Hey Scotty,what you think about 2013 camaro zl1
Clarification: Daily driver or weekend toy? How many years and miles do you need it to last you?
The engine itself (LSA) from that (5th) generation is stout and better, IMO, than the LT4 from the current (6th) generation ZL1, but it did have an issue with supercharger bearing shaft failing on some of the ZL1’s: the fix was to replace the supercharger itself (can be $2,000-$3,000 if it was not done already). The manual transmission (Tremec-6060) was good, but on the used car market previous owners may have beat the heck out of them.
However, like other Camaro’s of that generation they also had electrical issues (gremlins) and HVAC.
https://www.carcomplaints.com/Chevrolet/Camaro/2013/
Not sure your intentions with this vehicle, but it’s hard to recommend it from a reliability point of view - it would be a labor of love owning it, fixing issues (and money) as they crop up. It’s definitely not recommend if you know nothing about cars, and especially those particular ones.
2,067 TSBs issued for 2013 Camaro, not exactly a strong vote of confidence for reliability:
https://www.carcomplaints.com/Chevrolet/Camaro/2013/tsbs/
{black}:amazed: I knew there were a lot....but....wow. Thank you for posting that info.
Ah the ZL1.
Well, it is a fun, supercharged Camaro that's basically built for weekend use. It requires premium fuel, gets horrible MPG, and basically has all the drawbacks and benefits you would expect of a muscle car.
Pros:
- Very Fast
- Supercharger sound
- Good design (SUBJECTIVE)
-Relatively good deal for the performance
Cons:
- Expensive repairs
- High insurance
- More performance than most drivers can handle
- GM build quality
- Drinks fuel
- Low visibility
If you want one for the weekend, it MAY be a good choice but I would definitely have it inspected first. Whether it has 1k miles or 80k miles, those cars are purchased for one reason: for the owner to beat on it. And boy do they. You also have the younger guys that swap supercharger pulleys or do other mods and don't tune for them which causes a lot of issues.
@DayWalker is right on: owning one is a labor of love and you have to go into it knowing you'll be making repairs, etc. in the future and that they will be costly next to the usual daily drivers. And...I do not recommend daily driving it.
Well, neither I nor scotty are GM fans, but if it's being used as a weekend toy it can be okay.
They're fast and fun, especially with a manual transmission, but it wouldn't be wise to use it as a daily and put 15k-20k miles a year on it.
