My father's 97 GP has 230,xxx on it and still keeps on chugging. Original motor and trans.

 

I think the 3.8 is one of the best, if not the best V6 out there in a sports car (go figure a buick motor in a sports car). Generally they'll easily give between 150K - 200K ( if babied probably will last as long as the honda civics do)...

the only bad think I can say about them is that the 3.8's do have a tendency to blow the head gasket late in life, but that is usually close to 200K and unfortunatley that is not something you can detect when looking into buying the car.. so I'd say do the usual when looking into buying it: take it for a long test drive with the radio of and windows down (so you can hear or small anything odd).. rev it hard a little make sure it performs..look at all of the usual suspects
if dealer lets you take it for a drive on the freway a stock 3.8 should have no problem getting upto 70mph on an average onramp (of course if you can fidn an on ramp with no cars on it) and should only runs upto about 3-4K rmp to do that.. then the car should hold cruising spped (say 60 or 70 mph) at well below 2(1/2) rmp at least that was about what my 97 3.8 would get and just of topic my 97 3.8 was getting well over 30mpg on the highway cursing

p.s. did you check out the appraise a used car on Edmunds.com as that has tons of usefull info

 

You can't guarantee it, but there are ways to tell. For instance, you can check the oil for bubbles. You can look for coolant seepage at the bottoms of the heads.

 

yeah good point; unfortunaltey most of those things can easily be cleaned up by the person seeling the car if they are evil... thats the main reason why I always buy used cars from bigger GM dealrships as they tend not to do evil stuff like as they have a rep to keep up. Also, in some cases they'll even give you something like a 5000 miles warnanty for free... sure your probbaly going to pay a little bit more net for the car at a bigger dealrship but that pcie of mind is worth it to me

 

I got a 89 Bonivelle with 281,xxx and running strong. I beat on it from time to time.

 

I may only have 75k on my 3.8L, but trust me its been a long hard life and it still runs strong...


My only complaints, the CATs put on newer ones seem to suck, have heard from others as well, My 2nd Cat went out at 75k, since I have hptuners I said **** it and tuned it out, and gutted it.

Then the 5-speed, its an ok transmission if treated normal, but under heavy abuse it breaks. But then again, its under heavy abuse. Doubt they designed the car to go to the track as often as I have taken it, and run as hard.

 

they do have a problem with them damn intake manifolds... my cousins bonneville locked up cause so much water ran into the cylinders... pulled the plugs and put a new intake on it and its still fine

 

Yep, I lost count on how many of those I have seen go bad.

 

80,000 miles on a 98 and no problems yet

 

3800 series engine were rated as one of the top ten engines of all times.

 

80,000? Thats still a baby!

 

WOW! mine has 184,250 miles and i just put on 1250 miles the past three weeks, and preveious owner never took care of the camaro so i have been restoring it...next is plugs and wires

 

I have a 99 Camaro with 30k on the odo......
runs perfect, but last year I had a great misfire problem...

 

my 99 had 153,000 kms (about 95,000) miles and runs great.

 

Missfires, front mail leaks, ICM, coilpacks, Intale leaks.


IMO I would take a 3.4 over a 3.8 neday, had 1 3.8 nightmare, never but 1 again!


Don