Hello everyone, I’ve been looking at a lot of the 80s trans am firebirds lately and I’m wondering how reliable they really are, mostly the 1982 to early 90s firebirds, like the Knight Rider car 😂. I’ve always loved how they looked and the prices aren’t bad, but I don’t want to buy a money pit lol. Thanks for any help you can give me.
Reliability shouldn't really enter the conversation.
They are hobbies, not transportation.
Physical condition of the vehicle should be the first of all things to check before you start talking about reliability of 40 year old cars. The old cars are notorious rust buckets if it lived in the rust belt. Check the frame and floor pan of anything before you even look at one mechanically. My '79 Catalina is around the same age as those Trans-Ams. It has a rock solid frame, but I noticed yesterday that a footwell a rear passenger seat is starting to rot, it's early rot, but it's there.
They're as reliable as a car was in their day, as long as the maintenance has been kept up, they'll run. My Catalina died a few weeks ago due to a bad fuel pump, it was probably the original pump. I replaced that, and it's running strong again. I wouldn't daily drive a car that old, unless you get one that's recently been restored, or you're mechanically inclined. Old cars like that are mechanical, not electronic, they're easier to work on, if you understand how they work. Parts are available, I bought the fuel pump from AutoZone and it was brought to the store the next day.
@mmj is right. They're hobby cars, not daily driving cars.
Well of course I wouldn’t daily it, my daily is a Lincoln Town Car. It would probably drive it pretty frequently though, so thank you for all of the info 😁.
It's going to depend mainly on how it's been treated and maintained over the last 40 years.
