I am the proud owner of a 2001 Grand Prix SE. She isn't pretty, she isn't without her problems, but she's mine. I thought I had only had the car about a year but looking back for this writeup it looks like I bought her for 2500 dollars (I thought 2000, but paperwork doesn't lie) in late May of 2014. So about a year and a half ago. At the time I just needed a car as I had recently totaled my 2003 Taurus. This was the second Taurus I totaled, but that's another story. I didn't know much about cars (Still don't) and didn't have enough interest in them to purchase something really nice. I would say now that I way over paid for this car. Almost immediately things got pretty expensive. Here is the rundown since I purchased her. I kept all receipts.
On 6-3-14 I purchased new headlights and taillights. The existing ones were all foggy and full of water. 68.95 for fronts and 178.11 for backs. 247.06 right off the bat.
On 6-7-14, not even a full 2 weeks into ownership, I dropped 812.69 cents.This was for a control arm bushing, hub assembly, proportioning valve, some calipers, and some other stuff to get me up to 3559.75
The next month on 7-18-14 I took it in because It was super loud. Based on my extremely limited knowledge I thought there was a hole in the exhaust somewhere.Turns out I didn't even have a catalytic converter. Apparently I just had some metal wrapped around the place where it should have been. 637.32 later I was on the road. It was running really good at this point. We went on a bit of trip that weekend and put a little over 500 miles on her. I was then at 4197.07. Yikes!
I was doing OK until 10-28-14. At that time my brakes were so bad it was not able to be driven. Of course a lot of that was my fault. So several pads, rotors, calipers, and control arms later I spent another 575 bucks to get to 4772.07.
With time you eventually need tires. On 11-22-14 I spent 322.20 on 4 new tires. I passed 5 grand. 5094.27
I then ran pretty strong for most of 2015. Not that there wasn't work to be done, I just didn't care as long as I was getting from A to B. Then I started vibrating when I would pass 30 miles per hour. 268.94 on 10-25-15 got me a new wheel bearing and I was back on the road. 5363.21 was my grand total.
So all 4 speakers had been shot since last Thanksgiving. A road trip to Chicago really did them in. I was getting sick of talk radio so I bought 4 new speakers, a new head unit so I could get satellite radio and all the adapters needed to make that work. That was another 296.36. 5659.57 was the total.
This past weekend I replaced the rear window motor and regulator. That was a 45 dollar part. So I am at about 5704.57. Of course that's not including oil changes and filters and all that stuff. I would say it is only now maybe worth the 2500 I originally spent, but looking at comps online says it is only worth that to me. I still have plenty to do if I want it to look how I want. Now that I am actually taking an interest in my car, the best option would probably be to sell and buy something in better physical shape. I just went outside and took some pics but it looks like there is a very small size limit so I can't post them all. I added a link to the pics.
Car Pics Here
