Bye Bye '97 Lumina 3.1

I know the feeling. My 92 Grand Am went 250k. The last 5 years it cost about $100-$200 per month in parts to keep it running. I finally gave it to Volunteers of America about 5 years ago and got a used 2006 Kia Spectra. I like my Kia. It may even be better than the Grand Am. So far nothing has gone wrong.

try a 90's accord? they're available real cheap.

The used car market is hot right now so I'm sure it can be hard to find stuff. I was in the market for a $2000 used car a year ago and mainly looked on craigslist. What I found was that the only way to get a good car at a good price was to watch the list almost hourly and jump on anything that looked good. If it's good, it's gone. Found some real crap, probably 80% of the listing are for crap, but the other 20% had some nice cars and maybe 10% at a decent price. Finally got a 2000 Malibu, original owner, 194K miles for $1900

Wish the Lumina went that far. I was disappointed it failed. Everything I put into it was expected, due to age. Didn't really hurt. The broken cam is what hurt. Didn't expect that. My second car is a '93 Grand Am 3.3. About 150k on it. No real issues. TCC is unplugged because that's bad. There's a leak somewhere I won't look into until it warms up, so it smells musty. I wouldn't trust it to go anywhere except locally right now, but that's all I use it for. Came in handy when the Lumina broke down.

Dyed-in-the-wool GM. They've been good enough to me and I don't want to expand what I have to study to do well.

I would agree except for one thing - rust. I'm in the belt.

My dad is like that - he'll only buy American cars. I've been trying to get him into a Toyota or Hyundai but no dice. Currently, he seems to be on a Dodge kick.

Sorry to hear about your Lumina. I used to have a white Lumina but who the heck didn't? It was a good riding, easy driving, car and I loved the roominess. The brakes might have been substandard i.e., GM brakes. I had to replace the front pads several times. I gave the car to my son who crashed it. That's the breaks.

I found different times of the year matter a lot. From looking in late summer, compared to late fall, late fall was much better to find buys. One best buy I missed by an hour. 1998 Buick, recently fixed ac, 54k, beauty, clean, $3k. I did end up with a 1998 olds 88, pretty clean, 74k miles, $2800 .

Also bought a 1998 outback, clean, 102k, timing belt replaced, but paid premium price from dealer, no rust.

Greg

Well, it's not really "American." I now consider Toyota/Honda to be "American" if they're made here. Hell, the Impala is made in Canada. I feel like a traitor. That's it's used helps a bit. Same with the Lumina. It's more that I just don't want to become knowledgeable with more than one make. Keeping up with GM engine and other problems has kept me busy enough. So I stick with what I at least think I know about.

The white paint on mine peeled off in too many places, but the undercoat was good. About 10 cans of cheap white spray paint over the years took care of it. Wouldn't notice unless you got close. My '88 silver Celebrity had the same paint issue.

All the cars I got "good" deals on were because I didn't need the car right now. This one I needed now, so I settled for a "fair" deal.

Yeah, if the Lumina was an Arizona car I would have popped for a new crate engine. Would have been a better deal. Rust always means no deal.

the irony of that sentiment is that honda are made in america using american parts. gm are assembled in america using chinese parts. and let's not forget the billions of dollars taxpayers have gifted them for the privilege of doing so.

Plenty of Toyotas are built in the US. That's more American than a GM built in Mexico or Canada (like Lumina was). GW

I had heard about that paint problem. It never materialized on my car. I suspect that temperature had something to do with it. It's pretty temperate here in the tropics. It takes some talent to apply paint in a special way so that you can peel your car like a banana.

The theory was that it was the deodorant that the factory workers used. OTOH, if they didn't use deodorant, their smell could cause paint to peel...

My Hyundai made in Montgomery, AL was as well put together as any car manufactured in the world i.e., Japan and Germany.

I thought the Canadians did a fine job on assembling the Lumina. I thought the maroon interior on my father's car was kind of goofy though. :-)

the difference in both power and NVH between a 3.4 and a 3.5 is dramatic, just so you know (I've driven both)

also if you're looking at Impalas, keep an eye out for old Crown Vics, gas mileage penalty isn't significant and the Vicky is a better car in just about every way

nate

We had some Maroon Lumina's, both inside and outside color, some years back when I worked for the gvt. Someone at the legislature saw them and called the equipment shop wanting to know why we were buying such high priced cars!!! Compared to the usual fleet white the maroon made them really stand out. After that the equip people went back to ordering everything in white.

I was going to paint a car. My brother had a lumina rental for some reason. I thought, that's the color I want. Maui blue, also was used on other chevy hot cars.

Greg

Bench seats with column shift, that is what I look for. My car is a 1971 AMC Matador 4-door, black with red interior. The only fly in the ointment is the 360 V-8. Wish it had the Six. Still, about 17+ on the road at 60 isn't bad, and only 26K original miles.