1999 Chevrolet Venture LT review from North America

What hasn't gone wrong? I loved this van when I first bought it. It handles great, has plenty of power, it's roomy and comfortable... when it is running!

The same month I bought it, the speakers would randomly increase/decrease volume. One minute you can't hear it, then next minute you are getting blasted. I took it to the dealership and of course, they could not duplicate the problem. I took it back 2 more times after that and every single time, it would not do it while the service rep was in the vehicle. I gave up on that issue.

Right before my 3 year/36000 mile warranty expired, the temperature guage started running hot. The dealership couldn't find anything wrong with it.

Right after the warranty expired, I took it to have a routine oil change, fluid flush, etc and the guy said that it was leaking coolant. I took it to the shop and it needed gasket/manifold replacement. I was advised by one of the technicians that these vehicles have a lot of problems like this and that I should have the Dex-Cool replaced with regular coolant and then just flush it yearly. They've seen the orange coolant turn to sludge way before the normal coolant does and it is supposed to last a lot longer. Ha! I have always kept up with the routine maintenance on my vehicles, regular oil changes, tire rotations, fluid flushes, etc. I should not have had this type of problem at under 40k miles! That's when I started researching on the Internet and found tons of information on the coolant/cooling system issues these vehicles have. I found class action lawsuit listings and petition listings about this as well.

The front passenger lock sticks and has to be locked and unlocked manually. This happened at about 40,000 miles.

The driver side window started sticking about this time also. I took it to the dealership to get estimates on how much it would be to fix it, and instead of calling me to tell me how much it would be, they went ahead and fixed it and slapped me with a bill that was close to $200.

The automatic sliding door reopens after we close it even after we took it to the dealership to be fixed due to the service bulletin that was released on this. The safety auto-open on the sliding door does not work as it should and closed on my 8 year old's hand.

The air-bag light goes off and on randomly, which the dealer is never able to duplicate.

I just got it out of the shop again. This time it needed a $2000 transmission overhaul.

The funny thing is that I get at least 2 or 3 emails a month from people that see my postings about my experience on message boards, and they are always asking the same question... Can I help them? I answer the same way every time. Donate the thing so you can at least get a tax break (I could not in good conscience sell the piece of junk) and never buy another one!

This is a very comfy and roomy van.

It handles really well.

It just has more issues than I have ever had with all of my other vehicles combined!