I’ve been considering what to get in the fall to replace the Fiero and my wife’s car with. I want something fast, not too flashy, with room for 4 people and RWD, maybe AWD though I’m pretty sure I’d rather have RWD. FWD is automatically out. Automatic transmissions are automatically out, as are automatics trying to pretend to be manuals (paddles, buttons slap sticks etc). I’m drawing the HP line around 300, so less need not apply. I’ll have about 10k cash, and would finance 15-17 as either a home equity or autoloan over 60 months, which ever gave me a better rate. Capital One just sent me a personal loan offer for 15k at 6.99%, so that’s not bad compared to the current auto rates. So I’m looking in the 25-27k range. The car must have 20k miles or less.
Took an 05 GTO LS2 6 speed out for a ride today and was pretty impressed. In fact, I loved everything about the car except the shifter. My 86 Fiero has a less vague and rubbery shifter. How GM managed to make a shifter worse than the Fiero’s, 20 years later, is beyond my understanding. Other than that though the car was a blast. Nothing like a big V8 for torque and playing a great soundtrack through dual exhausts. Even with the traction control on it would fight to break the rear end loose through first and most of 2nd. With the TC off oversteer was just a blip of the gas away. Handling wise it felt great, as did the brakes. I merged onto the 219 at about 50 in third and just rolled on the gas and by the end of the ramp I was at 100. Pretty broad torque curve on that 6.0.
Anyone know if there are any aftermarket fixes to take the slop out of the 6 speed shifter? That alone could keep me away from it because it took a lot of the fun out of driving. Before fall, when I plan on seriously shopping, I want to check out a Mach 1 Mustang as well as a Cobra, though I’m not sure I could find a decent Cobra in my price range. Probably check out an STi and EVO as well, though I’m not a big fan of AWD. I enjoy the challenge of putting the power to the ground in a RWD car, and the reward if you can do it right is way less weight on the front end and HP loss in the driveline.
Check out LS2GTO.com…its an issue a bunch of people have addressed.
Oh and if you buy it, welcome to the club! I’ll be a member as well as soon as credit stuff goes through
Its the stock shifter. There are many replacements for it. Got to remember its the same tranny as the fbodies. The stock shifter in my TA sucks also. But ya, there are many options to replace the shifter.
Im pretty sure Butch (JuicedSS) replaced the shifter in his GTO. You could ask him what he went with, and maybe he’ll let you test it out.
i HATE HATE HATE the interior door handle. how do you open that huge door with a tiny, slanted, poorly designed pencil? i had to reach for it with my index finger, pull it without my hand sliding off and push with my shoulder.
I didn’t even notice, so it couldn’t have been too bad. I mean, it’s just a door handle, you pull it, the door opens, and you push. I didn’t have any problem, neither did my wife. :shrug:
Heh, I was reading it later and thought it might be taken too seriously. =)
Yeah, I thought about a Mustang GT, but I hate the new style, especially the interior of the new style. I’ve seen higher grade plastics come out of Fisher Price.
The older style was only what, 260 hp stock? The Mach 1 was 300 or 305, so I’ll probably check one of them out, but from what I’ve heard the GTO handles a lot better. But in the end, 400 HP > 300 HP.
Thanks for the offer, I’ll probably take you up on that some time. Do you like the B&M one? There sure seem to be a lot of people bashing it in favor of the GMM one on ls2gto.com.
