you can run regular, but it hurts performance. what year is it, how many miles, and did you check the car facts? does it still have a warranty left cause the trans will fail eventually? highway mileage is decent if you stay out of the gas and just cruise. city mileage sucks probably do to the deep convertor.

 

The laser blue one is a 2006 w/ 52,12x miles, but the guy at the dealership told me that someone else is pretty interested in it, and he got to it first, so he'll get priority (unless I want to out-pay him).

So, in case that falls through, now I'm looking at a black 2007 SS with 32,3xx miles, clean carfax (same as the 06) but this one is only 11 miles away.

 

Not saying its not true- but that is a sales tactic they use sometimes- that someone else is 'very interested' and stuff like that, to try and get you to rush over and try and get the most out of you.

Definitely important; they usually provide a carfax at the big dealerships (since they usually just send the cars to auction with bad history)- but if you're driving that far, it would be nice to know ahead of time.

Also- see how much of the 5yr/100k powertrain warranty is left (did the 06 even have this?) because the transmissions in these are notorious for being a problem (IMO the trans isn't strong enough for the application). There have been many LS4 people (between the montes, impalas, gxp's etc) have trans problems.

Also, in my GXP- my gas mileage isn't that bad- I'm usually running very high 20's on my commute (about 95% highway)- which isn't too much lower than my 3800 impala gets. I'd imagine if I were driving all city in heavy stop and go traffic, it would be much worse since you couldn't use DOD/AFM.

The dealer will likely tell you that they don't use blue book- they use NADA values instead; and then they will likely look over the car and find a bunch of minor things wrong to deduct off that value.

Plus, you've got to keep in mind, they've got a bottom line they're trying to hit with profit- if you haggle the price of the new car way down, they're not going to give you jack for the trade in- and vice versa. If you get them to pay $3k for your trade, they likely won't budge much off the price of the new car. What makes it a little worse is being a more limited issue SS rather than just a normal base model- a lot of places seem to haggle less with those cars since it brings people into the lot just to look.

How are you measuring 'pinging'? You do know that you can't actually hear pinging on modern vehicles (well unless something is majorly wrong)? What happens is, if you put in regular gas, and the timing is too aggressive- the knock sensors will hear the knock (long before you would ever actually hear anything), and will pull timing, and power. You'd have to be scanning for "KR" with a scan tool to tell if the regular fuel was knocking or not. Obviously normal day to day driving would feel the same- the only time you'd run into a knock situation is at WOT or under heavy load.

My thought has always been (with L67's/L32's and LS4's) is why buy the highest power model (which naturally has the worst gas mileage), and then skimp on fuel costs (and lose power) by trying to run regular instead?

 

06s get the 5yr/100000 power train 3yr/36000 bumper to bumper if theyre certified used. its from the original purchase date of the car not the build date though. my build date is mid 05 but the car didnt sell till march of 07 so ive got a year left on power train.
bumpins definitely right about the trans not being strong enough for the application.

 

Oh, I wouldn't doubt it, but they actually dropped the car off the inventory on their website which is what led me to believe he wasn't BSing me (at least not about that). And closed their ad for it on AutoTrader.com. So I figured someone might actually be snatching it up.

 

Never drop your insurance just get collector insurance I did through Barrett Jackson at agreed value 45k. 400 a year full coverage

 

Go with the black 07!

 

Yep, the laser blue '06 is officially sold so it looks like I'll be going w/ the black 07. The only thing I'll do is paint the trim galaxy silver. But they've had this car up for sale for a while. It was originally leased new (to the same person) for the past 3 years. So it makes me feel better about buying it because people take better care of a car when they only lease it, although I could be wrong.

 

Good luck - painting the ground effects silver will look awesome!

 

I'd do it if you're able to afford it. I'm gonna ride my Monte until it can't go anymore. I do my best with preventative maintenance & at 63000 miles and 7 years, I've only had 1 problem, & even that was partly of my own doing.