8th gen impalas??

[cofi]

How are these cars??? the honda has no ac and my wife is going to kill me if we dont get something new pretty quick....im looking at some ex police cars all around 2500 bucks

[Ridge]

Ex police cars are going to have pretty worn motors and very sparse interiors.

[cofi]

Ex police cars are going to have pretty worn motors and very sparse interiors.

ill keep that in mind for sure....what kind of mileage can i expect out of the engine? my hondas got 250k and is still tight....

[blacklabel]

I don't see you getting 250k out of a rode hard Impala. Might be cheaper to fix the AC in the Honda

[cofi]

I don't see you getting 250k out of a rode hard Impala. Might be cheaper to fix the AC in the Honda

the ones im looking at are all between 100-150k

[HBARleatherneck]

cop car mileage is misleading. often you can buy one with low miles. But... cops run their cars 24/7. so, what they need is an hour meter. cops will have the vehicle running all the time. so, the tranny, rear end, etc, might be low miles, but the engine and components have been moving all along. cops are hard on transmissions too, from my limited experience.

I am not saying they cant be good deals though, I think they can. Just know the mileage is not representative of the actual amount of use.

[Ridge]

ill keep that in mind for sure....what kind of mileage can i expect out of the engine? my hondas got 250k and is still tight....

Chevys are not Hondas. I've seen multiple GM cars owned by people in my family fail between 110k and 160k miles. Most of the time it required a teardown of the top end of the engine to fix it. I did it myself, which makes it quite cheap. But a shop will be charging you thousands of dollars to do so.

[MED]

How are these cars??? the honda has no ac and my wife is going to kill me if we dont get something new pretty quick....im looking at some ex police cars all around 2500 bucks

The 3.8 is a solid engine; the trans can be suspect. The 2000-05 did have the TCC issues. I think the '98-'99 were OK. I would look into that. Although, if you don't have the hard shifting issues with the mileage on a police auction car, it was either addressed or didn't have it. The 9C1 Caprice was a great car when auctioned to the public. The cast head LT1 and 4L60E combo goes forever; I have that in my '94 Roadmaster (210,000 miles) and still going. I am not sure about the 3.8 Police cars...they will not hold up like the 9C1 Caprice.

[Chad4000]

I think I would just fix the ac rather then by a ex cop car. but not sure I guess..

[MED]

Chevys are not Hondas. I've seen multiple GM cars owned by people in my family fail between 110k and 160k miles. Most of the time it required a teardown of the top end of the engine to fix it. I did it myself, which makes it quite cheap. But a shop will be charging you thousands of dollars to do so.

My GM Cars:
’94 Buick Roadmaster 210,000 miles original engine/trans (Most expensive Repair = Brake Calipers; total repairs is about $50 + general maintenance). Father gave me this problem free vehicle 9 years ago with about 110,000 miles on it. I would have no problem putting another 100,000 miles on it before rebuilding it if fuel wasn’t so costly. Edit: I forgot that I had to change out a ball joint and a couple of tie rod ends...this wasn't general maint.

’00 Yukon Denali 140,000 miles original engine/trans (Most expensive Repair = none; just general maintenance). I purchased this in 2007; it has worked flawlessly for five years.

’97 Trans Am 120,000 miles original engine/trans (Most expensive Repair = fuel pump; total repairs non-race or mod is about $1000). I purchased this car new and had very few issues except for race related activities. Edit: the headlight gears are stripped...this is about $25 and a couple hours of my time.

’77 K5 Blazer 178,000 miles original engine/trans (Most expensive Repair = rear diff/clutch, I have owned this vehicle for almost 15 years, I did install a Carter AFB, Edelbrock Manifold, and a Summit HEI I had sitting in the closet because they were sitting in the closet collecting dust. The Quadrajet and stock HEI still worked at the time and of course they cost less than $100 to rebuild both.

My ’87 Suburban was too modified when I purchased it to know, but I have put $230 in it in 5 years to fix a broken steering knuckle and replace the power steering pump. I think the engine/trans have 189,000 miles (350 TBI), but I don’t know for sure.

Incidentally, my sister’s ’91 3.8 Buick Regal has 200,000 miles plus and it is still going.

Worst GM repair issue (My ’90 Firebird fuel injectors failed when it was 4 years old)

The most stupid GM issue (My ’00 Bonneville SSEI TCC valve issue); this one really pissed me off…it should be a recall item. I do have a problem with the trans used on the 3.8 200-05 cars.

The most ridiculous family car issue (Brother’s ’95 Toyota 4-Runner; fixed two burnt valves at 130,000 miles)

My only Honda experience (’80 Accord transmission done at 95,000 miles)

Interesting Google Search (Honda spark plugs backing out)

All cars will fail and everybody has a story from every manufacturer. GM has done some really good things as well as some bone-headed stuff. Buy the stuff they do well and don’t buy the stuff they don’t.