97.5 Regal GS trouble...

[CTX-SLPR]

Howdy,

Well it seems that I just can't do anything right with buying cars! The tranny on my 97.5 Regal GS is slipping and slowly dieing, thank God for the performance shift button. The car has 88k miles on it and other than a few random quirks and issues works great and I love it..... however the tranny costs ~$2k to rebuild, dang FWD trannies! The car is only worth about $4500 now and after I put ~$2500 into it to fix the tranny and put new tires on it I'll want to keep it for a while, maybe another 3 years, but by then it won't be worth anything. I own the car free and clear. My delima is do I keep this and fix it and risk it becoming a money pit or do I sell it now while it still works and pick up something else for a long term vehicle? The way I see it I have 2 options:
Fix the 97.5 Regal GS's tranny, new tires and some other minor things and save up to start building the 65 Riv with a turbo 6 and TH200-4R that I have planned and start driving it in the summer and turn the Regal into a beater
or
Take out a loan and buy a 65k mile 96 Impala SS w/a 5year/100000 mile powertrain warentee and drive it for the next 5 years. However the Riv-Cruiser will be on hold till its paid off and I've saved up the money for the 65 Riv.

I did the math on the gas mileage and insurance and its a wash. Minor maitanence issues are actually cheaper on the Imp but all things being equal the reasons I'm interested in the Imp are the warentee, long term resale, and risk of the Regal becoming a money pit.
Any thoughts guys?

 

[milesengineer2]

IMHO, fix the tranny. I have seen these 3800's go for years and years. The motors are fine and if you rebuild the tranny with a nice shift kit and possibly a better tranny cooler I would say you would have zero issues for a long time. Not to mention it is paid off. So what if you have to spend a couple grand on it in the next year? New car payments = 300X12= 3600 yearly. Still cheaper to fix the tranny.
Fix yours and keep going without the payments. Will work out better in the long run. I dont know how you figured the maintenance and fuel being cheaper either. My g/f's mom had a 95 Dark Cherry SS that got 12-15 mpg in the city. Highway was ok but not great. Her car had lots of electrical issues which I hear are common on those cars ie. gauges, lots of faux dummy lights and all sorts of gremlins that the dealer couldnt fix. Maybe a lemon, who knows, but have heard more than one horror story from other owners.
I am facing the same dilemma right now. I want to get rid of a couple of cars that I have and get a really nice rosewood "t" but would have to take out a loan. I think it is just better to not make payments and put your money to work for you.


HTH


Lee

 

[ScottyRegal]

just be sure if you go with the rebuild route, to get "high energy clutches" they absorb more , much more than stock.
get a transgo shift kit, ONLY set it on the first setting, this will alllow less wear to the clutches, get a input shaft,, and a LSD would be good, id say ud be set with an indestructable transmission depending on how you drive. Also lucas is good to add into fresh tranny fluid, substitute one bottle of tranny fluid with one bottle of lucas no slip.

i have this exact setup on my regal that makes 320HP to the wheels. no problems after 10,000 miles of burnouts and heavy racing. So id say on normal driving conditions ud have a tranny that will probably outlast your engine.
see ya