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When we go on vacation, I always take our van to fit the family and to tow the camper. Every time we get home from a trip, I have to jump into the GT and take it for a spin. I miss it so when I go away.
And every time I see another vehicle on the road that I might want to buy in the future, I get in my GT and drive, completely forgetting about the other cars. My Grand Am is like a therapy session every time I get in it. Who needs a shrink when you have 175 HP and all the gadgets you want?
I have had several problems however. I only have 19000km or 11500miles on my car and I have replaced the rotors and pads twice. I know have that vague braking feel that some have mentioned. I really have to stomp on the brakes to get the car to stop. I have replaced the stereo due to faulty volume controls.
I have a wet carpet on both passenger and drivers side floors. I also currently have a noise coming from the front end that kind of sounds like the noise struts make when they start to deteriorate. The latter two I still want to get checked out when I get my oil changed again.
I read of the NHSTA site that some GA's with 16" touring tires may have been equipped with the shocks or something like that. I also saw something mentioned about the wet floors. Has anyone had the latter two problems? If so have you taken it in to the dealer and what did they say?
One other point was mentioned by someone with the 4cyl. engine. I only get about 20.5mpg(8.75km/l). I also bought the 4cyl. to save. I wish now that I would have gotten the 6.
Other than these complaints I must say that I am still pretty happy with the car. It looks good and also handles rather well.
The service guy looks at the brakes and says they will have to be replaced in about another 2k miles, at my cost. Brakes wearing out at less than 20K miles?! Sheesh, I've never had a car where this happened. I know I'm rough on the car, but heck, you'd think they have better brakes on this thing.
Oh well.
Any info appreciated.
Its the tradeoff for the handling. I loved the car in NJ which had lots of winding roads the car just ate up (took me 3 weeks to get a ticket in it), but I moved to Ohio where everything is straight and flat. I need new tires and wonder if anyone has switched brands to a tire that rides better.
Mine has been relatively troublefree: front brakes changed twice; new driver window motor (FYI, a Delco replacement motor wouldn't work, my mechanic tried two of them and then had to get an actual GM part). The dashboard has one or two spots that rattle, and the rear seat does when someone sits behind the driver. The paint still shines likes it new, and I have never waxed it. Its been through 2 front tires, but those were changed for deep cuts.
In NJ I drove 2.5 miles per day and got 20 mpg. In Ohio I drive about 45 miles/day, mostly highway, average about 27 mpg and have actually gotten 30 mpg when I kept the speed under 60 for a week. That experiment lasted one tankful because the acceleration is the attraction of the car.
I find my seats supportive. I just test drove a new Avalon and had to stop after 2 miles because my back hurt so bad. I also test drove the 300M and didn't find the ride much better. The 300M even seemed like it more wind noise than the GA.
After 7 years I am bored with it but have a hard time trading it in with only 41k miles and I get sticker shock with everything else out there. I am hoping new tires and a CD player will make it new enough. I hate the new over-plasticized GA so that isn't an option.
See for yourself at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/tsb/
Just follow the directions and select the year, make, and model from the pull down lists.
Good luck.
Any advice for confronting the dealer about warranty brake replacement? My '99 GA now has 18k miles on it. Should I just mention the TSB and hope he cooperates?
I think everyone ran out of things to write about without becoming redundant. Is this the end of the Grand Am page.....
The brakes grip somewhat weak when new, and after replacing the pads. According to GM this is for the first 1000 miles; in my experience for 200 miles at most, more like 100 miles. I live in hilly New England, and drive mostly in suburbs / city. Probably, in 100 miles use the brakes more than in 1000 miles of flat highway :-).
So, this is not a problem. There was other, real problems with these brakes: a lot of warped rotors at 20k miles, 15k miles, even 7-8,000 miles. At first, GM did not recognize the problem, later started replacing the rotors under warranty, and currently they switched to different rotors, with few problems.
The rotor thing was not a safety problem. With warped rotors brakes work even better, only eat pads very fast. But it was a nuisance, and expensive nuisance, if you pay for replacement yourself.
Sure appreciate any feedback.
I have not heard of any major changes planned to the 2002 GA. Someone said that they were going to have a major overhaul in 2003, which is only a year and a half away.
I just hit the 25,000 mile mark on my 1999 GA GT. I haven't had any problems for quite some time and the car is running and handling as good as new. I can't wait for some warmer weather so I can use the sunroof again. It's also been difficult to wash my car because we seem to have snow storms every week up here in NJ this winter. And the bright red paint on my car begs to be sparkly clean.
I don't look forward to replacing the GT tires. They cost almost $200 a piece. Has anyone out there replaced their GT tires yet or have significant mileage on the originals? How many miles can you expect out of these tires?
Does anyone have any info/pix of the newly restyled 2002 Grand Am? Need to know whether to wait for 02 model to buy.
Thanks very much.
The GA was just redesigned in '99. It ain't time yet.
Ok, I take it back, the GA will get some slight exterior changes in 2002. Here's some info:
http://popularmechanics.com/perl/spy_fetch.pl?cat=det
I'll just say that this vehicle is a whole lot more fun to drive and look at than a number of others in its class. It's a lot more comfortable than previous Grand Ams. To each his own, but I like the ribbed styling and the "Batmobile" styled interior. It's light years beyond those Grand Ams with that infamous "Quad 4" (one of which I owned, unfortunately, before the head gasket blew). Although the one I have now has is a 4 cylinder, it's a whole lot peppier and smoother. It may not be super quiet, but it's quieter than the Quad 4, believe me, and certainly does a better job.
So far, here's a very satisfied '01 Grand Am owner!
thanks
JD
Hehe, this is so funny because I get the same thing! But the reason my keys swing into the dash is because I'm going at terminal velocity with my V6 into a curve or over a bump.
Just a side effect of "the need for speed". Enjoy!
JD
Find the smallest pair of baby cotton socks with an elastic anklet that you can. If you ever had kids you'll know what I'm talking about. This sock will effectively server the same purpose as the "socks" on golf clubs when you carry them around in the bag: it keeps them from clanging together.
Keep this key sock in you car. When you get in, simply hold up your key chain by the ignition key and simply slip the sock over everything else that is dangling down. Insert key in ignition and you are good to go. Slips of easily when you are done.
Hope this helps.
After about 18k miles, the 1999 GA V6 has broken in nicely. I do about 700 miles a week (that's right, in a week) with about 80% highway at 50 - 73 mph and 20% city at 20 - 50 mph. Gas milage is calculating out to about 27.1 mpg. Take this and multiply by the 15 gallon tank and I can get 380 miles out of a tank with a gallon to spare for errors. Not bad for V6 performance.
The more I drive this car, the more it impresses me how well it is a solid piece of transportation. Definitely a good value.
But, the fact that reviewers also faulted the GrandAm's styling because of the cladding a few years ago makes me want to respond, or maybe repeat my reply to him and the reviewers.
Yes, the cladding is ugly. I think it is. And the style boys would love a car with smooth rounded sides, such as the upcoming Buick Bengali. No interruptions in the style at all.
They would love to have no door handles with access only by way of the electronic unlocking of the doors.
Gorgeous design. Smooth. Sorta like the 1950 Ford Mercury that has been chopped and lowered. Those are wonderful to look at.
Ok, let's go to reality.
Wal-Mart parking lot door dings.
'nuff said. Bring back the cladding, or should I say armor?
Until somebody invents a force-field...
Respond, Whacko. You raise this issue repeatedly about the cladding. So, what do you do about the body manglers at Wal-Mart?
Some of the things I've read imply that the Eagle RS tires don't have that much grip; others say that the front air dam has too little ground clearance and gets hung up easily in unplowed snow.
So, how about it, GT owners: Will I regret choosing this car? Will I have to (ugh) buy snow tires for it? (The brochure has the usual warnings about not using chains).
Thanks for sharing you winter (and other) experiences.
I was just thinking about the cladding the other day while looking at my car. Then I noticed someting: Not a single noticeable door ding! But yet you can see (under up close inspection) where somebody dinged the cladding. But because it has some "give", the paint didn't crack.
Could I do without the cladding? Sure, but it does have its advantages.
1) Rubbed my finger on againt the cladding
and felt all the chips and dings. Those
would have been on the door metal.
2) The cladding CAN be removed. Yup. Look at the
design. The nose cap and tail cap designs for
SE fade to smooth.
Except for a couple of filler pieces, the
cladding is attached only by 3M adhesive.
Hot lamps applied to the cladding can aid
in their removal.
All that would remain would for polishing
and buffing of the clear coat underneath.
3) Obviously, I would go to a body shop to
confirm these observations and techniques.
So, if anyone is really offended by the body cladded armor that the Grand Am has on it that is protecting it from the Wal-Mart door crunchers, then there is a way for you to smooth out the side body pieces. Just remove the cladding...
Oh one other Question- Does anyone have a lifter noise or tapping noise during starts and if so is it normal with the 3.4 Liter?
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Airconditioner problems on your end sound like a thermal sensor or thermostat. Easy fix. Your dealer should fix that. At the worst, it could be a thermal shutdown issue in the compressor itself. Again, your dealer should spot that easily. I mean, this isn't rocket science. These are "old technology" problems with autos in generals. I'm referring to problems on any make vehicle all the way back to the late 60s. This is just a standard air conditioning issue. Even a home central air conditioning unit can experience these problems.
If your dealer cannot isolate this, then shame on that dealer. I would go somewhere else.
Rotors warping is a well-known problem. Your dealer should have offered to REPLACE those rotors with GM's heftier rotors. This list has several times listed the TB on that. SHAME ON YOUR DEALER...
Not sure what the howling sound is. Haven't seen any postings on that in this list. Might be a tire problem. A thrown weight, tire imbalance might cause slight cupping on the tread making the tire noisy.
The tapping noise of the engine is normal. The 3.4 liter motor is a hefty workhouse and is known for grunt work and high mileage. It is not an overhead cam motor. It uses hydraulic lifters and as such, it takes a few seconds for oil pressure to get oil to the lifters adequately. Hence, the tappet noise. This is normal and you'll hear this for another 200 thousand miles.
Example: Very old cars from the 60s that have hydraulic lifters usually are racketty sounding things at startup, especially if the oil was never changed well and sludge is in the crankcase.
At any rate, it is normal with the 3.4L. Just keep the oil clean.
Beedublu - I got to challenge the GT in a major snowstorm last week. I had to drive about 10 miles to a business function in a snowstorm in which there was 2-4" of unplowed and/or packed snow on top of icy roads. The car performed admirably, similar to how other front-wheel drive compacts have done for me before.
The ABS brakes in conjuntion with the traction control handled all but one situation perfectly. I did slide somewhat down a steep grade towards an intersection. I regained control after about 15 seconds. The low clearance did not seem to cause any problems, but I did notice that both the front and rear wheel wells trapped a tremendous amount of snow coming off the tires. The next day it took me a half hour to extract the frozen compacted snow from under the fenders.
Besides that the car is awesome though!
Side body cladding is a Pontiac tradition...someone else mentioned that there are a lot of cars/trucks/suv's out there now days besides the GA with cladding....nobody seems to say much about them...Pontiac is an easy target...different strokes for different folks. If you don't like it...don't buy it.
I've read a lot of postings here @ Edmunds and on other message boards of people complaining about water leaks in their GA's....have had no problem like that in mine. Wonder if there is a service advisory out there?
A very minor problem I found with my 2001 GT is this bizarre noise that occurred this weekend while driving on the interstate. Occasionally I would hear a noise that sounded like a very distant air horn. It wasn't particularly loud (I had passengers so the radio was off, may not have even heard it with the radio on), but a little worrisome since this is a brand-new car. It seemed to be coming from the rear of the car, and my backseat passenger said she felt the rear window vibrating when the noise occurred (differently from normal driving with no noise, so it wasn't due to normal road vibration). It was an extremely windy day, about 20-30mph winds with gusts of about 40mph. Anyone else experienced this problem? We figured it was probably the wind, maybe gusting under the spoiler or something, and making a really weird sound. I didn't experience the noise on the trip back home; the wind had died down and it was pouring rain. So it seemed to support my wind theory...
Otherwise, no other problems with my GT! I love my car.
I have a 88 Ford Taurus L Wagon, with 129k miles. Old car, 14 years: build in summer 1987. Never know what will break the next time. Though, the handling is great - as on rails. I believe, this is due to rigid suspension. Probably, wagon have more stiff springs, than sedan.
Also, the seating position is very comfortable for me - better than in other cars I have / drove. The last thing is very personal, of course. Depends on body proportions: torso length, hand and leg length, etc.
But yes, handling and ride can be subjective. The only objective measurement would be a timed slamon and skid-pad test.