When I first laid eyes on my car I didnt think anything of it, and I thought I would have a better car within the next year. It was rusted at the bottom of the door and I had to sand it down, Bond-o it, sand some more, prime, and paint it. After that was done I felt pretty good about it, but I still didnt like that square back. When I started driving it it was pretty good on handling and acceleration.

The first thing that needed replacement was the front driver's side wheel bearing, no big deal $65, what the hell right?

The second thing that broke was the steering rack. Which was funny because it was about ten minutes after I said outloud, "I love this car more and more everyday," go figure. At that point I wasnt very good with my car so I asked someone else to do it. $125, ouch, considering the part was free. I tried zip-tieing the steering rack to the tie rod and driving it to school. Didnt work.

The third thing that needed fixing was the heater core. The day before I was going to put it in, I had to drive 2 hours away, each way, at night without heat in -15 degree weather with the hoses clamped and the defroster blowing cold air at me. My hands turned purple by the end of the ride and I was shivvering uncontrollably. When we put it in we had to take out every piece of the dash board and everthign in the front end of the interior then we had problems getting the hoses connected. My interior was soaked and the whole car smelled like antifreeze for the next 3 months.

The next thing that broke was my alternator. I was driving to the movies and the headlights were dimming all the way until we got there and then everything electronic dimmed to the point of nothing. After the movie (Anger Management, which would come in handy while replacing the alternator) we asked for a jump which was successful but as soon as we unplugged it started happening again. We drove home without any lights on the highway. The next day, Easter Sunday, I took out the bad alternator which took a good portion of the day and it ended up breaking when I got it out. I stuffed it in a box and got a new one and didnt tell them it was broken and spend another hour getting the damn thing in.

After that I replaced my air filter, which didnt give me any technical problems but its just a bitch to replace on my car since its under about 3 wires and stuck between a 5 inch vacuum tube in a six inch space.

In July of 2003 my Grand Am blew the head gasket and i fixed up my Mazda 626 instead of fixing the Grand Am. Currently I drive a 1989 Ford Probe GT.

Problems with Modifications
The first modification I did was my Sony Xplode cd player. I got the installation kit and tried to put it in. Wires didnt fit. I ended up looking up wiring schematics on the internet for about 2 hours and then splicing all the wires together. Then I try to put it in the hole and the mounting kit, which was designed for my car, didnt fit. I ended up shoving it in there with one screw and at a tilt and the front cover didnt fit on.

The next mod was my neon lights which had to be mounted so that they couldnt be seen otherwise it would look stupid. It took about 2 hours and required the removal of all the plastic in the dash.

The next mod was a muffler tip which was easy to install but got stolen in New London.

The next modification was the painting of my engine which was easy, no problems, and it looks cool.