27th Apr 2006, 12:25

Update from the owner of '02 Aztec above: I'm at 75,000+ due to heavy cross-country travel. Right now the A/C quit blowing cold, but she's four years old and I've personally never owned a GM that didn't need AC service at 3-4 years.

Other than that, no complaints so far. I had two accidents with her. In one I lost control in a very heavy snow (I was driving too fast for conditions) and hit a guard rail at 10 mph tops. Front end is damaged, but airbags did not deploy thank God. Did about $300 damage to the rail and around $1,700 damage to the front bumper cover and headlight trim. Those parts are *very* expensive. The estimate had only a few hours labor for the repair. The driver's ego sustained some bruising, but that's it. The safety systems performed well in this low-speed accident. And the trooper didn't give me a ticket, either.

In the other she was parked, unoccupied when, I suspect, a snowplow blade hooked between the p/s taillight and the lift gate as the plow drove by. The car was pushed about 3-feet to one side of the parking space and the liftgate was shattered. It was a blinding snowstorm and I didn't find the damage until going to work the next day. After screaming various explicatives, shoveling snow from the cargo area and about $2,300 later for a new lift gate, taillights, various interior trim panels and cleanup, it was a whole car again. The snowplow was never located so State Farm paid for this one.

Also, my windshield was recently cracked from flying rocks. The FM antenna is embedded in the windshield, too, which can make this a tricky repair. Not sure what the price is, though, since I'm still driving legal with the cracks, for now!