I remember the valve tick in my 98 Grand Am. In the cold, holy hell was it loud! And that engine's been around since, what, 1999? You expect them to fix it, right? Ha!
GM makes some decent vehicles. You just have to find them. The Malibu, the G8, Acadia/Enclave, Tahoe/Yukon and CTS are all good to great vehicles. Everything else in their line blows.