2000 Pontiac Montana Extended Van from North America - Comments

We love our 2000 Montana (I need to keep saying that as it costs us $33k new in May 2000) but...

* Intake manifold gasket replaced twice (got to know a nice mechanic)

* Radio lights no longer functional (so program the radio stations in before the indicator lights fail!)

* It eats front brake pads and tires regularly (Hungry car!)

* Driver electric window goes down, but does not go up (we just get out of the car to order a hamburger at the drive-thru, and we make sure and tell the oil change people not to lower the driver window during servicing)

* Gas gauge failure, it reads either full, or a second later it is empty (adds excitement to life, we use mileage to estimate when to fill the gas tank)

* Sliding door gaskets fail and door makes a whop-whop sound when opening (we sing a tune to it)

* Multiple catastrophic battery failures (use baking soda to get the acid off the structure around the battery.)

Other than the above, no other problems now at 88k miles. Will I buy another GM product: not likely.

I own a '99 Transport. The intake manifold gasket is a known problem and I got it fixed under "customer courtesy".$100.00.

As for the rear lights... The design of the "stamped metal circuit", in my opinion left too thin of a strip for the "ground". This causes overheating & melts the base of the bulb & socket. My fix was to use a jumper on the ground circuit using a small piece of 14 gauge wire & solder. A $200.00 plus fix at the dealer done for a 5 cent piece of wire & 20 minutes of labour. Been 3 years now, still working fine. Hope this helps.

I bought my 2000 Montana 5 years ago; it was a well taken care of used van with 42K miles on it. It ran perfectly until 105K miles, then all heck broke loose. The first was a total transmission failure, requiring a $2,300 replacement; at the same time I had the (in) famous intake manifold gasket replaced as well as the water pump. Then the main drive belt started whining, and 4 belts later, one of my mechanics read a blog that said you needed a gator belt vs. the GM belt, but this was after they replaced the tensioner and two pulleys (all at the dealer's cost since they didn't get it right to begin with.

Today I found out the "herky jerky" as some here have called it, where it thumps between 1-2 and 2-3 gears accompanied by a whining is the pressure control solenoid... another $400. I have also had a variety of other problems including A/C issues, battery issues, and brakes more often than I am used to.

The bottom line is the van is actually a great ride; I get really good gas mileage, can haul all sorts of stuff, and it performs quite well. It now has 160K miles on it, and I hope to drive it until the 180-200K range, and then trade it in for something else! Would I buy it again? No way. I would have spent a ton more for a Honda or Toyota van, although they probably have their problems too. I am just really frustrated that that we can't make a van that is reliable, and if it does have obvious design flaws, will be handled by the car company that sold the thing.