4th Gen Firebirds
 

My son is nearing driving age, so I’ve been poking around looking for something to replace my daily driver which will get passed down to him. 4th Gens have been catching my eye, maybe because I wasn’t able to afford one when they were new.

The later LS cars are obviously more desirable, but I’m finding myself drawn towards the earlier 93-96 LT1 cars like a Firehawk, 25th anniversary, WS6 or a Comp T/A. I’d love something I could drive and maybe show.

Anyone have any experience with these?

No experience, but 4 th gene are waaaay better than 3rd gens. A friend has a 2002 Camaro, awesome car!!

I have one. Its a really good driving car. LS1/4L60 car, a 6M would be more fun. Most have or had cracked door panels, headlight motor gear failure, bad window motors, PASS key system failures and horns go bad. My low mileage car suffered all these issues but otherwise they are good as far as my experience goes.

I test drove a new red ‘95 Firehawk 6-speed convertible. IIRC it was around $25k which was way out of my league at the time but I thought it was cool of the salesman to let me take it out. Turns out it was a pretty rare car.

I recently found a black ‘95 Firehawk languishing in a driveway in town that got me thinking about these again.

What is the parts availability for these things?

I bought 3 4th gens new. '94 Firehawk, '97 Z28, '2002 Z28, all were daily drivers even with snow tires. I have owned every generation F body and the 4th gens were the most fun drivers. I really enjoyed them. I commuted 105 miles per day on these, so reliability was an issue for me, obviously different from a toy. I sold all of them at around 150k miles. But they were not cheap to maintain.

Whatever engineer thought it was a good idea to put the distributor behind the water pump. A lot of moisture issues. Not fond of LT1's. Dexcool was a problem with gaskets on the LS. American Axle rear ends are known for bad quality, the '02 was plagued with side bearing issues, 3 times under warranty. At 60k I finally put a 20k mile rear end in it. The '02 needed a trans at 95k. Catalytic converter issues are common on the LS cars and were covered by an extended warranty. These cars have all the common repair issues that modern cars have. The roof skins on all 4th gens are SMC. In 1998 GM changed the adhesive that glues the roof to the structure. The newer glue leaches through the roof skin and creates a gooey mess. GM stopped warranty on this in 2005. The plastic body (except for some hoods and quarters) are nice for rust free. Rust is prone on the quarters. The doors are also composite and if someone has tinkered inside, the window regulator mounting holes could be shot.

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1647814730

Had a 2000 WS6 T/A as a daily for a few years. Jet black with dark tinted windows, chrome C5 Z06 wheels, long tubes no cats into a Borla exhaust. It got a ton of attention, was comfortable, and wasn't bad on fuel if you're into that kinda stuff.

I wouldn't mind owning another.

I owned a 93 TA and daily drive it for years. Fun car. As mentioned, the distributor can be a problem. I did also replace all the tail light bulb sockets. I have been looking for a 98-2002 ws6 for a while also. The price has really gone up on the ls1 cars.

I have a low mile '96 WS6. They are great cars until you have to replace the opti-spark and do a tune up.

One of the local guys I knew bought a Sunset Orange Firehawk with a 6-spd manual. I drove it and was pretty impressed, looked into buying a new 02 WS6 convertible in 2002. A job layoff killed those plans, but about six years later I found the exact car I would have ordered. It was a low mileage 2002 Sunset Orange WS6 convertible with a 6-spd manual. I bought it in Virginia, and after about two hours in the driver's seat, it was making my leg hurt. The newer cars are incredible, they're smooth, they handle great, and they have all the bells and whistles, and tons of performance.

I had a degenerating hip for the last twenty years, so after a couple of years of ownership it was uncomfortable to drive. I don't like sitting down into a recess, I prefer to sit on a surface with no pressure from the side. I finally had one hip replaced, but the other is getting worse. Were it not for the seats, I would love this car. I bought a Saturn Sky Redline a couple of years ago, and while the seats aren't great, they're much more comfortable than the WS6 T/A.

For a young person, it would be an awesome car. I can't speak to how well they hold up over the long run, but I really enjoyed mine. Hopefully after my second hip is replaced, I'll be able to drive it more.

My advice, stick with a 98-02, the LS1 will last a long time with routine maintance, and has plenty of power stock. The weak link is the transmission, expect to replace it around 150k unless it was babied.

I have several:
94 25th anniversary
95 Firehawk 6 speed
97 WS6 Formula convertible (1of 42)
99 30th anniversary
02 Firehawk 6 speed

As others have said the 98-02 (really 99-02) are the best, most reliable cars. Fast out of the box and very few issues.

However, don’t let the LT1 (93-97) cars scare you. Yes the opti spark is a weird design and used to cost a ton of money to replace. Now that MSD makes one it’s much more affordable and reliable. I believe that a 6 speed LT car with long tubes is every but as fun as an LS car.

I have found the special edition cars to hold significantly higher values and be a little more fun as they get noticed.

Parts availability is pretty good. They made hundreds of thousands of these and reproduction parts are increasing every day.

Appreciate the input. The LT1 is kind of a drawback compared to the reliability and extensibility of an LS, but I've replaced optisparks before and know what I'd be in for. I also like the limited production numbers of the earlier SLP cars.

I've found a couple nice low milage automatics, but if I pick one up I think it's going to be a 6 speed. We'll see what's out there.

Here’s a pic of my 95 hawk with my dads TTA at the TA Nationals cruise.

This car was true to the Firehawk design - hard top 6 speed formula. Great car that has over 180,000 miles of straight up abuse on it.

Not sure if I would give a young inexperienced driver a 4th gen T/A.. especially one with a 6 speed. These cars get loose very easy. If my parents gave me one when I was a teenager... it would've more than likely gotten wrecked.

This car would be for me. My son gets the Kia :D

BTW, I've enjoyed the Kia. The little 2.0 turbo has some pep. Got a new engine under warranty about 20k miles ago so it's good to go for a while.

I had a 99 and a 02 TA for company cars,best cars I ever had for daily drivers.Tom

Sounds like you worked for a pretty good company 😀

One before was a 96 impala!Tom

My daily driver is a 96 Roadmaster currently at 242,xxx miles. I went through a couple unstable Opti-Spark distributors until I bought one from Petris Enterprises in Scottsboro AL. Chis Petris is well known in Corvette circles.

I had a new 95 Firehawk for a couple years. I still marvel that I never got killed or arrested in it. Bought it in Kissimmee FL, they ordered it modeled after the purple brochure car that Reggie eventually wrecked. The brochure car had been at s car show by the Wide Track Warriors club.

Funny story, car is in the hands of it's fifth or sixth owner in a small MN town. Ethan was a couple years away from getting his drivers license when he acquired the car. He tracked me down and I drove to meet him a year or so ago while I was on as business trip to Fargo. His dad and a couple uncles are all GTO guys.

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=853678 and I just sold car #82 last month. This car looks and drives like new.

Mike