Grand Scam

I love the style of the body and have had 2 Grand Ams in the past. We decided to look for another Grand Am as I was getting bored with my 88 Plymouth Horizon (see my other review). We bought this car at auction and it made the trip home without any problems (except when we went to start it after being the winner bidder we discovered it had a dead battery and after a jump it was idling rough). I anticipated that the car would need some minor repairs as it had sat for some time before it ended up at auction. When I took it to Firestone with the list of things I wanted done (tuneup, oil change, brake check etc.) they called me back 15 minutes after I left it and told me it had MAJOR problems and that they wouldn't recommend spending a cent on it. It seems it was leaking antifreeze from the timing cover and the Mechanic told me it was either a head gasket or water pump (most likely the head gasket..a common problem I hear). They refused to touch it (apparantly a Quad 4 engine is a curse word to mechanics) Several other places also refused to even LOOK at it when I told them what motor I had. Needless to say I finally found a less then reputable mechanic who told me it was the water pump, I also had a broken motor mount and bad spark plugs. It also was missing a transmission mount (all this at 84k miles). I found out the reason that no-one would touch it was the fact that you can barely get your hand between the engine and the body of the car, making most repairs nearly impossible. Anyway, $700.00 later I'm back in business. Exhaust leak followed a day after I got it back (New manifold pipe gasket $100.00). Next, new front brakes, oh and by the way the a/c blows warm and the cruise control doesn't work. I just fixed the brakes for now..my car budget having been depleted. Now the rack & pinion is shot (wheel is very hard to turn when stopped or trying to park). This is only the beggining I'm sure. I guess I should have read the reviews but for now I'll keep trying to hold this pretty piece of crap together. I should have kept my Plymouth Horizon!