I recently purchased a 2002 Pontiac Grand Am. I bought it used through a dealership. The car had very low miles, and was in great looking shape. Having bad credit, I ended up paying a lot for this car, but was happy with my purchase. That was until about eight months after I got it. The car started leaving me stranded places...not starting. I had it towed to a shop, and after they had it for three days, the car just started right up, no problem. It ran fine again for about two weeks, then once again would not start. This time I went on line and did a little research. I came to a website, Edmund's.com, and found hundreds of 2002 Grand Am owners that were having the same exact problem, and also having trouble getting it fixed. I found out on the site that it is a faulty Pontiac part, called the passlock, and only a Pontiac dealership can fix it for you. This is a six hundred dollar problem to fix. Now, as if that was not bad enough, after spending the six hundred dollars, two months later, my 200 Pontiac Grand Am started overheating terribly. After taking it to numerous shops, that couldn't figure out what was wrong with it, I once again sought out help on line from other grand am owners. I found out that it could be a cracked intake manifold, because that is a very common problem in those cars as well. I took it to one more shop, but did not tell them what I thought it was. I left the car their for a couple months so they could look at their convenience. So now I was without a car for a long time once again. It did end up being a cracked intake manifold. It was almost a grand to fix. This is a car that is only five years old, and only had 30,000 miles on it at the time it was doing all this crazy stuff. I have since had other small problems with this vehicle, such as unexplainable problems with my turn signals, and locks. I have read on line of hundreds of people with this same car having the same problem. If you are thinking about buying one of these vehicles, DON'T. Stay away from Pontiac's Grand Am. They are not well made vehicles, and Pontiac doesn't stand behind their work either. I tried numerous times to contact them, and tell them about this. They said to me that none of these things were a safety issue, so their butts were covered, and they were right. A lot of people were trying to get a class action lawsuit going against Pontiac, but because these problems did not effect driver safety, all the grand am owners out there are stuck with thousands of dollars in bills, and all the aggravation that goes along with not having a drivable vehicle.
Amount Paid (US$): 12,000
Condition: Used
Model Year: 2002
Model and Options: Grand Am LE