Faults:

S-belt pulley broke at 120k.

Persistent problem with ABS - shudders.

Premature brake and rotor wear continues on front passenger side wheel.

Radio display stopped working at 150k.

Little things have gone wrong with this car over the years (fascia cracking, etc.), but nothing more major.

General Comments:

My former car was another 97' Grand Am, and its head gasket blew at 305k, and mixed the oil and coolant - dead engine.

This one is old too, and it will probably not pass emissions testing for next year - however I'm surprised that it is still running fine. I haven't put much money into it in 6 years.

Faults:

Car stalls intermittently from cold start.

Power windows (one) non operable.

Electrical problems.

Alternator replaced twice.

One headlight hazed out.

General Comments:

Mileage is fairly good.

Power is good.

Looks nice.

Reliability remains a problem, particularly with a persistent, but intermittent cold-stall problem.

Faults:

A lot of little things, the clock on the radio doesn't work, the volume knob very rarely works. I routinely have to replace the brake pads & rotors, usually once per year. I had an issue where I couldn't get the key to turn to get the car on, they switched the lock cylinder for $600, 1 year a 1 month later I couldn't get my key out & they charged me full price to switch the cylinder again, 1 week later it happened again, when I took it in a guy popped a cover off under the stearing column & pushed a button on the celinoid & the key released, apparently that's what it was all along & they wouldn't give me a refund. The drivers side window won't go back up, we took it apart, we think it may have been accident damage that bent some rods & nocked the gears out of alignment, fixed it, but it eventually fell apart again. And I have a check engine light issue with heavy stutter if I push the gas to quickly or go up certain hills, most people believe its just dirty spark plugs or something, but I haven't had that issue resolved yet.

General Comments:

Overall, I have no spent much on repairs aside from the key situation, which in the end should not have cost so much, but the mechanics I took it to were not honest, or competent. However, I have put up with a lot of little things that I just live with, if I was the type of person that cared, it probably would have cost a fortune to fix all this stuff.

Faults:

The driver side and passenger side window motors have been replaced and are almost due to be replaced again.

The power moon-roof motor has stopped working.

The transmission has been rebuilt and so far has been holding up.

Several emission related problems have occurred and have been corrected.

The engine was replaced at ~ 65,000 miles because of the un-official know defect on the 3.1 liter engine. The intake manifold gasket and in my case the head gasket. The second engine started the same problem so adding the stopleak to the coolant seems to have delayed the problem.

Several fixes to the front suspension including replacing the bushing on the lower control arm at an early stage.

The air conditioning stopped working a couple of years ago.

Several of the radio button do not work.

ABS light comes on after driving over bumps in the road.

Most recently, oil is leaking from the passenger side of the engine.

General Comments:

On the lighter side, the car still looks nice on the outside...

Faults:

Window motors are a MAJOR issue, I've replaced one and the other 2 1/2 don't work. 1 Alternator and 1 Battery replaced in 90k miles... can't complain, Water Pump is also an issue, but the vehicle runs on a timing chain which eliminates timing belt failure. When replacing parts such as water pump or alternator, I would strongly recommend using QUALITY after market replacement parts! Never had brake problems, in fact, I would say the brake system is excellent, again, use QUALITY replacement parts to eliminate future trouble. 210K and still runs great, prone to electrical problems (power windows are TROUBLE), 6'4" and can't really complain about space... bucket seats are comfortable and there is leg room, not much for me, but I'm not complaining.