The on again, off again search for an "extra" family car has taken us through many, many different types of cars all of which have met with near over powering yawns from our teenage boys sons. I'd love to say their opinion means nothing but I'd be lying. If I can make them really happy at the same time making myself happy with spending as little as possible...well then, we're all just gonna sing kumbaya.
I took them out the other night to look at "a car" not telling them what kind of car it was. Anticipating another smelly old Bonneville or Century you can only imagine their stunned, silent amazement when they saw this thing.
This "thing" being a 1986 Camaro Sport Coupe. A car near and dear to my heart. For as long as I can remember I've wanted one. Although I did have a 2002 Camaro and that was a Z-28 not a little "baby Camaro like this one here, I still have a fondness for these '82-'92 Camaros.
There are many challenges with being a frugal person/car guy who's searching for an "extra" family car or, "car for the boys". That extra car has to be cheap to buy and more importantly, cheap to own. They wanted nearly $4000 for this 2.8 liter Camaro with only, get this, 22,000 miles on her. Might be a lot of money for a 27 year old car but a more than reasonable amount of money for a car with only 22,000 miles on the clock. I couldn't get my check book out fast enough when I first saw it online.
Comparable Camaros of this vintage, in what appeared to be near mint condition, sell for at least double the asking price of our cute as a button, black stripped little 2+2 here. Why such a relative "low price"? Well, for starters, this is a V-6 powered Sport Coupe not a Z-28. Even the optional 305 engine would've pushed the asking price north by almost a grand. Not that the V-8 option on these Camaros made a significant difference in performance but Camaro drivers like, "V-8s".
The interior was fairly worn. Not terribly but enough that I would want to have some professional upholsterer work on it. To the car's credit, it was not a smoker. Important. Don't smoke. And if you must, don't smoke in your car. That can hurt not only your chances of selling your car but also drives down the resale of your car.
The biggest problem with this car, there's always something with an old car, was with the engine itself. There's something wrong with fuel system because when it warms up the engine bucks, kicks and backfires. The car crawls to almost a full stop. When my son was driving it he thought it had run out of gas. It hadn't. It was just kicking like a sick goat because of the fuel system issues. I surmised that it was either dirty fuel injectors, bad fuel injectors, bad gas, bad coil packs, a bad catalytic converter or worse yet, a bad EEOM (electronic engine operating module). None of this seemed particularly alarming to me and better yet, I thought it a strong bargaining tool . I didn't want to drop $4000 on this car anyway.
When I offered $1500 with the mind set not to go north of $2000, the nice sales team just smiled and said to come back in the morning and talk to the manager. They also said they'd get a mechanic to look at the car and try to determine what was up with the engine. The boys were giddy with anticipation. So was I.
I called in the morning and was told the car had been shipped out already to "The Auction". I got the feeling that was the plan all along and my low ball offer was politely humored. Probably just as well but my boys and I were disappointed. However, seeing how excited they got over the prospect of this car has gotten me focused on something for them (us?) that is something a little more interesting than a smelly old Bonneville or Century.
The search continues. Y'all stay tuned.
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