Well I took the plunge and bought the Grand Prix. I went for a second look, spent about 45 minutes taking notes; lock, stock and barrel. Called my wife-- bad idea (but perhaps not) because she's been against it the whole time. She's just not a car person until hers needs fixed, then she loves me for being a car guy. She said bad idea, I took that advice and went to tell the guy no thanks at $1400. I politely asked him that if they have a hard time selling it or if it sat on the lot too long, to give me a call. I thought that would be the end of it, but he said what can you give me for it? 1200 max. Much to my surprise he says okay, and then asks ME if I want them to include tax, title, etc. I was prepared to pay that separately but since he offered, SURE!
My wife is still not happy about it, and perhaps I didn't get the deal of a century, but I could have done a lot worse. The car made the 25 mile drive home with zero problems-- in fact it rode very comfortable (maybe I don't need shocks/struts after all), good brakes (ABS wasn't acting up) and the transmission shifts smooth as butter. The power is great from 1500-3000 rpm, its a dud after that but I expected that from an old-school OHV 3100. Someone must have pulled the thermostat, because it never got to operating temp the whole drive. When it sat in my driveway idling for 10-20 minutes, it started to creep in to overheat territory, so I shut it down. I fear a bad head gasket(s) because there's some bubbling in the coolant overflow and the coolant looks brown and smells like blow-by. However the car is super clean, needs a lot of work and I'm okay with that.
Here's the original craigslist ad (not sure how long it will stay up):
https://louisville.craigslist.org/cto/d/1996-pontiac-grand-prix-gt/6537424488.html
They took the photos in evening for a reason, there are some imperfections here and there and a small rust spot. But a pretty darn good example of a 22 year old Grand Prix nonetheless.
