Purchasing a rebuilt 99 Cavalier

wbtwbt Member Posts: 3
edited March 2014 in Chevrolet
I am in need of advice concerning the purchase a
rebuilt 99 Cavalier. The car was formerly a total
that was bought from an insurance comapany. The
garage that does the work specializes in Cavaliers
and Sunbirds. This Cavalier is a 99 model
automatic trans with 15k. The price is quite
compelling. The car had body work done and I took
it for a test drive. I let go of the wheel during
the test to see if it veered to the left or the
right. It did'nt. I stomped on the brakes at 50
mph and it stopped on a dime. The engine sounds
good and has nice pickup considering it is a 4 cyl
automatic. The car comes with a one year bumper to
bumper warranty. If it needs work I must have it
done at that garage. I pay $150 and they are
responsible for the rest. I took a look underneath
and it appears to be fine. I tested the shocks by
pressing down on each part of the body and the car
returned to the up position without bouncing up
and down. I like it but I have had such bad luck in
the past with cars. I can't afford to buy new so
it has to be used. If anyone has any advice I
would be so grateful.
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Comments

  • floridianfloridian Member Posts: 219
    wbt: not to be nasty but I personally would not buy a NEW Cavalier let alone one that has been wrecked. Rattle city for sure and who knows what else. When they are NEW they LOOK like they have been rebuilt too!

    As I have mentioned in other posts my company has six Sunfires. We have had VERY poor service out off these cars, especially with suspension/brake problems and just generally poor, crappy quality of interior parts and sloppy assembly in general plus water leaks that Pontiac cannot seem to cure. Since the Sunfire is a clone of the Cavalier I would not expect any better. Mabe even worse !! As far as thar goes I would NOT consider ANY rebuild regardless of make or model.

    Floridian
  • butch11butch11 Member Posts: 153
    If the rebuilders got every bit of the mechanical problems caused in the crash eliminated, the paint job is still open to problems which will not show up till months after you have purchased the car. Rebuilts are not generally a bargain-something always comes up later that was not properly fixed. The exception to that is I know some guys who are rather handy, buy cars that do not have fatal flaws at insurance auctions and fix them themselves. They get a good ride cheap.

    Since you do not know the extent of the damage, I would not touch this puppy.
  • pat455pat455 Member Posts: 603
    It appears that floridian and butch11 have given you good advice.

    If you want to pursue this subject any more, I suggest you look into either our Smart Shopper conference or perhaps use the Topic Search feature on the left side of this page for a current discussion in our Sedans conference on the Cavalier.

    This conference is really for our community members to discuss maintenance or repair issues with their existing vehicles.

    Good luck.

    Pat
    Community Leader/Maintenance & Repair Conference
This discussion has been closed.

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