I bought a 1994, 4 cylinder with 125,000 miles in June 2002 for $1500. It was my first car so wanted a car that would tide me over until I qualified for cheaper insurance. The car required quite a lot of work (new tires, tune up and brush up of brakes) but said to myself that if it lasted until 150,000 miles, I'd be happy. The car ran OK until a couple of months later when the ignition coil broke. $500 later (plus a new alternator), I was back on the road. At 135,000 miles, the brakes were playing up again (shuddering) so had to fork out $250 for new pads. Things went well after that until 145,000 when the shuddering brakes returned so this time the rotors had to be fixed, this time the bill was $500 ! Ouch. Finally, at 151,000 miles, the same familiar feeling of major loss of power reared it's ugly head again (suspected ignition coil, 6 months after being fixed) but this time had had enough, I had the car scrapped. It was a sad way to see the Grand Am go but having cracked the 150K mile mark (1 year after having purchased the car), I concluded that the car didn't owe me anything and would just be throwing good money after bad.

I used the car for blasting down the motorway. It was fairly comfortable and had decent performance from the 4 cylinder engine even though it did become quite loud when the gas pedal was floored. I managed to get around 350 miles per tank (~28mpg). Do not trust the fuel gauge, it drops like a stone after the 1/3 mark and once led me to running out of gas - major embarrassment ! When it was windy, I found it to be quite unsteady so had to firmly grip the wheel with both hands. The standard Delco stereo had a cracking radio and good speakers so the car was quite good fun to cruise down the motorway on a sunny day with ice cold aircon switched on and the radio blaring !

For what it was (stop gap until I could afford a better car purchase/insurance wise), the Pontiac Grand Am SE was a good motor.
Amount Paid (US$): 1500
Condition: Used
Model Year: 1994
Model and Options: 4 cylinder SE auto