87 GN for my sons first car ?

["Turbo-T"]

Downside would the chances of it being destroyed go up... Its not as safe as something new with airbags etc.... It is old and although reliable now it may turn into a pita car.... after he puts 50 k on it in the next couple years....

There's more down sides to it than that.....GN's are theft magnets and very easy to steal....and anyone knows one at first glance from 100 feet away. GN's can also very finicky; not just anyone knows how to work on one (unlike a Chevy 350 or a Ford 302) and parts can be hard to come by and expensive. Plus there's also a good chance of blowing it up if getting in the boost and one or more cylinders go lean or there's an incorrect/bad grade of fuel used in the tank...and let's not forget your kid will want to run the snot out of it and maybe even race everyone with it....so add to that speeding tickets, increased insurance, the possibility of wrecking the car and worse, the increased possibility of getting in an accident.

My suggestion is to let junior grow up some before turning him loose with something like a GN. Owning and driving a GN IMO is a big responsibility unlike driving a Civic, which is what junior should be driving. If you still want to give junior a GN, get a V6 Regal or one with a 307 Olds and paint it all black.

 

[Daniel Jost]

Don't DO IT! I got my GN when i was just turning 16 i took out a loan on it and bought a Pontiac 6000LE safari wagon for $500 from my grandpa as a daily driver, and drove the Buick for enjoyment! I was one of the rare non-idiot drivers from high school many kids wrecked thier cars and im 21 now and haven't gotten anywere near wrecking it, but i also knew how to be an angel driver in my parents eyes and street race every weekends... I think enough is said, i have just been there and done that! Please don't do it or i feel you will regret it! When i was in Peoria, IL for school a dad gave his sone a Mint 60K mile T and within 6 months the body and interior was destroyed the car ran like ass and at its current point its almost worthless... I feel im one of the rare kids that took care of and cherrished my ride, i to this day have never even been near a fender bender and am very lucky after my highschool experience the GN is in one piece!

Good Luck, Dan

 

[BOP4ever]

First, Thanks to everyone for sharing their thoughts on the matter and giving me lots to think about.

My wife and I decided that the GN should not be his first car, at least that is the feelings today. He is just 15 now so the Idea is when he is 16 going to 17 I will let him drive my truck ( 96 Chevy 1500 ext-cab) to get him some seat time and then his senior year we will evaluate his maturity and grades and college future and see about helping him get something that fits the need within our budget... As you can see I aint rolling on cash.... or If have a newer truck LOL....

Anyway.... I hope to get him interested and let him drive the GN some over the next few years maybe we can attend some events together. I saw the comment about my car having enough mods to run low 12's and man I had to chuckle... I drove it tonight and from a dead stop I don't think it spun a tire hitting 20 PSI on the gauge... Its not slow but it sure aint a 12 second car. Funny thing is it feels dog slow off the line but will snatch you head back from a 45 mph roll and it pulls out good it feels like... I think it would need a JATO strapped to his black arse to hit a 12 anything right now...

I thought it would be a easy 12 second car with the nods it had too when I got it after reading a lot of the internet stuff... I gota TE44 and the intercooler to install but I feel its not going to be night and day...

I think it maybe fuel issues due to the tuning logs.... 49 psi FP line off + 7% in third gear and pulling 2 degrees of timing in third + Alky maxed out to keep it from detonating at 19-20 psi. I know this belongs somewhere else... sorry.

Thanks again.
A few Pictures of my 87 GN ( slide-show ).

 

[87granny]

Thre is something not right with your car then cause look at my sig other than the trans and converter we have almost the same set up and i'm running 12.5 with a crappy 60ft and sleeping on the tree at 108-109 mph was running 12.89 with street tires and no traction all this at 20lbs of boost

 

[GNBRETT]

Each kid is different... If you trust your kid go for it...!

Exactly! By todays standars the car just isnt all that fast for a DD in near stock form. Any new Infinity is gonna have 300+ hp. Granted, it has ABS and air bags but air bags are only necessary if you hit something.....

I could see ur kid going two different ways with a car like that. Either he respects it and appreciates it or he doesn't period. Depends on ur kid. No one here knows him like you do so it's ur call not the boards.

 

[m.$terner]

i know you already made up your decesion for now but still thought id throw in my 2 cents. im a lot younger than most of yall at 19 so i want to give my opinion.im 19 and i even say no. i bought a 98 camaro z28 ls1 when i was 15 1/2. my mom told me no, and my dad wasnt all for it but i had my mind set up and thats what i wanted. i used MY money (a little over 7k in cash) and bought one anyways.im 19 now and i still have it, only put 6k miles on it in those 3 years and since i paid for it, i treat it like a baby. im also a lot more mature than most my age and i think that does matter.i paid for my car, with my money and i know if i wreck it, its my fault, the money comes out of my pocket, and i do my body work, and it cost me my time.when you buy it urself you respect it a lot more. ive gotten sideways a few times in it and scared the crap out of myself, ran a 13.7 before the 3.73 rear install (around what a stock GN runs) but as a DD i vote no.i waited a year and got in the car game and bought a 98 grand prix and thats my daily driver now.maybe im lucky i never wrecked the ls1 or maybe i was just mature enough to know better then to act stupid. bottomline is when someone pulls up next to your son and revs, hes gonna punch it, i would then and i still do now. if he likes regals then by a regular regal and clone it or i like the older pickup idea too,also blazers and jimmys are nice trucks(very easy to drive imo), then if he wants to buy something faster do it later on, and feed him the speed slowly so he respects it. i did it a** backwards but im still alive and the camaro looks and runs great, but i could have just as easily wrapped myself around a tree one day or killed myself.your call but either way make him pay for it so he respects it more.

 

[asd60303]

I drove a GN when i was 17. It was my brothers GN so I drove it when he was away at school. I never got in an accident with it, respected it because i was around these cars since grade school. My dad would take me in his GN and would scary the **** outta me; that made me realize 1. you can easily danger yourself or others with a fast car 2. Don't beat on a car until you respect it/learn how to drive it. Since i got my drivers license (i'm 22) i've had a syclone, typhoon, my own GN, 03 cobra. The cobra was the only car that got me in trouble; I had it only for a few weeks and could barely drive it. Well I was being egged on by fellow classmates and I got on it like a moron and spun out into a ditch. That's the only time, i've lost control of a car by being an idiot. I always have people rev'ing at me or wanting to race. I honestly just ignore them; i don't feel like getting a ticket or crashing a beautiful car up.

Before I give it to him, I would take him out and show him what it can do to give him an idea of what can happen. I don't think giving your son a GN is a bad idea if he's respectful of the car. Do realize that it's old and your going to be wrenching on it a lot more as its a daily driver. I think parking it in a school parking lot is going to do more damage than him driving. My car has more dents and dings on it from school then anything else. If anything, I would only let him drive it during the week. Weekend nights would be off limits; that's when a lot of kids make poor decisions. There's also a lot of opportunity for peer pressure as well when's he out at night.

 

[m.$terner]

yeah i agree with asd, he has to respect it period. and a school parking lot is a disaster. im in college now and ppl still cant park to save their lives. luckily i never got any dents in my car but i parked in the middlle of no where so that wouldnt happen either.but then again someone did break into my car and destroy the sterring column in an attempt to steal it. they got the A/c on, killed the battery, pulled all the fuses, took my cd book, and stole my cheapy headunit, and destroyed my steering column so bad i had to replace it.thank god Gm has those chips on the keys though, its the only thing that saved my car that day.

 

[T What?]

truck is the better idea. your son may be a good kid with no bad intention at all. thats cool and believable. but i guarantee he has atleast 1 or 2 dumbass friends that will put some hard miles on that car. let him buy it from you, when he pays it off then give him the keys. respect is hard earned when it comes to vehicles, ive broke my fair share and now i understand that its not just a broke down vehicle, its my hard earned cash. good luck man

 

[boostingirl]

are you the guy who posted this on stvperformance?????? j/w. i would never give a 16 year old anything fast,kids try to show off to much.. if i had a kid who just started driving he or she would get a volvo 240 tank lol slow and safe

 

[jcawley3]

This very thing happened to my best friend in high school. We were 17. his dad gave him the 86 gn. As fun as it was I would NEVER do it. We beat the hell out of that car. went through 2 turbos and 1 tranny in a year and a half. luckily we never wrecked it we did however have 2 close calls both while raining and for some reason is was just after the little red light came on. I dont care how "responsible" you think your child is....the temptation with a gn is to great.

 

[ryan319]

if you just GIVE him any kind of car and not make him do something to earn it or teach him how to respect it them something bad will happen; i don't care if its a vette or a chevette. if he does something to earn it and you teach him how to drive it right then chances are he'll be fine. some of you out there need to lighten up a little.

i'd rather see a teen driving a fast car that they earned and know how to handle as opposed to a civic or volvo that was just given to them without the proper guidance.

plus allowing a teen to get a sporty car will go a long way with the ladies.:biggrin:

 

[O SO LO]

when I was a teenager(awhile ago :redface a neighbor kids parents bought him a 454SS chevelle when he turned 16! first weekend hit a telephone pole with rear quarter, 2 weeks later put it in a ditch and rolled it... in one month he destroyed that car... they replaced it with a orange Pinto that he drove for a long time... lol
I wouldn't get a classic car for starter- let them get a little experience first maybe after 18 or something like that. My oldest of 3 daughters will be turning 16 in Sept., so I'm kind of in this situation as well...

 

[ZNix]

Hey! Im turning 16 in September too! What day? Sorry for being off topic.. Anyways, I baby my car even though its in disrepair at the moment. No one is allowed near it .

 

[O SO LO]

Sept. 21

 

[Turbo1dr]

if you just GIVE him any kind of car and not make him do something to earn it or teach him how to respect it them something bad will happen; i don't care if its a vette or a chevette. if he does something to earn it and you teach him how to drive it right then chances are he'll be fine. some of you out there need to lighten up a little.

i'd rather see a teen driving a fast car that they earned and know how to handle as opposed to a civic or volvo that was just given to them without the proper guidance.

plus allowing a teen to get a sporty car will go a long way with the ladies.:biggrin:

This is exactly what's wrong with kids today...NOT EVERY KID but dare I say..MOST of them. It's not the kids fault...it's the parents fault. Daddy and mommy just buys them everything and when it gets wrecked the kid just wants another car given to them again. They have no sense of value because they didn't have to pay for it. Like someone else said...if they didn't work to earn it....they should have to walk. It's the "take what you can and give nothing back" attitude... I hate.

 

[hot air 84GN]

WOW! You're joking RIGHT? I vote hell no!

 

[yarbeau]

my first car was an 80 regal. not the most flash, but a solid car. me and my father rebuilt the motor and got it back to running very very well. When I say we I mean he'd help me instal parts but I would have to pay for the parts I wanted. Not because he is cheap, but to make me realize things arent given away in the real world.

its a 30 year old car and i treat it a bugatti veyron. not because its the nicest car in the world, but because I know of the time and money I have put into the car so I really take pride and respect it.

recently i purchased an 87 Grand national. the only reason i was attracted to this car was because I was introduced to the gbodys through the 80 regal and loved it so much I needed another one. It is a paycheck away from being paid off and I couldnt be happier.

Seeing how much this car means to me and the time ive spent getting the rotten pans out and cleaning up a few things this car will be driven like grandma going to church. sure the odd rip if a ricer slaps me with a fart can I'll show him the dark side. but i wont be driven like most kids my age drive.

respect simply isn't passed on in a car. its something that you have to learn and appreciate. being given a 15,000 grand national is not the same as working to pay off and rebuilding a 15,000 grand national.

I'm only 19 if my father had handed me his 69 Nova ss, I can't honestly say I would appreciate and respect it the way I do with the regal and grand national. Not because I'm a spoiled brat and Nova's are ****, but because I didn't have to work for it and really it isn't "mine"

Derek

 

[ZNix]

Sept. 21

Looks like I'm older . Where you from?

 

[Ryan87GN]

If a kid is a car guy, let him BUY whatever he wants/ can afford. I bought my GN when I was 15. It was the perfect GN for a teenager. Bone stock, and rusty. The kind of car that is just a little too far gone to paint, but still has lots of life left. It went 15.17 @ 96.5 the first track outing. I drove mine daily from 16 to 19. Never had a wreck or a ticket. 4 written warnings though

I think that a truck for a first car is WAY worse than a GN. Give a kid a vehicle with no power AND no traction, and just see how many mailboxes and street signs he can take out. A lot of the geesers on here think a slow car for a kid is great. I don't. You need a car that has some merging power. A car that can pull out in traffic (or a 55 mph rural road) and get up to speed in a timely manner.

Every kid is different. My parents were cool, and I grew up at the dragstrip and cruise-ins. I had a paper route from age 8 to 14, then bussed tables when I was 15. I was a good saver. I had a moped and put 8,000 miles on it before I turned 16. The parents knew I was well aware of how stupid other drivers can be.

Bottom line- Your kid, your discretion.