1998 Pontiac Grand Prix from North America - Comments

I hardly know where to start with problems I've had with this car.

Had the engine completely rebuilt twice within 10,000 miles, because of poor engineering. Cost about $8000. First time was from detonation, and the second was from bearing failure. Mechanic said he would not fix it under warranty, because it was a performance car.

Car rides horrible, and has a lot of road noise and rattles.

HUD hardly ever works.

Brake pedal feels funny; like the booster is starting to go on it.

Water leaks into driver's side window when it rains, and windows are VERY slow to go back up.

Today I just noticed that I have a puddle of water on the passenger floor; I think it is coming from the A/C.

This car is stored all the time, and only driven on occasion, and the paint is still chipping and spider cracking all over where it is fiberglass.

I have owned this car for 4 years now, and have only put approx 27000 miles on it, and it cost me almost 11K in repairs.

I would advise anyone, if they are looking to buy one, to stay as far away from it as possible.

I also own a cheap 92 Toyota Paseo, and I would rather rely on that to get me someone than my piece of crap Grand Prix.

I have always taken pride in owning american cars, but I have to look out for my best interest, which is going with a foreign car that has much less problems. I will never again, unless I get one hell of a deal, buy another american made automobile!!!

Sorry to hear all the problems, but I am not sure I would blame your engine problems just on poor engineering. First failure from detonation – do you mean the previous owner just kept driving it even though it was pinging and knocking? Small problem turns into a big problem. The second failure from bad bearing sounds more like a poor quality re-build than an engine design problem. The lack of warranty sounds strange too; I guess your mechanic did not notice it was a performance engine when he re-built it.

Good God, you paid 4k for each engine rebuild? You would have been better off grabbing one from a Junkyard for $3/400 Bucks and paying a guy $1000 for the install. Try not to let Mechanics talk you into spending so much.