Presented for your viewing pleasure is this one-owner 1993 Pontiac Sunbird in the twilight of its life, but still running (somewhat) strongly, merely in need of a clutch. Since nobody buys stick shift cars anymore anyway, I fear this may result in a no-sale…
The ad indicates that it is currently located in the Fort Collins, Colorado area, and the condition of the Light Teal paint color seems to reflect that, this type of skin cancer is not uncommon for non-garaged older vehicles around here. Here is the ad copy in its entirety:
“One owner car, has solid engine, runs good and doesn’t burn any oil, however, she needs a new clutch, but still drives, just noisy!
She has had regular service her whole life, oil changes every 3k or 1 year . Has always passed Colorado emissions, most recently January of 2017.
Asking $750 or best offer, please no low ballers, if you are just gonna offer 100 bucks don’t waste my time, I will not reply to you. Cash only local pickup only. The car is “as is” with no warranty express or implied!
I do not respond to text, or phone numbers, or random messages offering a price if you haven’t even seen the car. If you are real, and interested, then send a message via craigslist and I will get back to you on the craigslist system.”
Alrighty then. Don’t bother him if you only have one C-note. I’m not sure why a bad clutch would result in a noisy car, maybe it’s way worse than the cars I’ve had with bad clutches. But hey, it still drives.
Lest you think this is merely a common Cockroach Of The Road cousin, look again. The fender badge indicates that this carriage sports the 3.1liter V-6. But the fun doesn’t stop there. Yes, it also has the optional rear spoiler and some other sporting accessories.
How do I know all this? Well, the seller was kind enough to include the original sticker!
In 1993 this car had a base price of $9,382. That would have been the version given to the winner of the Showcase Showdown on The Price Is Right. As Bob Barker would enlighten the audience, it would include all of the standard features. This buyer however, sprang for $2,893 worth of options. A package comprised of tinted glass, A/C and the sport mirrors accounted for $903, (or almost a third) of that. The engine upgrade over the miserable 2.0liter was another $585 and probably worth every penny, especially since the fuel economy per the sticker still seems quite reasonable.
15″ Alloys for $275, cruise control for $225, and an AM/FM Cassette stereo (with auto-reverse, mind you) at $170 were probably features I’d want as well. I’m a little surprised that the 195/65R15 “touring” tires are listed as a separate line item for $158 as it’s not like you could get the alloys without tires, and the electric rear defogger at $170 seems like a fairly pricey item but I suppose both were necessary.
Rally “gages” with tachometer for $127 were a must-have, especially since the buyer sprung for the $70 rear spoiler. $145 for the tilt wheel and $65 for the “controlled cycle windshield wipers” (GM-speak for intermittent?) round out the list of upgrades. Add the destination charge of $475 and you arrive at the total of $12,750, which actually doesn’t seem that bad when I consider that the 1993 Audi S4 I owned stickered at right around four times that when new. Although that one did have power windows but no rear spoiler. But I digress…
Yes, that is an “ABS” badge on the lower right side, I had to check the sticker again to realize this was a standard feature on this car, which surprised me.
Here’s the main source of this Pontiac’s excitement, the 3.1 liter fuel injected V-6 providing 145 horses worth of power. The engine bay looks in pretty good shape and less dirty than I would have imagined after around 25 years of driving around Colorado snow, muck, and dust.
And here’s where the magic happens! Get behind the wheel, lower the thruster style handbrake, jam the shifter into first, furiously wind down the manual window, pop in your new cassette of Dr. Dre’s “Chronic”, place left hand on top of the wheel, twist the key and lean back before letting your left foot off the clutch while depressing the go-pedal (yes, that’s how manual transmissions cars work in case you forgot).
This car appears to have the miserable door-mounted seat belts that my Buick LeSabre T-Type featured as well; I always wondered what would happen if the door popped open in a roll-over accident. But overall the interior seems in pretty good shape, certainly nothing that a good set of (gray) faux-mutton-pelt covers wouldn’t hide.
Here’s a close-up of the “Rally Gages W/Tachometer”. The 100mph speedo isn’t very ambitious, this car could easily outrun that even with the 6000rpm redline on the tach. I like how the redline is rotated so it’s right at the top, in proper LeMans style (LeMans the race, not the Pontiac in this case). Still, temp, voltage, oil pressure, and fuel gauges (er, “gages”) are nice to have.
If this all sounds too good to pass up, just go to the Fort Collins Craigslist site and do a search, it’ll pop up…
This looks like it might have been one of the nicest 50 Sunbirds ever built! V6, stick, gauges and turquoise – I might have driven this back in the day.
For $750 it looks like a pretty good car. Maybe the part about it being noisy is just that it is a Sunbird? Or if it is the clutch, perhaps the throwout bearing is howling. A new clutch and some seatcovers and this could be a good get-to-work car for someone.
I’d be interested. For $750? New paint job, and maintenance on the drivetrain – this’d be unique and fun.
Not gonna lie-I’d consider this. Had this been floating around Metro Detroit back in April, I’d have gone to look at it. No joke.
By this point, the J-Bodies had demonstrated their cockroach-like nature. Parts are cheap and plentiful. The 3.1 was a good engine that felt spritely enough behind the 4-speed auto, so I imagine a 5-speed stick would make it entertaining. And, the Pontiac wore the best of the J-Bodies at this time.
Yeah, I’d consider this and then beat the ever-loving daylights out of it, cackling like an idiot all the way.
Question-what’s with that gauge pod? I mean, the gauges themselves are obviously a revision to squeeze a tach into that space. Fine. But that goofy raised pod thing… What is that? Why couldn’t they have just made a version of the cluster that fit into the original space instead of this goofy-looking grafted-on thing?
Oh well, I think the overall package would be worth it. Yes, it’s a ’90s GM. Yes, the interior will be plastics and squeaky. Yes, the seats look broken down and worn out.
But, it’d be fun. It looks pretty solid. And, it’s the sort of car I’d immediately feel completely at ease in, make myself at home, and not lose much sleep about this thing or the other thing. It’s not fussy, pretentious, or expectant of much.
Nice price! Oh wait, that’s a different thing…
I would too, just on a lark. Might be fun. And it might even make a decent winter beater, although this one’s almost too nice to do that to.
Geez guys, it’s a J car. Finding one of these GM mistakes still alive after a quarter century doesn’t matter.
Have fun beating the snot out of it until you kill it.
Send this cockroach to the automobile hell from which which it has so miraculously hidden.
“Send this cockroach to the automobile hell from which which it has so miraculously hidden”
I may or may not have audibly cackled while reading that, even though I don’t mind this car for what it is.
It’s a pretty great turn of phrase.
Don’t get me wrong, in the grand scheme of things it’s a piece of shit. But at this point in time… what if it’s the last piece of shit? Mistakes should be preserved as well as successes, I figure.
Looks like the gauge pod was made to be easy for a line worker to slap in.
I’d almost expect that you could pry it out and find the standard gauges sitting underneath it.
“the 3.1 was a good engine that felt spritely enough behind the 4-speed auto”
Possibly a true statement, but these J-body V-6s came with a 3 speed auto. Having driven one for 18 months, I can tell you it up shifted far too quickly, delayed all down shifts, and offered an awful driving experience.
I might consider the 5 speed manual, but based on what I know of J-body “refinement,” I’m guessing the clutch take up and shift linkage will only disappoint…
The 3-speed auto, I’d imagine, would leave the engine feeling underwhelming. My mom had a ’96 Grand Am with the 3.1 and 4-speed auto that I drove quite a bit as a teenager/young adult. I remember it feeling pretty spry, almost as gutsy as my Bonneville with the 3800 was.
I had a 82 J2000, very lightly optioned, but it did have A/C and a manual transmission. Yeah, the manual transmission is pretty uninspiring in many of these cars. In my car, it felt like the gears were made of plastic and that there was next to no syncromesh action going on. This is a cable shifting transmission, too, so “speed shifting” will quickly kill any fun.
And BTW, the clutch on my car failed after about 4 years. At first it can cause squealing when shifting, but soon the slipping clutch will limit your speed to about 40 mph…on flat surfaces. If this car is “driveable” now, it won’t be for much longer.
Great post, I’m with you 100%! A fantastic beater car with 2 doors and 3 pedals. I vote Nice Price as well, hehe.
I actually like it. The consistency of the clear coat means the body is probably honest. No hidden mess to find later. V6 and 5 spd could be fun. Surely there are some speed parts for that engine? Not just plain old gray seat covers either. nothing but Zebra skins or leopard for me. A hello Kitty steering wheel cover, too, just to round it all out. Go on ahead and roll your eyes now. The best Walmart has to offer.
Learn to paint on this one. What you got to lose? Paint it in the back yard. Spray or Rustoleum with roller – some of those come out pretty darn good.
Seems like it could be fun if it runs. May have to learn how to change a throw out bearing to remedy the clutch noise. IF the clutch isn’t slipping.
I was going to mention paint but then I remembered that I need to start a 12 step program for people who overimprove their beaters to try to turn them back into real cars. 🙂
LOL, JP. I’ve been doing that for 37 years with my Valiant.
Truthfully, it may have been a year or so from the crusher when it found me.
And my wallet.
Nice car, I was never sure if you could get the V6/5 speed combo on the Pontiac Sunbird’s or not but I bet it was a fun car to drive back in the day.
So have you kicked the Porsche out of the garage to make way for this Pontiac? I’m sure you’ve already transferred the title.
Uh, no. Not exactly, they are too similar. 6cylinder, stick shift, first two letters of the name… Time for something different. I’m holding out for a big conversion van. Just can’t seem to find one anywhere. Everyone seems to love them too much to part with them…
Good point about the Porsche vs Pontiac; hell, park them side-by-side and you likely couldn’t tell the difference.
The conversion van thing is like a prescription narcotic with a timed release of its goodies. Just last night I caught myself looking for them on craigslist. This one is in Kansas City so it’s almost next door to you and something about just reminds me of you. Maybe it’s the re-klein-ing seats. It has a 351; the only way it could get better is if it had a 300 straight six.
https://kansascity.craigslist.org/cto/d/1991-ford-econoline-e150/6358300369.html
“Good point about the Porsche vs Pontiac; hell, park them side-by-side and you likely couldn’t tell the difference.”
Except that the Pontiac will start if you ignore maintenance for the next 12 months. 🙂
As long as the Porsche’s engine is in the rear, the price tag will be at least 10x that of the Pontiac even with a no-start condition and not too far away from 10x even if no engine is present at all….So it all evens out.
Wasn’t fast enough, your listing is already deleted/expired! You aren’t kidding though, KC is JUST about around the corner but without that 300-six I likely wouldn’t be interested anyway. It’s more of a JPC contender…
I don’t like the soft time delay feel you describe that you get with an American car, I prefer the feeling akin to the immediate kick of a powerful animal tranquilizer mixed with strong and immediate night sweats that you only get when stretching to buy something German with intergalactic mileage on the odo and only after the purchase on the way home realize that the lights on the dash have been artfully covered with black electrical tape.
That’s a pretty hostile listing. I’ve bought plenty of cars off the classifieds and I would not reply to a bossy and demanding listing like that.
The seller may do better with a more accommodating attitude. That car will be a tough if not -impossible sale. A listing like that suggests the seller may be difficult to deal with, and has an inflated sense of the (scrap) value of that car. Frankly, a buyer will have enough trouble with the car and doesn’t need a hassle from the seller.
Lowballers and offers made sight unseen aren’t worth bothering with. Many sellers use the same language in their ads.
The ad is current but has been relisted since first posted so it’s been a few weeks. I’m guessing he’s received some annoying contacts/offers and has edited his ad. I use similar if more polite verbiage to make clear as to what I am and am not interested in regarding any offers/communication.
I didn’t even find it that rude. Selling a car is a tedious process and low-ballers and no-shows are bound to get under one’s skin.
Yup, low ballers are annoying. Or simply “What is your best price?”
My Focus is a waaaay better deal than this, just sayin’. It has paint and a clutch..
I get the idea that dealing with the public is miserable. Sartre wrote “Hell is other people”
But if you want their money…. it’s probably a good idea to be polite and professional . This means a reasonably worded ad. Expressing anger and frustration to the general public won’t sell your car. It might make a potential buyer people think you’re unreasonable.
There are more tactful ways to phrase the issue….. “serious buyers only” is one way. But this ad smacks of self – indulgence that’s not going to help their selling process.
OntarioMike, the seller didn’t put those messages in there for people like us. Lest you forget, there’s all kinds of sleazeballs, slimeballs, goofballs and ruffians out there who think you might sell to the first person who shows up with a stack of 5 twenties. The kind of lowlife that wants to buy super cheap, then quickly resell it to make a few bucks so he has cash to go get his next fix. Yeah, I’m speaking of the druggie-loser class of people. They’re in all 50 states and Canada. I don’t think any of us want THAT class of people to even show up at our residence. Know what I mean?
Swap the V6 for the OHC four – which also ditches the “Rally Gages w/ Tachometer” – and this is otherwise an exact copy of the car I learned to drive a manual transmission in circa 1994. The 2.0L actually wasn’t all that miserable with 110 hp.
I have the same latent affection for these cars that I do for V-6, 5-speed Ford Tempos. One of these cars would have suited me well in the 1990s, would have been fun, relatively durable, cheap to operate, and no one would know that I had an interesting car. Unfortunately, at the time I thought a better thing to do would be to buy a used Saab… not the brightest move in the world.
So with the door mounted seatbelts there’s no airbag right?
That could open things up to mounting a nicer tiller at least. That one looks discolored from the oils on the hands of their previous owners…
I don’t believe any of these J-Bodies got airbags until the ’95 redesign. GM may have been touting their available ABS, but airbags were weirdly rolled out and GM often lagged behind other automakers (particularly Chrysler): Lumina didn’t get them until the ’95 redesign, for example, even though the Corsica and Beretta got them in ’91!
Yes, GM was early with wide availability of ABS and late with airbags. I recall reading that this was a conscious decision as they believed this was what buyers wanted.
Wow, What a neat buy for $750. For one thing, if it has the original window sticker, someone took very good care of this car for a very long time. Someone either passed away or cannot drive any more or it has just gotten to the age where no one in the family wants it any more. It’s in really good shape inside and out (for a $750 car).
I’m betting the v6, which was pretty smooth, in a pretty light car like the Sunbird, with a manual transmission, would be a hoot. I think the 3.1 made about 160 hp in 1993 (oops, 145) and pretty decent torque, so actually, it would have some really good power for the weight. I much preferred this version of the Sunbird to the Sunfire which followed which really followed the cheap and miserable road with black nylon interiors made out of hatred and disappointment.
I’m betting that this car went out the door for wayyyy less than the 12,750, I’m guessing that the dealer had them advertised at no more than 9995! take your pick! V6 Sunfire or 4 cyl Grand Am. Put up against a seriously stripper Civic for the same pricehich , which would have had a grey vinyl interior, four, no radio, and no comforts, the Sunbird came across as plush and sporty. It is pretty snazzy, and hell, the thing made it 24 years, so probably beat a Civic in longevity.
Those of us who deal with la liste de Craig completely get the tone of the ad. For every decent sincere person with money in hand who wants to buy the car soon, you get 10 scammers, 15 entities wanting to “HELP YOU SELL THE CAR” and 5 dinguses.
The scammers waste a lot of time asking fairly legitimate questions about the car and then get to can you ship it to me and I’ll send you a cashier’s check, so you put in the ad, IF THE AD IS STILL UP I STILL HAVE IT. LOCAL ONLY.
Then some of the dinguses want you to hold the car (no) want you to come to them with the car (no) or want you to take payments (no) or Uncle Wiggly Bucks (no).
Someone who has $750 in hand will not be put off by the ad, he doesn’t seem hard to deal with at all, just, here’s a nice car very fairly priced and come get it.
Ah yes, the joys of selling on CL. Someday I will regale the CC commentariat about my last experience selling power tools on the Craigslist. Yeesh.
I second this. Selling my 91 Marquis was scarcely worth the hassle I got from low-ballers, no-shows and dinguses. But I did sell, and at an okay price considering the issues it had. That alone convinced me it was worth trading my Nissan instead of risking the same BS again.
Don’t be fooled, you’re not going to get what the NADA or KBB says you should when you sell privately, you’re going to take the first decent offer you get because it’s the only real one you’ve gotten after two weeks of stupidity.
I haven’t had first-hand experience with these J-Bodies and I know they’re not the last word in refinement, but a V6/stick model is something I’ve always wanted to drive, if only once. I personally think the Cavalier is better-looking though.
Between my wife and two of our daughters we have had two of these Sunbirds, a four door and a coupe. In addition, there have bee two Cavalier convertibles . All four had the 3100 V6. All had the automatic, so I don’t know how the stick would be to drive. I bet it would be real fun, though, as these engines ran pretty good.
As to no one buying stick shifts any more. Well, I always buy manual transmissions. Of course, I like performance driving, too.
My oldest daughter turned 16 in 1998. We decided to look for a decent car for her.
My wife’s boss sold us her 1990 Sunbird Convertible (with 80,000 or so miles on it) for what the Chrysler dealer was going to give her in trade for it – about $1200. It had the 4-banger automatic in it.
We knew it had been well-maintained because her boss’s dad took care of needed maintenance for her.
2 weeks after we bought it, the head gasket blew. Not an uncommon occurrence according to our mechanic.
The seller offered us our money back, but we went ahead and had the gasket replaced.
The car turned out to be like the energizer bunny – other than maintenance (and a new top), it ran and ran and ran.
MOST importantly, it was a CONVERTIBLE! I’d never owned one before this, and I was hooked! When it was mine to drive, there was NOTHING better than putting the top down after a day at work and blasting home on I-75.
If I needed cheap transportation NOW, I’d consider the one in the article.
It looks as if the paint’s delaminated on the one in the ad. When I worked at Buick Customer Relations in the 90’s, we got calls about this all the time. The manufacturers knew damn well they were skipping a needed step in painting vehicles, but did it anyway. So within a matter of a few years, the paint started coming off.
I had a 92, four door automatic, it was the four cylinder… I loved it, I drove from Iowa to California and back with a friend and it was fun…. we were young and not very smart, I guess.
I haven’ never seen many of them in Texas, but in the Midwest there were pretty common in the early part of this century.
Sometimes I would like to have one like this, a convertible, just for the week ends, nothing fancy, but fun in the Houston winter.
Oh this sucks. I NEVER see a coupe, it’s almost always a 4 cylinder convertible. $750! What a deal! I could get out to Ft. Collins quickly enough, but I don’t have the space to keep another car right now… We don’t have the garage worked out yet and I really wanted something newer with OBD2 and airbags… But still…
George, fly on out and I’ll buy you lunch before you head back in YOUR NEW CAR!!!! As far as storage all you need is a 16×24 tarp and some tent stakes, stick it in the backyard for the winter. If the tarp rubs the paint a bit, it won’t hurt it. Bring your AAA card too. Lemme know…
Jim, since we last saw each other, I’ve sold my palatial (heh!) 1500 sq ft house and 9000 sq ft lot for a 845 sq ft house and a 3000 sq ft lot. Which also has a two car garage on it, so I have sections of grass, a barely continuous strip of green.
This is reeeaaallly tempting, as I consider the 60 degree V6s to be the reincarnation of the 265 ci small bIock Chevy; and even with their pitfalls, I still am a fan of these Js. But, I really do want a car with OBD2 and airbags. I’m still scheming on how I can find a Fiat 500 Abarth for cheap…
I purchased an 89 Crapalier z24 from a co-worker back in 2000. It was well cared for however it was on it’s 2nd 2.8 V6. Also a 5spd car. The original engine suffered a cracked block at the middle cylinder at the rear. He had a low km replacement installed which lasted 6 months before suffering the same fate only the next pot over. It was cheap enough at the time, $500, so I pulled the trigger after locating another low km, 75K, replacement. The scrapyard attendant recommended a new radiator to prevent a repeat. Get the one for the auto tranny cause it’s bigger he said. The car itself had 145K or about 91K miles on it and a new clutch kit was ordered as well. Why not, parts were cheap and it’s coming apart anyway. The clutch kit had no pilot bushing so I called the dealer and they searched in vain for the part before discovering there was no such thing. I told my buddies that if you ever want to drive a GM parts guy crazy call them up and ask for one and make it very clear you are holding the worn out one in your hand.
I read the manual and then looked at my ageing engine hoist and figured I could get away with separating the engine from the tranny and taking it out the top. It is possible but very difficult to do. It comes out reasonably quick yet going in is darn near impossible to line up. As per the manual the correct way is to support the subframe, undo the struts at the top, remove the bolts securing the subframe and lift the car off. Once everything else is unhooked naturally. Yep. Not going to happen on my gravel driveway.
The car was a rocketship compared to the iron duke automatic model it was replacing. The cowl induction on the z24 package was functional and not just a fancy hood bulge. The car cleaned up showroom fresh thanks to the previous owner being very fussy about appearances and the a/c blew frosty cold. I was sure impressed. The handling was nothing to write home about but was good enough for every day use. A very nice car for the $1500 all in from junker to plated and ready to go.
Was it worth it. NO! For one reason only. I had done all this for a sibling who was in desperate need at the time. All that work and I just gave it away only to become the villain two years later when the engine quit. She knew enough to tell me that it made a sound like the lifters were ticking just before it quit and drove it anyway oil light on and all. “It was only flashing so that’s not it.” Hey stupid, there’s a thing called a dipstick, used to check the level of a substance called oil that should be changed regularly. Behind my back I was the a-hole who gave her the piece of junk. I demanded it back but she had already given it to the boyfriend who had traded it away and so on and so forth.
Surprisingly it turned up in a driveway four blocks from my house with a for sale sign on it. Runs good in the description. How do I know? The one place it needed a patch for the safety inspection was in the right rear wheel well and instead of welding it in I used pop rivets in the shape of a Z. Sealed with kitty hair filler carefully sculpted to seal out moisture. I signed it with a Z in honour of the Z24. For laughs. An Easter egg so to speak.
I should also point out that yes I know this is about a Pontiac Sunbird and not a Crapalier. It just so happens that another sibling had an 88 Sunbird, previous to the above mentioned story, with the overhead cam 1.8. She brought it to me complaining it was “acting slow”. Three cam lobes were rounded out and a fourth one was beginning to badly score. I changed out the cam and followers and flushed the pan and pick up screen, drained and filled the oil a couple of times before declaring it fixed. It drove like fresh and new just as it had when purchased at three years of age.
If you have already guessed it. Give yourself a pat on the back because there is another one who to this day insists that the oil light is there to let you know you should put in a bottle of oil. Oil level regularly way too low. Never gets the oil changed. The new cam didn’t last very long, a couple of years, and I didn’t fix it right because I don’t know anything.
It met the same fate. Ownership was signed over to Crapalier sibling whose soon to be ex-hubby, aka the reason for the future desperate need, put an new cam in it and traded it away for crack or pot or whatever.
There are some people who just shouldn’t own cars.
Ugh. I will be glad when every last Cadavalier/Sunbird/Sunfire has gone from the road forever. Nasty, unnecessarily crude little oppressively mediocre-at-best penalty boxes!
I researched then-new door-mount and motorized belts as some kind of self-directed study project thing in high school. About the door-mount belts GM said, with a straight face, that their doors don’t open in crashes. About motorized belts NHTSA said, with a straight face, “We were willing to degrade the protection…possibly degrade the degree of protection if it meant more people using belts”. I think at the same time I looked into why the US was so slow behind Europe to require 3-point belts in the back seat. I don’t remember the excuse, but it was equally lame.
$750 and needs a clutch? I must be out of touch with used car prices having lived outside of NA for so long. I would have been that guy who offered $100 for it.
How would a non-DIY clutch job cost?
South Koreans send better stuff than this straight to the crusher.
I learned to do a lot of work on my Sunbird. I was also very into Super Street magazine at the same time. I was a wannabe ricer but I drove a Sunbird. That fact kept me from wasting all my money on it since there were zero specific aftermarket parts available for it.
It was my sister’s first car, she got it new in February 1990 when the Honda dealer told us to pound sand when we indicated we wouldn’t pay more than $10k for a new Civic hatch.
It served her perfectly well until 1995 when she finally bought herself a new Civic coupe.
I took it over when my ’86 Sentra proved itself to be unreliable as a winter beater.
Here it is at its most respectable, meaning without the LeBra or 16″ Quantum Tek wheels:
That was a nice ride in 1993, no joke! Might be fun to play with now too.
Count me in as a person that would be interested in this. I love the color.
looking at this car reminds me about why the General was in so much trouble in the 1990’s and 2000’s. The car itself was fine, while the J body cars were not in the same league as the Corolla and Civics of the era, GM did sell loads of them and they did make a lot of money on them.
However it is the 50 million option packages that GM offered on their cars that caused them so much issues. This car has a V6 that was offered in the top of the line J-Body, but has a manual transmission and manual windows like a entry level J- Body had. That meant this car held up the factory line for a few minutes to go get a V6 for it. Then probably sat on the lot because the folks wanting the V6 also wanted a automatic trans(unless you bought a Cavalier Z24)
I am sure the clutch issue is a howling throw out bearing or noisy springs
Sadly the market for high mileage entry level stickshift cars that need work is not high so this might not sell
At the dealership I hang out at, there is a independent whole sale guy that rents space, he has a 2009 Kia Spectra that is very loaded(pwr locks, windows, remote entry and sunroof) but has over 300,000 miles and is a stick.
http://www.values4youmd.com/vehicle/174426/2009-kia-spectra-for-sale-in-laurel-or-rockville-md-
It has generated no interest at all. I looked it over and it has been taken care of very well and has the records to prove it. The only thing I found wrong was a crack in the windshield. It looks great. However it has high miles and is a stick so nobody wants it.
My Mom had a 1994 Sunbird SE – 3.1 V6 & automatic. It was a dark purple color, fully loaded up – power everything, sunroof and factory cassette & CD player. She loved that car. Had it from 1994 until 2007, the only problem she had with it was the gas gauge stopped working, after the warranty period of course. She got a quote on the cost of repair and decided not to bother as it was quite expensive. She just reset the trip meter between fill ups. She still says until this day that this was her best car, next to her 1979 Pontiac Phoenix.
My wife had a 92 Sunbird, sorry to say but I don’t remember spending any money on it other than maintenance, she had an 2 hour commute every day for work and put on a lot of KMs before trading it in.
I test drove a few 3.1L Cavaliers with automatics back in the day and they were a blast, with the manual it would be even more fun. The Pontiac dash is way ugly.