So I'm looking for a cheap 4 cylinder car with a stickshift, and today I spotted a 95 Sunfire. $700 OBO. I had my dad with me, so we both got out and looked at it. Suspension seems to be good, no cracks in the glass, tires are good, exhaust is good, floor is good and most of the body is good, with the exception of a hole about the size of a grapefruit on the left rear fender, just behind the door. Weird, that seems to be the only bad spot on the car. The car's owner wasn't there when we were looking at it, but I did get ahold of him later. I was talking to him, and the only things the car really needs is that rusted spot fixed and an inner tie-rod. He said he hit a moost with it one time (
) but you couldn't tell from looking at it, the missing antenna is really the only clue. He said it has a newer clutch and new brakes 2 years ago. I'm going back to look at it again tomorrow and if the fender and rocker panel isn't rusted too badly and if it runs good then I just may buy it. My brother has a 95 Cavalier I can get some parts off if I need to. Now, the only thing that concerns me about the car is the headgasket. He didn't mention anything about it on the phone, but from reading Sunfire reviews at www.carsurvey.org , there seems to be a lot of people who have had problems with them. These reviews all seem to indicate headgasket failures around 100-150,000 miles or so. Are they really that failure-prone? Is there a way to tell, without tearing into anything, if the headgasket is still good? What are some other things I should check out on the car tomorrow?
Hmm, I guess it shouldn't be a problem then, unless I see mud-colored oil on the dipstick or clouds of steam shooting out the exhaust.
Jason Bright wrote:most of the body is good, with the exception of a hole about the size of a grapefruit on the left rear fender, just behind the door.... My brother has a 95 Cavalier I can get some parts off if I need to.
if you planned on fixing that, you cant get it off your brothers car. well techinically you can but the rear quater panels on js are welded to the car
I was over to take another look at it just about an hour ago. The engine bay is greasy but it's not too bad. I fired it up and it idled rough for a second or 2, then smoothed out. The check engine light is on for some reason. I took it for a little spin down the road. Clutch works good, brakes are strong (rear brakes are a bit grabby), rides nice and tight and the handbrake works good too. The engine makes a little bit of noise when I'm driving it, but it's probably nothing serious. I got back from my little test drive and pulled the car back into the owner's driveway. I'm gonna haul my dad over there when he gets home from work to get him to check out the rusty spot. If he thinks it's not bad and it's repairable, then I'm gonna buy the car.
The car is bought and paid for! I was talking about the car with it's former owner, he said he's put a new gas tank, new starter, battery is 1 year old, brakes are 2 years old, clutch is about a year old and some other stuff. It's gonna need some body work and an inner tierod and some other small things (trunk lock, horn, antenna) but for 500 bucks, Canadian, I think I got a deal. The ABS even works! And it came with a full tank of gas! The previous owner did say that he thinks the headgasket is starting to seep (
), but he said it doesn't use any coolant between oil changes. I'll go pick up some of those coolant tabs from the GM dealership in town and put them in the coolant tank and hopefully that'll put headgasket failure a long way down the road. As soon as I find the data cable for my digital camera, I'll upload some pics.
Oh, and actually the car is a 96.
Congratulations on buying your '95, errr...'96 Sunfire.
Hope it holds together for you.
Enjoy!
www.cardomain.com/2265283
