1997 Cadillac Catera from North America - Comments

I've had my cadillac catera for about a year now and so far the problems are very minimal. The sunroof is all out of wack and seems like it has no power. My lowbeam headlights just stoped working all the sudden and the headlights covers become foggy making it hard to see at night. My AC doesn't work. Yet it never seems to fail that everytime I get in the car turn the key it starts everytime, never fails. It has 115,000. Engine was rebuilt. Also I don't know what the deal is with the cup holders, it seems the car has everything, but some good cup holders.

I have had my car for 3 days. '97 catera. runs perfect. 186,000 miles. engine never rebuilt. interior great cond. exterior even better. looks like new. Most of my problems can be fixed rather cheaply. only using as a pleasure car and putting back and forth to work.

Problems:

transmission won't shift into 4th gear

struts in front are bad

air compression rear air bag suspension has a small hole

front brakes needed changing

cigarette lighter motor stopped working

rack & pinion steering needs fixed

radiator resivoire never stays full. always empty. can't figure that out. water pump?

If anyone has any parts for sale email me at jazabel82@yahoo.com.

Hello. I am a new 97 Catera owner. Everything was working fine until last week. After reading I think solenoid, but repair shops have went from torque converter to transmission replacement. Any idea which one? Hopefully someone can give me some feedback.

It jumps into safe mode if I go over 50 mph. And then it wants to start off in second gear. Shut it off and it is out of safe mode until I go over 50 again.

Sunroof is wacky as well, but at least it works.

And now I have no power in the air controls. Currently looking for a repair book. Any help from other owners would be great.

Want to buy the car? Email me ajrnot@hotmail.com entertaining offers.

3 weeks ago we bought our son a 98 Catera that we thought was a great deal. It only had 55,000 miles on it & it looked excellent inside & out. The guy we bought it from was a mechanic for Delta & on the side worked on cars. He had put a new radiator, water pump, hoses, basic service as well as tires & brakes on the front because the back was still in great condition. My son put less than 50 miles on it and all of a sudden it would not shift out of 1st gear and actually acting like it was in neutral. We have had it towed several times because we thought the guy was going to do the right thing and he wanted it checked out by a specialist. Unfortunately he decided against that so we are stuck with it. We have put a used transmission in it and about 80 miles later all of a sudden no oil pressure & about 25-30 miles later it's back to not getting out of 1st gear and actually seems like it is in neutral again.

Needless to say I have learned and am still learning a very expensive lesson: In GA the Lemon Law does not protect you if you buy from a private seller and no matter how much someone appears to be "good people" it's business not personal and don't trust them!