How reliable are the Firebirds from 1995-98?

I've been looking around for my first car, and I cant belive how sexy these are. I didnt know they made cars this good looking in 98, heh...

But anyways, all the ones im looking at have somewhat high miles. Like ~70-90K. Do these cars have a lot of problems? I mean is it a bad idea to buy one with that many miles?

Also are some engines more reliable then others? Or is there a specific engine to not get? (i.e Dodge intrepid's 2.7L).

LS1 or V-6?


it all depends how the previous owner took care of the car.. if he beat the shit out of her, then no, the car will be night mare to you.. but it s well or ok taken care of, then u will be fine as long as u keep taking care of her..

There pretty reliable as long as there taken car of, same thing with any car. I know a guy with over 150K on his LT1, and its still running storng. If your going to buy one, get a car fax and take it for a spin. Look to see if it was involved in accident or anything. When buying a car like this, look at some cars that arent owned by kids or teenagers. And see how beefed up it is if any at all. The more performance parts, the more the owner tends to race it. Take your time shopping and be carefull. After all y buy some1 elses problems.

I dont know what LS1 means. Is that the V8?

The one im looking at says it's a 98 V6.

If I do decide to get a firebird, it probably wont be that one... Unless it's still there when I can afford it.

In general is the 3.8L more or less reliable then the V8 engine?

(Edited. I read an article wrong and I thought both the 3.4 and 3.8 L were vailable at the same time)

One owner is nice...if he has receipts for service and seems like he took care of it it should be a nice car. Looks straight and clean. The miles arent that high either for the year...its a good starting point at the very least. However, I should tell you this now...don't get it if 6 months down the road you realize you wanted a V8 and start asking about "swapping to a V8" or "what add ons can i put on this V6 to make it haul." The answer will be "sell the 6 and save for a V8" almost every time. There is nothing wrong with the V6s and they are pretty quick, but they will never be a LS1 300+ horsepower beast. Just be happy with the clean well taken care of V6 if thats what you wind up with.

I don't know about V6 reliability, but I can speak from experience that an LT1 V8 car can be a bloody nightmare if it hasn't been maintained. Yes, the LS1 is a more modern V8 engine. Here is a useful link if you want to know what the differences in the years are.

[url]http://www.ws6.com/faq/index.htm

One owner is nice...if he has receipts for service and seems like he took care of it it should be a nice car. Looks straight and clean. The miles arent that high either for the year...its a good starting point at the very least. However, I should tell you this now...don't get it if 6 months down the road you realize you wanted a V8 and start asking about "swapping to a V8" or "what add ons can i put on this V6 to make it haul." The answer will be "sell the 6 and save for a V8" almost every time. There is nothing wrong with the V6s and they are pretty quick, but they will never be a LS1 300+ horsepower beast. Just be happy with the clean well taken care of V6 if thats what you wind up with.

Lol... I wouldn't do that. The other car Im looking at is a 2003 Pontiac Sunfire with the ecotec 2.2L... So yah. Performance is nice, but I care more about style.

i have a 1996 v6 firebird and it has about 125k miles on it. the previous owner was late 50's earily 60's so im pretty sure she didnt race the hell out of it and it was bone stock when i got it so that tells me she wasnt into raceing and all that stuff. the only real problems ive had with it are 1 of the O2 sensors are going bad and its starting to leak alittle oil. nothin too bad.

Ahahah! That would have been pretty sweet if you thought you were getting this old woman car, and it turns out she has it loaded with performance parts.

That would be the kind of woman I would want to spend my life with, heh.

Ahahah! That would have been pretty sweet if you thought you were getting this old woman car, and it turns out she has it loaded with performance parts.

That would be the kind of woman I would want to spend my life with, heh.

Yeah, but would you really wanna spend the rest of your life with an old
woman? :screwy:

One owner is nice...if he has receipts for service and seems like he took care of it it should be a nice car. Looks straight and clean. The miles arent that high either for the year...its a good starting point at the very least. However, I should tell you this now...don't get it if 6 months down the road you realize you wanted a V8 and start asking about "swapping to a V8" or "what add ons can i put on this V6 to make it haul." The answer will be "sell the 6 and save for a V8" almost every time. There is nothing wrong with the V6s and they are pretty quick, but they will never be a LS1 300+ horsepower beast. Just be happy with the clean well taken care of V6 if thats what you wind up with.

:lol: you are damn right man!!! this happens all the time..

he man, l am gonna tell u this, why dont u go ahead and drive a v-8 and v-6? just test drive them.. because l swear, when u buy her and l bet you will love and get into it and read forum web sites about firebirds and you will see everybody has LT1s and LS1s adn they are fast.. u will see their numbers and u will want to upgrade your car too.. since you havent bought anything yet, l HIGHLY RECCOMEND you to drive both.. but sure l dont know your budget, maybe u cant afford like me..

just a suggestion.. whichever you get, it is still gonna be F-BODY.. so it is cool.

ERDAL

Yea, i bought a 99 firebird about four months ago. This one is a 3.8 v6. It had 55K when i bought it and now it has about 57K. You will probabaly run into wear and tear probs like everyone does. For example, the break pads, the belt, starter alternator. These things need to be replaced as more miles are put on the car. My firebird required tune up at that time. Now its alternator needs to be changed and the fog lamp cover. For some reason the temp has been at 200c. Usual probs like these come often.
As doodad said earlier, that you shud test drive both v8 and v6. If you want more power and can afford it, v8 will be a better pick. The time when i bought my firebird, i only cared about the looks. For a sportscar i thought 210hp is good enough and thought its got the sporty looks. And yes girls definately dig for hot cars. But now after a few months i have realized that power and looks are both important. Transam's or formula's have the power and the looks. Goodluck on your purchase

"Yeah, but would you really wanna spend the rest of your life with an old
woman? "

Ahaha! No I mean, I just would like a woman who was into performance cars... and stayed that way untill she was 50-60 lmfao. She would never get boring.

"And yes girls definately dig for hot cars."

Ha! Thats actually one of the reasons I want this car. I think the girls would like it. And yah the extra power would be nice, but the V6 seems more reliable, and a bit more fuel efficient. Plus I think a lot of girls can't tell the difference between a regular and performance car anyways.

One time I floored my Mom's Pontiac Vibe (130 HP 9.0 0-60) with my friend morgan in it, and she was like "omg! This car is so fast! It's so nice!"... and I was like "No, it just makes a lot of noise" lmfao.

Well i've now owned a 95 3.4 v6 and now a 95 5.7 v8 and i'll give you a quick breakdown.

Once you've had 8 cylinders and you've felt that rediculous power under your control.. you'll never, ever contemplate going back.

However, if you haven't felt that yet, that v6 was 100000 times more reliable than my bird. had 269 thousand miles and it never even did so much as yawn. my v8 is getting a little picky at 130k, but its worth every penny of work :D

V-8 are cool.. especially on the highways.. while u are goin like 60mph, floor it u will get to 110 real fast.. even on the highway while l am doin like 70-80mph, when l floor it, l hit my head to seat.. v-8s are fast.. l ahve never driven v-6 tho.. oh by the way, v-6 and v-8 gas mileage is almost the same if u drive it normal..

Erdal

Ive a 98' TA, i bought it with low miles and it was in town. Tell truth i never looked to buy a firebird. My car was 72 or 73 Mach I but i really didnt feel like driving to some town by Chicago. Im the 3rd owner and ive done all the maintence since ive gotten it in 2000. Myself and like most others only problem seems to be the window motors goin out on these cars. If you look at a firebird and other cars you'll notice that firebird windows are much larger. Another problem that it comes up with Corvettes, Camaros, and Firebirds is the something do with the clutch, linkage...im not sure specifically.

I just know this from a good friend had a 2000 Ram TA and he raced the hell out of it. Just a couple of times but he's so hard on the shifting ....basically forced the gears in and stripped it. So he did a search on his problem and came across that all 3 cars have this problem. So, if you just drive like a normal person you shouldnt have much problems...lol