Faults:

One can expect a car with this many Km's on it to have some problems, but so far the only major thing is my transmission.

Either it is my synchro-gear, or the aluminum teeth on the gears.

I've replaced the alternator, and front rotors.

General Comments:

This has been a great little car.

One of the best points, is it has great looks, it's hard to believe the car is 11 years old.

Performance is pretty good, I have to do a few minor adjustments to my turbo.

Inside the car is will put-together, and comfortable.

The fold down rear seats are perfect for my subs.

A lot of people have offered me good money for my car, but I will not sell it.

When all is said and done, when you nail on the gas, and gear down, you get going mighty quick!

Faults:

The starter finally went out, very frustrating. The engine leaks a little bit of oil, nothing bad though. No internal engine damage, yet. Second gear slips for some reason.

General Comments:

I think this is a very good car for me, it's a pretty quick car to be a 4 banger but the throttle body bogs down a little bit when I put it to the floor. Handling is great but could be better. The car is comfortable. It had a good stereo, but now it has a better one. Sony made that happen! The handling could be better if I put smaller tires on it, the ones on it now are a little big, they scrub.

Faults:

The air conditioning didn't work when I bought the car. It was repaired in April 2001. The compressor was replaced and the system was converted to R134a.

The starter was replaced a few weeks later - a very labour intensive job.

The water pump pulley came off at 158000km. This was also very labour intensive because of difficult access.

The timing belt was replaced at the same time - a related item.

General Comments:

There is some minor oil leakage, but this is apparently typical for this engine, and it is not causing any problems.

The car handles great, and the seats are comfortable.

The radio is excellent.

Faults:

The head gasket blew at 60,000 miles and a new motor was over 2,000 dollars. So I had a new gasket replaced at the Pontiac dealership. I felt it was General Motors fault for not recalling a lot of improper gaskets that were installed in their Brazil-Canada built 2.0 liter over head cam motors built around 1990.

The cam shaft, timing belt had to be replaced along with a few rocker arms at about 70,000 miles.

The connecting rod and piston in the number two cylinder had to be replaced at about 80,000 miles. At this time the oil pump and water pump was replaced.

Among many normal wear and tear replacements, the front brake calipers, hoses and rotors were replaced because of premature wearing. Also I have noticed a lot of little things had mainly just came loose over time and fallen off the vehicle.

General Comments:

I have worked on cars for almost 20 years and I have never seen anything, under the best care I could give, just self destruct before my eyes. The only good thing about this car was it had a great paint job and a clear coat that stills shines brightly today in the junk yard.