Comments: 1-15, 16-20
Timing went after about 2 months of ownership.
Tune Up, Sounds simple enough right? Wrong the wires alone cost $380 and the plugs are $20 each.
I am very disappointed in this car. The resale value has been reduced by the fact of the timing issue. This is a quality issue that GM has admitted to be their fault and has fixed these repairs free of charge. But still it effects the resale. Very few GM mechanics are able to work on this car. You need to find a dealer and pay the price.
The reason why these Cars are so Difficult to maintain, it's because they were buit in Germany and furthermore:
CADILLAC NEGLECTED TO DO ANY KIND OF ADAPTATION TEST IN THESE CARS.
So, the customers ended up buying an Unfinished product.
No, the Catera isn't a Bad car.
But thanks to Cadillac for ruining such a nice car as the Omega and giving Opel a Bad Image in USA.
BLAME IT ON CADILLAC, NOT ON OPEL!
I did a little research on parts prices for the Catera. Your $20 per spark plug is out of whack. I searched for "GM parts" and came up with a ton of websites. The first one I clicked on listed Bosch platinum 2 spark plugs at $3.37 ea for this car. Also a Bosch spark plug wire set was $130.68. I'm not sure where you got those prices from, but come on. I have a 1990 BMW 525i. Now that plug wire set is around $400 from my local dealer. On the net you can get it for under $200. If you do a little checking around you can find bargains.
No spark plugs in the world cost $20 each not for a production car. The resale value is so low on the car because it has many problems and all of the parts have extremely high prices on them. The parts cost so much because they have to be ordered form the dealer only in many cases and the dealer has to order them from Europe.
I had to replace all 6 Bosch spark plugs for my '97 Catera at $14.38 a pop. The plug wire harness was $148.22. These were friend prices from the owner of the shop.
This is a good car, but the parts are incredibly expensive and it is obvious that Cadillac did not have all of the kinks worked out when they rolled this model year off the line.
I'm planning to sell mine privately for whatever I can scratch up. I've paid close to the current Blue Book value in maintenance during the past year and a half.
I bought my 2000 Catera in 2001 with only 6500 miles on it. It now has only 54,000 miles and has been in the shop seven times for repairs. Now with barely fifty thousand miles on it the shop has informed me that it will probably need a new computer at a cost of over $2000. because the transmission fails to shift properly. Most cars would cover this under warranty, but not Cadilac. Rest assured my next car won't be a Cadillac.
I just checked the retail price of my 1997 catera when it was new. It was 42000 dollars. Today with only 90000 miles on it the private party selling price is 3100. That's outragous!It is definatly the worst investment I have ever made! I have had nothing, but problems with it. It is a electrical nightmare. I would recomend to anyone not to get one. Unless of course you want your second home to be the mechanics shop.
I have a 97 catera motor and transmission no problems. However heat control valve went antifreeze pooring out at the drivers side at the pedals cost was fairly reasonable at $350.00 dealer thought it was the heater core which would have been $1500.00 now even after this being fixed I have no heat when the outside temp gets to 40 Degrees and lower, I live in michigan. Took it to get the rear brakes done was told $350. then the caliper went and it cost $500 just for the caliper I paid $900.00 just to replace my rear brakes Plus 1 caliper. Car doesn't like batteries very well I have to get a new one once every year. $120 for the battery due to the terminals are switched around you can get around that though. tires every year car shakes at 30-45mph. then today shut my drivers door and it won't shut the plastic piece that helps to latch the car broke and the door won't shut or latch noone has the replacement part so I have to bungee my door shut unless I choose to hold it shut while driving and turning. for god sakes do not buy a catera its just an expensive souped up malibu. I spent $2000.00 on parts in just 1 month on this so called car. And the problems just get worse. My gas mileage from the day I bought it was 250 on a full tank not economic at all. The bad thing is I still owe $5000 on this thing the dealer keeps saying get rid of it they are nothing, but junk. German made at that so no one will touch, but a dealer.
The Oct. 6 comment is incorrect. Base price on the 1997 Catera new was $33,635. The used car price was about right, but what do you expect after nine years? Everything depreciates and luxury cars are the worst for holding their value.
As for the next comment calling the Catera "an expensive souped up malibu", well, that's just too silly to even try to correct.
1/10th value over 8 years is unreasonable.
Consider the MSRP of a 1995 Honda Civic and it's private sale value in 2003.
Good comparison there, Sherlock. A Catera to a Civic. News flash: cars that were not great sellers when new tend to depreciate faster than more popular models. The Civic was and is more popular than the Catera, hence used ones retain more of their value!
The reason that the dealers are so unwilling to help people with the Catera and are so inept at fixing them is because they never learned about the car. The Catera's initial quality was dreadful to say the least, so the dealers quickly became disinterested in the cars. In fact, when the Catera first came out, our local Caddy dealer had three of them on the lot. They sold them, and they never got any more in. The Catera hung around until 2001, but I never saw any on our dealer's lot after 1998. I have friends that have purchased other Cadillacs and are very happy with the dealer service. One friend bought a new Eldorado in 1997, and then a new CTS in 2003. Both cars have been excellent and the dealer treated her like a queen! The CTS must be an excellent car because our dealer cannot keep them on the lot and they are all over town. The Catera was just another car on the long list of ill-fated experiments by automakers. It was the new Cimarron.
The Catera, like all other imports from foreign countries, sanctioned and promoted by US car manufactures have failed miserably. Merkurs, Opels, Capris from Australia, and the list goes on. European cars are not designed or manufactured with the same mentality as say the Japanese cars. The need constant care and maintenance. The Asians realized from the beginning that if they were to be successful in the US, their autos and motorcycles had to be bulletproof. Not so the Europeans.
I have had and still have Merkurs and Cateras, and the worst mistake any owner of these cars can make is to allow the US dealer to service or repair the car. In the case of a Merkur XR4Ti, the selling dealer actually did $7000 (1986 dollars) in damage to the car while changing the oil. In the case of Merkurs or Cateras, find a BMW independent specialist and your problems will be cut in half.
As to parts prices, the Merkurs were a parts shelf car and NAPA is most helpful. With the Catera, you're in trouble if you need prioritized hardware and the sole answer there is to find a GM parts distributor that will give you the "cooperating dealer" 40% off list.
The $20 spark plug issue is interesting - the OEM plugs have GM on the porcelain and Bosch on the base, but don't try to have a Bosch distributor order them, although listed in their catalogue, you'll never get them.
I don' t know about you guys, but with all these complaints, about dealer shops not able to fix a Catera because they don' t know anything about it, sounds like they' re pretty lame mechanics who don' t have the slightest idea of what to do. Personally I fix my own car, parts are cheaper on the internet and I don' t have to pay for labor other than my own sweat and if all else fails I just go to some Cubans down in Miami, let me tell you something they are miracle mechanics and they do it for cheap with a 3 MONTH Warranty!!! TAKE THAT DEALER SHOPS!!!
I recently bought a used 1997 Catera. It had potential so I started to work on it. I went into shock when I found out the prices that they were trying to get for the parts. An alternator was $1200.00 dollars. I did not settle for this and checked on the internet and local part stores. The local part store had one for $270.00 with a $75.00 core. Those $600.00 wires were $60.00 a complete set. I got the repair and owner manuals from Ebay and have worked on it myself. I am not a mechanic. Now the car runs excellent and I really like it. It is German. Anyone that can work on German autos can work on it. Ebay had a brand new engine complete for $1400.00 in the crate. Buy nothing from the GM dealer.
My 1997 Catera has gotten sick. Terminally as far as I'm concerned. The spark plug seals are leaking and no mechanic wants to touch that job. I spent 600 on that job and it still needs a coil pack which the mechanic was going to charge $450 for, but I found one for $275. The "electrical nightmare" comment is spot on because half of my dash lights went out, then the other half, along with one of my headlights, then the brake lights one by one. I know this car will only end up costing me more money later and I'm going to dump it off on the first person willing to buy it.