I bought an '01 SS last week with 200K miles on it for $500 and planned to fix it and sell it. As you might imagine the car is not perfect, but it runs and drives.
Pros: New front end including CV axles and brakes. Decent tires and wheels. Tech 2 scanner says engine and tranny are good.

Cons: Overheats, bad front O2 sensor, A/C doesn't work, cracked windshield, broken driver seat (hard to find beige, leather, electric. Latch is broken so it doesn't stay upright), torn door weather stripping. Needs rear struts, and exhaust from the resonator back. No stereo (radio, amp or speakers). Torn front bumper cover and dented rear bumper cover. Body has a few dings and scratches. Interior is filthy, no spare tire.


I dove into the unknowns this morning and found the radiator is broken as well as A/C condenser because it they got hit from below and bent the radiator support (Fixable). Figured I'd replace the water pump and after removing the belt tensioner found the LIM gasket hanging out the china rail. Pulled the UIM and LIM and found gaskets shot but no milkshake. Plenty of sludge around the valley though. The UIM shows beginning signs of melt down and needs to be replaced. Also found a hole in the heater hose under a clamp.


I know I'll probably never find a beige leather, electric seat so I'll have to replace all the seats with black ones, leaving a non-matching interior.


I'm looking at $1500-1800 in parts, fluids and refrigerant (forget about labor) just to make it sellable for around $2500.


Is it worth fixing or should I cut my losses and send it to Monte Heaven?

 

Given that it has over 200K miles, that's usually seen as end of life for most cars. I know car values can differ based on what region you are in, for my location if the car were mint condition with 200K, you might be lucky to bring in about $1000-$1500 for that car.

Based on your description, it sounds like this Monte is in rough-to-bad shape. I suppose my questions are:
- Look on Craigslist/Autotrader/classifieds and see if you can find a Monte comparable to what this car would be after you fix it. What are people asking for? This will give you an idea of what market you are looking at.
- Let's say there is room in the market value of the car to justify all the repairs. Is there enough profit to justify your time on it? Not to mention, have you found all the problems? There is a good chance as you rip into one issue, there will be a domino affect of another problem as a result.

I know a guy who used to live on my street and flipped cars monthly. He moved, but still does it. He knows what the car is worth and before getting a potential flip car knows almost everything it needs. Figures out what the most is he can put into the car (time/money) and what he knows he can get for it.
It's a tricky art.

You might be able to part the car out if it has anything in good/re-usable shape.

 

for realistically a 200 dollar profit after parts and purchase price, I don't think it would come even close to covering the cost of your time put in to the car. You could probably sell a lot of the parts out of the car and recoup your money invested plus make some such as the engine and tranny and axles etc, etc and whatever interior parts are still in good condition, even if it has a spoiler you can probably get 100 bucks for that and make more money doing the junkyard thing, some wreckers will give you a bit of money for the shell of the car, but I don't think it would be much as they usually want the engine and tranny so they can sell it and make their money back, but rims and tires if in good shape will get you prob 200 so you can make your money back that way?

 

IMO I do that for a hobbie, buy and sell for a profit but your Monte sounds a bit over the edge with it's needs. I've done that mistake before but I did in the end make a couple hundreds profit by parting the car out and the engine/transmission combo brought me back my original investment and the rest was just profit till I got tired of having it on my garage and half the people not actually showing to buy what they said the would.

 

Thanks guys. I'd pretty much come to this conclusions already, but needed to hear it from somebody who's as emotional about these cars as myself. That's how I made this mistake in the first place, blind with emotion LOL. I hate to see any of these cars junked, kinda' like sending Grandma to the nursing home. In some weird way I enjoy working on them and reaping the satisfaction of the end result. The labor thing doesn't really matter, like Habbibie it's a hobby for me too. It's just not practical. Nobody's gonna' wanna' buy this polished turd with 200k miles unless I replace everything including the engine no matter how well it runs. As for parting it out, my suburbia neighbors will likely not appreciate a hulk in my 3 car driveway that now holds 4 since I also have a '03 SS I bought a month ago for a project that's coming along nicely. That makes 3 gen 6 SS's at the plumbob house. The 3rd is my wife's '00 SS daily driver we bought new. Maybe another member in the Puget Sound area (JC, Doug, Blackstone) will see this post and want it. It's free for the taking so bring a trailer and come and get it. The front suspension including struts, wheel hubs and C/V axles are less than a year old, brakes and tranny are good. Car is Torch Red.

 

Sent her to Monte heaven for $150. Not before I harvested organs though.


Saved the transmission (not original), exhaust less mufflers, battery (2 yrs. old), alternator, fuel rail w/injectors, tinted door glass, window and door switches, power window regulators w/motors, mirrors, newer belt and hoses, door weather stripping, surfboard spoiler, taillights, headlights, fog lights, HVAC control module, cruise control module, EVAP purge solenoid, throttle body with sensors.


Would have kept the front suspension and brakes, but still needed to roll it onto the flatbed, LOL.

 

Sounds like the best conclusion. I hate to see any monte go to the heap, but this one sounds like it was ready. I am glad that in the death, several cars will get some great parts to extend their life. It sounds like you at least got your moneys worth out of it. Lets let it now RIP #RestInPeices

 

Hell I would've paid you $500 for it. lol

I paid $460 for my 98' LS, far fewer problems, but strut tower rust is threatening to kill it.

I personally would rather have a Grand Prix if I wanted another W-Body.

 

Didn't have any rust. Body was in half way decent shape other than bumpers, but the interior was trashed and beige leather was imposable to find unless I wanted to pay $150/ seat + another $150/seat for shipping from Kansas to Seattle, and who knows what condition they were in.
You can see in the previous post I offered to members here free, but had no takers. Pretty happy with the end result. Got spare parts now that don't take up a lot of room.

 

yeah it would have been way to far of a drive to come get it anyway. lol