2002 Pontiac Montana from North America - Comments

The tranny failed at 13,000 miles.

The Air Conditioning blew out at 40,000 miles.

The CD player makes a noise when you brake.

The passenger side window switch is erratic.

I took the car into the local Pontiac dealer at around 13,000 and again around 20 some K, and explained (in a very polite way) that the transmission slips & shifts up hard. Both times they assured me that they checked it out completely, and that it was fine. The problem worsened at 37,000, and I took it in again. (again I was very polite). They called me and said "It is fine, there is nothing wrong with your transmission, but we can do a flush and fill and filter change if it will ease your mind (for 129.00). I said OK, and when I went to pick it up the next morning, I was told..."You have metal in the pan... we need to rebuild the tranny... (2600.00) They rebuilt it, I got it back... It was worse than ever. Took it back, they replaced a solenoid??. It runs great now.

GM (via my local Pontiac dealer) refused to pay one penny on it because I had "exceeded my factory warranty" They looked me right in the face, and told me, "The first two times you brought it in were UNRELATED PROBLEMS".

I have had many GM products... But I will never again buy a GM. And I doubt if my four teenagers will grow up and buy a GM, after witnessing this donnybrook.

-Vince from IL.

PS...They ignored the CD and lock problem too.

We bought a 2002 Montana Used with about 25,000 miles.

At 27,000 mile transmission was slipping & shifting hard.

Went to my local dealer they said nothing was wrong. I took them for a test drive the way I drive, sure enough they had to pull the transmission 16 error code showed up on the computer.

Waited a week before we got it back. the day after we got it back transmission blew again, oil all over the highway. waited a week and a half picked it up again. drove it of the yard and was shifting real bad took back right away they me I could leave. (washed their hands of it). So I went to another deal out of town they too said nothing was wrong 2 weeks later and only 2000 mile more than when it was rebuilt the second time had to be rebuilt again.

1000mile later air-conditioner went dealer fixed under warranty. 36 miles after that coolant fan motors shorted out. back for more warranty on the way to coolant fans fixed radio shorted out along with the power door locks.

We would not buy another one of these vans as we hadn't even owned this 4 months when all this happened. P.S. the transmission needs to be rebuilt again only at 35000 mile now.

I have a Canadian built Pontiac Montana 2002.

I have had it since new at 32k.

Right now it has 73883K on it and it's having air conditioning problems. I've also found the front Grill to be less than satisfactory. the plastic is broken from rocks

And I'm not a big fan of plastic bumpers. The front bumper has a Gash in it, also from a peice of metal that got kicked up from a truck on the highway.

And the original General Tires in my opinion are junk they wore out quickly and needed to be replaced.

I have also noticed a little bit of rust on underneith the vehicle.

Other than that the vehicle is fine, Light maint related to General Motors service schedule have been all that's required.

Our 2000 Pontiac Montana (with only 35,000 miles) has had problems recently with the transmission slipping in reverse and first gear. I took it to the transmission shop to have it checked and they found lots of metal in the pan and recommended a rebuild for $2,400 (plus tax). I called the dealer and was told that I'm out of luck because the van was past the three year warranty period.

The transmission shop also said that my tie rod ends were shot and needed to be replaced... A call to the dealer confirmed that this is a problem with this van... also, not covered under warranty.

It appears that GM is aware of its substandard products as it's one of the few auto makers clinging to the 3 year, 36,000 mile warranty. While we like the van, we won't purchase another GM (or any other product) that doesn't back it for at least 5 years or 50,000 miles.

After reading the negative comments, I'll speak in favor of a 2002 Pontiac Montana. We bought it in Nov, 2004 with 57K on it. It now has close to 156K and the only major problem has been the AC compressor. Compare this with a 1996 Ford Windstar which had already had its new transmission (132K) and engine (141K) by this point in its life.

The worst thing about this van is that GM designed them for midget seating. Wide-tailed Americans have a hard time sitting for long distances. Windstar seating was much better.