What can you people tell me about a 94 Lumina APV?

[Infinitrium]

I tried posting this in the Lumina APV section but it's pretty dead there. I'm looking at buying a 94 Lumina APV. The ad says 600 obo, but I was over there looking at it and he said "Make me an offer and it's yours". Apparently he bought it for his son, his son didn't like vans so it's been in his yard since August. This van has the 3.1 with 3 speed auto tranny. What are the good and bad points on these vans? Trouble spots to check for? What would be the fuel economy I could expect to get from this van? Anyone here who has one, let me know what you like and don't like about them and your overall opinion of them.

[jeffcoslacker]

Kids will drive anything if they don't have to pay for it. There's more wrong than that at that price. They can have problems with transmissions and torque convertor lockup mechanisms, I'd drive it until it was fully warmed up and then for some distance to see if it acts up...if he doesn't want you to go far with it, that's probably why, that or something else.

At that price though, if it starts, drives and stops when you hit the brakes, there's really not a lot more you can ask...

Make sure it doesn't have chocolate milkshake in the coolant resevoir, this could be a sign of intake or head gasket leakage...a common fault with the 3.1.

With a three speed, I don't see it getting more than maybe 22 mpg tops or so...somebody correct me if I'm wrong...

[richtazz]

The 3.1 used in early (90-95) Lumina APV's is not the same as the car motor. It has a distributor, throttle body injection and is not prone to the intake leaks/crank sensor woes the car motors are infamous for. The biggest issues on these vans are the trans issues jeffcoslacker mentioned, hub bearings, dwater getting in the ECM and underbody/chassis rustout. As they have plastic body panels, the bodies always look good, it's the chassis/subframe you need to inspect for rustout.