2001 Pontiac Montana Ext. from North America - Comments

Over $7000 repair bills in less than one year on my 2001 Pontiac Montana. Someone please help me. Unbelievable terrible car made by GM. My story got to be the worst automobile nightmare in the history. On 11-05-03, with only 51,000 miles on the car, the transmission dead, $3600 repair cost. On 09-2204, with only 62,000 on the car, the engine and cooling system need major repair, over $3500 repair cost. Plus not to mention I spent money on brake repair and other problem at Sears, plus all the towing service. I did some search on the website and find out that many people have the same identical problems as mine.

Regarding to transmission, it is just bad quality by GM. I read that one customer had the transmission replaced at only 3700 miles within the first 3 month of a new car. This is unbelievable and GM should have issued a recall a long time ago. This is not just Pontiac problem, it is related to many other GM brand such as Chevy Venture and much more.

Regarding to coolant, it is just fraud by GM. According to my local GM dealership service technician, the 5 years/150,000 miles on the Dex-cool is just a way for GM to promote their quality. In fact, the coolant need to be replaced every 30,000 mile or so, not 150,000 as GM claimed. Because of this, I never had the coolant changed since I was following the GM maintenance guideline and it cost me dearly. Because of the coolant, almost everything is rusted and leaking and need replace around the engine, $3500 alone on the labor cost by GM dealership.

This is not the end of my story yet. While the GM dealership is fixing the coolant issue, they need to take out the transmission out again to change the freeze plug since it is rusted and leaking. I exploded with anger and unbelievable rage. Because the labor to change the freeze plug is over $900, and the freeze plug itself costs only $12. I am mad as hell and want to sue GM and the dealership. They should have spent $12 to replace the freeze plug last year when they replaced the transmission. It would have saved me $900 labor cost. I believe they purposely did not change the freeze plug last year since they know I would back this year to do it. This is fraud and they need to be stopped.

I am writing my story to federal, state, local government officials to see if they can do anything. I will also write to my Congressman and Senators to see if any hearing can be held on this issue. I will also write to all the major newspaper and network TV to see if any investigation can be done. Someone needs to warn the public to stay away from this car and force GM to issue recall. This is a family minivan, not a race sports automobile. I did not do anything wrong and because of GM, my family will suffer a lot since we make less than $22,000 year income. I have to borrow money from my parents and friends to fix the problem just like we did last year. This has put a lot of pressure and fight on the relationship between my wife and me since I am the one bought the car.

So, if any attorney is interested, I am willing 110 percent to make myself available at any time doing anything needed to make GM pay for their FRAND and deceptions. Please contact me by phone or by email. I have found many people as the same issues as mine and I am sure everyone is very eager to solve their problem. jyunshanc@hotmail.com

I agree, our family of five have a 2000 montana it has 145000 km on it. we have replaced the fuel pump twice. once in 03 and now in 07.the cost is around 1000.00 per pump. has anyone else had fuel pump problems.

I would never purchase another GM car again, I should of listened to my mother (she works for GM)

I have had nothing, but repairs the day I drove it home, and I mean that literally. From the engine light on (constantly) to leaks, broken parts, falling apart, noises, and much much more, this Van is nothing, but a night mare and why after so many complaints and bad reviews, do they not recall each and ever Montana made, honestly this is such a joke, glad to see a FEW owner were lucky enough to get one that actually was built properly in the first place, must have been some real honest GM workers that actually cared about what they were doing, how can so many of these Vans have the same problem time and time again and nothing being done about it! You pay a fee for the Van and then a fortune alone to fix it... not worth the time, headache and anger... I should of read these reviews before making my purchase!!! I guess its true what they say; "you learn from you mistakes" too bad it has to be such an expensive one!!

Our 2000 Pontiac, Montana just came out of the shop with over 700 bucks in repair to the transmission manifold. It was an oil leak, which would have caused coolant and oil to fix, causing a fatal engine problem.

Last year at 60,000 miles, I had to spend over 2000 dollars for new transmission.

Coolant needs to be replaced much more often than GM recommends. Add coolant light comes on every California summer. That's with keeping the coolant at the right level!

Exterior paint is rusting already above windshield. Vehicle has never spent a day in winter weather, no salt, so should be no rust!

Will not buy a GM product again. Probably be a Ford Focus or Toyota Prius next time!

Has needed new brakes twice already! We drive very carefully and are not hard on the brakes.

I have a 2000 Pontiac Montana and will never buy another GM car again... buy domestic... never...

Wheel bearings 50K, brakes 50k, gas gauge that stopped working after the warranty was up, tie rods, wheel cylinders, boots at 100k and now the transmission... also rusting at door joints.

It's a piece of crap... Toyota... here we come... is there any way that Montana owners can start a class action suit against GM... johnnycash5689.

My mother owns a Montana and it was the worst mistake she ever made. This van is a true piece of crap.

The intake gaskets leak a little. Not too bad. Then started over heating and replaced the thermostat (which is a headache), the water pump went and that's when the problems really started.

Like I said, replaced the thermostat and it still overheats. Who in the hell invented plastic manifold gaskets, and the fact that you need to bleed the cooling system. None of the proper built cars need to be bled... I have owned GM all my life and never had any problem like this.

The radio has been replaced due to the lights going out 3 times, power locks don't work except when you drive and then turn the van off, replaced the window switches, mirror switches, and the lock switches, so I know its wiring now..

Had the ABS light serviced 3 times, the driver sliding door, the rear wiper motor is gone, sprayer for wiper quit a long time before, then the intake gasket seemed to be leaking, which in turn we replaced the water pump, thermostat, to find it still overheats.

And now that we replaced the thermostat it seems to over heat a lot faster. If I sit in the driveway and hold the rpm at 1500-2000 the heat bellows out, but in normal driving it blows cold. When you first start it, it blows warm air after about 10 minutes, but that lasts till you get out the driveway. And she has me reading everything on-line about it to find that it's a piece of crap like I tried to tell her.

And people wonder why the dealerships like GM lay off and need bailout money. If you can't build a reliable car, then stop making them at all!!! I'm calling GM today to see why the heck they didn't put a recall on this in the first place. Guess they never thought plastic gaskets would crack when torqued to specs or even when the vehicle's hot. Common sense morons..

Thanks john. heavyj23@yahoo.com

I am glad to see that we weren't the only ones to have problems with our van. Although we didn't have all the transmission problems that everyone above had, we had problems of our own. We can definitely agree with the wiring problem as well as the recall on the passenger side door, which I never knew anything about. I just thought we were doing something wrong. It would only work half the time and on more than one occasion, it would open going down the road. We learned not to put our kids on that side of the van.

As well as the AMS light staying on. We have taken it to the shop several times and they cannot seem to figure out why it is constantly staying on.

Then less than a month ago, we took it for an oil change, only to find out that our brake pads and rotors had to be repaired and the brake line needed to be flushed for a total of over $500. We couldn't afford it at the time and decided to put it off until after the holidays. ~ NOTE: We bought the van less than a year ago and the owner at the time supplied us with a receipt that the brake pads and rotors had just BEEN replaced. They should have NEVER gone out that soon.~ Either way, on Christmas Eve night, our brakes locked up on us going around a curve. This caused us to wreck and now is going to cost our insurance close to $10,000 in damages, if not more. We haven't received the final quote. So just a message to ANYONE who owns a Montana, if someone says your brakes need changed, change them IMMEDIATELY!!!

My friend had a 2000 Buick LeSabre. When they started it on Christmas Eve, it caught on fire and burned up.

I have a 2000 Pontiac Montana and began to wonder if my car would also have the capability of catching on fire upon start. I looked up in the GM site. There is no place a person can find a list of recalls for their vehicles. I did find a recall list on the Internet. I took the recall list to the local dealer. He asked for the VIN # and acted like he was looking my car up on a site to see if my vehicle had the defects listed. He told me no - I asked for the printout he made - when I got home I began to read it. It was for a 2000 Oldsmobile Silhouette with a different VIN #. He did not even look up my vehicle. I am wondering how a person contacts General Motors concerning their recalls as I cannot get anywhere with the dealer. Any ideas?

We bought a 1998 Pontiac TransSport Montana in 2001. It had most of the bells and whistles, and hindsight has long shown it was a mistake to not buy a basic van. It had a levelling pump, so that six 300 lb. people can get in and the van will pump up to its normal height. This pump often did not know when to shut off, and the van would stick its rear end up on the road, riding very violently and dangerously for several minutes, many times. Repeated complaints to the dealer and to GM about this solved nothing and we parted ways with a yelling match. We had an independent garage disconnect the levelling pump.

The power sliding door went in 2006, as did the air conditioner. The back wiper went last year. The clock/radio display went in 2005.

And now, at 218,000 kms. the coolant is leaking into the oil, and apparently has been for three years with the temperature gauge reading higher than it used to, and with the odour of hot wet hoses, and the van is now flooding and stalling and is about dead.

We are very fortunate in two ways: the transmission never gave trouble, and we were warned by an independent garage to put no money into fixing the cooling system, because that is such a common problem with GM vans of this vintage and would probably cost about $3400 when all is said and done.

Reading the other problems here make me feel lucky, and it was a great van in the early days. 218,000 K sounds like a good life for a van, but it should go farther than that. I am from a GM family, but I think this will be our last GM.