I recently got in a small car accident because the ABS did not work and help me.
Had to change the light and wiper blades not too big of a deal.
The seat is falling apart.
The car makes a funny smell if used for too long.
I was hoping this car would be cheap and reliable, but...
It turns out that it has a thirst problem and I make a lot of visits to the gas stations.
It s a pretty good first car for students that have 2 part time jobs : 1 to pay for gas (did about 2000kms last month and payed over 290$on gas)
and the second one for insurance because even if it's a 4 door sedan the safety rating on it are pretty bad and insurance companies know that (i am paying 4273$ a year best deal on the market).
The engine has a pretty quick response, but again if you press it too hard you will get even less out of a full tank of gas.
The seats are very uncomfortable and the rear seat have very little leg space.
It s a very boring car to drive, sometimes I feel like falling asleep on the wheel.
The brakes make funny noises.
The stereo has a class 2 wiring which makes it difficult when changing deck because you have to get a special wiring hardness that is over 150$.
The biggest problem with this car is fuel consumption.
I get around 320-350kms out of the 54 liter tank.
JESH!!! I only pay $123.00 for six months on my cavalier! Just liability only in indiana- no accidents or tickets- ever.
Yep, I am in Canada and insurance companies are bad here.
Wow, my condolences about your insurance costs. Unfortunately, I live in the People's Republic of New Jersey, so my insurance costs (on my Cavalier) are not much better.
You do not actually need the wiring harness adapter to change out your radio. It just makes things a lot easier. I have hardwired radios in without a wiring diagram, using just a multi-meter to trace the circuit. But I think the adapter is probably worth it in your case. You will lose your door chime if you do not use it.
The tough part about installing the radio on the Cavalier, if you have not discovered this already, is getting the dash apart. There is a car audio web site on the web (which was indispensable when I changed my radio) that tells you how to do it, but I forget the address.
I am not sure how far along you are on your radio job, but it might be worth your while to try finding that site. If you do a search, I am sure you will find it.
I have to disagree about the lack of safety. Several years ago I saw a local story on the TV news about a man who didn't want to wait for a train to pass and decided to try to cross the tracks as the train was coming. The train hit his 2k cavalier in the drivers side and annhilated the car. The man was interviewed several hours later, alive and not even in a hospital. To me, that proved that it is indeed a safe, durable car.
Really?
Best buy wanted 150$ for some wire that will make the doors make the noise.
Well... I got in a car accident and hit a curb at 40kms per hour and the whole thing was bent in took my mechanic 1 week to fix it that guy must have been lucky.
The reason why I am paying soo much is because this car as a really bad safety review.
It only as like 1 star for front collision.
Was the train just pulling out of the station, or was it one of those new trains that are made out of pillows? That really doesn't seem like a plausible story.
I had a two door one and the insurance wasn't bad and the gas was amazing on mine, got somewhere around 300 miles to a tank which really is standard. Granted mine was also a standard not an automatic and I have a friend who has an automatic 4 door that doesn't have any pull power in the engine, she gets stuck pretty easily in the snow and such. I would have to agree with the front end crash stuff. I spun my cavalier on a road and it hit a parked Ford F250 and barely scratched it, but it took out the entire headlight system on one side and my radiator was more than shot. Best part is the airbags didn't even go off because the bumper was untouched. I also took out the back axle pretty bad on just dirt sliding sideways. Totaled the car at estimated 3600 dollars worth of damage. I was only going 35 - 40 miles per hour when I lost control because of wet roads. It sucked pretty bad. Don't know about the stereo, I just replaced it with a standard Chevy wiring harness and everything still worked fine, had the most trouble with the antenna which takes a special plug. The only reason I think I had any power out of the engine though was because it was a standard and I could rev it out. I liked it for the most part, but basic issues you're going to have with any bottom of the line car. Not comfy, no power, crappy starting stereo, minor issues that are simply annoying. There not made to be broken, but seriously, you get what you pay for generally all around.
I bought my 2000 Cavalier 4-door 5-speed Dec. 26, 1999. I'm about to turn over 140,000 miles on the original clutch (perhaps not a big deal these days, but time was it would have been) and the original exhaust (though I did have a couple of brackets replaced). I get 28-29 MPG overall in the winter, 30-32 in the summer, and once got about 36 in a drive from the Outer Banks of North Carolina to Cleveland, Ohio.
Only non-scheduled-maintenance repairs I've had to make so far: idler pulley and front wheel bearing. It is pretty badly rusted along the bottom of the front doors (live and learn).
It's easy to drive, will at least get out of its own way (acceleration is adequate with the manual trans, in other words). Bottom line: solid transportation and respectable value for money. I beat on it pretty relentlessly, apart from not doing a lot of city driving. It's been paid off for over two years, and I hope to get at least another year out of it.
Te jajajaja
That must be very boring car, falling asleep at wheel lol.
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