Testdrove a 96 Firebird today

Great Tiger · 03-05-2005, 09:22 PM

After an exhausting day of shopping for a ugly pos v6 mustang convertable '03 -04 for my mother inlaw, my wife and I saw this 96 firebird at a dealership and decided to have a look just for the heck of it. We look it over, 104k kms v6 5spd, ps, pb, air, handling package, t-tops and a crappy stock cassette deck.

Sales guy comes out and agrees to a test drive. I drive a 99 Sunfire GT so this was indeed a different experience.

first thing i noticed was how comfy the seats really were, even for being non power seats you can find a real comfortable seating position. I'm 6'1" and for once i actually had to move the seat forward! i like my steering wheel to be all the way down and pretty much at a 90 degree angle and it went there and felt great.

So the next i noticed when starting the drive was little movement in the clutch pedal. Seriously the travel is very minute. There was fairly fine line between engaged and disengaged but the pedal wasn't so hard that you couldn't let it off easy. It felt like constant stop and go traffic was going to be problem.

Engine wise the V6 is surprisingly fairly strong. I know it's no V8 but actually it does the job and does it well. What really got me was how growly the V6 actually sounded. But i'm also keeping in mind that i'm used to the whine of my sunfire's four banger.

The shifter was at a nice position and i was actually surprised i didn't have to fight with the shifting at all which i do in my sunfire's (even after a rebuilt trans) and you can tell when you where in gear for sure. It had a nice in-clunk feel when putting it into gear.

over-all, i was impressed with the car. For a V6 it still felt muscly and sounded like it. The power steering was easy and solid, and breaking was alright. i backed into the parking space i drove it out of and despite the slant the back window has, you actually see alot thru it.

So did i buy? Nope. Wife liked everything as much as i did. But she's used to the creature comforts such as power windows and locks, and keyless entry and stuff. I'll admit that was something i could agree with her on. If it had those options we would have bought the car. The price was alright for us $9650. (can$) We're going to look around though for a fully loaded V6 and test a trans am as well.

The classic part of the whole thing was the left headlight not lifting at all.

Just a used car review for those that never have driven one.

LegendNH · 09:31 PM

10k buys you a 98 LS1 powered firebird

ohhh hell no, did you just consider a V6 firebird. Thats almost illegal

edit: I'm looking at 98 firebirds/trans ams with the LS1 and they are selling for between $8500 and $10,000.

look at cars on cars.com, autotrader.com and msn.com

Great Tiger · 03-05-2005, 09:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LegendNH

10k buys you a 98 LS1 powered firebird

ohhh hell no, did you just consider a V6 firebird. Thats almost illegal

edit: I'm looking at 98 firebirds/trans ams with the LS1 and they are selling for between $8500 and $10,000.

look at cars on cars.com, autotrader.com and msn.com

Welcome to canada where we're different.

TheFleshRocket · 03-05-2005, 09:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Great Tiger

Welcome to canada where we're different.

We know you're different.

Different is not necessarily a good thing.

RazorWind · 03-05-2005, 10:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheFleshRocket

We know you're different.

Different is not necessarily a good thing.

His point was that the price was in Canadian dollars.

$9650CDN is like ~$6KUS, I think.

Jamesgott · 03-05-2005, 11:29 PM

oh man an ls1 i cant wait.

Great Tiger · 03-05-2005, 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RazorWind

His point was that the price was in Canadian dollars.

$9650CDN is like ~$6KUS, I think.

and for canadian, it's a decent price.

Mr. Happy Face · 03-05-2005, 11:58 PM

for 4-5k (USdollar) u can get a nice lt1, dont every buy a v6 fbody, its just wrong.

eidolon · 03-06-2005, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by letsgohav6

for 4-5k (USdollar) u can get a nice lt1, dont every buy a v6 fbody, its just wrong.

Yes. Horrible blasphemy against the spirit of those cars. My mom has a '93 V6 Firebird, it's sad driving it after mine

So gutless...

SemperFly · 03-06-2005, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RazorWind

His point was that the price was in Canadian dollars.

$9650CDN is like ~$6KUS, I think.

7,847

Monte7467 · 03-06-2005, 01:01 PM

theres a 25th aniversry firebird downthe road for sale for 5grand, and its only got 80k miles on it. THe kicker is the driver side white leather seat is torn up. and its a auto, but other than that its clean. I wouldnt mind having that. Good for a collector.

LegendNH Daddy bought me a Corvette but I'm still a fat pathetic loser, please remind me of this whenever you	10k buys you a 98 LS1 powered firebird ohhh hell no, did you just consider a V6 firebird. Thats almost illegal edit: I'm looking at 98 firebirds/trans ams with the LS1 and they are selling for between $8500 and $10,000. look at cars on cars.com, autotrader.com and msn.com __________________ A legend disappears before his time Last edited by LegendNH; 03-05-2005 at 09:31 PM..
03-05-2005, 09:29 PM	#2

Jamesgott i dig through other peoples trash	oh man an ls1 i cant wait. __________________ 511d86af6e3fbb0266557abd842e140b [y yuo throw haet :( :(] porn may <3's yuo.
03-05-2005, 11:29 PM	#6

Mr. Happy Face letsgohav6	for 4-5k (USdollar) u can get a nice lt1, dont every buy a v6 fbody, its just wrong. __________________ are u fucking serious
03-05-2005, 11:58 PM	#8

Monte7467	theres a 25th aniversry firebird downthe road for sale for 5grand, and its only got 80k miles on it. THe kicker is the driver side white leather seat is torn up. and its a auto, but other than that its clean. I wouldnt mind having that. Good for a collector. __________________ The owner of the slow [M]onte.
03-06-2005, 01:01 PM	#11