| I. THE HISTORY This is a site on my 1988 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. This will include all of the information that I know about the car as well as all of the info that I have collected from various sources off of the Internet, and through readings. I was looking for a new car, specifically a Formula or a Trans Am, because I was getting tired of my wimpy V6 firebird. It was time to step it up a notch and upgrade to a V8. The only problem was that I couldn’t sell my firebird and I didn’t have any money. I had it listed in the local classifieds for 7 days, no calls. I also posted it in Auto Trader magazine and also on their website; got some calls but really no one was really that interested. I will start by saying that I first spotted the TA on Railroad Ave at a small dealership named Mid-Valley Sales in West Des Moines in August 2002. The car had minor dings here and there and the paint was oxidized, and the spoiler was completely devastating. It need reconditioned because of what the sun had done to it. I looked in the window to see that it had over 130,000 miles on it and they wanted $2975 for it as is. Well I figured that I could buy it like that and fix the spoiler when I got the money. So I went back the following week and looked a little harder at the car. I got in it and sat down, checked all of the stuff inside, opened the hood and trunk to check things out. A sales person came out and said that they had not got any interests on it so they were going to fix up the dings and refinish and repaint the spoiler. I periodically checked back with them in the weeks to come to see how the painting was doing, one of those times taking my father in to look at the car. After they got the refinishing finished, we stopped back again to notice that the spoiler was a bright cherry red, set against an old oxidizing body. They said that the price jacked up to $3250 for it now. In the weeks to come, I kept in contact with the owner of the dealership to let him know that I was still interested. I was informed that they were repainting the entire car due to the fact that the paint didn’t match that of the spoiler. I wasn’t to happy about this because that meant that they were going to probably jack the price up to over $4000, no way I could ever afford this with the money I was making at the time. It would all change when one day I walk out to my car after getting off work to see a security van sitting next to my car. I look at my car and notice that the back windshield is completely shattered and my car looks like a white Fiero. Now I did have a pretty nice stereo system in the car at the time, and the car did have for sale signs in the windows. They tried to take my stereo equipment, but did not succeed. They did succeed to slash my right front tire, cut themselves on the glass, drip blood on some paper in my back seat, and had enough time to snag my CD’s; all in broad daylight in the middle of a mall and theatre parking lot; that shows the security of the mall. I finally got the car home after calling parents, having them bring out the shop-vac, generator, and other miscellaneous stuff to get the mess cleaned up. Three hours later, the hatch was removed and the spare tire was on and I’m home. I parked it in the garage and I get to drive the Bonneville to college for now. We had the appraiser come to our home from the insurance company to appraise the damage. She appraised $2700 less the $500 deductible that I had on my full coverage insurance policy. That’s a check for $2200 to me. I then bought the car back, between my father and I, for $900. We found a used rear windshield for $100. We also found a guy that installed it for $35. So between the windshield, installation, and the purchase of a new tire, we spent less than $250 to repair it. After it was repaired, I drove it down to the ditch and grabbed a 4x6’ sheet of particleboard and spray painted “$2000” and our phone number on it. Within two days it was sold and I made a lot of money off of the deal. All because my car got broken into. So then I made my first move by calling John, the owner of Mid-Valley sales, to let him know that I was still definitely interested in the car and I would be interested in coming to take it for a test drive. I scheduled a test drive on a weekday so my dad, Danielle, and myself could all go look at it, and take it for a drive. Danielle and I met my dad there after work and took it for a drive. I loved this car the second I started it and heard the engine rumble. I pulled out of the parking lot and went down the road to a local park where we got out and inspected some stuff that we heard on the way to the park. I checked some more stuff on that car to see the condition of it. By the way, this is after the brand new paint job of the original 8774 bright red color from GM the day it rolled off of the showroom floor, so indeed the car looked very sharp, aside that it was a little dusty from setting outside. Also, they told me that since they didn’t know that they were going to have to paint the entire car after they had already told me a price of $3250, they were going to keep it at that price, even with the new paint job, which is awesome. This car had a lot of balls and a lot of torque, which I will get to later. My dad was being himself telling me all of the bad things wrong with the car such as mileage, and a few rattles, etc. I had earlier checked the book value on kbb.com and it quoted it at around $4000. I thought the buy was a steal at $3250. I wanted the car and I thought that now is the best chance to get a great car at a great price. I told my dad that I wanted him to go back and buy the car the following week because I had to go back to Ames for ISU. He paid $3250 for the car on September 4th, 2002, my dad’s birthday. I drove home from Ames that night and had my mom take me to go get it from the dealership. Danielle came with also. We got there around 6, but they were still open. I opened the doors, removed the t-tops, put them in the t-top bag in the trunk, and started her up with my baby in the passenger seat. I was so excited that I finally got my V8 TA. This is what I had always dreamed of, I couldn’t believe that I actually got the car; stuff this good never really happens to me. We immediately went to Danielle’s house to show her parents. They thought it was cool. We then went to cruise around. I also made a stop at Tom’s house, but he wasn’t home, only Linda was, so I showed her. I was then called to go home so they could see it before it got dark out. The first thing I did when I got home was showed the rest of the family. The only one who hadn’t seen it yet was my brother. I also took him for a ride and showed him the power that would kill his Nissan 240SX. Danielle loved the TA, but she was upset that I got rid of “Whitey”, my old white firebird. She said that we had too many memories in it for me to get rid of it, but it was time to move on. |
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