This was an extremely popular car in my area in the early to mid '90s. I can remember thinking that there must be some merit if so many people had chosen these cars. Well it gets good gas mileage and has decent looks. I assumed parts would be relatively abundant as there were so many around (This was back in the days before I believed in extended warranties). So I negotiated a price and a trade-in for my '86 Cougar and drove it off the lot.

Well it looked nice...

Mechanically however it was a different story. I've owned 10 different vehicles in my short :) lifetime and I have to admit that the '92 Sunbird SE Coupe I had for 3 years was the worst lemon I have ever owned. I bought this car in 1994 with about 60,000 miles on it. I quickly realized that I was going to be spending a lot of time and money on repairs for this vehicle. Within the first few months I started wondering if the SE model (which was rare compared to the LE model) stood for something like 'sucks eggs'. My radiator was one of the first things to go, then my gas line started leaking, then I had steering problems and the brake pads, front and rear needed annual replacing. The plastic vent panel between the windshield and the hood cracked on both sides (which I think is a common problem in these cars as I've seen others like this). The paint began to peel around the wheel wells and on the rocker panels which led to rusting. The water pump needed replacement within the second year I owned it and my struts needed replacing. All fairly costly things only a few of which I had the time or tools to do myself.

Then the real problems started. This car began to lose more and more oil as time went on and I attributed this to cam wear as the cam was beginning to become audible. Thus I began to run lower on oil than I was aware and after an oil change one summer I took and 800 mile trip for a long weekend and in 100 degree weather on the way home I ran completely out of oil on a lonely highway in northern Maine. The car made it home after filling the crank case, but the seeds of destruction were already sown. These in the forms of hairline cracks in the aluminium head. Within about two months the head gasket blew and I had to have a gasket set installed and the head planed. This was about an $800.00 job and the repair turned out to be temporary. Within about 6 months my gaskets were gone again and this time I needed a new head. The total cost of these repairs came to more than $2500.00 and thus I left the car as is at a dealership who gave me the difference in book value towards a Sunfire.

I know there are people out there who loved these cars, but in my opinion these are cheaply built vehicles made to last about as long as the factory warranty covers them. This is borne out by the fact that there aren't a whole lot of these to be seen on the roads around where I live anymore. This is a car one can get away with if it is not to be driven a lot. My mistake was that it was my primary car and I drove it a lot.

The Sunfire I had after this one didn't fare a whole lot better mechanically, but at least I had the extended warranty on that one and had a very service oriented dealership (see my review on the '96 Pontiac Sunfire). This of course has tainted my view of GM (or at least Pontiac) ingenuity as being very reliable. Although I do admit that these were lower end cars price-wise and as proves true again and again... You get what you pay for.