how many of you run your GN as your daily driver?

[VadersV6]

Mods below. Drive 70 miles per day. Gets 15mpg and is killing my wallet! I've had to fix ALOT of things, and still have quite a bit left. The previous owner who "modified" it was an absolute moron who had no right to own a GN. I changed my front shocks last weekend. Guess what shocks were on it? The ORIGINAL shocks from 1987! They were wasted and my ball joints dont look very happy because of it. Also explains why one of my swaybar brackets snapped in half when I hit a bump on the road. All the bushings have disinegrated. A bunch of body filler is cracking open all over the lower quarter panel and door. Amazing what bad shocks can do to a car! My point is- replace your shocks and as many suspension components as you can. Otherwise your whole car will start to disassemble itself.
But the car continues to get me where I need to go. It probably wouldnt have lasted this long had I not fixed some of the problems. The o-ring around a few injectors was eaten up bad, and had alot of bad vacuum leaks. I was getting 14 degrees of KR at 12psi, lol. It used to stall at every stoplight/stop sign/toll booth, and then wouldnt start back up cause the column is so damaged and would allow me to turn the key. The first month of owning this car was a nightmare, cause so many things were wrong, and it is my daily driver.

 

[Ormand]

My Buick is my daily driver, and my ONLY driver. (I do have a wife, who might help me out if I get stranded!) I have put about 80,000 miles on it, driving in rain, snow, whatever. Because of the high mileage, I don't jack up the boost, so it has been relatively easy mileage, compared to some. Have replaced the timing set, with new front cover, just because it was time, and the valve springs. And the PowerMaster, with rebuilt from Advance Auto.

 

[Slo86GN]

Up until about 2 weeks ago, my T was a daily driver......167K miles and still going strong. Now that I have a tow pig/daily driver truck, the T is going to receive a lot of attention/TLC. So far, the only things I had to replace were turbo, maf meter, shocks, then the usual tune-up parts. Upgraded to a Turbonetics Cheetah stg 3, Translator/Impala SS maf, and bigger injectors....also replaced the stock exhaust with a Hooker 2.5" catback. Other than that, the car has been a blast to drive and still runs excellent. She averaged 23-24mpg last road trip I took her on...not bad at all considering the miles on the ol girl. My other Buick I had as a DD (86 GN), had the usual problems.....coil pack/module, w/g solenoid, occasional exhaust leak.....but I gave it hell every weekend at the track and it never missed a beat. Take care of them and the 3.8 will last for a while......tough little engines for sure.

 

[441120]

Mpg

Driving combo city/highway get 19 mpg
Just try to keep your foot out of it! If you take it easy it burns fuel like a V6, stomp on the gas and your sucking like a big block, think about it.
You have to have overdrive AND lock-up converter if you want MPG.
Cruise easy, save your gas and parts for cooking RICE

Searching for '87 T daily driver...

 

[Roc87]

When I first bought mine 5 years ago, it was my daily driver for almost 3 years. Ran 91 octane (most we can get here), ran 17psi until I bought an SMC kit, then ran 24# all the time. Car had 107k miles when purchased, now sitting over 152k miles. Have had to rebuild alternator, and replaced starter. Everything else was for maintence or performance (Valve springs, timing gears/chain). Had the Crank sensor go out twice, and fuel pump once. Since my truck has been in the shop since last week, I've driven it everyday this week. Getting around 16mpg while still having some fun. . Just make sure you have a few theft deterents. Chip, alarm, FP fuse pulled, etc..... 1st week I had mine, someone tried to steal it, sure people will tell you the stock alarm is no good, but it saved mine..

 

[fitz3820]

I use my GN in the summer as a daily driver. I get 19-21 MPG mix of city/highway with the A/C on.

I put about 65 miles on it each workday.

Motor was rebuilt by Cottons/RPE in '98 and has ~100 passes on it and 40k miles since the motor rebuild and 50k since the tranny rebuild. Still runs like a champ with 140k on the body. Haven't raced in a while but I did get an 11.9 out of her @ 115.

GN's can be good daily drivers but they are pretty old and may have had many abusive previous owners.

I have a basic combo, a bit old school by today's standards but proven.

TE-44 turbo, Blue top 36# injectors, Jay carter chip etc.

 

[scottyb]

EFD for 4 years now. As far as I know, it's all original engine, trans, turbo, IC, injectors, etc (at least according to the previous owner who bought at 125k) - now at 192k miles.

 

[OneLethal87GN]

My first GN, my 85, was my daily and my current 87 GN is my daily driver. Both get looks everywhere I go with constant "buyers" always asking about it. It has right at 160k on it. I have replaced alot of parts but mostly upgrades. You must remember these cars are close to 20 years old so things break and wear out constantly if they are still the stock pieces. Alot of people call these cars junk because of this. They fail to think what their car would be like when it gets 18 years old. Luckily I have a newer back up car in case of a breakdown. I don't have any new track numbers. I'm waiting to get the tranny right before even trying to get new numbers. I'm very close. I'm hoping to hit low 12s to high 11s in street trim. It will take some tuning and track time to get these times but the parts are there to run them.

 

[703crewchief]

My T has never been my only car, but my beaters are horrible. I drove the T with a blown head gasket for three months. It was blown into the valley, so it didnt overheat. The reason I drove it like that is my then roomate, was building his 10 sec LS1 motor. So, he drove my Grand Am with a horrible rod knock 30 miles every day. I only had to ride 5 miles a day at the time. I just unplugged the #6 injector and drove it like an old Regal, I tell you though, it would still merge into traffic pretty good if you needed it to. The car always had alot of false knock though. Turns out it was the main thrust bearing. The bearing was so gone that the intercooler fan on the crank hit the bottom of the intercooler and knocked every blade off of it. This much thrust killed a rod bearing. But, my rod knockin Grand Am had been sold, so I had to drive my rod knockin TR for a month. Needless to say, my crank was worthless. But, when they break it just means you get to make them faster.

 

[TRYMY231S]

My T Limited was a daily driver its whole life. It had 144,000 miles on it before I got ahold of it. :biggrin: The thing ran like a champ and went 13.9 @ 99. Now I'm redoing everything. The only thing I'm not sure of is paint. I want to keep the stock dark blue with white top, but I'm not too sure on the chrome body panels. I don't have chrome bumpers anymore so I don't know how it'll look.