All the various cars in no particular order. Up front, a short version for those of you who say "too long, didn't read". Then more details after that.
The Short Version
Current Cars
2007 Prius 151k - Bone stock, slow, 50 MPG... and it's staying that way
2004 LeSabre 169k - Dad's new ride. Slow and comfortable. He likes it that way. Some day I'll top swap it
Past Cars (In Chronological Order... more or less)
1998 GTP - $500 because of a blown head gasket... had a pfyc fiberglass hood though... quick flip and profit
2000 GTP - Gen V, fsic, s1x, 105#, 3.0 pulley, poly db's, CAI, sd headers, other supporting mods- Sold to buy a house
2002 Cavalier - I can't believe I bought this thing...
2004 Lexus RX330 - Bought it for $2,500... cleaned it up, sold for $6,500 a week later
2000 Regal GS - The $475 special. I put a HAI on this and busted civic's for a week. Flipped it for $1700.
1998 Olds Intrigue - The best handling $400 car anyone ever had. N/A 3800 was slow but the car ran great. Sold a week later for $1000.
1999 GTP - The $700 lowball special. 3.4 pulley, ZZP catless dp, no air filter, stock tune. Put a HAI on it and sold it for $1600 two weeks later.
1999 GTP - 3.5 pulley, HAI, 1.9 roller rockers, 3" catless dp. Sold, because rusty
2000 Toyota Echo - Car that got me through 5 years of college and part of grad school. Yeah, it was slow, but it was 5 speed. Lots of fun stories in that car.
1995 LeSabre - First car when I was 16. Through a weird twist, ended up giving it to Dad, he drove it for another eight years. Finally sold in October 2014.
The Long Version
2000 Black GTP (148k)
Bought this on 8/6/14. Drove straight out to Wilmington NC and back in one day to pick it up.
Mod list
Wizaired CAI
3.0 pulley, 8 rib belt
Gen V and LIM
FSIC
Intense S1X cam with 105# springs
LS7 lifters
Northstar throttle body
LQ4 MAF
SD headers
2.5" dynomax catback
Built trans including 3.29 gears, 7/8" chain, 4340 input shaft
... on stock heads, a crappy clear-coat-peeled hood, stock headlights, and stock tail lights that have water in them... sleeper status?
Running total $3,551.01
Bought the car for $2600. I'm cheap, and it's easier to save money than it is to make money.
8/15/14: Replaced the windshield washer pump. No fun driving with a dirty windshield and you can't see.
8/20/14: Junkyard picking meant I have two non-condensed tail lights. Sweet.
8/22/14: W Body Store stage 2 axles suck. Replaced the passenger side with a duralast gold and she's driving great.
8/27/14: Alignment, cause axle replacement knocked it way off.
9/10/14: A junkyard run netted me two clean tail light housings, they're on there now after being sealed with clear RTV
11/1/14: Dyno tuned by Brian at DTM in Columbus
5/25/15: Found some Monroe quick rear struts on Craigslist for $50
5/31/15: 60# injectors and a Smuts tune fixed my downshift KR. Bought a Walbro, haven't bothered to install it yet
06/27/15: Two new front wheel bearings... one Timken and one Duralast because I didn't expect both to be bad at the same time...
***
2000 Midnight Blue Regal GS (160k) - Sold
Bought this car in September 2014 off Craigslist for $475. Drove it home that evening. Had bald tires and three broken window motors but was otherwise in perfect running condition and the previous owner had a complete maintenance record going all the way back to 2003. It had a couple quarter-size rust spots near the rear strut tower, which is why he sold it so cheap.
I'm a W-body owner. Who cares about a small rust spot, right? Anyhoo, I had some fun busting ricers with my old Buick.
Put two new tires on the front, fixed the window motors and switch, did an oil change, put a HAI on it, and sold it for $1,700 a week later.
***
2004 Bronzemist LeSabre (144k)
Bought this car on 8/29/14 after lowballing the crap out of the seller. Cash is king though, cause it booked at $3600 (his asking price) and I got it for $2500 cash.
After just one day driving this car - and seeing how smooth and quiet the car was - I now see why old people drive slow. Because that car simply doesn't lend itself to going fast. Like you don't want to do, when you're driving it. It's just too.... nice. All my ideas of top swapping went right out the window after fifteen minutes behind the wheel.
I gave this car to my Dad in September 2014 and he sold his '95 Buick. He loves the car. As do I.... I might have to swap my black GTP's motor and trans into another LeSabre.
***
1999 Silvermist GTP (217k) - Sold
I bought it in May 2013 from the original owner at 205k because I got sick of driving slow, economical, four-cylinder cars. Dumped about $2,000 into new speakers, air intake, brakes, tires, a downpipe, poly db mounts, roller rockers, a 3.5 pulley, a beefier radiator, new control arms and tie rods, new rear struts... you know, a mixture of maintenance and speed. Somewhere along the way Dyno Brian tuned it. Had a lot of fun in this car, met some new friends, had some good stories and some bad ones.
Like any rollercoaster relationship, this car has given me a ton of joy when it's working... and a ton of grief when it isn't.
After dealing with Dexcool sludge one too many times, I put a green sticker on my car to remind people, green coolant only. I later ripped out that stock airbox, zip tied the PCM down, and routed the air intake into the fenderwell.
Sold 7/23/14 because I want to buy a house and I need a down payment. Shame, cause I really liked this car.
***
2007 Seaside Pearl Prius (111k)
Bought this car in March 2012 with 56k.
I drive the piss out of this car everyday cause it gets 50 MPG, doesn't break down. I'm averaging 25k per year on it, even after all the time I spend in W-bodies. The one time this car did fail me (the heads up display went out), Toyota fixed it for free under warranty and provided me with a 2012 Corolla to drive, free of charge, until it got fixed... which turned out to be three weeks. Had a lot of fun with that car, too.
Got hit by a red Grand Am back in January of 2014... the Grand Am was toast, but the sum total of damage to the Prius was a scratch on the back right bumper cover.
A bit of conservative driving can take "gas saving" to an extreme. Like this:
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1999 Silvermist GTP (188k) - Sold
Bought it in June 2014 for $700 off Craigslist with 187k. Needed a fuel pump... $89 later and it was on the road. Some hoon had already done the intake gaskets and thrown a ZZP catless downpipe and 3.4 pulley on it... and left a stock tune on there.
After I got it running I learned why it was $700... p0717, input shaft sensor was bad... meaning fourth gear had a mind of its own. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't... Also there was a hole in the exhaust because the einstein before me decided to use exhaust tape rather than go get the $5 gasket and bolts needed to properly line up the downpipe with the catback...
Even so it pulled hard until about 4,500 RPM, above that it would run into KR, yank a bunch of timing, and you could feel the thing just run completely out of power.
Sold as-is about three weeks later for $1600 and I even told the guy everything I knew that was wrong with it... so off he went.
***
1998 Bright White Intrigue (211k) - Sold
Bought this as a $400 special off Craigslist in July of 2014, it had 210k on the body and ~130k on the motor and trans.
Drove it for about a week and put about 400 miles on it. Realized it was the nicest $400 car I've known anyone to drive. 3800 Series 2 (only the 98-99 Intrigues had it), shifted great, drove great. Leather, dual power seats, sunroof, fully loaded. I now know why GM quit making Oldsmobile - they were actually good cars. Also that car cornered better than any other W-body I've been in, ever... by far.
I think it needed a rear 02 sensor. Which I told the buyer to ignore, and I never did bother to fix it. The air needed recharged, and the CD player didn't like my burned CD's (although it took store-bought CD's just fine).
Sold it a week later for $1,000 to a guy who goes to Wright State and lived in Springfield and needed a car that was good on gas for the highway. I said bud, this Olds is the ticket, cause I drove it down to Kentucky and back and got 35 MPG highway... on a stock tune with only 34* of timing when cruising.
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Honorable Mention...
1995 Champagne Beige LeSabre (163k) - Sold
If there's ever a reason I got back into 3800's, it's because that's where I started. I kid you not this is my first car and it's still on the road. I bought it in May of 2005, about a week after turning 16, with 99k on it. Drove this car, with its comfy grandpa seats, every day to high school and through the first year of college... to class and to all the various crappy jobs teenagers have. Bagging groceries, working in the kitchen, being a cashier, etc. Lots of friends rode in it, cause everyone else had Celicas or late-80's Accords... one poor sod even had a Festiva. So, a four door full size car was something outta this world.
Of course, my college campus was a LOT further away than the drive to high school was... and Series 1 3800's aren't good on gas. This boat got about 18 MPG and I wasn't hard on it. You can be damned sure, when I made $6.50 an hour as a bag boy, I charged everyone gas money and even after that... apart from school and work, that car spent quite a lot of time parked for lack of gas.
So I bought myself a 5-speed Toyota Echo which got 40 MPG, parked the Buick in the back with the intent to sell it... a couple days later, my Dad's car takes a dump and I'm like "well, there's a perfectly good '95 Buick in the back..."
That was 2007, and I'd be damned because that Buick is probably still on the road. I spent a whole day doing the plugs, wires, fluids, and front brakes on that car just last summer. He finally sold that car at the end of September 2014. I was a little sad to see it go. It was my first car when I was 16. It was sold to a young lady who brought her parents along... I think it was her first car, too.
