alright guys, im new here but not new to the j-body's i have a 94 cavalier 2.2 right now, its been an amazing car so far 180 000km, havent had to do anything to it yet as long as ive been driving it, besides a flasher and a new brakeline.... but its been a great car besides the typical body rust but anyways..... im planning on purchasing a 98 sunfire its a 2.2L 5 speed it was a trade in at a dealership and female driven and my friends dad being a tow truck driver always grabbing cars purchased it and is willing to sell me it (he sodl me the cavi too).... the car is in mint mint shape, passed etest, new rad, gasket, cluch is fine, runs fine..... has some minor things wrong with it like the ebrake isn't working possible adjust, horn isnt working, and a balljoint is may need replaced in the future... the only thing about it is it has 320 000km on it... sort of trips me out since its a sunfire and im always hearing people talk mad @!#$.. but 300 000km passes etest fine, drives great no @!#$ up noises.... i could grab it if i wanted for $900 im sure its a steal butt the km's are tweaking me like im going to buy it and it die or something lol...
heres some pics tell me what you think..











would you purchase this regardless of the km since it runs/drives great or would you think its on the edge of dying at that many km and just forget it?

look else where. That many kilometer on ANYTHING is a lot. Is it the original motor? I think you could probably find a comparible sunfire with less kms for a few hundred more. I know someone who had 365,000 on his and it blew, he repaired it, and now its knocking really bad. If you do buy it, be prepared to buy a new engine/transmission anytime at all. My advice would be to keep looking. For about $1200, you should be able to get a much lower km car.

I spent $2500 on a 98 Cav Z24 with power everything, sunroof, etc... only to have the clutch slave cylinder go out after a year. Car has 217,000 kms on it.. I'm currently swapping an Ecotec into it, but that swap is a LOT of work on a pre-00 car. I had to rewire the whole car.

But, I'd do it again in a heartbeat... if you're just planning on driving it (and not modding for speed, good looks, etc, esp with that banged up door!) then it's a good buy... the 2.2L's are cheap to find and replace if you need to.

...j

yeah man, i think im going to grab it, its on its second engine i just found out... its a 2200 sfi with 220 000km's

Honestly you never know about a car regardless of mileage. I've got a '85 Mercury Lynx that I bought four years ago for a few hundred dollars. No telling how many times the odometer has rolled over, and the only thing I've had to do is the timing belt, water pump, and starter. I bought my Cavalier a couple years ago with 85,000 miles and have replaced the alternator, clutch set (previous owner put in a Daiken with a sh$t pressure plate), and clutch master cylinder because the plastic line was almost worn through from abrasion. So I've spent more in repairs on a car with less than a 110,000 miles now than on a car that most people are surprised is still on the road.

for $900 i really dont think you could go wrong. 2.2l motors are cheap as hell, i can get them in my area for $100-200 dollars and sometimes with the transmission too. but even if something does break down on it and you dont wanna fix it, it was cheap enough that you could easily part it out and have nothing invested into it.

i say go for it.




Check out my build thread!

Wish that was closer, my brother is looking for something exactly like that!

I have the exact car...same color.well it used to look like that. LOL I got 233,XXX, grab it man!I love mine, i got no problems at all.


1997 Manta Green 2.2L Sunfire with Gt body kit
...

I bought my 97 Cavy for $1000 bucks May of 2004. It had 192,000 miles on it when I bought it.

One bad thing it did have was a leaking seal near the inner CV joint. At the time I was working for a brand new printing company (meaning 70+ hour work weeks) and kept on ignoring it until one morning it wouldn't move anymore. At that point I dropped in a trans from a Sunfire (@$1200 USD incl. labor) and have been driving it ever since. I've replaced the normal stuff, like tires, brakes, oil changes, filters all that crap and one power window motor. I've swapped out the radio (head units) a couple of times, mostly because I got good deals on newer ones.

I still have same Cavy, with 229,000+ miles on it. Still runs great. I get 25-27 MPG in mixed driving, the car doesn't burn oil and would pass an emissions test if we had them here. Granted, I don't race the thing (that's what the Sunfire is for, see my sig), it's my daily driver.

I like J-bodies because they're cheap and relatively easy to work on. Not quite like the Novas and Dusters everyone had when I was in high school (back in the 20th century), but one of the better ones to play with.

If it weren't a PITA to import cars, I would love something like this for my younger child who's about to start driving soon. That would be a great car to start out with...




George (geozinger)
'95 Sunfire GT-my second Pontiac from Hell!
'97 Cavy Beater-still running like a champ!
'04 Sunfire - my kid's car, but I get the bills...
'09 Pontiac G6 - Sport Package 1