This 1981 Pontiac Trans Am is located in Bellingham, Massachusetts. The seller states that the car has only 19,128 miles on it. The car is brown with a tan interior. While the car has low miles, it also has some custom touches including the graphics and sunroof. The car is listed here on eBay with 5 days remaining in the auction. The seller has the car listed at a Buy It Now Price of $17,500 which seems very well priced for a low mileage Turbo Trans Am. The eBay ad also has a Make Offer option if you want to offer less.
The Turbo Trans Am is low mileage but some of the paint is discolored on the plastic parts. The car also sports a rear quarter panel antenna. On factory 1981 Pontiac Trans Ams, the electric antenna was mounted on the front fender so this is apparently an aftermarket part. The car is equipped with a turbocharged 301 cubic inch V8 engine. While on paper the car was rated at 200 horsepower and 310 lb ft of torque, it was slow and only able to attain a 16 second to 17 second quarter mile from the factory. However, this was better than or at least comparable to other competitors at the time.
The interior looks nice and is fitted with the base cloth interior. There are a few options on this car including power windows, automatic transmission and air conditioning. The add says that the car has power seats but I think this is incorrect. One nice option is that the car is equipped with the famous WS6 handling package. Cars with this option came with bigger sway bars, 15×8 wheels and specially tuned shocks. Car & Driver stated that it was one of the best handling cars to come out of Detroit.
The car sits nicely and has apparently been stored for a long time. To boost performance, I changed the rear gear ratio on my 1981 Pontiac Turbo Trans Am from a 3.08 to a 3.42 but it did not notice a big improvement in performance. It is a little better off the line but the car needs a higher stall torque converter to get power off the line. It will be interesting to see if this car sells or if the custom touches hurt the price.
I’m liking this one, and for what it looks like you’re getting here the price seems reasonable. I had a crush on a girl in college that had a white Turbo Trans Am. She wouldn’t give me the time of day, but we often left school at the same time. I wasn’t sure if sure if she just didn’t like me, or if she couldn’t handle that my primered Nova would smoke the TA. Maybe both!
Why would anyone trust mileage claims by a seller when their only “proof” is a picture of the speedometer? This is a 40 year old car with non-factory graphics, which more than likely was done while the car was repainted, has an aftermarket sunroof, lacks detailed pictures of rust prone areas including the undercarriage and has no pictures of the engine compartment. That is excusable in places like California, not Massachusetts. There are more than a few reasons for potential buyers to be wary.
Steve R
The dealership google reviews won’t give you a good feeling either. Being in the car bussiness, the seller should be asking the same questions Steve is asking.
One thing I noticed right away is that they are not offering a free AutoCheck report, which most EBay sellers will do for any car 1981 and over.
When I see a seller making low mileage claims without providing this report, I am always skeptical about it.
My buddy drives by this every day and stopped to look at it over the week end. The paint is awful on it, the striping is gawdy and the car seems pretty beat. I don’t think I would pay anything for this, will be a long expensive road back and for what….a 301 automatic bird with limited desirability. He has it on the lot for $22k, suspect he owns it for a third of that. Godspeed to whoever ventures down this expensive rat hole
The sunroof kills it for me
I had this same car new. I loved the way it handled ( much better than my 76 )
Big problem was Turbo twice burning out, maybe wife turning it off too soon.
The fellow who purchased it put a after market turbo and beefed up the main
bearing etc. That’s a fun car now!
I see more & more old cars that originally had RWL tires now wearing modern off brand blackwalls. Back in the day, RWL tires did not cost up to 3! times as much as blackwalls, like they do today. Plus unlike back in the day, some of today’s tires can start cracking/rotting in as little as 5 years even w/o much use!
Look at close ups for both door sill plates (bent and worn) as the scratches on the steering column. 119k maybe. But 19k nope
no way is this a 18,000 miles car, ignition switch is broke, carpet is tore up, way too many question’s, and none of them answered.
I had failed to mention that a big flaw on this model was if it had cruise control. You could simply unscrew the cable and the speedometer stopped
recording everything. I personally could never do that; I’m sure it did happen.