Your Pontiac will not give up on you before you give up on it.
I am willing to bet that you could restore this vehicle mechanically and cosmetically for less money than you would loose driving a new car off the lot.
Most headlights could be polished to like new condition with the right products unless they are leaking water into them or spider cracked chipped or too severely yellowed.
Once they are polished up they may need to be realigned after properly inflating the tires and correcting the ride height of the car if the springs have sagged over the years.
The thing to do is, arm yourself with information so you can know what your options are and what restoring this Pontiac would cost.
You mention snow and rust, this is where you need to have the car inspected or inspect it yourself with our guidance to see how bad the undercarriage and body panels are.
I am not sure what your mechanical abilities are or if you have the desire tools and time to work on the Pontiac yourself.
If you have to pay full price at a repair shop restoring any car can get expensive quick.
even a sympathetic mechanical and partial cosmetic restoration could be very costly.
Newer vehicles can run for hundreds of thousands of miles if maintained properly, If your fixes do not include cranking up the radio until you have permanent hearing loss like me . LOL
If you know a honest shop to take it to, spend a little money and have them do a complete inspection of the entire vehicle and have them provide a estimate for anything it may need noting any rust they find.
Get a second quote to have the rusted body parts replaced with factory parts. make sure the estimate is for New factory parts or used factory parts
Stay away from aftermarket parts or patch panels if you can.
The under carriage if it has suffered rusting but nothing that has rusted through or compromised the safety of the vehicle could be cleaned up then coated with Ospho surface prep rust converter or something similar then undercoated.
http://www.amazon.com/Skyco-Ospho-S...&ie=UTF8&qid=1448158517&sr=1-2&keywords=ospho
You have driven this car for a few years you are the one to decide if this car is a good fit for you.
If the driveway or route you drive in the snow gets iced over and causes you a problem I am not sure a suburban will make this any better unless you get a 4x4 and put in lockers so you have true four wheel drive.
As you know when you hit black ice It doesn't matter if you had tank tracks it is still dangerous.
Chances are you will not be able to justify the expenses restoring it if you wanted a like new vehicle when it was done.
So you have to be realistic when making your decision.
I suggested getting a estimate for the needed mechanical and cosmetic work
if you do get the estimate tell the shop how much longer you are trying to keep the vehicle for.
If the vehicle has been poorly maintained and important items from the factory service intervals have been missed or you do not know that all the work needed over the years has been done have them check those items as well.
Just because they come up with a large list of items that need attention which may seem expensive, it could be broken down into manageable bite size pieces that are more easier to swallow financially.
That loud noise may be an inexpensive fix now but if that item fails, it may be much more expensive to fix once it is totally shot.
With this type of work or any type of work if you do not trust the shop 100 percent get a second opinion, if you still do not feel you are getting the truth
we can work with you and pictures you take to make sure what they claim is true. this would require you to get dirty and have some basic tools and equipment.
Good luck with whatever you choose to do. if you need any further advice
there are many friendly knowledgeable people here to help you.
