2002 Pontiac Grand Am GT review from North America

Driver seat brackets broke three times.

Window motor replaced once.

Fog light blew once.

Head light replaced once.

New brakes at 23000 miles.

New tires at 25000 miles.

Coolant had to be flushed at 30000 miles.

New caliper replaced at 50000 miles.

I have always loved the looks of this car and ended up buying a new 2002 right off the sales floor. The few little things like the seat bracket and replacing the lights were handled by the cars warranty and was somewhat expected. I am 6'2 240 lbs. but I never thought that I would have to replace the drivers seat bracket three times in the first few years of purchase. The Goodyear tires that came with the car were worn out only after 25,000 miles and I rotated them ever 6000 miles. When I purchased new ones the dealer told me that I was lucky to get that amount. I replaced them with a Fusion tire made by Bridgestone and had to replace those at 50000 miles. I now have Bridgestone Potenza's with a 460 tread wear, and expect them to last longer than the previous ones. Now to the Dex-Cool anti-freaze. This stuff was the worst stuff GM could have used. At 30,000 miles I started to notice that my coolant light would light up on the dash, but the temp. was always in the middle and would never get overheated. When I removed the radiator cap to see if I was running low on coolant I noticed that the anti-freeze had almost become a solid. When I took it back to the dealership where I purchased the vehicle they advised me that it was the dex-cool, and that I had to get my entire radiator flushed. I did and have used regular anti-freeze ever since. The coolant light has stopped coming on to this day. BUT... when I took the car in to another shop to fix a noisy passenger side calpier they noticed that I was leaking coolant from the intake gasket. I was told the Dex-Cool that was in the vehicle when I bought it, had destroyed the gasket. I will have to replace the gasket now and pay out over $500.00 to get it taken car of. My advise to anyone who has this vehicle see if you have the orange color Dex-Cool, and if you do, get it flushed out ASAP and replace it with the standard green anti-freeze. It may cost you around $80.00 now, but its worth it over time... trust me! The caliper issue had been an ongoing problem over some time and when I would take it back to the dealership they would tell me it was normal. My question was if it was normal then why was the passenger side the only side making noise? New caliper installed was $100.00.