K, I'm gonna admit I have no freaking clue what an intake manifold is. Where is it, and how easy it to check for any leaking coolant around it?

My '95 eats a considerable amount of coolant, CONSIDERABLE.

Don't be a sucker. You might need a upper intake but the bottom one is a big hunk of metal. The problem is the design of the gaskets and that piece of plastic on top. Blow the dealership and find a real mechanic

Mr. Buckman, I think the point the parts guy at the dealership was trying to make was that GM redesigned the lower intake manifold to help prevent the upper one from warping and melting. That said, I don't know how effective it is at doing that, so maybe it would be a waste of money to change out the lower manifold.

The first thing you should do it go to a parts store and spend $15 on a Haynes manual for your car. You might even go to Ebay and search for a Shop Manual. When you get those, you can start learning about your engine parts and how to work on them.
The intake manifold sits on top of the engine, under the fancy plastic cover that should pop off.
Do you have a Series II engine?? Does it say that on the plastic cover? If it'* a Series I, it doesn't have the plastic manifold, only the Series II have that.

Actually, the point I was making was, you ONLY have to change the lower intake if the degradation has occured. In other words, if it'* worn then replace it! I've seen personally when in some cases both needed to be done, while in other cases, only the upper needed to be done! Besides we do about one per week on average!

FYI: Looks like GM has solved the problem on the 2004 GP with the 3800 Series III, which has a metal upper instead of the plastic upper of the Series II!

When you say only replace it if degradation has occurred, do you mean degradation in the lower manifold??