Well, it has been a decade since I was sitting in my 92 c1500 reading a magazine article about the new z 28 that had just came out. I remember it saying better brakes than a bmw, great acceleration and handling all for a bargain basment price. Later in April of 1994 I bought my m6 z28 med patriot red. I still have my car, I managed to keep it through a divorce and all the other trial of life. Now it has 69,00 miles and the truck has 253,000 miles with the original motor.

How many of you other members are the first owner of your f body?

How did it go from performance bargain to non existent?

 

Yeah, I remember those ads too. I am the original/only owner of my '97 WS6, and I did own a '93 Z28 when they first came out as well. All I know, is after driving the TPI cars, the LT1 was a welcome sight! It's pretty ridiculous, though, as the fourth gen was a brand new car....but reused the crappiest part from the third gens...the floor pan! Getting rid of the camel hump on the passenger side would have done alot to improve peoples perception of the cars engineering.

 

i first started seeing the state police cars on the hi-way as i was commuteing from NY to CT everyday, and the f-body cop car was really starting to get my attention, and there was a older guy in a brand new black 94 z28 that just looked so sweet going down the road and i was like i got to have one, here it was april 1995 and i was 22 years old with a decent job, a few bucks put away and not so good credit, so i stopped in my friends chevy dealership where he was a salesman and his father owned it so i knew i would be getting a killer deal, i test drove a 95 6 spd they had on the lot and i was so impressed that i said lets start the paper work, the loan did not go through and i was bummed but after a few weeks went by i was not going to let my dream car slip away so good old mom was nice enough to co-sign the loan and it went through!!!!, so i sat down at his desk and factory ordered a black hardtop 95 z28 with very few options as i wanted to keep it light and cost down, and 10 long weeks of waiting it finally arrived with 4 miles on it i was on my way home $18,800 poorer but i had my dream car now if i could only go back in time i would buy theese cars all day long for that price

 

Bought my 94 Formula new in Pasadena, CA in August 1994. I think it has about 70,000 miles now, but the odometer hasn't really worked consistantly since the TH400 went in and it became pretty much a "track only" car.

I don't think there are many 10-year old cars out there that can look as good as a 4th Gen F-Body .

 

Sorry we have not been the first owner of any of our four low mile 4th gens

ten years ago I was driving a nasty as hell 74 Z28. 355 forged solid roller setup. 550FWHP. does not sound like much now but ten years ago not much on the street could touch it. three races into the 94 season I was hit by a drunk driver and totaled the car plus my right shoulder.

I picked up a 67 Camaro for the motor but decided to put in a cistom built 510BBC with a 8-71 blower. Goal was to race in the then fairly new Fastest street car shoot out. I did not want to win I wanted to land in the top ten and get a jacket.

A divorce endded that dream and many others. I wound up selling the car to a freind who still has it.

along the way I picked up a 88Iroc and then the first 95 Z28(totaled two days after i bought it 22,500 miles). My Blue Z29 was bought at the same dealer ship with 17,200 on the clock. In 97 I paid 14k for each car.

As a mechnic i just can not bring my self to buy a brand new car. loosing $10k the day you drive the car off the lot just never has sat well with me

I may never own a new car but all my cars are nice now

 

I generally buy used cars, but I figured the "Z" would be a "keeper" so I ordered mine the way I wanted it in April of '95 and picked it up in August. Never looked back, it's been a great car. Only has 32,000 miles but is getting it's 4th motor this winter! I think that's more motors than I have bought new pairs of shoes in that period

Rich Krause

 

I was the first owner of a 99 T/A, but unfortunately gave it back under the lemon law. too many problems.

I'm not the 5th owner of my black 93 T/A and the third owner of my Purple Pearl 93 T/A. See sig.

 

Anyone who loses $10K off a $25K car just by driving it off the lot has a lot to learn about car buying...

 

Yes, I'm one of those people. We bought a new Durango in Sept '02, and now I'm seeing that we won't get what we owe on it for quite a while. We were looking at used '02 models before we bought the '03, and the same model ('02) we got was selling at that time for less than what we owe on our '03 now.

We will probably never buy a brand new vehicle again. The way I see it, I'll leave the new car buying to the rich people that can afford to take the depreciation hit.

 

Well, I guess my point is, if you buy right there is a minimal depreciation factor. You can actually drive the car for a year and get your money back. But it all comes down to buying the car substantially below retail. Do your homework, shop around, and have a number in your head before you even walk into the dealership.

 

Very true....I think the 93 Camaro should have got a Tiffany Award like the 65 Mustang did. The intregal spoiler and mirror/front quarter panel design really set the car apart design wise.

I am the second owner of my 95 conv M6. It was totally stock when I got it 5 years ago...still had the skip shift working. It had 51000 miles on it then and was always garaged. I Have all the original paperwork. It now has 72000 miles on it and is pretty much a nice day/track/cruise-in car. I must say it is sweet to be able to go to the track on Friday night and run a mid/low 11 1/4 and then take a pleasant topdown ride through the Georgia countyside the next afternoon.

 

I just picked up an 03 Yukon XL for 12,000 below MSRP. The time in which you buy has a LOT to do with it. Dealerships are very motivated to sell current year models at the end of the year to make room for the new ones. (The last 2 or 3 days of the month is also best).

-Keith

 

Bought my car brand new, this month back in 1997. Back then I was driving a black 1992 Trans-Am GTA. On 12/28/96 I was driving down the highway on my way home from a girlfriends house. I remember looking up in the rearview mirror and seeing some very bright amber DRL's in the distance behind me and they were coming up really fast! Couldn't really make out what the car was in the distance, but when it finally got close enough and went around me, I was like WOW...that WS6 TA is bad-***! The only thing I didn't like about it was the bra it had on the front end. Before I saw that car, I had no interest in owning a 4th generation f-body...I didn't even like the 4th generation cars until SLP put out the SS and the WS6 came out in '96. I saw plenty of the SS cars in '96, but never saw the '96 WS6 cars with the silver painted wheels on the streets at that time. So, when I saw that '97 WS6 on the highway, it just looked extra special with the high polished wheels. A couple of days later right after the new year rolled in, (1/2/97) I was going past a Pontiac dealership, and guess what I saw, a brand new, fully loaded 1997 WS6 Ram-Air Trans-Am with 2 miles on the odometer being unloaded from a car hauler! I didn't really plan on buying a car that day, but as the saying goes...the rest is history! The icing on the cake was when they gave me $10,000 for my GTA, and no payments for the 1st year!

 

Same thing that happened to me! I didn't really need to buy a car, especially a new one with a hefty payment,...but there was no way that (my current) '97 WS6 was going to sit on that lot! I couldn't leave without it. The black ram air hood and polished WS6 rims looked too damn good! It's finally paid off and it was worth every payment.

 

yea man back then the LT1 was the ****