[cold_steel]

Hey guys!

I currently have a 2002 Pontiac Trans Am Firehawk that I use as a toy and to show. Recently, I got the itch to add a convertible to show along with the hawk, and found an Orange 2008 GXP with 7,200 miles on her. They were asking $19,995 for it.

I went to look and shes in really good shape. I test drove her, and there is a dash rattle somewhere on the left of the dash (after reading here, likely the trim rings around the gauges) and I could tell the clutch needs service as there is some slight shudder when going off in 1st (had this in a previous vehicle, flywheel was warped and needed resurfacing.) Id have the whole clutch redone while they were in there.

My questions are- Is there a good chance I can clear up the dash rattle? As far as the clutch goes, I had the seller agree to come down to $18,500 due to the clutch work needed.

What do you think? Green light?

Thanks for your opinions!

pic of the Hawk looking for a little brother:

 

[Sting Ya]

Just wondering with only 7200 mi you have clutch issues build quality is one thing this seems like another.Why did the owner not take the car back and have this addressed after all it should still be under the warranty but once again I'm not an expert just an old guy who has had a lot of performance cars in my day and this would raise a red flag to me.I would go to my local GM dealer and get a quote on a clucth replacement and go from there as far as the price.

 

[GODROD]

Sting ya does have a good point but barring that I think this is a decent price. I bought my 2008 orange GXP auto for about the same last year through carmax (warrantied)


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[warrenhotrod1]

Agree GM should take care of that. It could be just suface rust from sitting. But I would try to get them down a little more. Try 17,500

 

[wspohn]

Agree GM should take care of that. It could be just suface rust from sitting. But I would try to get them down a little more. Try 17,500

Very hard to get GM to cover a wear item like a clutch that is so prone to failure from abuse. Check the list of what isn't covered - I think it is on it.

Good advice to get a price on a clutch job and deduct it. The rattling trim ring should be fixable. Too bad it is off the 'bumper to bumper' portion of warranty - many dealerships seem to have experts in finding rattles and fixing them. Guess you could pay them to do that when you do the clutch (not that I would ever take my car to a dealer for anything that wasn't warranty).

 

[Robssol]

Issues don't matter with a price like this with mi this low on a otherwise flawless car. I would jump on it!

 

[Robles505]

Are you sure the clutch needs service? Maybe since it was your first time using the clutch it was a user error? Not saying your a bad driver or anything but, I would look for the simple fix before I go and drop the trans.

 

[GXPforme]

I agree, seems way too early for the clutch to be on the way out. Beware, coming from a V8, you'll be seeking mods!

 

[LatinVenom]

You need to know how to drive this cars with a standard transmission.
The shudder is there if you do not know how to engaged it. The same thing happens in reverse.
I bet there is nothing wrong with the clutch.

 

[LiquidPT]

Yup, this car has a truck trans in it, so it takes a little getting used to.

 

[rob the elder]

Welcome

The color is a relatively uncommon one. Nice to have such a low mileage car.


There was a lot of discussion about the clutch early on as a lot of new owners had trouble with the clutch feel combined with the turbo . Unless there is some kind of failure what you are describing can also be due to lack of experience with the car.

Buy it and have fun

 

[fosti]

Green light all the way,price,rattle and clutch .I find it hard to believe that the clutch is bad but I had a 850 Sport Spider Fiat that my wife burned the clutch disk in a day so with clutches anything is possible.
There was a comment about the transmissions being a truck transmission,is this a fact?

One thing ,if you are coming off a 8 cylinder vehicle ,the car is a different animal so the clutch feel is way different.I had to get used to the rattle when driving my 07 ,thought it was the exhaust .I later learned that is just the way all 4 cylinders are.

 

[DaveOC]

There was a comment about the transmissions being a truck transmission,is this a fact?

The 5-speed manual Aisin AR-5 is out of the Chevy Colorado, via the GM parts bins.

Aisin AR transmission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[GXPforme]

The only bad thing about the tranny is not always wanting to go in reverse - have to creep foward in first sometimes to make it engage.

 

[Freaky Tiki]

The only bad thing about the tranny is not always wanting to go in reverse - have to creep foward in first sometimes to make it engage.

I have the same issue, but I've managed to work around it....it doesn't seem to have gotten worse. Just a periodic nuisance.

 

[TX08manualGXP]

well, I hope I'm not about to jinx it but I just put $500 down on a 2008 cool manual GXP with 31k miles. found it in the same state but i still have a 6+ hour drive ahead of me. we are leaving at 3AM to get there by 10 on Saturday morning. Hopefully it's in as good of condition as it looks. any pointers as to what I should check for other than the stuff I have encountered with my 06?

 

[Mayhem]

Clutch shudder could be a couple things. By shudder, you mean feel through the pedal or just the car shake?

 

[RedDevil]

2008 GXP new car buyer’s beware! Please check to see if your car you are about to buy comes with the vacuum assist brake boost! For a short period, many of the 08’ build GXP and Redline models that GM made have this STUPID feature. I say this because it works off of the turbo and needs to build up boost in order to function properly. Many of the 08’ owners have had problems with their brakes not working “properly” when needed because of this. GM knew is was a problem because they had so many complaints about it that they removed this device/feature and went back to old 07’ brake set up. Even the 09’ & 2010 models reverted back to the original brake set up used on the 2007 GXP models. Not all of the 08’s have this brake set up, but most do.

Here is what you can expect if you have this brake setup as I do. 1) When starting the car, you can not just put it in gear and start moving and expect to have any real braking until enough boost pressure has started up. This can be a pain if you are late for work or want to back up and then suddenly realize you cannot stop. 2) If you accelerate fast and then suddenly stop, you will not have full braking power because once the boost from the turbo stops as you suddenly let off the gas, the car still needs to build up boost for the brake assist leaving you without power brakes immediately when you want to stop. 3) If the turbo goes, so do the brakes. Basically you have to pump the brakes because there is no power assist with out the boost assist.

I love my car but hate the 08’ GXP brake set up. Many people have retro fit the 07’ brake set up and even were able to get GM to pay for it. This should be a recall issue.

If you do a search on the forum for “Vacuum Brake Pump” or “Brake Boost Pump Assist” you will find many 08’ GXP owners complaining about this problem. Had I known about this before buying my car, I would have waited and bought a 09' or even the earlier 07' with low miles.

 

[TX08manualGXP]

Hmmm, is there a VIN number search? or is it an easy thing to spot?

 

[RedDevil]

Hmmm, is there a VIN number search? or is it an easy thing to spot?

There maybe, but my car build date was August 13th 2008. So the faulty brake set up was well into the 08' year model before they changed the set up and went back to the 07' brake system.

Can someone provide pictures of the 2 different brake systems? One with the brake boost assist and one without? My car is in the shop right now and can't take a picture of that area.