21st Aug 2003, 09:58

My 97 has had everything go wrong that's been mentioned as well.

1. Car lights would not auto-turn on, and if you manually turned them on they would cut off for no reason in the middle of the night.

2. Window motor replace 3 times, now it is not working again, and it is some other $300 part to fix.

3. Headlight assembly just came up missing one day, $100 to replace.

4. Alternator out at 40K.

5. Spun belt off at 60K, (5K after a GM tune up) causing the cam shaft pulley to be replaced.

6. Blown head gasket at 103K causing heads to be re-machined, and a new radiator. Close to three thousand dollars to fix all of that.

7. Thermostat, upper & lower hose replacement at 50K

8. Trunk area leaking water into trunk. (multiple fixes, on this one, but they finally got it done)

9. Water leaking onto floorboard passenger side (I can't even tell you how many times this has been 'fixed')

10. A/C now just turns on with no key in the ignition. Blower motor module is the diagnosis, but $300 to fix. Don't think I'll be doing that, pulling the fuse out everytime I get out will work just fine.

So here I am with a car that only has 110K miles on it, and can't order in the drive thru, and have to pull the fuse out everytime I stop. No telling what is going to fail next on it. My advice is to never buy a first year model car of any type. This was a '97, so first year of the wide-body. My '94 grand prix was awesome, until I wrecked it.

9th Mar 2004, 20:35

I have had no problems with my `97 GTP other than regular wear and tear, and the notorious headlight cover problem. This car has been a dream come true, and I would not trade it for anything. (Except maybe a newer model.) ^_^ As for the problems mentioned by other users; I believe many of these problems resulted from improper use or care, i.e., blown head gasket and windshield wiper motor failure; therefore, please do not let these posts detour you from such a wonderful and beautiful car.

9th Sep 2009, 22:34

Really depends on the previous owners, mine didn't have any of those, I had a 97 GTP for a year, sold it at 210k.. only brakes and ball joints.

10th Sep 2010, 14:36

Check the weather strip around the windshield area.