1998 Pontiac Sunfire from North America - Comments

The brakes had to be complete redone, both front and back, at about 76k miles, didn't come on slowly at all, within 2 weeks of hearing squeaking brakes I took it to the shop where they told me I needed new pads, shoes, drums, calipers, and rotors for both front and back breaks.

The seats get a bad look to them after a while, they fade in color very quickly and once they do, they never come back. The seats look very dirty even when they have just been cleaned its just the cheap material pontiac used that makes them look this way.

The front of the car has NO STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY WHAT SO EVER you can dent the fenders, hood, or bumpers with a light kick. My brakes failed to work at 76k miles relatively spontaneously causing me to rear end someone, I was going only about 10 miles per hr, but it demolished my front bumper bent down my hood, and put two large dents in the right fender. I was moving so slowly that there was not even a bit of scratched paint on the other car, but mine ripped apart.

Later my a friend was driving it and rear ended a lady going about 20 while she was going 10, (meaning that he was only moving about 10 MPH at in relation to her) and the car was totaled, the hood bent complete up lights bumper fenders and front body were trashed the radiator dropped out of the car and the frame bend!?!?! the lady he hit lost a tail light, and that's it.

This car is made out of the cheapest sh*t material that GM could find and was put together with some pretty shoddy constructants.

The car has very little space inside it only seats 4 only has 2 seatbelts in the back (?) it has pretty decent acceleration for a 4 cylinder and can make some pretty tight turns.

The shifter (automatic) is cheap looking, it has the knock off manual look to it and you can't put anything in the cup holder while its in park.

There is only 1 cup holder in the entire car and its two small to hold most drinks.

You can't pop the trunk from the inside.

It's a nice sharp and sporty looking car that handles well has an attractive set of gages, but the rest of the interior is cheap looking and the entire car is made of cheap brittle fiberglass.

I agree with several of your points; however, your view on the brakes is flawed.

1) If the first time your brakes were replaced was at 76k, you should consider yourself lucky. Fronts should be replaced every 35k-40k, and rears at about 55k-65k.

2) I had my brakes replaced at about 50k. I too waited too long. When my brakes were replaced, they were down to the metal. The car still stopped flawlessly. Other people who had driven my car were surprised to find out how bad they were.

As a side note, if you steam clean the seats they will look good again. Lastly, there are two additional cup holders in the back. They are behind the center console. Press on the square and they will pop out.

Yeah I totally agree with the car collapsing under very little pressure, I was going 25 mph and hit the car in front of me because someone stopped short... my brakes didn't react as fast as I would have liked them too and the end result was my car totaled and their car... not even a scratch. My repairs on my car would have cost me over $5000 just body work. New dashboard (because the airbags deployed), new airbags, new headlights because they flew out?, new windshield, new font hood. I ended up just selling parts.

I love how people who tailgate blame Pontiac for their failure to stop. Remember the 3 second rule and you'll avoid rear ending other drivers.

I agree. In a no fault state, rear ending is always the rear enders fault! I'm surprised the car crumbles so much though.