1999 Pontiac Grand Am SE2 review from North America

The brakes need to be changed every 8,000 miles. All the Pontiac dealers and brake shops that I talk to say that this is common.

The was a water leak in the passenger side. The dealer repaired this problem quickly.

The driver's door window fell off the track and broke all the plastic clips. The GM cost would have been $900 in parts plus labor.

The controls for the radio failed. The dealer replaced the radio without any problem.

The rear deck of the car rattles while listening to the radio. The dealer says there is nothing wrong. I paid extra for the high power system, but I have to adjust the equalizer so as to shut off nearly all the bass.

The car developed a vibration in the front end within the first year. I took the car to two dealers with no luck. Both dealers say it is the tires. So far, I have gotten GM to replace all four rims and Goodyear to replace two of the tires. After balancing and rotating the tires 5 times and aligning the front end 3 times, Goodyear refuses to replace any more tires without a written statement from GM that the tires are bad. The dealer has rotated and balanced the tires at least 5 more times and aligned it a couple more times. I took the car to a couple of local garages and I was told it looked like a transmission or axle problem, but it would be costly to start digging into the problem. I contacted GM for assistance since this problem has out-lasted my 36,000 mile warranty. GM proposed with my dealer to continue looking for the problem. The dealer took the car in twice, but refused to look into the transmission or test drive the car after they rotated the tires. I tried to talk with the service manager, but he hung up on me. I tried to talk with the store owner, but he hung up on us. GM is currently working with a 3rd dealer to try to solve this problem.

The car would be awesome if there was a dealership who stood by their product and the car stayed together.