1989 Chevrolet Celebrity CL review from North America

This is a $400 car I purchased in April and it has been my beater since then until I got my parent's 1995 Buick Century. This is my second Celebrity and my fourth A body GM car. The 1995 Century is my sixth.

The car has its share of problems, but none of them keep me from driving it anywhere I want to go.

The starter is shot, it needs replaced, however by "bumping" the key several times it will fire off.

The car has an electrical short near the computer which causes the following items to not work: AC, speedometer, check engine light, and makes the car get awful mileage.

There are several vacuum leaks under the hood, some I have fixed, some I haven't found yet.

The transmission does NOT like to shift into second gear until it is warmed up, but if you accelerate to 20-25mph and then let off the gas, it will shift to third and is fine.

The car runs hot when the AC is working, yet it runs cold when it does not. I think there is no thermostat in this car, or else the radiator is very clogged.

The windshield wipers only work on high.

The radio works, but will not play tapes. Known good radios (for example the radio in my Buick) will not play tapes in this car, but will play tapes in other cars. Could be another wiring issue.

The driver's door striker bolt is loose and therefore the door will not stay all the way shut. This could be previous accident damage, or not.

The car leaks a lot of power steering fluid (like many GM front-drivers) but leaks less when you drive the car often. The longer it sits, the more it leaks.

The car leaks a small amount of transmission fluid, and like the power steering, it leaks more when it is not driven regularly.

$400 car. Hey, no matter what issues it has, for this price it can't be bad. It's never, ever, ever left me stranded, except when I purposely ran the tank dry of gas just to see how much I could stuff in there.

It drives well, especially when the wiring short has fixed itself. The car drives like new when that wire is in place.

The air conditioner works quite well and will frost the side window glass and windshield if left on in mild weather.

The seats are filthy in this car and my fifth A body car, a 1989 Olds Cutlass Ciera, is a parts donor for this car and I will be swapping over the seats and carpet at a later date.

The only issues I have with this car are not the car's fault, only the fault of the previous owner's neglect or abuse.