Buying a grand am

[Sirhilton17]

I have the opportunity to buy a 2000 (I think) Pontiac grand am.

I have not seen the car, and know very little about it other than from what a friend of mine has told me.
story behind the car...

My friend's, friend got this car recently... supposedly it is in mint condition inside and out, around 100k miles, 3400 v6. She was having problems with it and would rather sell it than fix it (she did the same thing with her last car also). She made an offer to someone to buy it for $2000.

I do not know what is wrong with it, but my friend said it was not a big deal and is a gasket problem. Knowing 3400's it is probably a intake gasket. I can deal with that, I am pretty good at wrenching and intake gasket doesnt intimidate me at all.

To me 2000 sounds like a pretty good deal if its just a intake gastket that is the problem... obviously I will have to check into it much closer before I make the final decision.
If I check the car out and like it I will offer her 1500 which I think would be pretty much stealing it from her but that will be what I would offer... But I would also not have a problem paying 2000 for it.

Is there any other problems with these cars that this could posiably be? Are they a decent enough car that I wont regret buying it a year from now?

I curently own a 1999 dodge ram, and I love it to death its lifted and I wheel it very hard and I am VERY fermiliar with things breaking on it... lol and I am not the type of person to bitch becasue a car with 100k plus miles has a problem... I just dont want to deal with a car that is known to never get more the say 150k on it with out needing lots of work, ect. ect.

Does this sound like a good deal, or somthing I should pass up?

[Crystalion]

If your a good wrench buy a GA but be prepared to visit us often. Welcome to the GA family...

[J-Ri]

They're good cars... and the V6s go a long time. Even the Quad 4 in mine made it 198K miles... and it still runs ok, just runs loud

[evo-00]

I've owned a 2000 GA GT for about 2 yrs now and I think it's the best car I ever had. Intakes on mine need replaced though but I can do it. It has 120k miles on it.

[grfnkl]

judging by the year and mileage i think most of the main issues that g/a have should have been fixed by now. If she's getting rid of it for a lim gasket i'd take it and fix it to drive around.

[rhino61466]

If the lady has taken care of it and done all necessary preventive maintenance on it I would buy it; however, if she ran it into the ground with minimal mechanic work like most women, (not being sexist but its usually true) do not buy it. The gasket problem she was talking about may be the lower intake manifold gasket if it is the 3400 V6 engine. Those are known for having problems. Do some research on the cost of those types of repairs before buying the vehicle.

[markymark30309]

I have a 03 GT bought as a rental car to begin with. No telling what it went through before I bought it. With that said, I drive the hell out of the thing daily and have only put a battery in the thing. The area I live in has horrible roads with lots of RR Tracks so now I just jump the damn things each day while SUV's and trucks slow down. I guess the tight suspension helps some but only have done the normal routine maintenance and all that but maybe I am lucky. No gasket leaks, brake problems, etc, so far but I definitely got my moneys worth out of this car. Even had someone hit me in the rear doing 40 and just cracked my bumper. Pushed theirs in and was an SUV. She takes a beaten and keeps on tickin.

[xeroinfinity]

Welcome to AF Sirhilton17 !

Id say $2000 is a steal if its driveable at all!

If you do the LI you might consider doing the head gaskets also while its all apart, they too are known to blow if the LI has been put off for very long of a time.

I own a couple newr GAs, my 99 SE has over 200K miles on the block/pistons etc, and I run the DS out of it all the time!
But like with anything you beat on, it'll take it for a while, but expect to pay for any repairs you cant do your self.

Long Live Grand AM! lol