Well, all of you were right in that the LT4 in the car I drove is a terrific engine. I also determined that the car had the engine fix. Unfortunately, the rest of the car left a bit to be desired condition-wise. One thing does really bother me: I love manual transmissions (I had a special Richmond Gear in my '81 for almost 100K miles), but I have to admit that I am having some problems with the 6 speeds in the C4s. This is about the third or fourth I've driven (I won't belabor the CAGS system, as that can easily be disconnected even though it wasn't in the car I drove--the GM person who came up with that should be shot). First, the shift gate is pretty sloppy and rubbery feeling, but this can be fixed with a new shifter. This is pretty noticeable since my old manual was so crisp and simple. The second problem is a bit more complex: I think that GM really "over-overdrived" the 6th gear for fuel economy. The car simply has a dead feeling in 6th, even though you are getting great economy etc etc etc. The problem is especially noticeable on freeways around the city, where there is often a need for pretty sharp acceleration even when at freeway speeds, and a need to quickly slow down then speed back up. I found that I had to shift down to get the car around obstacles quickly, or if I slowed down even a little had to shift down to get out of the deadzone 6th, and that seems really out of place with a car with this much power and delays reaction time to problems. Leaving it in fifth seems sort of stupid, somehow. The bottom line is that I seem to have to pay way too much attention to shifting the car and watching the revs etc, and it totally lacks that neat jump in and "snick-snick-snick" of my old C3. Anyway, I will keep looking and trying cars out. Thanks for all the replies and encouragement!
Chris Kennedy
Houston, Texas
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