1997 Pontiac Grand Am review from North America

Volume control on radio almost unusable.

One (yes, just one out of two) of the front brake shoes wore through almost immediately; my brake shop said it had to be caused by something else and sent me to the dealer for warranty work. Dealer refused to fix anything under warranty and said the uneven wearing "just happens sometimes." I paid my brake guys to fix the calipers and have had no more uneven wearing. Have just had back and front brakes replaced again, but that's not unexpected for 80,000 miles.

Transmission was acting funny after about 35,000 miles, but no one could diagnose. Eventually it blew up and had to be rebuilt, at less than 50,000 miles.

The ignition switch failed at about 60,000 miles.

Good tires on this car are a must as this model is somewhat lightweight. Michelin and Sumitomo have both been good.

A huge problem is the placement of the water pump. Mine had a component fail at about 50,000 miles. Because of its placement (behind the manifold and the timing chain housing) about half the engine has to come off and typically the timing chain will need to be replaced. The chain was a nightmare to adjust -- it took 2 trips back.

Now there's something going on with the traction control system that we're still trying to figure out.

The dealer service is horrible, but it was also horrible at Ford.

This is my first 4-cylinder car and I have been very pleased with the performance; it's quick and it does well in heat, cold, mountains, and cities.

I have been upset at the extent of the repairs. Very little on this car is a do-it-yourself job. Not only that, I finally had to start taking it to the older, first-rate, expensive shops in town because no one else could seem to handle the repairs correctly. However, cars in this price range ($10-20,000 dollars) seem to be prone to these things so I'll probably keep it.