Hey well I guess I should introduce myself because this may be my new homepage. I live near Cleveland Ohio, and currently have a 98 Malibu. Nothing too much on the performance besides a CAI. Well my dad knows a dude selling his 97' GTP Red with like 33K miles. Maybe around 6 grand and its good condition, I think he kept her in the garage a lot. I was jw a few things then. On GTPs shifters is there an overdrive? I have a Automatic knob on my malibu I wana keep, with no O/D button so jw that. Also do the GTP's back seats all fold down? Only some models or none? Anything suck about these cars? a common problem? Whats a good website to find upgrades and parts? I think I found 3800performance.com or something.
Oh yea and being from cleveland, how to these cars hold up in snow? Nothing wrong with my malibu I was satisfied with it. My mom had a 97 taurus SHO I learned to drive winter in that it got a little crazy, and I hear these are faster cars soo... sorry bout anything stupid I said. Im smart at malibus but dumb at GP's so any feedback is cool. Thanks....

Wow, a 97 GTP with 33k? Nice find!

There should be something on the GTP called Performance Shift. I don't know much about it, since I don't have it, so I'll let someone else fill you in on that. The back seats don't fold down.

Some good websites to go to are:

www.clubgp.com
www.pfyc.com
www.zzperformance.com
www.intense-racing.com

And there's some other good stuff floating around here that I'm sure you'll find.

Alot of people here drive their GPs up north in the snow; I haven't heard of any problem with it.

As for weakness in our cars, the main thing you need to watch out for is the transmission. That means no burnouts! Especially with the 97s, since that was the first model year for this generation GP and GM probably used it as a troubleshooting and testing year. Anything else, you shouldn't have a problem with. The 3800 engine is incredible, so enjoy, and welcome to the boards.

All I really Know about the GTP is that I wish I would have bought one!

oh and the OD question. the button on the side of the shift knob is a Performance Shift button. if you have a shift knob without a button that you want to keep, im pretty sure you could move the button to a switch somewere.

Welcome...
There is no "button" for OD, you would either shift to D for O/D, or 3 to drop out of O/D.

A 97 GTP with 33k miles does sound like a sweet find, but... (and I'm not trying to rain on your parade) the earlier years, 97-98, did have some problems with them. If the car had 80k+ miles on it I'd say that all of the "kinks" have been worked out or replaced. I would worry on the car only having 33k on it. All of the "kinks" may not have had enough time to make there presence known so they could be fixed/replaced.
I'll let someone who knows more about the 97-98 than I do, explain the issues that they tend to have.
The back seat does not fold down, but there is a pass through in the rear arm rest.You can't haul a sheet of plywood, but you can haul some 2x4's.

I'm sure HercMan will be chiming in. He's got a good site for any noobs to check. It's got all kinds of information about the GP's and mods that should be done and mods that should not be done and a nice list of various vendors who specialize in the GP community.
I think 3800performance.com has been shut down?
I think they are now 3800pro.com
That's Intense's web site.

I drive a GT in cleveland. handles amazingly, i'd say.
$6K seems like a great price to me.
Yes you can stay out of O/D by putting it in "3".
I drive my brother's malibu alot. GP's are definetly MUCH nicer/faster/cooler/better cars!

Welcome to the board. Yes the 97-98s have a bad name as far as reliability. But for 6k with only 33,000 miles It's a good deal. Some of the more common problems of the 97s were the stearing rack and some other odd ball items. I wouldn't worry too much. The GTP has a button on the knob for performance shift so if your aftermarket knob has the button for O/D then you should be able to use it on the GTP. Feel free to check out my website.

Welcome to the forum!

You have truly found a rare gem of a deal. Congrats!

GP's drive nice in the snow. Be sure to get some awesome tires to help out.

....Arcxnus.... I think you may have misspelled the intense addy.

Oops. :rolleyes:

I'll let it go this one time....

Weird, I found a '97 with 28k miles on it, but a little pricier. And yes, I have had a few things go wrong with it already. My steering rack being one of them, but the dealership went 50/50 on it with me, because it wasn't quite a factory problem. Anyway, good job on the find, and *knock on wood* these cars are worth the trouble.

welcome to the board, i'd say go for it if i was you. sounds like a good price for the mileage, and not all of them had the problems. just one of those tough decisions you will have to make.

i've got a 98 and love it other than than oil leaking and getting the steering rack fixed under the recall.

Ohh ya as for driving in the snow. One of the best cars I've driven in the snow. Just make sure you have some descent tread on the tires and your set.

Yes, both seats do fold down. Used this feature on many occasions

Tasty is talkin about the front seats

Hey,

the front and back work fine for me...