Faults:

My dad bought this car for me. It was painted blue with a black hood and lots of rust, (in the sun light the roof actually looked red). The previous owner redid the engine right before my dad bought it.

One of the struts was bad so the car leaned sideways.

The seats had burn marks from cigarettes.

The center consul was detachable.

After I received the car, the oil started leaking, (it was never fixed).

There were 2 gas leaks in less than a week.

My mechanic was going to replace a belt for me. As he was looking over the car, he noticed the muffler looked odd. When he reached up, his hand went through the muffler without any force.

The floor boards in the front of the car had holes in them all the way through, (the mechanic attached a sheet of metal to hold the floor to the car).The one floor mat had never been replaced so if you picked it up, you could see the ground and the original color of the interior.

The last time I ran the car, it had a problem not wanting to start. Here it was that there was either a crack in the block or another problem since water was running over into the oil.

General Comments:

The car was a beater from the start and ended that way.

The best part about the car was that it had an alarm system that was worth half as much as the car. Believe it or not, the alarm system actually worked. It even went off every time my dad moved the seat in the car or stepped out, (it never did this to anyone else).

Faults:

Ignition switch fried, couldn't start the car until I rigged up a pushbutton switch that I mounted in the dash.

Both seats are twisted in their tracks, makes long distance somewhat uncomfortable.

Needs an alignment, I replaced the steering rack about 3 years ago when my father was still driving it, and I guess I didn't line it back up correctly, tires wearing on the inside (tired are old anyway)

Exhaust is rusty and loud.

I smell gas from near the windshield for some reason.

Pressure hose off the power steering pump split, so now it's got no power assist. Good for building muscle, but it does get annoying.

Weak paint, I blew off some small pieces of paint at a car wash.

Trim pieces everywhere are peeling off.

General Comments:

I bought this from my father who had it for about 6 and 1/2 years. For the last 2 years or so, it wasn't driven, so it more or less sat in the same spot, it didn't seem to really degrade the car much. I've got the V6 3 speed auto with torque converter lockup, which still works fine by the way. The engine starts right up in the morning, push the pedal once to the floor to position the choke, click the starter, and it's up and running. It doesn't burn any oil, but it looks like it's leaking a small amount, but hell, she's 20 years old, I'm not complaining. Performance with just myself in the car is fine, but I suspect if I loaded it with 5 or more people, it would be slow. I get decent fuel mileage from it, I did 658 km on one tank of fuel. My 13 inch tires are several years old and worn, they're cheap to replace. Performance could be better considering it a V6, but these cars were conceived in the mid 70' as well as the engines, so these cars represent probably the best thinking of the time. Everyone has bad things to say about the X-body cars, but I just cannot see how the bad comments are justified. Take care of these cars, and they take care of you. The X-body cars were the spawn of almost every front wheel drive vehicle in GM's lineup from the late 70's up til just a few years ago, it must say something about the car itself if it's had a lineage that lengthy.