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Comments
design is a matter of taste. it was definitely a change from 93 mustang (plain)styling.
btw, that 99 ga never got 25 mpg on the highway. the mustang does. the ga should have done much better, but the service at the local pontiac dealer said that it was normal and there were no problems.(ha) the biggest reason i had for unloading the ga, is we have no competent pontiac dealer in this town... unfortunate.
as far as the styling goes i think the ga's big buggy eyed dash is ugly also,, but, to each his own.
the interior quality of our ga was poor. right hand door panel never stayed tight, numerous rattles and squeaks(and leaks) they could never find, and a possessed radio that worked when it felt like it.
if i had bought a two door alero, i might have put up with the problems we had with the ga. they are much sharper autos...(on the outside).
yep, the chicks dig a gt's alright
its epa rating is 17 to 24.
i run mobil 1 synthetic oil, that has helped all of my autos mpg somewhat.
yes, it is an automatic.
yes, it is interstate driving, 70 miles per hour.
about 6 years ago, i owned a 90 mustang gt with the old 5.0 liter engine and the 5 speed transmission. i bumped up the initial timing advance, removed the intake air silencer, ran synthetic fluids and platinum plugs. it regularly would get 28 on the interstate at the same speeds.
if i would quit fiddling with the cruise the 00 gt might do a bit better.
i would have been quite satisfied with your ga's hiway mpg, if our car would have achieved it.
our pontiac service department wouldn't do a thing to correct whatever its problem was.
i got tired of burning vacation days to take it in to the shop!!
I bought a 99 V6 Pontiac Grand Am with around 27k miles on it about 2 months back. I had driven a Grand am earlier and was very impressed with the way it handled and decided that i had to own one.
Before buying it, i had put it through a 100 point inspection at my neighbourhood AAA grage. The report came straight A's except for an air filter and tire rotation issue which I duly took care of.
But there have been a few glitches that have emerged and was wondering whether I could get some help from the board.
1) Sluggish- Though a V6, the car seems to be more sluggish on the road than the V4 I had driven. The power is there..but it's just not peppy.
2) The Power Steering. Its supposed to be variable....but there are times when i am trying to park and I have to virtually struggle with the steerng.
3) BRAKES- They make me feel very insecure...is there a way to make them firmer??....tighten them up or something?
4) Hazard Indicator- My hazard indicator, blinks for like a couple of seconds before it just goes blank...and takes my indicators with it. I usually have to wait for a few seconds to get them back online.
Apart from the above it is a great drive
I've rented Grand Ams before and found them pretty fun to drive but the foglights were worthless to me. It is recessed so deep inside the chin spoiler that it makes the lights useless. The output is one of the worst I've seen. It is more fad than function.
The foglights are on a switch and can be set to come on automatically with the regular headlights. That is probably why every Grand Am you see has the fog lights on as well. I leave them on because they are very functional.
Regarding the driving lights... They reak. They have this laser-edge type aim, with little fade at the edge of the beam. Sounds great for the straight-away, but they are terrible when going around curves and up/down hills. Give me old-fashioned lights with a gradiant fade at the edge of the beam!
I have found that they are adjusted too high from the factory. Low beams are fine. They do a marvelous job. But, the high beams are actually suffering from a weaker output. If you don't have the lights adjusted just right, you'll find the high beams reaching out and touching someone, but with a much weaker illumination. The solution is to re-aim the lights down a bit until the high beams not only illuminate the distance, but also illuminate the sides of the road when you go around the curves.
Anyway, the high beams are my major sore point. A friend of mine at the local GM dealer sez that the lights are one of their major warranty issues.
Read a complaint by a reviewer *somewhere* that the Aztek suffers the same problem.
if the problems & complaints don't scare you off,
then go for it....
Are those PIAA bulbs as easy as unplugging the stock bulbs and just plugging in the new ones?
I looked under the hood and cannot even get to the bulbs. Can you tell me what I have to remove to get to the bulb sockets?
Thanks!
-Ron
(GA 2000)
Kingbob - I too contemplated the GP GT vs. the GA GT. the price differential is as you mentioned. However, the GA GT comes with more options in the GT model than the GP does. For instance, the GA GT has a power sunroof. This was a big requirement for me. So to get the GP GT with a sunroof, it was about $3K difference.
The GP is a bigger car with a bigger bulletproof 3.8 liter engine, but I like the GA interior better. Especially the seats. And the 3.4 liter GA engine hauls!
Either way you can't lose, it's just how much you want to spend.
Styling is up to you. I do call the Alero the mini GP because it has almost all the same features. Engine/transmission response of the 3.4 Alero is very similar to the 3.8 GP (awsome!). The Alero may get 1 or 2 mpg more than the GP at highway cruise. You definitely hear the 3.4 engine at highway cruise. The 3.8 cruises as if it weren't there.
You should drive them back to back, then decide.
since when is it your place to determine where i can post and when??
I am a former ga owner and my comments reflect my direct experiences.
you on the other hand must claim an extra exemption on your tax return for being blind.
any poster considering a ga can & should read the whole ga thread and examine ALL comments good and bad, then decide whether to buy a ga.
I believe you perceive any negative comments about this auto a personal slam of some kind. grow up.
Year-end is the very best time to buy a car and the GM dealers are hurting real badly right now. Go in and make a killer offer and walk out (leave your cell number) if they resist.
-Ron
And Spectre3, the "problems" and "complaints" didn't scare me off, because I know to take everything posted on forums with a grain of salt. But thanks for the reminder, I do have to make an appointment to go see the eye doctor. When I get my eyes fixed, maybe I'll suddenly hate my Pontiac because it's so hideous and have to sell it immediately.
See - everyone can be sarcastic. Has that helped anybody on the forum? Doubt it.
Hey - tax time is just around the corner. I guess I better go figure out all my exemptions now.
Lyrmal - no flamefest intended. As a matter of fact, my original message was to try and quelch the "slam" type posts that were not constructive (pro or anti-Grand Am) in nature. Obviously it backfired. My apologies.
Ronmendel - You hit the nail on the head: Be willing to walk out of the dealer. As long as you stay on their salesfloor, they figure they've got you right where they want you. Make an offer and tell them to "take it or leave it". Make them the desperate ones. It works wonders.
Rpm9 - welcome to the family of Grand Am owners.
And to everyone else - thanks for all the useful posts that have helped me gather a great deal of information on purchasing and maintaining my car. Being informed is definitely the way to go!
now back to reading the useful comments here.....
in our case, they accused my wife of using her ga's brakes too much, causing the rotor warp every 5k miles .
if it isn't really snow and ice rubbing in there, the doors alignment needs to be checked.
if an adjustment is all that is necessary, I would hope the dealer wouldn't charge you to make a minor adjustment while your car is under warranty.... especially if they want your future business...
my 2 cents,
have a nice day..
a fire becuase of high currents. The GM states that this
is possibility but is not aware (if I remeber correctly)
of any such instances. Well, it did not take long when
searching thru nhts web side to find few exact symptoms
(as stated in the recall) which ended in fires, one actually
burned the guy's house. What really makes me mad that they told
us to wait till march to have the car repair because of the
parts shortage.... Anyone else concern with that ??? What are
we to do - wait til march and hope that there will be no fire ?
I am really glad that I traded (well got $500 for it) my piece of GM [non-permissible content removed] 1991 Cutless for Toyota Avalon. In a year or two, the 1994 Grand Am piece of [non-permissible content removed], so called GM engineering.. will be gone and wife will drive Accord or Camry. Don't mind paying extra, just don't want my house to burn.
Thank you
Perhaps the fact I have the rear drums rather than rear disks may be a reason, I don't know.
My rotors are not the better ones, either. But, car has a good, controlled, and fast stop from freeway speeds. So, I never pressed the issue.
If this was a loud "crackle" noise just after the starting engine, this is normal. The computer just tests ABS in such a way.
Any case, the warped rotors do not make any noise (at least till the pads wear out completely and start scratching metal to metal). The symptom of the warpage is the brake pedal pulsation, mostly at highway speed: 70 mph or so.
Later GM changed something with the rotors (either design or manufacturing process) and it looks as currently they do not have much problems. Additionally, GM replaces the brakes under warranty now, if they have problem. Did not at first.
I bought a used 98 Malibu with warped rotors when it had 15k on odometer. Had to replace them at 23k. No problem since, now at 38k+.
Any case, at worst this is one-time problem, costing about $300 ($450 at dealer) if you pay yourself. The aftermarket rotors usually have a lifetime warranty. Would you buy GA, if it cost $300 more?
What about buying RR?
Does the mileage improve with age?
What has been your experience ????
City might be about 20. Watch your tachometer and you'll notice that it reads about 2000rpm at 70 miles per hour, and about the same rpm at 30 - 40, I think. That can really affect the mileage.
Wouldn't worry much about being conservative. It really doesn't make that much difference. I'm serious. Maybe in the old days with high-winding 4 cylinders or big boss v-8s would net a difference due to the fact they are on opposite ends of the power range. But, mid-range motors like the 3.4 really is happy with hard or soft driving.
If your ride is seeming floaty I would check tire pressure. I know this is a simple suggestion but I would deffinetly not think of the ride of my car as floaty. Mine is a 99 SE1 V6.
The only thing that I can comment on in the steering is that V6 does have quite a bit of torque and sometimes if you are accelerating fairly hard you can feel some torque steer.
If none of the above is the case then an alignment might be just the thing. Maybe your car did not even come aligned correctly. Now while the miles are low is good time to have that taken care of. Later they will say it was "your" abusive driving or some other excuse.
> times be difficult to keep at a straight
> line and that it kind of sways on its own,
My '99 was very "twitchy" on its front end. I took it to the dealer and it was within specs. To make a long story short, I sold the B.F. Goodrich tires that came with the car and replaced them with Goodyear RS-A tires and the floaty feeling totally disappeared. Even could release the steering wheel and the car would drive in a straight line. I put over 40k on the Goodyear tires and replaced them just recently with Michelin XGT-H4 tires and those make the car even tighter feeling and road noise is much less.
Anyway, if you have B.F. Goodrich tires on your GrandAm, you might investigate replacing those.
Ummm, to cover all bases here, yes, the inflation pressure was correct on the Goodrich tires. I am not kidding when I say that the car is very tight on handling and corners incredibly well. Mine is a SE, not the GT and it honestly corners as well as the GT, and with less harshness. -- all because of the tires.
Starting with the engine, it has plenty of power, especially down low, and it only pulls 2000 rpm at 75 mph, which made for great freeway cruising. It is also very smooth and (too) quiet, which also contributes to a relaxing trip. It keeps its smoothness even near redline, and it idles so quietly that it's hard to tell that the engine is running when stopped. Tranny also shifts quite smoothly, but seems to like to downshift a lot when pushing the accelerator down a bit at cruising speeds.
Suspension is much softer than what I'm normally used to, which is good for a long trip and for the poorly funded portions of the interstate. However, the downside to it is poor cornering (not that bad, but considerably worse than what I'm normally used to). The big problem is with the BF Goodrich tires, since they are only 215 and 15". I'm sure if going to 225 and 16" would make things better. They also seem to make the car really skittish over wet roads, even though there was not that much water on the road. Steering is also way too light for my tastes.
Build quality was good; I didn't see any large gaps, but I also didn't go measuring them with a micrometer. No squeaks and rattles, even though it was a reasonably used rental car (20+ K km).
One thing I really disliked was the lack of a dashboard gear position indicator (possibly a casualty of the dual hole styling). I had to look down to see what gear I'm in; not a problem if you drive the car day in day out, but annoying for me. I don't really see why there is no dash indicator; all the cars I've driven have one, from Cadillacs to BMWs to Trans Ams, and yes, even my cheap Sunfire has one.
The other thing was the automatic headlights. Yes, this is a good feature so that you can never end up driving at night with your lights out, but there was no way to override the feature and turn it off. Once it was on, twisting the knob to any position produced no change. This was especially problematic during a stretch in the Bay area with very dense fog at night. I wanted to run only on parking and fog lights, but there was no way to turn them off. Adding fog lights didn't make any difference, since there was already a huge white wall in front of me.
As I said, I do like the GA and would consider buying one. But if I did, it would have to be in a fog-free place, and I would have to get the GT. The GT would fix the handling, and it would probably also come with a louder and better sounding exhaust and engine since I like hearing those sounds.
I did the same with my daughters 95 GA a couple of years ago which solved the front brake problem.
BTW folks, if the dealer is telling you they are replacing your stock OEM rotors with larger or thicker rotors, don't believe it. You can't change the size of the rotor that easily. What the're doing is using a rotor of higher quality, i.e., harder material. You can go to almost any auto parts and get replacement rotors for $20 each, but the're inferior, softer materials that wear faster and are prone to warping, even though they perform adequately for braking.
I average 32 mpg highway (usually 80+ mph, Arizona, California desert highways), and about 25mpg around town.
I still have the original BFG tires, but they will need replacement soon and I'm going to take others advice and get Goodyear RS-A's or Michelins.
I have been happy with the performance from the V6, the acceleration is very good and responsive. The transmission seems to be well matched. This car by far has been much more fun to drive then any of the other several cars I have tried in its price range.
My only complaints I can think of are with the dealership itself. Glad I do not have to seen them too many times. GM/Pontiac has a lot to do here. Big surprise!
Happy Motoring!
Power windows: my biggest fear is of the glass being down and it no longer come up. Nearly every car in years past which we had, all the way back to my dad's cars that had power windows, suffered some power window failure. My '99 GrandAm nearly has 50k on it and so far, no problem yet. I have read that if the gear ribbon tape is stripped (typical mechanism for today's power windows), then the glass can go down and there is nothing for the gear to grab hold of when you press the up button, hence a glass jammed in the down position. The mechanism is not made by General Motors and is used by every manufacturer.
Regarding the radio. Mine works perfectly and it survived our 115 degree summer in 2000.
I dunno. I hate to see a "lemon" type failure of a vehicle. It just happens and is not fun. Can be terribly frustrating and expensive. But, I'm hard on my GrandAm and it has been a delight.
Whacko, dude, for those of us who haven't learned our lessons for buying a GrandAm, give us a driveable recommendation and solution. We need enlightenment. ;>)