1998 Pontiac Grand Prix GT review from North America

I bought this car on 2/7/03 and have had many problems with it. It started off with the Exhaust Gas Recirculation valve going out at 73,040 miles. This part cost over $200, as stated by the dealer.

Next came a coolant sensor. What happened with this is that it reads the coolant temperature and it was messed up saying one second that the coolant temperature was -34 degrees and then the next second it said that it was 165 degrees. This caused the computer to send tons of gas to the motor, causing it to flood out and die. Dealer also covered this.

Next on the list is the rear passenger power window motor and switch. I have heard of this going bad on many General Motors vehicles, but I guess that it is still a problem that I have had. It was cleaned first, then brought in again and had switch replaced, then had a bunch of new parts put on. Now it doesn't work again. But I can put fault to the dealer on this one cause they are trying to fix the problem and not put in a complete new motor. Dealer covered all parts and labor.

This brings me to now. Recently after a party, I went out to start the car and it reved up past 2,000 RPMs and down to 200 RPM multiple times until it stalled. I then started back up and same thing happened. I tried it today to see if it happened again and it did. I put in Isopropyl and still had same outcome.

Also today out on the cruise to see if the idle thing would stop happening, the rear passenger brake caliper locked up in the compressed position. This caused the brake to make all sorts of noises and such. I will bring into dealer tomorrow to get window, brakes, and idle thing checked out.

If it weren't for the dealership, I would have lost my mind. They covered everything and were always nice and courteous to my problems and reassured me that they would take care of any problems. I don't know information about the prior owner about if they had any other problems with the car. I understand that not all cars are perfect and that this one just may be one of them, perhaps a lemon?

This car handles and accelerates very well. I love the interior comfort. By this I mean that the leather seating is comfortable, the heads up display and steering wheel buttons are very nice, and it rides pretty good. The shocks are a bit stiff, but that's OK I guess. I was hoping to get a little better gas mileage since my past car (1987 Mercury Cougar) got almost 30 miles per gallon with a 302 motor and 178,000 miles. This car gets in between 20 and 23 miles per gallon, depending upon lengths of trips and such.