The PA is rapidly showing its age, and the repairs needed to vehicle value ratio isn't looking pretty right about now. I am undecided what to do with it right now, but I am looking at other options.




The details:
It'* a 25th anniversary LS model
Leather interior
Front left has taken a bit of a bump and the front cover is a bit weird. If anything, the support may be tweaked.

The nitty gritty:

The battery was dead as a door nail.
Tires are dryrotted like crazy (worse than even mine)
Engine bay is dirty
Engine oil is dirty, bad
Tranny oil is dirty, prolly just as bad
I could only see one coolant elbow, but it appears to be in good shape, and free of coolant
UIM is dated 2004
Car was a Michigan car half of its life, and local the other half
Leather interior seems halfway decent
Mileage is likely in the 155k range

We didn't plan ahead for the dead battery, but a flat tire had us putting it off to tomorrow. Supposedly there is an A/C leak as well, but I will check that out tomorrow. My initial impression is that the car presents honestly, it has just been neglected for a while. The dirty oil tells me it has been in there a while with no signs of moisture. Also the UIM has been replaced, so I hopefully won't have to worry about that too quickly.

What is everyone'* thoughts on this? General opinions? The next move is to go back tomorrow and drive it. My hope is that it drives strong and puts on a good show.

Sounds like you are going to have to spend a few hundred bucks to get it road worthy, new tires are going to be around 300.00 at least.
A new battery will be like 70.00 or so.
I'd change the oil, transmission fluid, and the plugs\wires.
The date on the UIM does not really mean too much, other than the fact that maybe they replaced the UIM, that does not mean they changed the LIM Gasket, have you looked at it to see if it has a aluminum frame?
If not I'd replace that, and inspect the UIM around the EGR passage.
Have you checked to make sure all windows roll down and up, and that all lights/turn signals work, as well as the horn works?
How are the brakes?
Just asking because those are some of the basic things that will be looked over during an inspection.

Is the paint on the hood messed up, or is it just dirty?

Overall if you have around 500.00 or so to put into things it needs done, then it may not be too bad of an investment.
Plan on spending around 700.00 total if you need to replace the LIM Gasket.

Given all that it needs done, I am not sure it is worth the purchase price, if it were in average condition, and did not need all of the things you mentioned done, then around 2,100.00 is the fair dealer price, at least that is what kelly blue book lists it as.
Unless they want to have the things done to it that it needs to be able to pass an inspection, I'd probably offer them a little less for it, although they may not take it, the most I'd offer them is 1,500.00.

i had to replace mine about that time the first time and they didnt have the dorman updated stuff, all they had was the oem stuff i believe. then a couple years ago i had to do it again, the base of it was blowing out near the egr /tb side. i agree with having to do the LIM too, alot of people dont they might be original

I got more of the story.

The car was traded in about 2 months ago because supposedly the owner wanted to get in to something with working A/C, and it also needed a battery. He traded in to a cheap Taurus laying around the lot. The dealership owner believes it is mechanically sound.

This is how the test drive went down:

Went to start it up, it didn't want to fire. Had to do a key relearn and play with the gear shifter, and noticed 168k on the ODO
Also it was a bit low on coolant. At no point did the car ever build cooling system pressure. On the drive, the temperature was pretty set in the center of the gauge. You could tell while sitting in traffic it would creep up a hair until the fans kicked on. Brakes were really touchy, at least compared to mine, and eager to stop with no drama. Left front has a bad shake at 55+ mph, but that was also the tire that was flat. Car drove straight as an arrow, but the suspension did show some age (not nearly as much as mine). No lights on on the dash, no SES, no ABS, nothing. And yes, it was like christmas time when the key first comes on.

The drive train:
The engine drives smooth, and seems eager enough, but it feels like something it holding it back a bit, like it is not living up to its full potential. Transmission is nice and smooth, but takes longer to shift than I would like it to. No slam shifts in the drive. I had full operation, including OD and TCC lock. I couldn't see any aluminum framed LIM gaskets either. I did notice a whine when I jumped on it, like either an impeller type pump whine, but only when it was pushing. It sounded like the noise was on the drivers side too.

My thought is that the guy that traded it in is an idiot, or so I hope, but my gut tells me the UIM is already a problem. It also presents itself in a similar way that the PA did. The PA was a seafoam treatment and tuneup, and then it was a force to be reckoned with.

I filled out the credit application, and am shooting to finance the whole car, nothing down. Longest term possible, lowest monthly payment. We will have final word on that tomorrow, and that will decide everything. Insurance would increase another 50% for 2 cars fully insured (like buy one, get one half off).

The price: $1200 as it sat. The battery adds another $130. They offered to put tires on it too on my dime, but if I do that, I want to get those myself. Makes life easier when you can use your own road hazard warranty, rotate, balance, etc.

If everything works out, I plan to get the oil changed in the first 2 weeks (standard used car warranty), and get a look under it then. I doubt rust has taken this one captive. I think a change of scenery has me a bit excited. It also allows me to do more work on any given car myself, because the pressure is off to have the big jobs done by the time you have to go somewhere.

Please keep the feedback coming.

Sounds like for $1200 it can be turned into a good daily driver. I wish you the best of luck there Randall. I normally though like to find them with a bit less miles if possible.
Then I am not so worried it needs everything, which in parts alone can add up fast.

you can do the uim/lim/aluminum elbows for 110 from RA with a jug of concentrate of your favorite coolant so with the oil change and all its maybe 140. then since its a warm area you get it taken care of. i would clean the crap out of the rad and condenser while you do it. the condenser alot of the times is where it leaks. picks up a rock or the joints where the hard lines connect. the only expensive stuff in my mind is trying to get the a/c working most of those parts are pretty high and seems like they were the first thing they build on a wbody then build the rest of the car around it

He said it needs tires, well he said they were dry-rotted like crazy, if they are too bad they may not pass an inspection, those are not that cheap, I just got 4 new tires mounted/balanced, and the cheapest ones I could get ran me 300.00 total.

tires are getting expensive, he already knows it needs those though. when we went to the pick a part (knock off) yard around here, my father in law got some decent tires for his lesabre, no name brand but 80-90 percent tread for like 120 or 125 for all 4. if you need to save money that might be a good resource, the kid says he gets tires like that all the time and that and batteries are the most popular purchase there. i was looking for some tires for my firebird, for some reason my back ones keep wearing out. reminds me i should stop by there again and see, they didnt have any for it last time

Here is the rest of the story.

After a 3 day battle with financing, I gave in to a 18 month signature loan at a local credit union for the purchase price of the car. Get cashiers check loaded up for the purchase price, back to the dealership, papers go down, explanations are going on, then I have a sudden bout of extreme paranoia and waive off signing the papers for the moment.

I decided to go to lunch at that point with a friend, and he takes a look a brief look at the car. He sticks his head under it, and then proceeds to point out things on it from stem to stern, things that I either missed or glossed over. At this point I was even starting to notice things that he didn't point out. He then drives the point home, "I would rather have your car, than this one"...

The opening rounds on this regal would have been like this:
$1200 car + $120 Battery
$300 tires
LIM Job ($200 + friends, or $700 at the shop)

With this list, I have already blown the vehicle valuation, and that is not even counting the sea of oil underhood, tranny service, rear windows not working, broken interior switches, power mirrors not adjusting, air conditioner issues, or anything else even that would surface after living with this car for more than 15 minutes.

Why was I about to do this? Because my 21 year old PA has bits falling off of it in true GM fashion, and needs the following list addressed:

Harmonic Balancer ($80-120 part)
Heater core replacement (Likely a $500 job after parts and labor)
Tires soon ($250-$300)
It could probably use another round of sparkplugs too.
Other odds and ends here and there, but no signs of impending doom.

What do I have to say for myself? Wow, that was close...

I believe ......