1996 Chevrolet Cavalier Z24 review from North America

A tube in the air conditioning unit got a hole in it because it rubbed against the fender. $100+ to fix.

All new brakes at 80,000 miles or so, then new brake pads and resurfacing of rotors at 110,000.

New tires at 100,000.

Master cylinder on clutch broke away from the firewall, which equaled an non-drivable car. Luckly my father was able to fix this, so the cost of the part was less than $100.

Fan motor relay switch was busted when I first got it. Replaced for $40.

Deimise of the car: At 120,000 miles, I replaced the spark plugs because of poor performace, especially during acceleration. This helped for a few months, but the car got progressivly worse. I took it to the mechanic and told me it was misfiring, and replaces the spark plugs again and the distributor cap. About $150.

The car ran great for a month, then went downhill again. I took it back, and he replaced the distributor cap again along with the coils. Another $150.

It ran poorly after this until the day I got rid of it. Twice I had to have the car towed because it was running on 3 cylinders. All in all I spent over $1500 on the misfiring problem until a GM mechanic told me that he couldn't figure out what the problem was.

Besides for the misfiring problems I had before I got rid of the car, I loved this car. It was peppy and fun to drive. It handled fairly well, and looked great too. I loved the manual transmission on it (I don't think I would have liked the car as much if it was an automatic). I even drove this car in the snow and it got around fairly well (with good all-weather tires).

I really liked this car and would recommend it to someone else in a heartbeat.