While cheap car hunting for Rough Start candidates, the rules I use are simple: the car must be at least twenty years old, must be five grand or under (or I establish a good reason for breaking that rule) and most of all, that the vehicle chosen must present some kind of positive to a buyer who is trying to get the most out of their hard-earned dollars. It’s not as easy a task as you’d expect, really…you have to weave through silver commuter boxes, thrashed trucks, and cars that are valued at least three times what they should be because Barrett-Jackson was recently on the TV.
But you can get lucky, and that’s what I’d consider this 1994 Pontiac Firebird Formula to be: a lucky find. Fourth-gen F-bodies are a pretty good start for the five-grand and under rule…V8 power and musclecar attitude abound, and even if it’s a perfectly untouched example, it’ll hustle nicely out of the gate. But it’s buyer beware for these cars, too…plenty have seen hellish miles, the LT-1 can be a finicky bitch of an engine if it hasn’t been cared for and I have a particular disdain for the more plasticky parts of the F-body’s body, namely at the lower rear areas of the front fenders where they like to pull away. 
But this Firebird…oh, come to daddy. Yeah, it’s a T-top and an automatic. But it’s the Formula body…the sleeker, slimmer, less overkill looking front end, the smaller rear spoiler, and those 1990s-perfect fanblade wheels. It’s how you got the V8 without going full-on Screaming Chicken. For about four thousand dollars, you get an example that hasn’t crested 100,000 miles and appears to have been babied for years. As long as the LT-1 is running strong, don’t change a damn thing. Cruise it and enjoy it. Not many are this clean.
Craigslist Link: 1994 Pontiac Firebird Formula V8
I have two ’94 Formulas on my property right now. Want one…?