Bought a 2003 Pontiac Sunfire from a dealership 5 months ago. I told the owner/salesman I wanted a safe 1st car for my kid. My kid and some friends were driving, it was raining and the back tires started to slide, my kid regained control of the car briefly and said after a few minutes the steering locked up and they ended up in a spin. The car hit an object on the passenger side, spun around and hit another on the drivers side, then bounced off that and landed across a deep ditch where it was hit again in the rear when stopping. No steering. No brakes. The engine was still going even though the front end of the car was wedged into the edge of the pavement and the embankment of the ditch. By the grace of god no one was physically injured. We had the car towed to our home. My kid said that before the accident the steering wheel felt " wiggley". we looked at that area 1st. The steering column was loose. The pivot pin for the column was gone. I saw there was a recall in October of 2008. I called GM to request the records to find out if the repair was ever done. The GM rep refused to give me the information in the data base. He said I could get it from a "certified" GM dealer! he also said there was no recall on the steering, but there was others. I asked what they were and again he said he couldn't give me that information. I also own a Pontiac G5 that's been waiting for parts on the ignition recall. I have been on a list at my dealership. I am mad as hell! all my kid has now is the comfort of knowing the friends weren't hurt or killed. Some 1st car, huh? spent $5000 of 401K money for a death trap that GM refuses to give me the database history on. Can't drive it, can't sell it, and with no history, can't fix it. Liability and comp, that's all we could afford, insurance is too expensive for young drivers. There is no middle class and this kind of thing is why.

- Imperial, MO, USA