Faults:

The car continually overheats on trips longer than 15 minutes.

The brakes are very grabby, even after being replaced and bled.

General Comments:

Amazing handling with the right tires, turns on the drop of a dime.

However, it tends to run hot, and the A/C has never worked.

Faults:

Same problem as everyone else, all 4 windows won't roll down, A/C doesn't work, temperature gauge goes up and down when we go around corners.

Door locks have locked on their own when the car is running and I'm on the outside! If you want windows to go up faster, shut the car off, and then restart and it will roll up a bit, continue to do this until fully up!

Now the heater gauge won't tolerate being moved. But car is 14 years old.

General Comments:

Must say I am pleased with the power this car has to climb steep hills at highway speed, and it sure doesn't have any problems passing other cars. Too bad all the interior stuff is so awful.

Faults:

Engine overheated when I first got the car. I changed the thermostat, rodded out the radiator, and checked all other relevant items. Still overheated.

I took it to a dealer and he plugged his OB1 readout device in and told me the engine heat was within acceptable range. It was showing 215° at the time while idling on a 75° day. I figured this dealer wouldn't be much help, so I proceeded to find the cause and fix it myself.

It turned out to be a badly restricted heater core that would not allow the proper circulation in order to expel the air that gets trapped in the system. A new heater core fixed the problem. It's a shame the dealer didn't know this.

General Comments:

The car has been very reliable and trouble free since getting past the initial overheating problem.

Faults:

I had to replace the alternator at 80.000 miles.

Replaced the A/C compressor at 110.000 miles.

Heater core at 110.000 miles.

Now at 132.000 the transmission is trying to jump out of overdrive back into 3rd gear when lightly accelerating at over 60 mph. Have been to two shops, both of which could not diagnose the problem. Does anyone have any ideas what it could be? Everything else on the car is original, and in good shape.

General Comments:

If I could afford another vehicle I would certainly buy another Pontiac.

At 70 years of age I have owned a lot of cars and this is among the best. I must add that I was also a mechanic for 35 years of my 70.

Faults:

I have very little happen to this car. I am surprised that given how wonderful this car has been in 10 years, that this model gets a bad reputation for over heating and head gaskets.

I think the only major problem that lingered with this car last year was the temp gage kept going up as if car was over heating. However with my knowledge of this car, and not wanting to listen to 80% of mechanics jumping to head gasket, I found the problem to be a hair crack in the thermostat housing, which is very easily mistaken to look like a leaking head gasket when the coolant sprays from heating up.

Other than that, my car has been known for bad control arm bushings. Fixed that on badly designed bushings.

General Comments:

For having the car for 10 years and not costing anything major, and being at 220,000 klm, I would have to give a high rating for being a Quad 4 2.3.

This car at its age still has a great pick-up on it, although a little hesitant around corners.

The seats can be a little hard to get out of at times, and for the back, but I would still rate it at about 7/10.

After keeping the fluids topped up always and keeping it oil sprayed, I only have a quarter sized rust spot on back rear panel, which is not unusual for this model.