1997 Chevrolet Lumina

LS Sedan

3.1L V6 Cylinder Gasoline Fuel

Automatic

2G1WL52M0V9156687

Front Wheel Drive

Gasoline

Adjustable Steering Wheel

We are leaving the country and selling our two vehicles. The first one is Honda Accord 1996 (LX, 2.2l, 4 cylinders, ~154,000 miles, ends on Sunday): http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290586273698&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMESELX%3AIT This listing is for Chevy Lumina, 1997, 3.1l, 6 cylinders, ~197500 miles. I will try to give you a full review of this car. Please, read it carefully, check the pictures and ask for full-sized images if you want to view them in details. You are more than welcome to come and inspect the vehicle before bidding. We live in Alexandria, VA and I work in Greenbelt, MD so choose whatever is closer to you. ---- This car was purchased in August 2005 from one colleague of mine who was also moving overseas. One of the reasons for purchasing this vehicle was that the guy has invested more than $2K in engine repair and ~$1K in air conditioner repair. I just took advantage of it :) The car was used for daily commute. The first two years it was mostly local trips (Greenbelt, MD – Greenbelt, MD). Then it was switched to mostly highway mode (Silver Spring, MD –Greenbelt, MD) and later Alexandria, VA – Greenbelt, MD. Add about 7-8 trips to Hampton,VA, 4 trips to NY and you’ll get a complete picture of usage of this car. I keep track of gas mileage and the best I managed to get was 28mpg (cruise control nighttime drive to Hampton, VA) and the average I get in day-to-day commute (~1/4 city, 3/4 highway) is 23.5mpg.The engine is powerful and in several situations that was very timely. The car has 6 seats each equipped with a seatbelt (the 6-th seat is in the middle of front row, the underarm support goes up). The trunk space is large that explains why this typeof cars (not this very car) was used in some cab companies. Overall, it's a spacey family sedan good both for commute and long trips. You can read what other people say about Luminas 1997 here: http://www.carsurvey.org/reviews/chevrolet/lumina/1997/ ---Regular maintenance was performed at Goddard Auto Tech Center (http://mscweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/gatc/). I used only Mobil 1 5W30 synthetic oil and either Purolator or Mobil 1 filters. The replacement period depends on the “load” calculated by the car computer itself and can vary from ~3kmiles (heavy usage) to ~7kmiles (pure highway). From what I see in my records it was about 5-6kmiles. Transmission fluid and filter was replaced about 50Kmiles ago. Below I list the repairs done besides the regular maintenance:Year Month Mileage Repair 2008 NOV 157K Radiator replacement 2009 JAN 159K IAC valve, left+right rear brake cylinders replacement 2009 SEP 169K Gas pump and sending unit assembly replacement 2009 OCT 170K Fuel injectors removal and cleaning 2009 DEC 174K Spark plug wires and spark plugs 2010 FEB 175K Alternator+serpentine belt replacement (false alarm, so I have a spare alternator) 2010 OCT 187K Thermostat, air and coolant temperature sensors 2011 MAR 192K Starter A set of new Kumho tires was purchased in June 2009 at 168Kmiles and I guess they will last another 5-10Kmiles depending on the usage (see the picture showing the tread). During the period of 2005-now the car was not involved in any accidents. However, the front left fender (see the picture with red oval) has some damage. It happened before I’ve got the car and I didn’t bother to replace or fix the fender since it doesn’t affect the appearance that much. Besides that the car has small dents here and there that came from normal usage. I took a picture of the largest one and encircled the dent. The rear bumper has several vertical scratches (see the picture). The windshield glass has two small bull-eyes (1/4”) just on the edge of the black tinting area at the lower end of the windshield (you won’t see them from inside of the car). The dashboard has a couple of cracks, three mounting holes from GPS holder, and glue mark from another navigation device. In 2006 the trunk lid had a paint flaking problem. It was sanded down, primed and re-painted. After 5 years the paint became a bit different from the rest of the car but it’s not a striking difference (see the picture). Overall, the car is clean, we don’t smoke/don’t have pets and we used to keep it clean. The car has an original cassette AM/FM radio and I will also provide a mounting kit and a coupling connector if you’ll decide to purchase any standard-sized radio. Air conditioning works well and blows cold, see the picture with a smiley drawn on the haze condensated on the windshield glass from the outside (the humidity was high after the rain). All the systems perform as they should. Gears shift smoothly, highway driving in overdrive mode is quiet (and fuel efficient). Several things, though, will need some attention: - turn signal switch doesn’t automatically return to neutral position after the left turn. One can switch it back manually, it’s just not automatic. The price of the return spring that is broken is $2.79 but I’m afraid I won’t have time to buy and install it before the end of auction. - emergency flashing light button doesn’t fix in the lower position. It’s the same module as the previous one so it makes sense to replace it ($30-$60 depending on the shop and brand) - there was a slow coolant leak on a running engine (no dripping but adding coolant once in two months was necessary). Recently it was identified and tightened up. Hope this will be enough. - Anti-lock system (ABS) is OFF (see the picture) since 2006. The car is stable even on winter or slippery road so I never bothered to get it fixed. This doesn’t affect any inspections (at least in Virginia) since the same version of the car can be equipped or not equipped with ABS. - last but not least: hot start requires a brief depressing the gas pedal half way down. After that the car runs normally. Repairs performed in October and December 2009, and October 2010 were partially aimed at fixing this problem. Besides that, bad contact in throttle position sensor (TPS) was identified and fixed. All these measures improved the general performance of the car but didn’t fix this annoyance (I would not call it a problem since it doesn’t affect anything than 3 seconds of hot start). You may link me to your mechanic on this subject. Since we live in Virginia the car had to pass regular safety and emission inspections and it used to pass it without any troubles. The exhaust is clean, no white/black smoke, Check Engine light is OFF. Overall, it’s a working car that will serve you for years if maintained properly. People report 350 and even 400kmiles on their Luminas and, based on my experience, I tend to believe them: http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=b2e16a3fe0f5184c383ccfa5c6b6afa7&t=210705&page=15 You can check the following video showing the car running and stopping to see how the shocks/springs/steering operate, engine idling, and dashboard view on the road:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svCIuaazMbg The car comes with three door keys, two ignition keys, and two remotes. Please, e-mail me for more information. P.S. Dear “money order” buyers and other scammers: please, don’t even try to “buy” this car and let good people get a reasonably priced car. On Jul-16-11 at 14:52:22 PDT, seller added the following information: P.S. Add-on regarding the payment: I missed it in this ad and I can't change anything now but 7 days period for the full payment is very close to our departure date so I'd like to ask the winning bidder to finalize the transaction by Tuesday, July 26. Hopefully, it's not a problem. Thanks.