Test Drove a GN

[dgoodhue]

I test drove a very low mileage mostly stock GN for somebody today since it was right down the street vs hours away. I enjoyed driving the car very much, more so than expected. My friends have had them in the past and they were high mileage vehicles. I am not in the position to buy one right now but I think this is my next car on my list. From this test drive, I have a couple of questions.

The transmission seemed to hunt between gear I was accelerating at 1/3 gas around 35-40 mph. It seem to go in between 2 and 3rd gear. It didn't shift as hard as I would have expected, it was the original transmission. the last GN I drove had a rebuilt tranny and it shifted decently hard. Maybe I am just used to my Syclone's really hard 1-2 shift.

The car was basically a rust free garaged, never driven in winter car, however I noticed on the outside edge of the floor board the outside coating was chiped and it had light surface rust.

The body (Hardtop) had a slight buck on the top of the A-Pillar and B pillair on the passenger side. Is that normal? Driver side looked fine as did the quarter panel. The car looked to have the original paint.

Interior wise I the center armrest looked like it imperfected almost like a couple of small dents. I have seen other like this but they were high mileage vehicles. The passsenger seat was slightly pulling apart on the outside edge. Are either of these common problems to most of them?

 

[darkred87T]

My car has a rebuilt transmission and it hunts between gears as well at part throttle but full throttle it shifts fine.
A good way to tell if it's high mileage or not is to look at the wear on the gas/brake pedals. There's a big difference in how the rubber on those pedals look from a 25k mile car to a 125k mile car.

 

[Grumpy]

sounds like a decent car .. normal stuff for a 20 year old car .. rust free is a BIG bonus up in NE ..

 

[JDSfastGN]

i doubt it was hunting for gears.... sounds more like the torque converter clutch was programmed to lock earlier than most and it was going inbetween lockup and non lockup dropping the rpms up and down. Pretty common with most of the lower mileage original cars that ive driven. If it has the factory chip they can act pretty weird at times.

 

[dgoodhue]

The car I test drove was advertised as having a GNX suspsension. I just realized by at looking at Kirban GNX suspension this was not one of their reproductions or a real GNX suspension. The rear cover was made of a steel but it did have a center trailing arm and forward frame crossmember. I am not GN or GNX expert, so at first glance it looked to be a GNX setup. It had been installed for a while, because those section of metal had some rust poking through. In fact they were the rustiest pieces of the under carriage by far. Did someone else make a GNX style suspension or is this a one off fabrication. I will have to look at my digital camera later tonight I am not sure if took any detailed pictures of it.

 

[Red Regal T]

"advertised as having a GNX suspsension." .......... misrepresentation

"the rustiest pieces of the under carriage" ......bad sign

"Interior wise I the center armrest looked like it imperfected almost like a couple of small dents. I have seen other like this but they were high mileage vehicles. The passsenger seat was slightly pulling apart on the outside edge." ...... dead giveaway



Sounds like low mileage ... on the odometer. Add 100,000 miles to be more accurate.

 

[dgoodhue]

I don't think it was incorrect mileage, if it was turned back it wasn't 100K worth because the Odometer flipped. The paint looked to be mint original and their is no way it had 120k on it. If it was repainted someone went through a lot of trouble to do it correctly with no overspray but recreate the GM orange peel of the 80's. My Syclone has the same crap quality lacquer paint and I very familliar with the factory paint.

"advertised as having a GNX suspsension." .......... misrepresentation

"the rustiest pieces of the under carriage" ......bad sign

The frame had about 99% of the original coating on it. The floor boards were only missing the outside edge. The GNX repro/immitation/copy suspension peices didn't have the same quality of coating on it as the rest of the undercarriage

 

[Pronto]

If you have doubt's why don't you see if anyone near you that's knowlegable about T Buicks can take a look?