Buying an 04+

[nos4blood70]

Hey guys. I'm gonna be in the market for another car pretty soon, and I really wanna stay with the 3800. Ideally, I'd want an 04+ Grand Prix. Things I want the car to have: I want it to be blown, heated seats, the Monsoon or whatever the premium sound was in those things, and the HUD.

A couple of questions.

Do you guys think the Monsoon system is any good?
How's gas mileage on an L32 motor if you stay out of boost?
Any glaring issues I should know about with these cars?
Do I HAVE TO run 93 octane?
Fair prices?
Certain years better than others?

Thanks.

[blueguy]

Boost + low octane is trouble.

You'd just be asking for it not running anything expect 91+.

I'm too ADD for HUD, I hated it.

I got better MPG's in my blower car than my N/A car.

Also, same issues the Bonne has, really.

[Fivefingerdeathpunch]

pretty much the same mpgs as any grand prix.

yes you must run 91+.

you only have the option to have a 04-05 GTP or a 06-07 GT, both are supercharged.

prices vary on where you live.

[sLpGPGT]

id look for one with a sunroof too, dont pay over 5-6k for one, and dont let mileage scare u away, monsoon system is pretty good but once u add a after market radio on it the bass decreases and it dont sound as good but still overall decent

[winterstorm]

i would aim for an 06-07 gt just because they are supercharged gt's. they are essentially gtp's they just dropped the name. that way most people wont know its supercharged stock

[matt5112]

Its still slow, and untuneable without backwards fuel gauge.

[nos4blood70]

Are the supercharged GT's untuneable? And yeah it may be slow to you guys, but remember, I'm used to an L36 powered H-body.. Camry's are faster.

[Explicit_Spade]

Yes, they are slow.

[Mad Monkey]

ive got a base 05, got the delphi PCM so tuning is possible, i added my own HUD since it was prewired.

Its not impossible to have the car you want just think outside the box

[stealthee]

My car is non Monsoon and I am pleased with the factory system. It could be better, but for what it is it does its job.

Gas mileage varies on how you drive. If I take it easy I get around 21-22 mpgs daily driving. I haven't taken it on a road trip yet to see what a good highway run would net me.

When I bought my 07 last year it already had 123,000 miles on it. It now has 147,000 miles and you wouldn't know it unless I told you. I had my boss and my maintenance guy in the car a month or so back and they asked how many miles. I told them 146,000 and they were both surprised. They thought it may have had 60,000-70,000 at most.

The car still drives fine and looks great for the mileage.

YES run premium fuel. You will net lower mpg's and spend more money on regular than you do on premium. It only costs on average of $3-$4 more per fill up to run premium anyway. If you can't afford $4 you can't afford a newer car.

[Mad Monkey]

with my car being NA, i dont need premium, so i dont use it.. avg 28mpg currently, (lots of highways driving, and city too)
the interior on 04+ is way better too, well worth it!

[stealthee]

Interior is the #1 factor as to why I didn't buy an 97-03.

[nos4blood70]

I too like the interior of the 04+ more. But I want boost for sure. I made the mistake of going N/A once. Never again.

[Mad Monkey]

if i could have chosen i woulda gone boost, but we were in a bit of a need at the time, so i got the car i got for the price i could pay kinda thing.

Im just happy i can still add stuff to it.

[sLpGPGT]

i wouldnt of gotten N/A if i knew anything about grand prixs when i bought my car and before i joined this forum, wish i joined it first so i knew the different trims but oh well

[FriboRage]

i wouldnt of gotten N/A if i knew anything about grand prixs when i bought my car and before i joined this forum, wish i joined it first so i knew the different trims but oh well

That was exactly my situation, I saw a 2008 GP, liked the way it looked and bought it. I knew nothing about supercharged or anything, I was disappointed when I found out what was out there that I couldve had with a little looking. My first GP was NA, and base in every way, no monsoon, no sunroof, no heated seats, nothing. I drove that for around 3 years and I was happy with it, but then I started wanting to go boosted.

Bought my Comp G, 2004... monsoon, sunroof, HUD, heated seats, satellite radio, it's literally got everything and I love it. Monsoon is good, I have an aftermarket head unit with factory speakers which is what I recommend unless you're gunna replace the amp and go with a sub. Aftermarket speakers have less surface area so they put out less bass, they're made to be used with a sub.

Regular mpg's combined city and highway is about 21.5 with lots of mountains, though once I took a trip to NJ which was like a 400 mile round trip, all interstate and I averaged about 28mpg doing 65-70 the whole way.

Definitely use 91+, if you put in less than that the car will run but you'll end up with even worse mpg's and paying more in the end, a total fill up on 93 is only like 3-4 dollars more in the end anyway as it was said above.

Everyone always told me modding NA is a waste of money... I can kind of see what they mean now because you have to spend over 1000 dollars NA just to be equal with a stock GTP. The minute I got my exhaust mods done on the GTP I understood why people said that, there's no comparison to NA. But I can also see where someone would have an NA car, not care enough to go through the trouble of buying a new car, and just want to do the work because they enjoy it...

[sLpGPGT]

^^ yea same here, except i lucked out and got the car with heated seats/monsoon/GT trim/ no sun roof tho wich was a buzzkill and finding out that it was not boosted was a buzz kill too haha, but oh well im happy with the car

[Tuner-Extraordinaire]

Good on all fronts except GT trim. Major fail.

[dmahlikGT]

Im Joining the club here. Coming from an 01 gt to an 04gtp my money was well spent. So much more potential with this Car. Much better quality too,has everything my Gt never had. I personally would opt for a lower mileage Car,but thats just me.

[tod1d]

There was no S/C Grand Prix avaible at the dealership when I bought mine Jan 08, just the optioned out one I have now or a much more exspensive GXP. I have done just about everything to mine that is worth doing and I'm pretty happy with it.