I'm new to the forum, but I've owned 3 Grand Prix's over the years plus many other Pontiac products. I just wanted to share my story of a rare find and very lucky purchase I made recently
I have a work friend that I've been pretty close to for the past 16 years and I've always heard stories about her parent's Pontiac Grand Prix that they barely ever drove. I actually only saw the car a couple of time over the past 16 years, but I know the whole history of the car. This car was purchased brand new by my friend's parents and was maintained perfectly. This car has never been driven in the rain and has never seen snow or salt ever during its 16 year life. Her Dad would wax the car and take it out on special occasions but that was the extent of its driving time. This car was stored in a garage and the owners only managed to put 1800 miles a year on this car in a 16 year time span...only 28,000 miles total in all that time. I always told my friend that if your parents sell that car please give me a chance to buy it before they were to trade it in.
I got a call a few weeks ago from my friend late on a Friday night that her Mom had traded the car in without telling anyone in her family. Her mother was afraid there would be too many family arguments over who was getting the car. Her father had just past away a couple years before this and the car was his pride and joy. Her mother had reservations on getting rid of the car, but it really served no purpose just sitting around in the garage. She traded it at the same local dealership that she purchased the car from originally in 1998. I've done a ton of business with this dealership over the last 20 years and I know the owner pretty well. It was too late that night to call the dealer, but I woke up bright and early and got the owner on the phone as soon as I possibly could. I asked him about the car that was traded in the night before and he knew right away what I was talking about. I asked him if I could come look at the car and buy it "as is" before they decided to run the car through the shop and add an additional billion dollars to the price tag just because they looked at it. He said that they put the car in the showroom and hadn't touched it yet and he was willing to sell it to me "as is".
I jumped in my truck and got to the dealer in 15 minutes to look at the car and hopefully buy it before other people realized what they had. It had been quite a few years since I had seen the car, but it did not disappoint at all. The paint shines like a brand new car from the factory and the inside is like a time machine set back to 1998, the interior is flawless. Everything on the car inside and out is perfect and the engine bay is 100% spotless. I asked the owner of the dealership if I could drive the car so he set me up with some dealer plates and I was on my way. The car still has the original factory tires on it, but the car rode and drove just as nice as it looked. I knew within 30 seconds of driving this car that I could not leave the dealer without buying it, this is a true survivor and an anomaly that comes by once in a lifetime. A couple of the salesman that had gotten there early that morning were already making calls to customers and potential buyers, they know how fast this car will sell.
My friend's Mom was nice enough to tell me how much the dealer had given her for the car so I was able to at least have a little bit of negotiation power. I settled on a purchase price within 3 minutes and the next thing I knew the owner had the paperwork done and I was writing out a check. All said and done the deal took about 20 minutes and that included the paperwork involved with buying a new car.
The car is now sitting in my garage where my 2014 Silverado usually sits, which is crazy since my truck is brand new and this car is 16 years old. I just don't have the heart to let it sit outside after being in a garage and so well taken care of all these years.
I hope everyone enjoys this story and I hope to get another 16 years from this car, I've managed to put a couple hundred miles on it so far, but I plan on driving it quite a bit this summer.
