The preceding comment makes a VERY good point. Service technicians deliberately sabotage things in order to get you back in and get more of your money. My neighbor took his truck in for servicing and the shop loosened his power steering hose fitting to make it leak. He knows they did because he is himself a mechanic and had just checked all the fittings before taking it in. He says this is common practice. Also, I'd think twice about the Honda. Your Grand Am has a respectable 113,000 miles on it. Our Honda Civic never made it past 90,000 miles and was junked with a blown engine. It required more repairs than any American car we've owned.

Buying a Honda because you don't like your Grand Am is sort of like shooting yourself in the foot because you have a tooth ache. All I can say is "You'll be SORRY!!!" We've had experience with Honda. Believe me you DON'T want one!!

A good service department makes ANY car a better buy. We were lucky to buy both of our current GM cars from a really great dealership that really cares about its customers. One of the cars (the 2001 Grand Am) has never had the first problem, but our 2003 GMC did have a very minor problem (A/C vent) at 40,000 miles and our dealer fixed it at no charge and did it very promptly, as well as providing us with transportation in the meantime. That kind of service will keep us loyal to GM.

My responses follow.

Keep in mine I am not an ASE certified mechanic, but I would like to think I know a little bit about automobiles. Perhaps the wording was not specific enough in my original posting.

The reservoir caps was a minor problem, hence the reason I listed it under minor annoyances. The caps did not crack in the middle, or along the threads, both cracked between the cap and the section that actually thread into the reservoir. Internal pressure was never lost, until the caps broke in my hand as I tried to remove them. The caps were immediately replaced, the system was then bled, and pressure was restored. The car was driven 0 miles with cracked caps.

The lower internal manifold gasket failure was NOT a result of a cracked reservoir cap, and not as you phrased the cars fault. It IS a known and largely discussed engineering fault of either GM or the company GM contracted to manufacture them. It is not solely a Grand Am issue, but a common issue in 3.1L and 3.4L GM engines available in many other vehicles. Goggle "3.4L LIM gaskets" and see how many hits you find. I never stated it overheated, so I'm not sure why you assumed it did. There are many other symptoms of LIM gasket failures, when you Google for it, you will find them. Incidentally, I spent 12 hours, changed the LIM gasket myself, and saved myself $1000 in labor costs. I don't get the O2 sensor logic so I am moving past that.

You said, “The traction control light is SUPPOSED to come on when you accelerate quickly and lose traction. Mine comes on if I really get on it and smoke the tires."

I said, "Traction control light repeatedly going on and off during normal driving conditions"

NORMAL driving condition, not hard acceleration, not ice, not rain, not fast turns. Straight line constant speed driving. I doubt I needed to reword my original posting. I understand the purpose of traction control. As an update, this problem has not arisen in a year.

I said, ”Stereo volume controls that don't actually adjust the volume; or worse get louder when you are trying to turn it down."

You said, "The radio on nearly all GM cars have what is called SVC or "speed volume control. It is SUPPOSED To turn the volume up as you accelerate. Just turn the feature OFF and you won't have the problem!!"

Again, I understand SVC and it's purpose. I will believe I choose bad wording. How about this? I can sit with the engine off and just listen to the radio, and if I turn the volume knob clockwise it will sometimes get softer, and if I turn the knob counter-clockwise, it will shoot up to full volume. This problem still exists.

One of you said, "They are little plastic flanges that stick up. How on Earth can you break them on "one side"?? " The other said, "Actually the power window buttons aren't too hard to break. It just requires a large hammer or twisting them with vice grips". I apologize for honestly not being descriptive enough. Where the power window "flanges" are mounted into the power window switch, they are connected by about 1mm wide plastics clasps that clamp onto 2mm diameter mounts. Either side of the clasps on the "flanges" of multiple windows have snapped. I hope that that clarifies.

I said, "Faulty blinkers, anywhere from very rapid to none at all." This was fixed under recall.

Thanks for the comments.

Don't strain yourself. Ignore him.