Buying my first ever Monte Carlo SS. It's 2006 V8 red with 118k miles on it. Interior is immaculate and exterior had normal wear for 12yrs old. Buying for $3500 and needs new power steering pump (previously told before agreeing to purchase) but also noticed very minor oil leak from the front area of the motor.
my question is...is this a fair deal and is the oil leak something to stress about our easily fixed? As for the power steering pump that's not a big deal. Have replaced those on other vehicles.
i shifted thru the gears and no jumps out noises. Rev'd engine and no knocks. Did short test drive and gears shift good all the way up and down. Big fan of Monte Carlo SS and just hoping i am not getting in over my head.

 

if you could get current owner to agree, might be wise to degrease and add some dye to the oil to track leaks...I had this done to my 06 and it turned out simple pan gasket and valve cover gasket replacement sealed her up. Congrats and that Victory Red is awesome! My opinion is these are great cars...they have some known issues but what 12 year old car won't? I'm currently doing new struts, steering rack and ball joints (did tie rods last year)....it never ends....Oh, and the price is really good, IMHO

 

If that car is solid and has no huge problems that's an amazing deal. If you don't mind me asking, what area are you located in? Something like that in my area, with similar mileage, I typically see listed around $9000. The trans on the 06-07 SSs can be a problem but it sounds like that one seems good at this point. And the 'displacement on demand' can be an oil burner on certain cars - I say 'certain' cars because not everyone burns oil (I don't) but I know people that burn quite a bit. A lot of people have the DOD tuned out to help that. Those are probably the two main issues with these cars.

 

What is the transmission history? If it's never been rebuilt or replaced, id make sure your have the cash to replace it.

I wouldn't worry too much about the other stuff, steering and oil leaks will be relatively cheap assuming you are able to DIY it.

Price seems good to me assuming it's in good shape otherwise.

 

^ This is true but from what I've seen it really depends on the specific car and how it's been driven during its lifetime. Obviously any car will need to have trans work at some point but these cars tend to go pretty premature. As long as you're aware of that possibility and are okay with it, that car is still a great deal.

If I remember correctly, TEP can do a rebuild on these 4T65E-HDs for under $1k - that's with you dropping off and picking up. They're in Fort Wayne, IN.

 

Honestly, I used to think the same, but I don't buy it anymore after having my GP GXP​​. Not too long before my GP got totalled, I started having trans issues with mine at about 55k miles.

That car was babied far more than most. I always had a weekend toy car if I wanted something fast, so I had no reason to abuse it. I also planned to keep it for a very long time, so I always kept up on the maintenance with quality fluid and filter. I never did a burnout in the car, only paddle shifted it a few times before I realized it was awdul, and most of its life was easy highway mileage. I maybe went WOT once a month if that. The worst it was ever abused was 4 1/4 mile passes. Despite all of that, it still began to fail at crazy low mileage.

Maybe if you're buying a a bottom end rebuild just to get it running again. What they reccomended to me was the HPS1 trans (which their website confirms is reccomended for a stock ls4 car). That's $2200 just for the trans itself. Add in tax, the cost of any broken hard parts, shipping (if you're not local), and even labor (if you can't remove yourself) and that could quickly turn into a $3-4k cost.

 

Which makes the point of the OP for him. 55K is ridiculously low for a Yugo transmission. OTOH, I had 235 on the 65 in my Grand Prix, and it never gave me a second's trouble. My current transmission has a slow leak at 173, and if I ignore it long enough, will give me ****ty downshifts to first. That's it. The issues are completely and utterly random.

 

Not sure I totally follow your point, but I certainly wouldn't say LS4 cars with tranny issues are random. It seems like there is a notably higher percentage of failures in the LS4 cars compared to any other 4t65 car.

I guess my point to the OP was not to get involved with an LS4 car unless you can afford a trans too. Might get lucky and it lasts a few years, but it could also go next week. Certainly buying a used car is a crap shoot in general, but the problem area with these cars just so happens to be one of the most expensive parts of the car.

 

The randomness is when it fails.

Honestly, even with trans work this car is still a steal. Like I said, at least in my area you're probably looking at a $9,000 car fully functioning normally. At $3,000 for trans work you're still below the car's value. The possibility of it failing definitely goes up as mileage/age increases but, when it comes down to it, you still have no idea when that will happen.

I guess there's two scenarios here - A. buyer has ample cash and is buying the car because they like it, want one and it's cheap or B. buyer has limited cash and is buying the car just because it's cheap.

 

Honestly I don't really agree that the failures are all that random either. From talking to TEP, it seems like 60-75k is where the issues start to become more common. Certainly at almost 120k miles, it's definitely in the high risk zone if it hasn't been rebuilt already. There just don't seem to be as many LS4 cars making it to 200k miles on a stock trans like there are with the lowered power v6s.

Ill agree the car is on the cheaper side, but I definitely wouldn't say it's crazy cheap. KBB out here ranges from $3100 for fair to $6600 for excellent on private party sales out here at that mileage. There are currently two for sale locally, one listed at $4k, one at $5k.

I just don't see anyone getting $9k for one unless it was in perfect shape and literally half the miles. Otherwise, it would make more sense to travel to get one elsewhere for cheaper, especially for thousands cheaper.

One of the killers for price is that if someone is looking to spend $9 or 10k on a sporty GM car and doesnt mind that kind of mileage, there are so many options. You can easily get into a 4th gen camaro, TA, GTO (especially an 04), or even a C5 for that kind of money.