I was wondering if a vl calais non turbo would be a good first car to have or whether it would be a bad choice! comment with your opinion!

If you like it, buy it. And be prepared to throw lots of money at a 20+ year old car

i reckon for a first car is pritty good considering it is fairly cheap and if you do **** it up, your not too far up **** creek.

depends what you want it for really. vls are gorgeous cars, when something breaks you have access to loads of cheap parts, pretty terrible for circuit racing standard.. like i said really depends. at least with a calais its not really going to decrease in value any further... like if you were to buy something like a vy

pros - cheap heaps of parts great aftermarket support great community cult status lots of simple mods you can do to them go alright in n/a form (for a p-plater) esp in manual disc rear and front solid body cons - you will need those parts, its old, not all girls are impressed by loud bumpy cars no abs / traction control / airbags (like a vs or vt offers) theft target definately no racecar so yeah its a good p-plate car. you can mod it at home and learn how to spin spanners, you will get a lot of cruising and attention in it. however it took me 3 years to convince my mother that trading in our family since new magna for a 22 year old 380***km calais thats bright red was a good idea. good luck. check my cars thread for an example of a p-plater on a calais. i did a lot of mods, met a lot of people, spent a lot of time and dosh.... lost a few girlfriends over it... but i'd do it again anyday. ---------- Post added 04-10-11 at 14:01 ---------- thread - http://www.calaisturbo.com.au/showthread.php?t=110705

If it's in good condition and it's been fixed up or had low kms (which is very rare, someone in Newcastle was selling a VL with 70,000 km on the odometer a few years back) then it would be a good car for a few years. It would be good to have so you could hold out for something like a VZ Commodore which I think are a really good car too. I've got a VY which is really good too, but I'd only touch a V8 in that model, which is what I've got, I still seem to upset people by even owning a Holden, most employers, etc have been Ford people.

buying newer commodores. especially in a 6 cyl is a very bad investment.. devalue too quickly. and the amount of ecotecs I have to swap over at work has made me not trust them.. never had much trouble with alloytecs though..

there lovley cars, wouldn't sell my calais for any reason whatsoever

Be prepared to spend money on fixing the thing up, and they arent as good as a more modern car of fuel. Try get a manual one and take care of it (in automatic form they are unbearably slow)

My peice of advice would be do you research first. Yes VL's are great cars, easy to mod, and fairly reliable. But as has been said, they are over 20 years old, stuff can and will go wrong with them! Be sure to look at invoices and service history. Don't be tempted by the one with big wheels, loud exhaust etc. They best one's are always the old codger Executive. Worth spending the 3G or so on a vehicle like this. Just remember though VL's with P plates are to the cops, as to what a fat kid is to cake. They just can't help them selfs....

Quote: Originally Posted by Woggster [View Post] (in automatic form they are unbearably slow) Second that. NA auto calais = Unbelievably slow, couldnt keep up with my grandpa in his VP wagon.

get a newer model car, they are cheap at the moment VL's are too old and way too easy to steal or break into, plus unreliable

buy a auto grandpa spec vl. and learn from what you do to it. convert it, lower it etc etc.

if i had my chance again when i was 18 i would of bought a calais that i was looking at. I'm now 22 and now looking again for an NA that i can build myself. go full noise. I would recommend it. will definitely be worth it. main problem I would be concerned about as one other member said was theft target. i cant even imagine how bad of a state i would be in if my VP got stolen and when my VL does come along I WILL do everything to keep it mine