2000 Chevrolet Cavalier Coupe from North America - Comments

I owned a 1992 Cavalier in the past and I loved the car. It was my parent's car before mine. I traded it in at 162,000 miles and the largest repair I had to make on the car was spark plugs at about 140,000 miles, so I thought another cavalier would be a good choice, I was wrong.

I bought this car brand new at a dealership. I was very excited at first. About the first 2 years I loved this car.

I drove a lot of miles to get to work, sixty miles each way (all highway). At 60,000 miles, my fuel pump went out on me. It happened right around Christmas and I was about 60 miles away from my house. I didn't want to pay for a tow, so my car sat in the parking lot of work over Christmas until a relative had time to tow it to a repair place near our house.

Then, I have had numerous problems after that. The next thing was the spark plugs at about 100,000 miles.

Then there was the struts. I drove it dangerously way to long with this problem. I believe it started at about 110,000 miles.

At about 125,000 miles the A/C stopped working and it needed a new condenser. I didn't even repair it. It would have cost me about $900.

At about 135,000 miles the ABS light started to come on. I could drive 5 miles or 100 miles before this light would come on, but once it came on it stayed on. I tested it one night last winter when it was snowing. I hit my brakes when the light was on and I had no ABS.

At about 140,000 miles the E-Brake light started flashing. I never use my E-Brake, so I thought that this was odd. About the same time this started my rear defrost stopped working.

Then at about 140,000 miles the transmission fluid started leaking, that cost me about $200.00 to fix.

At about this same time my oil started leaking, which is another $200 to fix.

So, to wrap it up. This car is six years old. It acts like it is about ten or fifteen years old. I know it has a lot of miles on it, but most of them are highway miles and the first major thing that went wrong with it was at 60,000 miles and the car was fairly new then.

My suggestion is if you are looking to buy a used car, do not buy a cavalier, you will have more headaches than with many other cars out there.

If you are looking to spend about 12,000 or so on a new car, do not by a Cobalt (which is the new version of a cavalier, since they don't make cavaliers any more). I wouldn't trust it. I think for about that much money you could get a nice 2-4 year old higher class car with pretty low miles on it and be more comfortable and happy. Also, if you look at Kelly Blue Book, the cavalier is one of the worst cars for retaining it's value over time.

I don't think Chevy makes cars like they used to because the repairs on my 1992 Cavalier were minimal to the money and the things that went wrong with this car.

About the comment on the ABS light, the light was doing its job, if it comes on that means there is a problem with the system, so you should have known something was wrong with it before you tested it in the snow.

The emergency brake light also indicates that there is a problem with your normal braking system. Get it fixed!

I personally have never had a problem with my 2000 cavalier coupe, I actually got it used around 45000 miles. when I got it, I put new spark plugs in it (just because I wanted a little more go, so I put iridium plugs in it) I used synthetic oil always and its around 95000 miles now 4 years later and I have never had an issue other than the lights on the interior slowly dieing on me. this is a great little car, the AC is ice cold, everything mechanically sound. maybe you just got a bad one. everybody gets one eventually. mine has been through everything, highway miles, 500 mile trips, short town trips, long town trips, hard, soft, slow, fast, everything. and it drives better then the day I got it. although the engine is underpowered it is still a fun car to drive. great on gas and I'm getting about 400 miles to a tank with 95000 miles on the odometer (highway) and roughly 300 (city).

While I do have to agree that a fuel pump is a major pain, sprak plugs and wires are just a part of regular maintanance. I currently have 100 534KM (62 482 miles) on my 2002 Cavalier and I have changed the spark plugs. Maintenance is key with the Cavalier/Sunfire. If you treat it good, it will be good to you as well.

The Cobalt is NOT just another Cavalier. It rides, if I remember right, on a European Opel chassis- not the crap "J" platform the Cavalier/Sunbird (Sunfire) used. Overall the Cobalt is far and away a better car, and the SS version gave the Acura RSX Type-S headaches. Road and Track magazine compared the two and the Cobalt beat the RSX! I've ridden in a couple and was pleased with them overall.

First off, the Cobalt is a much better car overall. As for this persons problems with the Cavalier, none of them were abnormal except for the fuel pump going. Did this person run the gas tank empty every time between fill ups? Surprise about changing spark plugs at 100000 miles? EVERY car should get new spark plugs after 100000 miles if just to see if you can get the old ones out easily, geesh. New shocks and struts are also a given at 100000 miles. The AC is a bit of a drag, but that is typical for a lot of cars. I have a friend with a late model Honda Civic that has AC problems. Also, if it was the condenser, then that means something could have hit it and punctured it, once again making it not the cars fault. Overall, I think you got a pretty good car. No car goes 150000 miles without any maintenance. Also, a cavalier is hardly expensive to fix.