1997 Chevrolet Lumina LS from North America - Comments

Small oil leak that just started about 6 months ago. Only looses 1 quart every month and a half, so I have not been to get it fixed yet.

Alternator belt (serpentine belt) broke at 140000 km.

Brake lights stopped working at 150000 km. Turned out it was just a bad connection.

Exhaust bracket broke at 130000 km. The exhaust system still held tight and hardly fell due to four other brackets. Have not fixed this yet, but am planning on soon. Exhaust makes no noise to date and still sounds like a new car.

In the morning when it is cold out the car makes quite a bit of noise for the first three or four minutes. I think this is fairly normal with this engine as it has done it since it was new. Others have stated the same thing and had no engine problems what-so-ever.

This is one of the most reliable cars I have ever owned. I do not take very good care of the car, and change the oil every 10000 to 20000 km, and it still runs like the day I got it.

The car has never been under-coated and even in our harsh Canadian winters with tons of salt six months out of the year, the under-carriage is still like new.

The car in general is built very solid and is quiet even when going over very badly damaged roads. There is no vibrations or rattles, and everything feels as tight as the day I bought it. Also, the interior is holding up great as I abuse this car in every way possible. The only thing that broke inside the car was the air conditioning vent as a friend hit it with his knee when the seat was pushed all the way up upon entering.

This car pretty much destroyed a Honda as I got rear-ended at a speed of 70 km per hour. Her front end was pushed back to the dash board and I had only chipped paint! I even ran over a few curbs at fast speed and didn't even ruin the alignment. This car would probably do great in a smash-up derby!

This car is okay on gas in the city and great on the highway when put in over drive. There are better cars on gas but not many with this much power.

Great reliable car with lots of space and power. I never have a problem when passing on the highway.

Looks are a little boring, but the added spoiler makes it look ten times better. Nice tires and rims are a must.

I am the one who wrote the above review. I just wanted to update this report to tell everyone how well this car had done in an accident we had yesterday.

We were driving west approximately km down a remote side street here in the city when a man in a Accura (I think) driving south decided to make a last minute left hand turn into a driveway. He cut right in front of us and I had no time to even break. We hit him at full speed! I saw the accident coming and braced myself. In my car was my wife who had no seat belt on at the time in the passenger seat and my daughter who is 6 years old in the back, and she was wearing her belt (thank god!). When we hit I heard a loud explosion and at that time I didn't know what it was. It turns out the noise was the air bags being deployed. I couldn't believe how well they softened the blow. It was as though my face landed in a soft pillow! When the air bags went off the car was clouded in a powdery dust and for a second I thought the car was on fire. It was smoke from the air bags and after a second or so cleared up.

Obviously the jolt caused us to have back and neck aches the next day, but without those air bags my face would have been smashed off the steering column and my wife would have probably died. Even with my wifes seat-belt not on, the air bag stopped her from hitting the dash and wind shield. Soon after we hit I heard my daughter crying in the back seat so I jumped out of the car (that was still running!) and checked on her. She was just shaken up and nothing was visibly wrong. We went to the hospital anyway to make sure everything was okay. My wife suffered the most injuries as she had no seat-belt on, but was released from the hospital that night after they found nothing other than pulled muscles in her neck and back.

Thank God we're all okay, and I must really commend the car on it's safety. The air bags worked perfectly, and I believe the structure and well thought out safety features that this car has really saved our lives. This wasn't your typical fender-bender and could have turned out much worse if we were driving another car. The other driver was seriously injured even though he had a belt and driver side air bag. I got to take a peak at the air bag when I walked by and his was half the size of ours! Ours were so big that they stopped a full grown adult from hitting any interior of the car even with no belt on going 70! I am very impressed and would recommend this car to anyone with a family. I don't think it could have performed better!

The car I believe is a write off. I'm not totally sure, but by the looks of the damage I would say yes. The car will be sadly missed as we have had it for years now. It has become almost like part of the family. It never left us stranded and always performed well. We will be getting another with the insurance money. I'm sure if I add some to the claim amount I will be able to get a nice one with very low mileage. The best family car anyone could own!

Yeah, people complain that Lumina's are ugly, outdated, plain, and have things go wrong with them like piston slap and bad intake gaskets, etc.

Well, I don't have a family, but I've been in several accidents. I don't like to take chances, especially against things like the tanks people are driving nowadays (pickups and SUVs). I'll put up with the faults of the Lumina because I believe it is a very safe vehicle (for a car) to be in on the road today where everyone is trying to beat each other to the finish line for some reason.

I have bought my 98 Chevrolet Lumina two years ago. My previous car was Mazda Protege. I liked it for small size and fuel economy. But if someone would offer me now to trade my Lumina to newer Mazda, I would never do that. Here is a reason why.

I never had any issues with my Lumina so far. It runs great especially on highway. It is very stable on the road. It is heavier then most of new cars of the same type, but that is what makes it safe. (Consider smashing an apple with the egg. An apple is heavier and that is the reason why it beats the egg.)

Yes, it takes more fuel than modern cars, but I will never trade safety for fuel economy. (With two kids on the board it does not make any sense).

Also, I spoke to quite a few car experts and they told me this car can easily run up to 400,000 km if you take care of it. And that is another reason why I bought this car. Look, if most of the cars this days run up to (average) 200,000 km, this car can run twice as much. What it tells me is that if I keep this car to the end (400,000 km drive life) and for example my neighbor will buy new car with (200,000 km life time) he will need to buy another car before I change mine. For a middle range family it is a good saving.

This car also is very quiet car. It has a big trunk, very durable and not very expensive on parts.

The only thing I do not like about this car is that it gives me static discharge each time when I am getting out of the car. (but I can live with it.)

Overall, it is great safe family car. I love it.