What? Another Car?

Although I'm generally not too interested in modern day muscle cars, there have been a couple I felt were worth having. Since I had a first year 1969 Trans Am, I was very intrigued with the prospect of acquiring a 30th Anniversary Edition TA in 1999. We didn't know it then, but that would be the last anniversary TA that Pontiac would build. Pontiac announced a limited number of 1500 units, 1000 coupes and 500 convertibles. They further stated that only 175 of the convertibles would have manual 6-speed transmissions. The rest would be automatics.

I began the hunt in 1998 when I inquired at nearly every Pontiac dealership along the front range. Since only 5 units were allocated in our region, I pretty much received the same answer from each of them... Sorry! The cars they were getting were already promised out to their favorite customers, or the dealership owner was keeping it for himself. To make matters worse, they were tacking on an additional $4-5k to the MSRP. Ouch! By the way, only one of the five cars in this region was a convertible, and it was an automatic.

Realizing that my hope of acquiring the younger brother of my '69 TA likely wouldn't happen, I moved on to other projects. My interest was rekindled a couple of years later when I began seeing some availability online. By then most were showing wear with 25,000 - 35,000 miles on them, and the owners were still asking the new car MSRP. Regardless, I put my name out there as someone who was looking for a 6-speed convertible.

I received a call from a fellow that had my coveted 6-speed, 30th Anniversary, convertible TA. Brian was in Davenport Iowa and had fallen on hard times with work. Fortunately, he found a new job out of town, but... with a mere 75 mile daily commute, one-way. Owning only the TA and a '90 Toyota pickup with over 150k on the odometer, he decided he had to sell. He offered me the car for well under the MSRP, which was considerably more reasonable than what others were asking. Brian had taken exceptional care of the car, having never driven it in the rain, and always keeping it garaged and covered. Best of all, he'd only put 2000 miles on the car in his two years of ownership. I like to think that the deal worked out well for both of us, but can't help but feel that I got a great deal.

I've owned the TA for a little over 10 years now, and the odometer shows a little over 4000 miles. I put a thousand of those miles on the car while driving it home from Iowa... and it was worth it. The '99 TA came standard with a 320 hp Corvette LS1, and is pretty fun to drive. It shows well with my '69 TA and draws lots of compliments at car shows. I've even had two teenage girls follow me through a town in Nebraska. After stopping at a Subway, they followed me in to tell me they like the blue wheels (also original from the factory). At this point in time, most of its activity is limited to the UW homecoming parade, and cars shows with the '69 TA.