1999 Pontiac Grand Am SE review from North America

I have had my 1999 Grand Am SE for 3 years now. The first year and a half it was a great car, but the past year and a half I keep having problems.

The first problem I had was with the shaking and vibrations in the front end while driving on the highway. I have had it to three places and they cannot tell me what is wrong - they just keep balancing my tires and doing an alignment. It finally seemed to be doing better.

Then, one month ago my fly wheel cracked! That is a defect, not a normal thing to go wrong with a car. And, it was not cheap to fix.

I repaired the fly wheel (which required dropping the entire transmission out and having another alignment done after I just paid for one two weeks prior) and got my car home and it is making a terrible noise when going over bumps and is doing the vibrating in the front end worse than ever. It is back in the shop now and they have said it may be in the steering column!

I also had the problem with the clicking noise in the hazard light area - you have to have the whole turn signal mechanism replaced. Luckily I have a friend who was able to do that for me.

I have replaced my brakes once, at about 60,000 miles.

I do regular maintenance on my car and I take good care of it. I don't think I should be having problems like this yet. My 1988 Civic had fewer problems with 150,000 miles on it.

I will not buy another Grand Am. I love the look and design of the car and the way it drives, but cannot afford the poor reliability and repairs.