On a side note...I really hope Pontiac comes out with new styling soon for the Grand Prix GXP, I’m so sick of the current look of it Not sleek at all! I think supercharged engines are my love forever
Sorry man, the Grand Prix is gone. It is going to be replaced by the G8. The only hope is that it's just a new name for the GP. I personally don't like the newer Grand Prixs either, they are kinda frumpy...
If you're really concerned about reliability, go Honda or Toyota, it doesn't get much better than that (for reliability I mean). I've seen a lot of Toyotas and Hondas with well over 100,000 miles, that have had little or no maintenance. I've got a friend at work who has a Honda Civic with 160,000 miles on it and has done nothing to the car besides new brakes and oil changes. Honda and Toyota both make some cars with some nice interiors, but I know what you mean about the power, I've been in Toyotas, and own a Honda, there's no comparison to the Grand Prix. GM cars just don't cut it for reliability, I've had my share of problems with my Pontiac, and have delt with other GM cars before... same thing. GM has been known to design parts to fail... on purpose. One time I had a chat with a person that used to be high up in a company that supplied some parts for GM automobiles, I don't trust GM anymore, I'll just leave it at that. I have a Honda as well as my GP, and it has had no major problems so far, just one simple thing that was more of a problem with my dealer than with the car. My sister has a Toyota with over 100,000 miles on it, and it's only had to have two things fixed. She has a lot of keys on her keychain, and after years and years of use the extra weight had its toll on the ignition, so she had to have a small part replaced, but it was a small fix nonetheless. The only other thing was an exhaust replacement. Other than that it's been running great. As far as VW, I talked to a mechanic and heard bad things, I also have a friend who just got a used Passat with about 114,000 miles on it. It has been problem after problem after problem. The transmission is going, the driver's side window won't roll up, the fabric on the ceiling is falling down, the seats are torn, and the car smells like gasoline when it gets revved up. And if that's not bad enough, one day my friend left my house and when he got home called me and told me that halfway home his brakes failed, the master cylinder went. I know this car has a lot of mileage but that's ridiculous, and like I stated before, I've seen this kind of mileage done with Toyota and Honda with no problems. From what I've heard from most people, Audis have good reliability, but my mother has a friend at her workplace who has an Audi, and one time while she was driving her gas pedal got stuck so she had to fight her engine to stop, I don't like the sound of that. As far a Chrysler, all I ever hear about is transmission problems, I had an old friend from my workplace who had a 300M, and he lost 3rd and 4rth gear on an exit ramp on the highway. Ask anyone who once owned a Chrysler Voyager minivan, they'll tell you what they think about Chrysler. I haven't driven many Fords, so take this next thing I say with a grain of salt. I frequently ride in two cars, a family member's 1998 Ford Contour Sport, and a friends (either 1997 or 1998) Contour SE, and both are junky. My friends contour has a horrible fuel injection problem so it dies in just wonderful places, very dangerous places, specifically when you are at a dead stop and need to accelerate, such as when making left turns in intersections. However it has like 110,000 miles on it, so it has somewhat of an excuse. The other Contour I mentioned only has a mere 25,000 miles on it, and drives like one that's got 75,000 miles on it. It's unbelievably hard to turn the key after you put it into the ignition, when you change from park to drive it feels like there is sand or something in the shifter mechanism, when you step on the brakes the entire car shakes because the rotors are off balance (however the rotor problem may be because of the driver), and the mechanical thing that changes the airflow to different vents (i.e. floor, panel, etc.) for the heater/air conditioning failed. The only other memory I have of a Ford was my dad's old escort that died in an intersection once, but we were moving, so we made it through and safely pulled into a parking lot to restart it. I know two people who own Acuras, which are made by Honda. One is my neighbor, and the other one was a teacher I had years ago. Both of them said the exact same thing, they don't want to get rid of them because they won't die. Both of the cars have really high mileage; I think my neighbor's is over 200,000.
So from what I've seen, Toyota/Honda have it together, I hope GM catches up someday, but it may already be too late. It's a shame too, because IMO no one makes a sport sedan like GM. One thing I do have to say though is that a lot of GM's newer engines are great, the 3.8L 3800 that I have in the Grand Prix is extremely reliable. I've heard great things about that engine from many people, including mechanics. If you could drop an engine like that into a Toyota, you'd have a pretty nice setup. Speaking of GM cars again, I need to fix my EGR valve in my GP, $300 for parts and labor... ouch. I also lost my DRLs, my alarm system is intermittently working, and my parking break doesn't work. I'd rather pay to have it fixed though; I like the car too much to get rid of it. It still looks like the day I got it new. If you don't have any current major problems with the GP, I'd keep it, unless the gas mileage is a problem.
That's just my 2 cents!
I hope you get something good! (or keep the great car you already have!)
Thanks for the suggestion!!
