Faults:

Radiator and fan clutch.

Fuel pump leak.

Valve cover gaskets.

Motor mounts.

Reverse went out, common on the 200 3 speed automatic. Bought a rebuild.

Minor carburetor overhaul.

Reupholstered the front seat.

General Comments:

This was my very first car and one of my favorites. As a teenaged car lover, and purchasing something that I really liked, I had so much pride in this car, and how could you not? The "G" body family of General Motors cars offered timeless styling that was both aggressive and formal looking. My opinion the best looking 2 door bodied car of the 1980's. Even when they were brand new they were beautiful cars that you knew would age well.

My Grand Prix on review was the base model with the only options being a rear window defogger, optional gauges in place of warning lights and "split" 60/40 bench seat. The base Buick V6 definitely lacked power, but was a strong runner and pretty reliable despite the high mileage. I never had the common timing chain and every so often oil pump failure. The A/C always blew ice cold still using R 12 Freon. Being choked on emissions components and lots of routed vacuum hoses, the engine was pretty easy to maintain and repair yourself. The 231 V6 had a lot of mixed emotions in the early years, but as time went on they were proven reliable. Then later came the legendary 3800 built off this design.

I can't say enough on how I love the body style of this car, especially the Grand Prix which for some reason was the least popular out of all its siblings. Mine was the GM fire mist red metallic color with no quarter Landau top. I ditched the wire wheel hubcaps and replaced them with the optional Pontiac rally wheels with raised white letter tires.

On the inside was an all dark red interior, with lots of room in the front seat, being bench style which I always liked better in all the G body cars. Very comfortable knit cloth. Also I absolutely love the dashboard layout, everything being round including the A/C vents, instrument and gauge cluster.

As of now all the G body family of cars are greatly appreciating in value, and not because of the current inflation on used cars. In a sense these are the last mid size GM cars that you can do anything to as far as performance upgrades and motor swaps being a body on frame, rear drive car. After 1987, 1988 it was all over when all the G body nameplates were switched to the front drive W platform.

I do hope to own another one of these in the future, but would limit my year to 1981 only as it was the 1st year of this style, but also the last year with an available Pontiac built V8. Yes it was a puny 265 4.3 liter, but also the perfect foundation to swap a Pontiac 350 or 400. For some reason the 1982 models only came with 2 different V6's and the diesel V8. 1983 and beyond had the optional Chevy 305 V8. Nothing wrong with that, but I've personally always liked Pontiac V8's better.

This car started to show some engine fatigue at around 210,000 miles, starting to lose oil pressure along with worn piston rings causing oil blow by. That is when I made my farewell with this car after owning it for nearly 6 years and driving it everywhere.

Faults:

Lock-up torque converter stayed locked, unplugged computer from torque converter, problem solved.

Excessive wear on seats.

Carburetor needed rebuild, but I decided to replace engine instead. :)

General Comments:

The car originally had a 305 V-8 with a TH-200 transmission. I have replaced this with a 4-bolt main 350 with a Torker II intake, Flowmaster Afterburner exhaust manifolds, and a dress up kit. It is now mounted to a Turbo 350 transmission.

Handling could and will be improved with new performance tires and lowering springs from Eibach.