would take them outside city limits and play dukes of hazard. My brothers 92 Iroc was pretty sweet too but definitely not a sleeper.
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I'd definitely prefer a sleeper, but it looks like no GM sleeper candidates came with a manual trans.

The third gen Camaro looks pretty cool. I don't know much of anything about them. I like the look of this one but it's outside my price range: https://denver.craigslist.org/cto/d/1991-camaro-rs/6736987267.html
 
shima said:
I'd definitely prefer a sleeper, but it looks like no GM sleeper candidates came with a manual trans.

The third gen Camaro looks pretty cool. I don't know much of anything about them. I like the look of this one but it's outside my price range: https://denver.craigslist.org/cto/d/1991-camaro-rs/6736987267.html
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It's funny, when I was in the Navy in the 90's we called that vintage of Camaro a "cool guy" car. You know as in someone trying too hard to be cool. Now I kinda think it would be fun to own one.... :whistle:
 
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