i knew someone who had a 1995 pontiac Grand AM GT. biggest piece on the planet. he bought it used in 1997 with a price tag of a mere 2300 dollars...6 motnhs later (in 1998), heater core goes, flooding the interior with coolant/water...ok so the insides runied. none of the gauges work, the radio shorted out, power seats dont work, Electronic cruise control doesnt work...nothing works. every light in the dash was on (looked like x-mas),the dome lamp caught on fire when he tried to turn it on (i dunno if that was related to water or not...but i cant imagine it was way up there)...anyways:
then he got all that fixed...4000 dollars.
2 transmissions (ATX) (1500 a pop) and 6 months later, hes off the road again with a bad ECU. he replaces that...
(BTW all of this has been replaced under factory warranty...)
soo lets see where are we now...2300+4000+1700+3000=10,500
ok car works great for about a year and then boom...there goes the motor. #3, 4 and 6 rods went. by this time it was out of warranty. to this day, the car sits behind his house, rotting. its not worth fixing, it has a salvage title now. he defaulted on the loan and the bank wont reposess it because they would have to drive from iowa, (he lives in phoenix) and get the car and then have it shipped/towed back. they cant get anything out of it without spending more money on it. this guy had to give up a 1990 Mustang 5.0 foxbody to the bank as collateral...HE WAS PISSED. he defaulted because without that car he couldnt do his job, his wife drove the mustang which was a gas hog to say the least. and as far as he was driving at the time (up to and beyone 100K a year as a nationwide courier) the mustang woulndt of made it. he now owns one of the highest mileage civics on the road...1994 civiv LX sedan, fully loaded...657,000 miles...2nd engine, 3rd trans (MTX) 6th clutch. thats one thing i can say about hondas...they keep on going and going and going and going...
needless to say he will never own a pontiac again...and i will never own one at all...because of this.
what was my point?
oh yea...if ithe price is too good to be true, then it probably is.