2001 Pontiac Montana Extended review from North America

Torque converter came loose - the shop fixed it only after a couple visits - one to be told it was nothing to worry about, and the second convincing them it should be something that needs to be fixed.

Gas gauge didn't work within the first few 10K miles. GM sells just the sending unit... for $160. Yea right. We ended up just resetting the trip odometer.

Driver's and Passenger's door interior panels came off; other panels came loose. Yes we have kids, but they are well behaved. This was not abuse; it was a poor design.

Tail light connectors melted/grounding circuit failed. Give me a break: all 5 light circuits on each tail light share a common ground and go through one teeny connector pin, roughly 18 AWG. If you see a Montana with goofy tail lights illuminated, it is because the circuits are back feeding through each other instead of the ground. I had to jumper the connectors to make them work right. The engineers should know better by Y2K.

Radio illuminators burned out/not replaceable. Nice CD/RDS radio that you cannot see or use. Nuff said.

Coolant leak on engine block.

Flip-forward middle seats do not flip forward. They just kind of jammed tight. Kids just flipped the seat-backs down and had to climb over the seats. Kinda defeats the purpose, no?

Ate up brake pads like they were snacks.

Bought this car because it is one of the only vehicles that carries 8 (we have 6 kids) and gets some decent mileage.

Has lots of great creature comforts and is peppy enough to want to drive. And what a people mover! Front and rear air made it comfortable for all.

The mileage is great (~24mpg) and the car handles remarkably well considering it is a minivan. Living in Denver, it did handle the snow amazingly well.

Loved the ability to take out seats and make it a freighter!

On the other hand, it has been a maintenance nightmare. We always take good care of vehicles and do our own mataintence. Never before have we had such a high maintenance vehicle.

Biggest plus was...well... the car came to an early demise in an accident where it was t-boned by a Savanna that ran a stop sign at 25 mph. The passenger compartment space was not compromised, despite the vehicle being totaled. Yes, there were some injuries, but it was a testimony to modern crash protection design.