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So I'm buying a GTO

AMCRambler

AMCRambler

Diamond Member
So after thinking about it since they first came out, I'm finally pulling the trigger and buying one. Picking it up weekend after this one.

There were two deciding factors for me. The first was price. I've been savings my bucks and the cars have come down in price to the point where to me it's a good value for your buck. 400 ponies in a car with a back seat for under 20 grand? Pretty good I think.

Second, the mounting maintenance work required on my 2000 Ford Contour due to age/high miles was getting to be a pain.

It's midnight blue(navy blue basically) and I paid $19,500 for it. Can't wait to go get it.

UPDATE: I GOT IT! And of course pics as posted below and now updated with a better camera.

Side
Front
Back
Back 2
 
Good price for only 17K miles .. Hope it is in tip top shape.
Be sure to run a Carfax on it and have a good look, especially
under the car for any damage or rust. And don't wreck it.
They are tail happy and easy to lose the rear if you are not
careful. Visit LS1GTO.com for a lot more info. The car, while
nice, could use a suspension upgrade for better handling
and really needs bigger brakes & better calipers to stop better.

I myself of thinking of one in a year or so. Have a '99 Grand Prix
which I would likely keep for winter use if I buy a GTO
 
What you do is pick up a cheap beater car for winter.
Something that all you want is liability insurance on
and that runs.
 
Originally posted by: bruceb
Good price for only 17K miles .. Hope it is in tip top shape.
Be sure to run a Carfax on it and have a good look, especially
under the car for any damage or rust. And don't wreck it.
They are tail happy and easy to lose the rear if you are not
careful. Visit LS1GTO.com for a lot more info. The car, while
nice, could use a suspension upgrade for better handling
and really needs bigger brakes & better calipers to stop better.

I myself of thinking of one in a year or so. Have a '99 Grand Prix
which I would likely keep for winter use if I buy a GTO
Click to expand...

pads would be all most street drivers would need.

 
Looks great, I want one as well, though I will never be able to get one since I'm still in college 🙂
 
I'm planning on using it for a daily driver so yeah, snow tires are a must. I'm up in the air on whether or not I want to get a set of four rims with snows, or just get two rims with snows to swap in and out. The comes with one extra rim that the guy bought. Apparently he can't paralell park worth a damn and scraped the crap out of the right rear rim. He bought a used one with the intention of eventually swapping the chewed up one out. So I figure if I can get my hands on another used GTO rim, I'll use the banged up ones as my snow tire rims and just have two snow tires for the rear wheels.
I'm thinking if I go with two I should put them on the rears. Is there a big difference between not having snows on the front wheels since you steer with those? I've never had a rear wheel drive car that I put snow tires on so this is the first time I've had to consider it. I've had snow tires on my front wheel drive cars and in the summer I would swap the snows onto the rear.

Other than the rims it's in pretty good shape. It's by no means perfect. It's got a few small scratches here and there that the dude pointed out to me and one nickel sized rocl chip in the front bumper cover. That's all fine with me since it's going to get some more of those along the way. The interior is clean, it's got no major mechanical issues and hasn't had to have any repairs made to it yet. So those were my big list items when went to see it and test drove it. It drives great too. I am going to miss having a decent sized trunk though. Half the trunk on the GTO is taken up by the gas tank, so there's not much room there and you can't fold the seats down. A small price to pay though. I'll post up some pics when I get it.
 
that is a VERY nice price for that many miles. i would of bought it, but being a daily driver car i need and in chicago, i couldn't do it. i would love it and probaly run it stock but thats what we all say when we get a car...
 
Originally posted by: T2urtle
that is a VERY nice price for that many miles. i would of bought it, but being a daily driver car i need and in chicago, i couldn't do it. i would love it and probaly run it stock but thats what we all say when we get a car...
Click to expand...

I'm not big into horsepower mods on a car. If I want a fast car with x amount of HP I'd rather just buy one that comes that way stock. That way if it something breaks on it that I can't fix and I take it to a shop or the dealer they aren't going to say what's all this crap, we're not going to touch it. It also goes to reliability too. If it's my daily driver I don't want to add a turbo or super charger to it as that's one more point of failure. A car is made a certain way for a reason. When you go messing with what the manufacturer built into a car you're taking a chance.

That being said, if it was a second car/pleasure car, the above does not matter. I'd probably start modding it. Right now though I'm going from a car with a V6 with 200HP to one with a V8 with 400HP. Suffice it to say I'm going to be taking it pretty easy until I get the hang of driving this car. I've driven rear wheel cars before, but nothing that would go sideways when you mash the gas unless the road is wet/slick. I'm betting it's going to be a long time before I get bored with 400 horses under the hood and want "MORE POWER!!!!" /Clarkson. Just driving it on the test drive when the guy had me get on it on the onramp to the interstate I got nervous. I went from 40 to 80 in third gear in like a second and the car wasn't even trying yet. I think I was giving it maybe 1/3 to 1/2 throttle and he told me to take it up to 6000rpms but we got moving so fast and so quick I got nervous, let off and shifted to 4th.

When I get more comfortable with the car I think I'm gonna take it to a track some day just to see what it can do. It's definitely not safe opening it up all the way even on the highway!
 
Originally posted by: bruceb
And don't wreck it.
They are tail happy and easy to lose the rear if you are not
careful.
Click to expand...

Never have driven a car that wasn't loose unless I drove it that way. It's almost like saying SUV's are going to rollover with a tire blowout.
 
That is somewhat true. But the GTO suspension was not properly tuned for best
handling. All it takes is bigger antisway bars and maybe another brand of shocks,
but I would not change them until they wear out. As to brake upgrades, yes, pads
choice will be a big help, but even better would be 4 piston calipers from a Vette
along with bigger & vented rotors. Then that car will stop like it should for a 400HP car.
For snow tires, I suggest if you want to use it in upstate NY winters, you buy 4 snow tires
and some good, but not very costly steel rims. You can get them at Tire Rack. Snows on the
back will only help you get MOVING .. You need snows on the Front for best Steering & Braking.
 
Be sure to have them install the accelerator. It is a Pontiac after all.

And I'm going to have to say FAIL for paying the listed price.
 
Originally posted by: AMCRambler
I'm planning on using it for a daily driver so yeah, snow tires are a must. I'm up in the air on whether or not I want to get a set of four rims with snows, or just get two rims with snows to swap in and out. The comes with one extra rim that the guy bought. Apparently he can't paralell park worth a damn and scraped the crap out of the right rear rim. He bought a used one with the intention of eventually swapping the chewed up one out. So I figure if I can get my hands on another used GTO rim, I'll use the banged up ones as my snow tire rims and just have two snow tires for the rear wheels.
I'm thinking if I go with two I should put them on the rears. Is there a big difference between not having snows on the front wheels since you steer with those? I've never had a rear wheel drive car that I put snow tires on so this is the first time I've had to consider it. I've had snow tires on my front wheel drive cars and in the summer I would swap the snows onto the rear.

Other than the rims it's in pretty good shape. It's by no means perfect. It's got a few small scratches here and there that the dude pointed out to me and one nickel sized rocl chip in the front bumper cover. That's all fine with me since it's going to get some more of those along the way. The interior is clean, it's got no major mechanical issues and hasn't had to have any repairs made to it yet. So those were my big list items when went to see it and test drove it. It drives great too. I am going to miss having a decent sized trunk though. Half the trunk on the GTO is taken up by the gas tank, so there's not much room there and you can't fold the seats down. A small price to pay though. I'll post up some pics when I get it.
Click to expand...

I would get 4. You don't want to have traction at only 2 wheels. I had a heavy RWD muscle car back in the day when I lived in Albany and I had a set of steel wheels with snow tires on it. Worked fine in the white stuff.
 
Regarding the brakes, the stock brakes in most cars already produce more brake torque than the stock tires can handle. Tires are 100% more important for stopping than calipers, rotors, or pads.

I'll be going with fixed Brembo calipers soon if only for the binary pedal response; I hate feeling the slop with floating calipers. And 2pc rotors with anodized hubs just because a freshly waxed car with some nice open wheels becomes an eye sore with rusty rotors peeking out at you or the anti-corrosion coating blistering off.

Ultimately though going to bigger brakes is just going to make your ABS work harder and not actually improve anything in a street car.

You definately need to cam it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-6r4cYkPu4
 
Nice car. I do miss my GTO and would to pick one up used one day. BTW, bruceb, the GTO comes with C6 Vette calipers already on the '05 and '06 models. Unless you spend 2k per axle, you are not going to find a worthwhile upgrade and for the street, that's a waste of money. Also, unless you are doing something really stupid that rear of the GTO stays in line. Only had it swing out once and that was on bald tires in the rain.
 
Originally posted by: exdeath
Regarding the brakes, the stock brakes in most cars already produce more brake torque than the stock tires can handle. Tires are 100% more important for stopping than calipers, rotors, or pads.

I'll be going with fixed Brembo calipers soon if only for the binary pedal response; I hate feeling the slop with floating calipers. And 2pc rotors with anodized hubs just because a freshly waxed car with some nice open wheels becomes an eye sore with rusty rotors peeking out at you or the anti-corrosion coating blistering off.

Ultimately though going to bigger brakes is just going to make your ABS work harder and not actually improve anything in a street car.

You definately need to cam it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-6r4cYkPu4
Click to expand...

I always laugh when people who don't track their cars talk about brake upgrades. If you can lock up your tires then your new brakes are just going to lock them up quicker and that isn't much good.
 
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