yeah! my trunk dun go up by itself either! and the lifters give resistance since they are messed up... sucks... My parents bought the car used in 96 and I think it's always been like that... I'm not sure tho. If I take the car, I'm definately gonna look into fixing that.
On the plus side, u can hide in the trunk with the lid shut and it not locked
Me and my friends have had some fun with that, hehe.