Can anyone tell me their experiences with a 4th generation Grand-Am?

I got one of that series as a rental once, while my Acura was in the shop. It was nose-heavy and tended to understeer even at low speeds. It also nose-dived sharply when I stepped on the brakes, which are among the worst I’ve ever stepped on. Power from its standard 2.2L I4 was just adequate. I was glad to get my Integra back after a couple of days.

Consumer Reports has no data on the Grand Am prior to 1999, but their reliability data on that and subsequent models is about as awful as it gets. Black cirles across the board for both the engine and braking systems. Only the tranmission and exhaust got good marks. The new G6 is far better – but the brakes still suck.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/models/used/pontiac/grand-am-g6/reliability.htm

You can do better, even for $2K. Everyone knows about Hondas and Toyotas, but good cars that are often overlooked are Subarus, Mazdas, and the Ford Escort/Focus from the early 90s.

Well being a guy from a car designing family I’m well aware of your typical reliable cars. But I’m not gonna end up with a Subaru or Mazda for 2k (not a good one at least). Honda’s are now all overpriced cuz everyone can claim “good on gas.” And I’ve actually got my eye out for an escort.

Anyone else have experiences with the Grand-Am’s?

@westy81585, Please cite your references. Here are a few of mine:

http://www.edmunds.com/used/1992/subaru/
http://www.edmunds.com/used/1992/mazda/
http://www.edmunds.com/used/1992/nissan/

You can get some of these rides for less than $1K. They might have some rust, but they still run.

The Pontiac Grand Am is one of the worst pieces of shit ever to roll off a Detroit assembly line. It’s worse than most Chryslers; heck, you would be better off with a Neon. At least they handle predictably.

I think a much better use of your time Rex would’ve been to look up available cars, not the bluebook values. I haven’t seen ANY of those 4 Subaru’s in about 5 years…. in fact going down all 3 of those lists, I haven’t seen all but maybe 4 of them in a LONG time. The Miata (which I don’t think I’ve ever seen one as old as 92), the Maxima, the Sentra, and maybe one more.

More over, and more importantly. A car that is a 1992 model (16 years old, 17 if you take into account they usually release them a year ahead of the dated year) will probably have a shit ton of miles. Especially obvious commuter cars, such as the Maxima and the Sentra. A 16 year old high mileage car, is NOT RELIABLE, foreign or no. I don’t want a car with more than 150k on it. You want to help me, find one of those cars on your list, with less than 150k, for less than 2k. I’ll wait. In fact I’ll tell you what, if you find one within 50 miles of Columbus Ohio, I will mail you a dollar.

And for your info, I had a Neon, an SRT-4. I outran many a corvette/mustang/350z/etc….. And a regular Neon is on my to find list, but I haven’t found a good one.

Westy, I think a better use of my time would be to answer no further questions from you. You try to help a guy and he shits on you, it’s time to say adieu.

@westy81585 I have a 1991 Toyota with only 138,000 miles on it, and I bought it used 3 years ago for about 2K. So you can find them, you just have to look around.