Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!
Popular New Cars
Popular Used Sedans
Popular Used SUVs
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
ymmv. I'm not saying it is required.
Mechanically, I was religious to its maintenance. Regular fluid changes and timely tuneups. Unfortunately, I was bad at keeping the car clean. It would get a good waxing and washing once in the spring, once in the summer, and that would be about it til the next spring. This is NO WAY to treat a car in New England.
The body on the car still looks great. You'd never know that the rear wheel wells have completely RUSTED THROUGH THE TRUNK.
I guess I'm posting this just for common knowledge. Anyone considering a used car should not overlook the Cavalier. It is a good, decent car. Just make sure you look inside the trunk.
Meade
The V6, on the other hand, is a pretty good engine. My mom had a 1990 Pontiac 6000 with that engine, and it never died on her in 89K miles.
My new car, '02 Cav LS with all the options is doing quite well with 5800 miles. Only problem, so far, slight water leak in the spare tire area; dealer replaced rubber gasket around the trunk. Ok since repair. Will keep you posted.
My decision to buy a Cav was based on a number of factors:
1)I have 58k miles on my '99 Civic hatch and I want to rest it occasionally; 2) Chevy was offering a 3K rebate; 3) I had a $1400 GM card rebate and dealer gave me 675.oo off sticker.
I was hopeful that GM could 'finally' produce a decent small car-they have produced it long enough to 'work out the bugs'.
I know the 03 Cav has the Ecotec engine, which is a very good engine in the Saturn L Series (I drove one, and it's a nice engine). So hopefully this will be enough to hold buyers at bay until the new Cav debuts for 2004/05.
My sister had hers go in a 2001 sunfire and now my nieces boy friends 97'cav. Only has two upper speeds. I had heard a friend say he knew of two others that had it pop.
It is one of the newer "electronic ones and not the old coil type.
Has any had this problem repaired out of warranty.
Thanks
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/tsb/
I purchased a 2002 Cavalier coupe for my daughter, for her senior year college internship. So far no problems. However, today she went back to college after being home for a week (for Thanksgiving break). She called this evening and said that when she tried to clean the windshield (after a truck passed her on the interstate), no fluid would come out. She tried it again when she parked at her apartment; again, no fluid. By the way, she had to wash her windshield earlier during the trip, and it worked fine (which is why I think the system froze due to the weather).
The temperature today in PA was a frosty 25 degrees F, with a wind chill of 14. I had the car in to the Chevy dealer that I purchased it from right before Thanksgiving, for an oil change/lube and tire rotation. All the fluid levels were also topped off (I checked the windshield wiper fluid level myself after getting the car back - it was completely full).
I had a 1984 Cavalier that would sometimes have the nozzles located on the hood of the car freeze so that windshield fluid would not come out, but I thought the newer design of having the fluid pumped to the wiper blades might not cause such freezing problems.
Anyone have any thoughts or experience? I hope that the windshield fluid was "full strength" and not diluted for summer (when I bought the vehicle).
I take a pin and clean them out,i keep one in the glove box.
The alldata site shows no such recall for the 97.
Neither the 92 nor the 97 have had a recall for head gasket. The 92 needed a new manifold gasket, but not a head gasket. Our case occurred just prior to the recall.
As for the Ecotech, we have that in the 02 Grand Am SE1. It's quieter, but underpowered for that vehicle. It will probably be ok in a cav though.
The 2.4 was a better match the cars the Grand Am's size, I think.
The Ecotec has a bit of a buzz to it when idling, but when driving it's pretty smooth and quiet and you can't hear that idle buzz inside the car anyway.
http://www.lemonaidcars.com/secret_warranties.htm
Our 5.5 year-old 97 hasn't exhibited that problem, or much of any, in its 45K miles.
Should I just have the rear struts replaced? Any suggested repairs would be quite welcome.
(Don't jump all over me Dindak; I don't think Hoya's been around long enough to read my posts about our troubles a year ago. Just stating the facts and leaving it at that.)
Meade
You actually went 12K miles between each head gasket? The dealer should have covered the subsequent gaskets within 1 yr or 12K miles?
What really confuses me is that the 92 2.2 and the 97 2.2 are quite similar to the casual inspection. Except for the coolant, I wonder what they changed in the 95-96 model years?
Hoya, look out for lemons!
Meade
P.S. Hoya -- Each head gasket was covered for 12 months/12,000 miles, whichever came FIRST. My wife was only putting about 9,000 miles a year on her car, so we always lost because the 12 months because the time limitation was up before we'd gone the mileage.
P.S. Dindak -- I am "over it," thank you. Our Protege5 has been 13,000 completely trouble-free miles -- more than I can say for the Cav, which by 13,000 miles had lost one radio and its headlight switch. But I guess that's just more lemons. ;-)
Anyway, I think you hit on it; the real problem with any GM product is the dealer service. There are 3 within 15 miles of my home, and they are all worthless in the service capacity.
Your experience is not everyone elses. You had a lemon.
And I guess I had the only lemon; that's why Chevrolet extended the head gasket warranty to 100,000 miles on all of the several hundred thousand cars they made those two years?
P.S. The Protege5 is a Mazda, not a Nissan.
Meade
I thought that was the spirit of this forum -- although some would like to have anything negative snuffed.
Good luck with your car!
Meade
Meade
I DON'T CHANGE THE OIL EVERY 3000 EITHER - MAYBE 6-8K ... EVERY PART IS ORIGINAL SAVE FOR THE ALTERNATOR, FRONT WHEEL BEARINGS AND THE COMPUTER CHIP AND THAT ONLY WENT OUT @ 180K. GET THIS ..THE DEALER REPLACED IT FOR FREE AND INSTALLED NEW RUBBER BOOT. COULDN'T BELIEVE IT!!!!! FREE!!! (SOME OLD RECALL)
THIS ULTIMATELY PROVES THAT MOST ANY CAR AND ANY DEALER CAN BE EITHER JUNK OR HEROES.