1989 Pontiac Sunbird LE 2.0 4 cylinder from North America
Summary:
Reliable car when taken care of.
Faults:
At 130,000 miles when I bought the car, on the way home from the dealership the engine lost oil pressure because of bad main bearings and we dropped a new motor into it.
At approx. 140,000 and 145,000 I had to replace the alternator both times because of a bad battery that I failed to notice.
Approx. 5000 miles later the timing belt broke because I didn't replace it when we put the motor in and it had been sitting for a while so that one was on me. The bottom end of the motor looked really good so I put a stage 1 (Performance Street) camshaft in it and had a friend of mine port and polish the head, made a big difference in power and throttle response with the automatic transmission.
General Comments:
The car had decent handling, but the power steering lost a lot of the feel.
The acceleration before the engine upgrades is a bit on the slow side, after wards it was a good bit quicker, I'm sure the manual transmission versions make up for it.
The interior of the car was rather nice, the front seats were very comfortable to me, the rear seat room depends greatly on how tall the people up front are, with the seats in a comfortable position up front its very tight in the back seat.
After I replaced the timing belt and put the new parts in it was a good car, never gave me any other problems, the only reason I ever sold it was because I totaled it when I hit two deer, one slammed into the front and the other went up on the hood and almost through the windshield, but the engine ran perfect, drove it home and parked it and sold it off.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 14th November, 2004