littleman54321
06-10-2007, 11:10 PM
So....where to start....
My name's Matt, I'm 23, and I have recently (maybe a year ago? lol) acquired an 03 Grand Am GT. My first car was an 00 (in 00 =D ) Eclipse GS (4 banger of the third generation body style...the last one for the non-eclipse knowleged, am (was, not really active anymore) a member of club3g.com if anyone knows the site...same username). It was a good car, not great, but it got me there and back. Was fine until the warranty went out, when it started giving me lots of little problems. Nothing big, just a lot of nuicances. Sunroof motor would go out, bulbs would burn out really fast for no reason sometimes, interior rear view mirror light would just not work some days, etc etc). Those were tolerable, but then about 2 years ago it started making a really gut wrenching sound from the front driver wheel area. My mechanic that my family has used for years couldn't figure it out, 2 dealerships couldn't (everyone could hear the sound, and get the car to make the sound, but couldn't figure out what was making the sound).
So, scared of dying, I sold the car, and took over my moms 02 (or maybe 01) Oldsmobile Intrigue (which was the pre-cursor to the Alero, but had a bigger engine =D ). It had the V6 version of the Aurora engine. Not a bad car, nice pick up and go (well, just about anything feels like it has good pick up and go after driving a 4 banger for nearly 5 years). Then about 5 or so months of driving it, the transmission started slipping. It had about 120k miles or so on it at that point, so really I'm not overly surprised something happened. Well, being in college 400 miles from family, and with a full time job and school, I couldnt be carless for a week, or more depending on how long it took to repair the tranny, so I begged my mother to trade cars with me until it got fixed. She was at that point driving the 03 Grand Am I am driving now. Long story short, the Grand Am was my sister's car until she graduated and got a new one for graduation present since she got a full ride to school.
Anywho, I took the Grand Am, and decided that I didn't want to give it back. My mom used the opportunity to convince dad to buy her a new car (she got a Buick Lucerne...which I will definitely never take lol...though the creature comforts in it are amazing...), so I guess everything worked out better for everyone, except for my dad's checkbook.
So that's the story of how I got the Grand Am. So far, I'm liking it. It's got decent power, it's comfortable, it's not quite as fun as the eclipse, but it's a lot moreso than the Intrigue, and even at 75k miles it's being very reliable (which is a lot more than I can say for my eclipse, which I got rid of at 65k, but started having lots of annoying stuff happen AS SOON AS THE WARRANTY EXPIRED, of course.)
First mishap happened a few months ago, something about oil or coolant leaking into the other, had that fixed (yay warranty!), and then earlier this week, the driver window stopped rolling down. I can push it down, and it rolls up, but the grip I guess is gone on the motor :( . But, the reason I found this site was my speakers have been going for awhile now, and they are finally just not tolerable, so I did some research on how to isntall the brand new 6*9's and 4*6's I got for my bday, and found this site. And yes, I have a monsoon system, so first thing I'm doing tomorrow after work is going to look for a new HU and go that route.
But anyway, this looks to be a cool site with some knowledgeable people, so I figured I'd sign up. So, hi. :)
My name's Matt, I'm 23, and I have recently (maybe a year ago? lol) acquired an 03 Grand Am GT. My first car was an 00 (in 00 =D ) Eclipse GS (4 banger of the third generation body style...the last one for the non-eclipse knowleged, am (was, not really active anymore) a member of club3g.com if anyone knows the site...same username). It was a good car, not great, but it got me there and back. Was fine until the warranty went out, when it started giving me lots of little problems. Nothing big, just a lot of nuicances. Sunroof motor would go out, bulbs would burn out really fast for no reason sometimes, interior rear view mirror light would just not work some days, etc etc). Those were tolerable, but then about 2 years ago it started making a really gut wrenching sound from the front driver wheel area. My mechanic that my family has used for years couldn't figure it out, 2 dealerships couldn't (everyone could hear the sound, and get the car to make the sound, but couldn't figure out what was making the sound).
So, scared of dying, I sold the car, and took over my moms 02 (or maybe 01) Oldsmobile Intrigue (which was the pre-cursor to the Alero, but had a bigger engine =D ). It had the V6 version of the Aurora engine. Not a bad car, nice pick up and go (well, just about anything feels like it has good pick up and go after driving a 4 banger for nearly 5 years). Then about 5 or so months of driving it, the transmission started slipping. It had about 120k miles or so on it at that point, so really I'm not overly surprised something happened. Well, being in college 400 miles from family, and with a full time job and school, I couldnt be carless for a week, or more depending on how long it took to repair the tranny, so I begged my mother to trade cars with me until it got fixed. She was at that point driving the 03 Grand Am I am driving now. Long story short, the Grand Am was my sister's car until she graduated and got a new one for graduation present since she got a full ride to school.
Anywho, I took the Grand Am, and decided that I didn't want to give it back. My mom used the opportunity to convince dad to buy her a new car (she got a Buick Lucerne...which I will definitely never take lol...though the creature comforts in it are amazing...), so I guess everything worked out better for everyone, except for my dad's checkbook.
So that's the story of how I got the Grand Am. So far, I'm liking it. It's got decent power, it's comfortable, it's not quite as fun as the eclipse, but it's a lot moreso than the Intrigue, and even at 75k miles it's being very reliable (which is a lot more than I can say for my eclipse, which I got rid of at 65k, but started having lots of annoying stuff happen AS SOON AS THE WARRANTY EXPIRED, of course.)
First mishap happened a few months ago, something about oil or coolant leaking into the other, had that fixed (yay warranty!), and then earlier this week, the driver window stopped rolling down. I can push it down, and it rolls up, but the grip I guess is gone on the motor :( . But, the reason I found this site was my speakers have been going for awhile now, and they are finally just not tolerable, so I did some research on how to isntall the brand new 6*9's and 4*6's I got for my bday, and found this site. And yes, I have a monsoon system, so first thing I'm doing tomorrow after work is going to look for a new HU and go that route.
But anyway, this looks to be a cool site with some knowledgeable people, so I figured I'd sign up. So, hi. :)