17th Apr 2004, 09:20

I have a 1998 grand am, and just speaking from mine and my parents experience with them (my parents have one too), they are not good cars. From the first time that I bought one I have had nothing, but problems. The alternator, the brakes, they go out what about every 3 or 4 months. The electrical problems, they blow fuses all the time. And that's not even all of it, these cars just are more trouble than they are worth so I don't recommend them to any one ever.

2nd Oct 2004, 08:05

I have a 98 Grand Am, and it's been a pretty good car for me. I have had to make some repairs, but no more than I had with my Chevy, or my Nissan. A Car is a machine and like any other machine things break.

30th May 2005, 20:59

Hi, everyone

I have a 98 Grand Am SE & I have had it almost 6yrs. Never had a problem out of it until about 3 months ago. The motor is shot & from what I've been hearing from machanics is that this type of motor is hard to come by because they are junk (it's a quad 4). I love the car its comfy & looks good it's gold great interior & has 18" rims on it. But I will never never buy another one. So good luck with everyones Grand Am's.

16th May 2006, 13:04

I wish I would have read some of these comments before I purchased a '98 Pontiac Grand Am SE. Reading through various Internet sights I have discovered that the intake manifold gasket is a very common problem. My car also has the same problems I have read about when it just loses power for no reason. This is not a car I would recommend to any one.

4th Jun 2007, 22:10

The grand am DOES have an alternator problem, but for the mileage that I have on my grand am, I find it to work very well. My current grand am has 179,000 miles on it, and so far I have replaced the alternator once, and put a new transmission in. Nice car, though many of them are lemons.

I have my eye on another grand am, drives and runs great with 112,000 miles. Only major problem is the parking break. But with some tightening it can easily be fixed.

As for everybody's rants on these cars, I think it's a little exaggerated. For one thing, when you get a good one, they are very nice vehicles. If actually taken care of, and maintained well, these cars will perform well enough to satisfy. (Original commenter: If you "mash the accelerator to get a speed boost", it's not good for your engine, smart one... Congratulations on writing a bad review on a car that you abused...)

8th Jun 2007, 18:04

My parents have had a Grand Am Se for about 3 years now and now it is mine. Not many problems with it other than what we did too it aka me and my mother go out in about 16 inches of snow. Great car.Quad 4 is awesome and very dependable, but very hard to find. if you know how to drive a standard then you won't have many problems and every car has there problem!!!

Best car ever very cute and sporty for a young girl like me.

18th Dec 2007, 01:27

I've had my Grand Am since 1999. It’s a 2.4 twin cam 4cyl. I got it with 97,000 miles, and it was in showroom condition.

Since I got the car I've put on over 221,000 miles. I have never had any major issues with it at all. I just kept up on normal maintenance and checked all the fluids, and made sure the battery was always fully charged.

I have however gone through two transmissions. It was my fault though for driving like an idiot.

Since I've had the car, the window motors have slowed down a little. The ABS light is on.

I have never had an issue with stopping the car or any major mechanical issue. This by far has been the most dependable car I have owned, and it gets great gas mileage.

The people that say the 2.4l is garbage don't know what they're talking about. I know for a fact that when you rev the rpms too high the oil pump cannot maintain enough oil pressure to lubricate the 3rd and 4th rod bearings. However if this does happen, it's the drivers fault because the oil pump is not intended to rev over 5000 rpms. If you take care of your car it will last you a long time.