2002 Buick LeSabre - What A Concept

 

My wife and I are always looking for a cheap car to replace the more troublesome of our two 1996 Camaros and she found a 2002 Buick LeSabre just like this for sale a couple of weeks ago. On my test drive I found that the AC wouldn't blow cold, it needed brakes and tires and there was a weird squeaking sound out of the right rear; probably a wheel bearing. Save for a fairly large dent in the rear quarter panel I didn't think it a bad car - especially with an asking price of $1,900 and 79,000 miles on the odometer. If I could get it for a grand and put a grand into it I think that would have been money well spent. 

Thing is I'd have to drop well more a grand on that right rear quarter panel and that killed the deal for me. I'm all about driving a cheap car but a cheap car that looks like it's been in an accident is not for me. Old? Fine. Little nicks here and there? Fine as well. But a bashed in fender I have no intent on fixing? Sorry. Pass. Kudos to the owner for telling me he slow speed sideswiped a telephone pole in a parking lot. Maybe the squeaking out of the rear was also because of his little accident. I'll never know. 

Anyway, my biggest takeaway about that big old LeSabre was how pleasant a car it was to drive. Yes, I felt like an old man driving it and I've never liked the styling on these big, bulbous "G-body" LeSabres but it had a lot going for it. The 3800 V-6 it had was the same engine that's in my Monte Carlo and both of my Camaros so it wasn't surprising to me at how smooth and powerful it was. The ride was supple without being jarring and wasn't overly floaty. The car felt planted without the high strung "sportiness" of many of today's sedans and was as comfortable and familiar as the family couch. Comfort first and foremost - there's something to be said for that.

The interior was gigantic in ways that LeSabres of yore never were. Great visibility too; something else sorely missing from today's sedans and many cross overs. The seats looked awful but they were supportive much the same way the thrones in my 2006 Chevrolet Tahoe are. Again, comfort first; what a concept. 

A big, comfortable six passenger sedan - to say they don't make 'em like this anymore is an understatement. And I say that running the risk of coming across like a "get off my lawn" old guy and trust me - I ain't that guy but that said, these are really good cars. The Buick LeSabre nameplate, incidentally, was as storied and long lived as any GM model nameplate. First introduced in 1959, General Motors built some sort of LeSabre up until as recently as 2005 and it was always a rung lower on the Buick pricing ladder than either the Electra through 1990 or the Park Avenue through 2012.

 

 

Like many a GM design from the last twenty-five years or so, though, these cars have aged as well as a VCR or a typewriter. They're just old and unhip looking whereas a 1962 or 1972 LeSabre, even an '82, are older but they're somehow cool. There's no market for these swoopy front wheel drivers which of course crushes their resale value. Again, that's too bad since these are really good, solid appliances. Sexy? Hardly. Ridiculously good value? Absolutely. That LeSabre I test drove appeared to have been sold less than a week after my test drive; someone able to see past the banged up quarter panel and no doubt got a hearty car that will run for years to come. Good for them.

1982 Buick Regal Grand National - A Very Long Road Trip

Buick thought so much of their new-for-1981 Regal that for '82 they rolled out a taped up trim package they called "Grand National". Actually, it was to help promote Buick's successful 1981 NASCAR season. I came across this one recently that's been rebuilt with an L76 (6.0 liter) "LS-2" V-8. It was bolted together by NextGen Performance of Spencer, Massachusetts.

I know, Buick racing. As if. They only built 215 of these cars for 1982 and there was no Grand National for 1983 so it's understandable that you may never have known these cars existed. Buick reintroduced the Grand National nameplate for 1984 and built them through 1987. Those 1984-1987 models are the sinister looking, black-on-black fuel injected turbocharged monsters that are perhaps the most sought-after domestic collectible from the 1980's. Come to think of it, they might be the only car worth collecting from the 1980's.

Most of the 215 1982 Grand Nationals didn't have Buick's turbo 3.8 liter V-6 but rather Buick's 4.1 liter V-6. Making all of 125 horsepower and 205 pounds of torque, it wasn't much of an upgrade from the run of the mill 110 horse, 190 pound 3.8 but at least it was some sort of engine upgrade to go along with the snazzy paint and graphics. Buick fit the rear end with 3.23 gears to help make the most of the added twist of the 4.1 and they equipped the car with an F41 handling suspension too. By the way, this awesome Buick logo on the rear quarter panels is painted; it's not a sticker. 

Regardless of the modest original performance "upgrades", let's be honest, the fact this otherwise ordinary Regal is in the pristine shape it's in is because it's a Grand National and someone had a penchant for keeping it in near showroom condition. Most other GM G bodies have either been long shredded, are not long for this world or have been hot rodded. The majority of the remaining runners out there are quintessential 1980's automotive appliances and they're not worth much. 

I shudder to think what this must have cost to do. When you factor in the cost of the car itself, I wouldn't be surprised to find out the build ran north of $30,000. Along with the engine, NexGen swapped out the turbo 350 transmission for a modern 4L65E unit, a custom driveshaft had to made as well since they dropped the rear end it came with for a heavy duty Ford 9 inch rear complete with 3.70 gears. Let's not forget about having to swap the gas tank and run new fuel lines since the car came originally with a carburetor. All this adds up. Quickly. 

At the end of the day, you can't always be concerned about what something is going to cost or if, with regards to old cars, what something is going to be worth in the future. Sometimes you just have to do what makes you happy. Although I wouldn't go to the extremes the owner of this lovely car went through, I'm glad he did and I'd love to borrow it for a road trip. A long one. Make that, a very, very long one. 

2007 Ford Mustang GT - 1967 Called and they Want their Hurst Shifter Back

Ford went retro with their Mustang back in 1994 with their so called "SN95" model and while a big hit for Ford, I was never impressed with it. Whereas what came before it was quite awesome, thank you very much, even if it was in a most brutal, raw and primitive kind of way. My insightful, car crazy 21-year-old son feels the same way so I know I was onto something. A freshening for 1999 got rid of a lot the SN95's awkwardness but it still rode on the same flinty Fox body; no amount of horsepower being able to overcome a chassis that came out in the late 1970s. My perception of the Mustang changed completely when Ford introduced a new model for 2005 based loosely on the same chassis that underpinned the 2000-2006 Lincoln LS, 2002-2005 Ford Thunderbird, and 2000-2008 Jaguar S-Type. Our subject here is a 2007 GT that's been for sale for over seven months at a Chevrolet dealership near my home here in Cleveland's west side.

I've had my eye on this since June and I've seen them drop the price an astonishing $4,000. Incredible. Amazing too considering that it has just 23,000 miles on it and with it advertised on the internet, you'd think someone would swoop in from out of town and grab it; especially considering that it's priced thousands less than comparable Mustang GT's of this vintage. For weeks now I've been yelling to my wife that "they dropped the price again on the Mustang" and she'd yell back that I needed to go to  the dealership and see what the story was. Last weekend with that car crazy 21-year-old son of ours home from school on Christmas break, he and I finally did just that.

 

Months ago I called about this car and the story went that someone traded this in for a Jeep Wrangler; they had no idea if that person was the original owner or if they were responsible for the after market Hurst shifter. Excuse me, 1967 called and they want their aftermarket shift kit back. Yeah, this was an eye brow raiser - why would someone swap out a perfectly good stock shifter? 

I'm glad they did because that unique Hurst knob does do wonders to dress up what's already a very handsome interior; red leather buckets to die for.  

Out on the road test, it was apparent that Ford dialed out a ton of the refinement the Lincoln and Jaguar built on this chassis had. This thing is harsh and jarring by comparison. Some people like that but you don't have to be a professional driver to appreciate how far along the state of the art these cars have come in the last decade or so. This car felt primitive and old school and not in a good way.

There's also a funky three valve per cylinder 4.6 liter, overhead cam V-8 under the hood that makes 300 horsepower. Sounds impressive but this is a pretty heavy car and keep in mind, Ford's latest Ecoboost 4-cylinder cranks out 310 horsepower. This car also lacks the off the line punch of a GM "LS", and I've heard horror stoires about these engines as they get older. Was this car fast? I guess - at least in comparison to the 200 horsepower, 1996 V-6 Camaro we drove to the dealership in but compared to a "modern" Mustang 4 or six cylinder, this thing's a brick. And I'm not even going to go there comparing this GT to a late model "5.0".

After I finished my spirited test drive, oh, don't get me wrong, this car's a blast to drive and I loved the notchy Hurst shifter, I asked my kind sales person how much they were asking for the 2016 "Ecoboost" Mustang that was parked two cars away. At 18 grand, it wasn't priced any more than what they wanted for this car when they first listed it. While it had slightly more miles on it and was "only" a four-cylinder, it could run circles around this car and, subjectively, it's a better-looking automobile. Also, I could get the balance of the remaining factory warranty and get an extended warranty for peanuts. They wouldn't even sell me an extended warranty on this car.

So, all that taken into consideration it's no wonder this has been sitting for so long. 

1968 Cadillac Camper - Let Me Know What The Wife Thinks

I laugh out loud imagining how my wife would react be if I came home one day with this 1968 "Cadillac Camper". For whatever reason, I find this thing compelling even if I've never been camping.

I laugh even harder thinking about how upset she'd be when she found out I dropped $12,500 on it. Perhaps she wouldn't react and instead, call a hospital and have me carted away.

Anyway, this is a camper built by Superior Coach of Lima, Ohio off the back of a heavily reinforced General Motors commercial chassis. GM sold most of their automobile based commercial chassis through Cadillac years ago - explains why so many ambulances and hearses were Cadillac's. The name "Superior" might sound familiar to you - it's been has been associated with all sorts of professional car conversions, most famously limousines, hearses and ambulances, going back more than 100 years.

I say the Superior name has been associated with conversions since it's been bantered about over the decades. Superior Coach was once an independent company that was bought out a couple of times by large conglomerates. Apparently, there was some equity in the name since it's stuck around as long as it has. Not so apparent was the market for car-based campers like our '68 here. I've seen pickup trucks with campers in them but never a car based camper before.

There's not much "Cadillac" in our camper aside from the front end. Things back here look pretty rudimentary even for 1968.

It's not so much that things had to have been done on the cheap with this thing as much as the extra weight of a small room off the back of a car had to be considered. This camper weighs in at a rim busting 7440 pounds. 

The weight explains the truck-based rims on a massive Dana 70 series rear end with stump pulling 3.73 gears. 

Can only imagine the gas mileage this thing does not get given its weight, gearing, lack of aerodynamics and this new for 1968 Cadillac 472 V-8. Owner claims it has a new camshaft, lifters and timing chain. Bet it does 0-60 in 25 seconds.

For your $12,500 you get also get three battery systems, one car battery and two deep cycle batteries, a fridge with a freezer, a 3 burner stove, 20-gallon pressurized water tank, 30-gallon waste water tank, bathroom with toilet, 2 gas lights (whatever that means), a furnace and stereo with cassette and CB. All the comforts of home on the road circa 1968.

Somehow it sleeps five. 

Crank windows on a '68 Cadillac? Power windows were standard on all 1968 Cadillacs but then again remember this isn't a Cadillac so much as a GM commercial chassis conversion. Crank windows saved cost as well as weight. Same for the lack of power adjustment on these luscious buckets. 

I don't know what price point this makes sense or less of a joke but $12,500 certainly isn't it. Especially on something that literally needs everything. Here's the listing. Let me know what the wife thinks of it. 

2015 Mini Cooper S - Window Shopping



Last week's melodrama surrounding the "older" of our two 1996 Chevrolet Camaro's had my wife and me on the brink of shopping for something to replace it.  What makes shopping for a new car challenging is that I don't want just something but something special. The only way to do that and be really happy with our purchase is for us to drive every vehicle we're interested in. It's a time-consuming process but when the time comes we'll only have to worry about color and options on what we want. However, walking into dealerships to only take test drives is easier said than done. Today's blog is as much about a couple of 2015 Mini Coopers as it is about how difficult it is to simply test drive cars with no intention of actually buying them.

 

 

With our budget at no more than $20,000, hoping to spend less, and wanting no vehicle with more than 30,000 miles on it, again, preferably less, our options are fairly limited. Especially if I want something "special"; my wife claims she'd be happy with something that was just reliable. Her tune changed after I got her behind the wheel of this "volcanic orange" Mini Cooper.

 

 

I've heard great things about Mini's since BMW took them over from The Rover Group back in 2000. Prior to that, I didn't take them seriously as real cars. I thought they were ugly, weird and they reeked of that awful Brit arrogance. Incidentally, Mini's have been around since 1959 and are as commonplace "over there" as bad teeth.

 

I'd never considered one of these before last weekend believing they were too expensive. Strangely enough, they popped up through my filters during one of my myriad cars.com searches. Mini Cooper's are pricey - when they're new. Their resale value is not what you'd think it would be especially considering they're defacto  BMW's. This very nicely equipped 2015 Cooper with just 20,000 miles on it has an asking price of $14,999. A comparable 2015 V-6 Mustang is going to be a at least a grand more if not two grand more; same for a Camaro. Dodge Challenger's are even more. Why? Not sure. When this little car was new it stickered for north of $35,000. Kid you not, mate.

On paper, this car makes no sense what-so-ever. It's so small, so cute, so, so...girlie. It has a three-cylinder engine too making it seem all the more golf cart like to me. This was going to be a short test drive. So I thought.
 

Out on a fairly busy I-480 south of downtown Cleveland you'd never know this very substantial feeling little car only had a three-cylinder engine - this thing can really go. The engine is turbocharged and at 1.5 liters this "three" is cylinder for cylinder not a "small" motor. Still, three cylinders. What's more, it handled like a slot car and had brakes to die for. Despite lacking a power seat, it was very comfortable and the interior was luxurious. Quite a car. Again, despite being a three cylinder.

 

As good as the orange Cooper was, my wife loved the color, this silver white Cooper "S" was even better. Thanks to a turbocharged 2.0 liter inline four-cylinder engine and a 17-inch wheel and tire package, it was as screaming a high-performance car as I've ever driven. Granted, I was doing suburban driving and was not on a race track but around town where most driving is done, you'd be hard-pressed to want for more than what a Mini Cooper S has to offer. If that sounds like cheesy ad copy so be it; this is a great car. And my wife was over the top in love with it as well. Score.

 

After the second test drive, my wife didn't drive the S in the interest of saving time, we then faced the challenge of getting out of the dealership. What ensured was a near hour long beat down with our very accommodating but super aggressive sales kid. Remember that my wife and I had absolutely no plans what-so-ever to buy a car last weekend and our jaunt to the Mini dealership was nothing more than research based. It also sucked up some time on a shoot-me-hot Saturday afternoon before we had dinner and went to the movies. Back and forth and back and forth he went between us and his sales manager carving a hundred bucks off here, fifty there to the point where the terms were ridiculously good. To make matters worse we had no rebuttal other than "we need to sleep on it". I almost pulled the trigger on it, it's not like we don't need a new car for crying out loud but this would bring my fleet to six, but my cooler head prevailed.



Bottom line is the only time car dealerships will let you test a car is if you fain actual interest in buying something. Otherwise you're a time suck not to mention a liability. Test drives are, though, an essential part of the car buying process and I recommend you take the car out for as long as you want and don't be concerned about keeping the salesperson cooped up in the back seat for extended periods of time. It's part of their job.

We eventually did get out of there and we could see how frustrated our sales kid and his sales manager were with us. Sorry, guys. We had a plate of enchiladas and a movie to get to. If anything, when the time does come, we are going to buy a 2015 vintage Mini Cooper S hopefully in volcanic orange. Oh, and my phone just went off again - it's the Mini dealership wondering if we're still interested in the car. We most certainly are but not right now.

1996 Chevrolet Camaro - Service Engine Soon. Again.

I've been using the older of our two 1996 Chevrolet Camaro's as a daily driver lately and I was amazed and impressed with how trouble free it was and how well it was running. The car is great on gas, handles like a slot car and is cheap to insure; living life frugally has never been more fun. 

No sooner did I think that that the engine began sputtering intermittently and the ominous "SERVICE ENGINE SOON" warning, the precursor to the check engine light, started coming on every now and then as well. Thinking the sputtering was nothing more than a failing coil pack, I waited until it got worse before I did anything about it.



As the sputtering increased and the SERVICE ENGINE SOON light started staying on all the time, I went to Autozone, who market they can tell you why your check engine light is on, to borrow one of their scanners. When I hooked it up to the port under the dash, this message,  "P1200 Injector Control Circuit" popped up; the hell does this mean? Damned if I could figure that out with subsequent google searches and the guys at AutoZone couldn't tell me either. Yes. Autozone can scan for trouble codes but it's up to you to figure out what the codes and these obscure descriptions of the codes actually mean. Could be a bad fuel injector, fuel pump, PCM, flux capacitor. Thanks for nothing, AutoZone.

To make matters worse, earlier this week my car left me stranded in the strip mall where I got my hair cut.  It did turn over, thankfully, after about an hour or so during my wait for a tow truck. Once it turned over I canceled the tow and not trusting the car, I dropped it off at Conrad's for the beat down of a $100 diagnostic and the dread that there might be something seriously wrong with the car.

My biggest fear was that the fuel pump was shot which on this generation of Camaro is often times a fatal illness. Replacing them requires either removal of the gas tank, which requires the dropping of the exhaust system and rear axle or cutting a hole in the bottom of the trunk to gain access to it. A lengthy, not fun to do project and a super costly repair to have done.

The next day "Ted" from Conrad's called me and told me that the problem was a failing mass air flow sensor. That's it? Great news! The mass air flow sensor, or MAF, determines the mass flow rate of air entering fuel injected engines and are very simple to replace. When they start to go problems manifest themselves in all sorts of ways - engine sputtering, hesitation, odd shifting. And that's if the car starts at all.  All in to replace this little sucker? Just under $500. It's a fairly pricey part and shops have over head but that doesn't mean I have to pay that. This is where the fun really starts.

Auto repair centers don't like people like me because we tend to use them for information. It's probably why they jacked up their diagnostic fees - they have to make money on us do-it-yourselfers somehow. Problem with doing work yourself after a diagnostic is that once you leave the shop you're on your own.

I bought AutoZone's "Durlast" brand MAF, with a lifetime warranty, for $105. Such-a-deal. I got the car home, popped it in and...and...the car wouldn't start. I pulled it out, inspected it, as if I was going to be able to tell what might be wrong with it, I cleaned the throttle body with compressed air reinstalled the MAF and still, nothing. I called AutoZone and they stood by their product. They said, "sir, highly unlikely our MAF is defective. Have you tried inspecting the relay?"  The relay? Wha? To make matters worse, when I put the old one back in the car wouldn't start either. The hell was I going to do?

Knowing I had screwed up and left Conrad's without having them do the work, I called them the next day and humble as I could possibly come across on the phone,  told them I had replaced the MAF and that my car wouldn't start. "Ted" couldn't have been kinder on the phone and told me that AutoZone's MAF had to be defective. To make matters worse, though, he told me that if I brought the car back he'd have to charge me another diagnostic fee since they'd have no idea what I had done after leaving there without having them do the work. From a lawyerly perspective, that logic was impossible to counter. Ted also suggested I try another MAF.

I bought another one from AutoZone and to my delight, my car started right up. However, on the test drive, it sputtered, hemmed and hawed worse than it ever had before when this problem first started occurring. Imagine my frustration at this point; I'm ready to dump the damn car into Lake Eerie but at least it was running. Running horribly but it was running. Another visit to AutoZone for a scan and they told me I had a cylinder misfire, couldn't tell me which cylinder either, and that the catalytic converter was failing. I love AutoZone's personnel but nine times out of ten they have no idea what they're talking about. I dropped the car back off at Conrad's doing my best to accept the fact they were going to nail me for another diagnostic fee. A painful pill to swallow but what choice did I have?

The next morning Ted called me and told me that he believed the problem was, get ready, a defective MAF. You have got to be kidding me. Incredulous, I pleaded my case and he kindly reduced the diagnostic fee by half. Nice. I then found an AutoZone with five MAF's in stock and armed with the diagnostic from Conrad's that indicated their previous two MAF's were defective, I told them that I was going to try each one of them until my car ran right.

Well, screw AutoZone. I bought a MAF at NAPA instead for $115. NAPA's was a bit more expensive than AutoZone but NAPA is where Conrad's buys their electrical components. I installed it in the NAPA parking lot and my car started right up, ran smoothly and accelerated flawlessly without any hint of hesitation. Hallelujah. I promptly returned AutoZone's latest defective MAF and was on my way.

Immensely satisfied and gleeful at fixing my car and saving more than $300, an hour or two later  my older son called me to tell me that the 1996 Camaro he's driving, remember I have two of them, started exhibiting the same symptoms my car had had. Can't make this stuff up. Well, at least I know now what to do and most importantly what not to do.

When I picked up my car at Conrad's, Ted, who apparently is the store's master mechanic as well as general manager, didn't charge me anything for dropping the car off the second time. That is what I call great customer service. It was the right thing to do but still, all too often these days businesses drop the ball on little things like that. It meant the world to me and now I am a loyal customer. Snaps to you, Ted.