Need some opinions

[Asinity]

I've had my GTP for about 5 months now and am very much enjoying the car. It's got a mere 185,000km (115,000mi) on it, and drives wonderfully - the previous owner was the original owner of the vehicle, and seems to have taken fairly good care of the mechanics of the car. The car passed emissions and safety without any work being required, however the mechanic who did the safety gave me a heads-up about the rockers rotting and the brake lines & fuel lines looking like they will need replacement sooner than later, but were still in very passable shape.

When I swapped to my winter tires I tried jacking from the jack points, and the pinch weld had started to fold and crumble at those points, upon looking even closer the plastic cladding along the drivers side is only being held on by 1 bolt at the rear, it still has a fairly solid hold around the front door, forward. The rust is just starting to show along the inside edge of the rear entryways (doors are fine) Along with the rotted rockers, I've got some bubbling at both quarters and the underside of my trunk, fuel-fill area is still good. All in all, the body is what I figured I should expect for a 13 year old Canadian vehicle.

I neighbour of mine has his own body shop and gave me a price quote of about $1100 to fix the rockers & quarters, I've had another quote from another shop tell me about $1500 and I'm planning on getting a couple more quotes for the work. I know it would be difficult to say exactly, but is it worthwhile to spend $1500 on bodywork on a car this age? What kind of lifespan is typical of the L67/4T65E-HD? From what I understand, the guts of car would likely still outlast the body of the car, even with the repairs to the body.

Thoughts?

[TexasTanker19kilo20]

How much do you like this car?

If you want to keep the car then get the work done, I have owned my car for a year and have yet to replace the rotted out right rocker. I will get it fixed one day, but I live in the south so rust is not to big of a problem here.

[Explicit_Spade]

The 3800 can last into the 350-400k mile range or more with proper maintnance.
The 4T65 on the other hand has an average lifespan of about 200k miles.

The upside of the powertrain on a 3800 is that replacement parts are easily available and cheap, especially if you install them yourself.

The downside is that your vehicle is 13 years old and has a value, which is probably just over double what the body work will cost you.

What you do is up to you, but I would save that $1,500 and get a clean bodied car later, and keep this one as a daily driver if thats something you're interested in.

[dsmuts]

My motor and trans is original at almost 227 k miles. Body is rotted to hell though

[Asinity]

So basically what I'm gathering is there are quite a few people who will drive these cars, rotted to hell and never have any major issues regarding the structure of the vehicle? I don't doubt the drivetrain has many years of service left in it, and I do enjoy the car quite a bit but can't really see it being in the driveway in 3 years time, will likely look for an '04+ GTP or GXP at that point - they don't seem to have the rust issues the '97-'03's had.

I do like the car a lot though, which is why I have thought about fixing it before it gets too bad, in case I do decide to keep it for longer down the road. But I suppose given the condition of the underbody anything I do will simply be a band-aid solution and will just rust out again in short notice anyway. There is ample salt used on the roads in this area, so there are lots of rusty cars around.

[TexasTanker19kilo20]

Well you got it figured out then, run that GP til it dies. Part the thing out and go buy a 04+. My brake lines were rusted and I did a hard stop one night, $500 later and had to get custom bent tubing from the firewall back. So just worry about other stuff for now, unless the rocker is about to fall off LOL, like mine.

[mystic231]

From what I understand, the guts of car would likely still outlast the body of the car, even with the repairs to the body.

Thoughts?

True that. The trick when buying a used vehicle is to check the underside of the floor pan. You're looking for a city car. Both of my '02's are city cars and even being driven is salt the fuel and brake lines look new. The 1998 on the other hand was driven on gravel roads frequently and as a result the stones thrown up by the front tires blasted the underside. In addition around here the gravel roads have chloride put on them during the summer to keep the dust down. So not only is the underside being blasted with stones it's being coated with chloride in the summer (corrosive) and salt in the winter (corrosive).

In your case, as long as the sub frame is solid and savable I would fix the car. If the sub frame is rotted then I would band aid it and keep an eye open for a sharp "city" car to be your next car.