1997 Pontiac Trans Sport from North America - Comments

Electrical problems, such as no lights, waterpump gone at 122,100 miles. Tie rods bad 2 months later.

If you get chance, get rid this vehicle as soon possible. Once you start putting money fixing this minivan, you never stop.

Here are the problems with our 1997 Pontiac Trans Sport:

1/ A few months after acquiring it in 1997, both headlights accumulated moisture inside. The moisture stayed for days even through long rain-free period. To make the story short on this problem, after the first trip to the dealership who drilled holes in the lenses, but did not fix the problem, they replace both headlight lenses. That fixed it.

2/ Both rear side window motors were replaced under the warranty. Less than a year after the replacement, either one or both started to work intermittently.

3/ Driver side outer tie rod end wore out (prematurely?) around 45K mile, causing severe vibration at highway speed.

4/ Last straw: A few days ago (early September 2006), at 63,000 miles on the odometer, without warning the van died on a local road a few miles from home. After two days, and two hours worth of diagnostics, the mechanic told us the camshaft broke. And the repair bill ranges from $3000.00 up, depending on whether we want an old (~90K miles) engine or a newer one. With a Blue Book value of about $5000, and trade in value about $3500, we are not sure if it is worth getting repaired, particularly in view of other problems that other members reported.

Count me in on the camshaft class action suite!

For 122,000 plus mile on your vehicle you are bound to have repairs on it. Things wear down over time. Mine has 102,000 mile on it and I am willing to make the repairs and have. Sure beats a 350 dollar a month car payment for the new car smell and the same problems with any other vehicle.

We owned a 97 Trans Sport; bought it in 2002 with 125k on it, was in a very bad accident prior to ownership, but the van drove good.

Got into a accident in 2006 with it in the winter, still drove great, then the accident totaled it, but we bought it back from them and fixed it a little, and found out that the radiator was shot, but the van never overheated.

Then about a week later, was driving to work, with tornado watch in effect, and it was pouring rain and lightning and thunder, then to find out the engine blew, with only 167k miles on it; some rod scratched up the inside of the engine, and fried it, so we pitched it, and bought a 2005 KIA SEDONA with 27k miles on it for 10k dollars; wasn't a bad deal, but the KIA doesn't hold an alignment, or brakes, and also wears the front tires out too much.